EVALUATION: Representing- Constructing the ‘real’

Overall, I believe that my ideas and their execution amounted to representations of school/college life in my preliminary task quite accurately. The pictures I took reflected school life and community very well and the ideas of approaching the tasks informally worked very well and produced an impact when I surveyed it to my target audience. My idea for the preliminary task was to be a generic student life magazine that covered topics involving everyone. For my music magazine my ideas and execution of the punk idea for my magazine was a hit as it allowed me to be creative and produce original, high quality work. The pictures conveyed everything that the industry conveys, such as anchorage. Furthermore my ideas for colour schemes, titles and designs worked exactly like I hoped it would and thought it ticked all the boxes for the industry convention. In addition to this, the construction of both magazines was very professionally done as was credited by my target audience and peers. One area that I thought was most successful was the thoughts and execution of both front pages in both tasks. I thought that the school/college magazine front page was everything I hoped for, after difficulty in thinking of an idea. Although it could be criticized that for my preliminary front cover the execution of the images first time round wasn’t as good as it could have been. For my music magazine I thought the execution exceeded my expectations and was better than I thought. Another credit, I believe is the idea and execution of the twin band idea for the main task. I had my doubts about it throughout the task but after looking at the finished product I thought It was a creative risk well taken. Along with good executions there were bad ones too. The execution of my interview pages fist time round wasn’t as good as it could have been and did not follow the industry conventions.
I believe that in each task I created a real sense of reality and the right people were included and excluded as a result of this. For example in the school/ college magazine task it was aimed at students and therefore my production welcomed students and it wouldn’t of been an interest to the working class society who would be excluded from this. In the same light, in the music magazine the target audience was limited by the genre of music I was doing and therefore it would only appeal to punk rock fans and not to a grime fan. So in this sense I feel that the right people were included and excluded in each case.
If I was to do it the whole project again I feel that I would have done things slightly differently. Firstly I would have organized my time a bit more with more time for certain tasks as I found it, at times, that I was getting to the deadline of my plan for that particular task and my work still needed vast improvements. In addition to this I would have taken photos with a variety of different settings, as it was pointed out, but didn’t have enough time to do it. Furthermore, I thought that my process was not as tidy as it could have been and next time round I would make sure that the process is done chronologically as it goes in an order for a reason, which is to help you onto the next part. In conclusion, I believe that I did quite well with the resources at hand and I was able to complete the coursework to a reasonable standard.

EVALUATION: Thinking about audience- Making meaning

Throughout both the preliminary and main task activities made creative decisions based on ideas I was developing about my readers. I developed these ideas through my research on my ideal reader. This involved me asking certain questions to myself about what my ideal reader and what would they’d be like, do, live like, all these things came into account as I was developing my ideas. Then after I developed my ideas I was able to make decisions on whether a certain issue would or would not appeal to my ideal reader. In addition to this, with the knowledge behind my thinking now complete I was able to influences different parts of my magazine whether it be the style or even making creative risks in the hope that it would be a positive attribute to my target audience. I was also able to address the micro detail of shot composition in my work. Most of my Imagination and creativity was put into the thinking of how detail, such as pictures, could be made to make meaning. I did this with most of my images in the main task as it was a broader task and it was something I didn’t think about in my premliminary task which could have made it better. In the main task, I anchored pictures as I learnt it conveys more information and is more valuable than just a picture itself for the task in hand. I also framed some pictures, like in my preliminary task, as I found it was credited and gave an impact to the person looking at the pictures. Similarly in both tasks, research and developed ideas of readers were crucial to creating layouts for both tasks as they were two tasks for two different target audiences. Pictures had to fall into the right place where appropriate, I felt that this was done effectively in both the tasks and was done appropriately with other elements in mind such as text. Most of my images in both tasks were iconic and I felt this was important to explain here as through my research and creating target audiences I felt that iconic images was best suited for the task in hand as music magazines and school/college magazines have images that’s says what it does on the tin and no thought is needed to interpret the pictures. For example, whilst researching magazines I found that on an issue of classic rock it has the lead guitarist of Metallica. Fans of these magazines wouldn’t need to much think to work out who it was and why he’s on the front cover. Another aspect of micro detail that I feel I covered well in both tasks was the mode of address for each magazine. For the school/college magazine I felt that the tone had to be informal as students get bored easily with constant formality so I cam e up with approaching it informally. Through feedback I felt was a success. For the music magazine I knew it that the mode of address had to be centered crucially round my target audience. As I aimed to the punk music market I knew I had to make the tone very punk friendly and entertaining to read. I took a couple of attempts, but after constructive criticisms from my teacher I made it article the best it could be.
Audience feedback throughout this section of my tasks, I felt, was very important as for the school/college magazine feedback came from my target audiences as I asked my peers. Also I felt that it helped me improve my work to the best it could be. My audience feedback confirmed expectations rather that generate surprise as I knew that all my attempts needed improvements in one way or another as nothing was perfect. It confirmed expectations of improvement s I needed, which I wanted as I wanted to keep improving and updating my work as I wanted to succeed. Audience feedback was a very key part of my task, especially through the process as it is important to involve the people around you and survey your work to see errors you have not noticed and to make things to the best of my ability.

EVALUATION: Using technology- creative tools

Technology was a big part of the task as I needed it in order to construct layouts, design ideas and the actual final product. One thing that was key and extended my creative control over both tasks was being able to print my work. This allowed me to physically see my work to annotate and spot mistakes that need adjustments and a copy for my target audience to see so I could survey my design ideas and see what they think too.
During my preliminary task I was able to utilize an interactive whiteboard to aid me in my annotation and explanation to my focus group that I was presenting to. This use of technology allowed me to explain and receive feedback on my work that I was able to note and save a copy the annotated work. For example, there was a problem with a big open space on the front cover of my school/college magazine that was noticed by one of my fellow peers and through the use of the interactive whiteboard I was able to circle the problem so I could later use the annotated copy to see what needs fixing. This extended my creative control as it aided my in the production.
Throughout both tasks desktop publishing software such as Photoshop, for imaging editing, helped me immensely as I was able to do many things with images and layouts such as: cropping, resizing adding effects, changing the lighting and constructing layouts. Photoshop also helped me extend my creative control through it broad availability of options and was software you could truly do anything with. An example of this was in the main task, where I was able to add effects to the two different characters so they looked like they were slightly different to show the thought about design.
Although Photoshop is one example of technology that obstructed my creative process as my knowledge of the application was insufficient as I wasn’t able to sort out a lighting problem on one of the images on the preliminary task. Learning how to use applications such as Photoshop would be propriety if I was to do the task again so I am able to sort out different problems that arise.

EVALUATION: Working in the media production contexts –professional practice

I approached these two tasks slightly differently as they were two completely different genres of society and lifestyle, which were the student life and a music magazine of any kind. Approaching the preliminary task of a school/college magazine was a lot easier as I am a student and I am surrounded by many other students so it was a lot easier to construct and process the preliminary task. In addition to this, it made it a lot easier to gather feedback and survey from, what was, essentially my target audience. Approaching the main task was a lot harder as it was a wider field of work. The word music brought a lot more ideas and areas into my head. It also required me to think more critically about the choices I made as it was no longer a student magazine aimed at students it was a music magazine aimed at its fans. Although it was harder, it was slightly easier as well as I already had the feedback from the preliminary task which helped me through the approaching and processing my main task as I knew not to make the same mistakes I did in the preliminary task.
A key area of magazine development and any type of production is the time management behind it. In order for me to keep up with my work a created a plan of the objectives I was going to do by a certain deadline and the things I needed to do in order to meet those objectives. This allowed me to be a lot more organized and tidy with my work because it changed my frame of mine to be more disciplined me throughout the course of these tasks to do things by a certain deadline. When I found myself in situations where I knew I wasn’t going to finish by a certain deadline I would leave that certain task and go back to it when I had free time on my agenda. As well as managing time, I had to manage to equipment and other resources I was using. This meant me asking permission to use the school cameras and permission to print etc. Furthermore, for the main task managing my models was needed as I needed them to pose and look like what I instructed because I am ultimately the editor of the magazine and these decisions are thought about carefully for the success of the task.
Most of my creative problems came with the preliminary task. One of the problems that occurred whilst I was developing my ideas was that my initial ideas for the front cover didn’t work and I had to go back to the drawing board and came up with a layout that was suitable for the front cover of my school/college magazine. My initial ideas loads of students dressed up as if they were in different jobs did not work as I did not have the right resources or costumes for the idea. I didn’t really have any major problems with the still photography as the photos came out at a high quality and were taken in a clear environment. One of the big problems in the main music magazine task was always linking every little detail to the main theme and genre of the music task, this was very important and was done, but was very difficult to always bare it in mind whilst constructing. There was a minor problem with some of the photos taken, and that problem was the lighting. The lighting was a minor problem in some of the pictures as when the chosen pictures for the front cover were put together on the front page it didn’t look like the picture was one as I intended it to be, instead it looked like each picture was taken in a different environments. I managed to fix the problem with some editing with desktop publishing software, however one of the photos was unfixable as the lighting looked odd compared to the rest of the images on the front page . Another idea that didn’t go together was warping 4 different faces into one. This didn’t work as it wasn’t a very suitable image to place on the front cover. I didn’t really have any problems with the printing of both tasks production as it came out at a high quality. As I trialed my work amongst my peers and teacher I was picked up on a couple of problems which was easily amended. Although for my music magazine I had to keep changing minor things to make it the best it could be. Linking back to the still photography was the limitation of locations and if I could do the tasks again I would probably vary the locations
I believe that I organized my human resources very effectively as I managed to use them to get the best possible photos. For my preliminary task the models used were very kind to let me photograph them for my coursework. For the environment pictures I had to direct the students to pose the way I wanted them to, to give the right effect for my magazine. For the images if the front cover I organized a photo shoot session with 4 models and took a medium close up of each of them and directed them appropriately to suit my ideas for the front cover. For the pictures on the contents page I got two popular and distinct characters and took a long shot of them and made them into the head boy and head girl of my magazine. I made them wear poppies as a apart of the issue month and part of the theme of the month issues which was ‘remembrance day’.
For my main task, I used one model to create a twin effect. For this I organized a photo shoot on a weekend as for the main task and my twin sister band it required the day to get together outfits and props for each of the characters ‘Sam’ and ‘Izzy’. I had to be careful not to instruct my model to pose offensively or oddly, as it wouldn’t be suitable. Although I had to sail very close to the line because they had to come across as rebels for my music magazine which was centered around punk music. Also the costumes make up and props had to be different for each of the characters as they were two different people. I got my model to pose in many different ways and I had to action match each picture with the other character so it looked natural when the pictures were placed together and so they looked like the picture was taken with both of them in the shot. The two outfits also had to be distinct as each twin has a different style. This showed that I managed my ideas around my model very carefully and decided what looked good on my model for the suitability of the shoot. For the posing I gave my model information about each character so she could incorporate her feelings and personality based on the information into the pictures.
Overall, I was very pleased with the models chosen and the way the applied those in the photo shoot. I also believe that the photo shoots went very well and were very productive. The photos also came out to a very high quality. In a nutshell, I think my managing of human resources was very organized and effective
Throughout the two tasks I found that design drafting was very important as it is always available to refer back to when you are stuck on any problems with the current layout. By having draft layouts, you can adjust the layouts and adjust problems that have been pointed out and are not part of industry conventions or magazine ‘norms’. In addition to this, my preliminary task draft layout designs were completely different from the final outcome as many changes were needed to improve. After learning the mistakes of my preliminary task I managed to stick to my draft designs for my main task quite accurately as I thought about many different designs before coming up with an actual draft layout for my music magazine.

EVALUATION: Working with existing forms and conventions- Reworking the familiar

One of the most important parts of my coursework was the research behind each task as it allowed me to see the frequent conventions and industries ‘Must’ when creating a magazine, especially the layout of it all.
I believe my school/ college magazine is quite an accurate reflection of not only a professional magazine but is based around the industry conventions such as the placement of titles and taglines and the basic layout of what it should look like. I also felt that the pictures taken where all fit for purpose and iconic in their own light, which is important as you do not want to give a wrong impression to a target reader when you were not intending to.
Through my research I also believe that my music magazine came out a lot better than I ever planned for it to turn out. By looking at different music magazines I gained the knowledge and understanding to construct a very accurate piece of work that tied in with many of the industry conventions but yet had my own originality to it. This is important as I wanted my magazine to stand out because I learnt that all magazines follow the same conventions but they all have something that makes them unique to each other, even though their target audiences are different. For example, you would never find the title at the bottom of a page. All those things are basics of the layout for any magazine. This I made sure was evident in my coursework. Another I found out about was the pyramid layout, where there is more writing at the bottom of the page that the top so the bulk of the image is clear and stands out. Linking with this the colour schemes are essential as that is one of the factors to why cover stand out. I chose a black and red and white colour scheme as I think that they complement each other perfectly and create a stand out effect when utilized correctly. I also made sure that the layout of all my pages were correct and fitted all the boxes of the media conventions for magazines
Throughout the course of both the preliminary and main tasks I have learn a lot about mode of address and use of imagery used by magazine to appeal to their target audience and what they want their target audience to get out of their pictures. For example, through research I found that mode of address is very important to capture the target reader. Gossip magazines have a more informal mode of address and more exposed pictures of celebrities are iconic where as a magazine like SAGA is more formal and the pictures are aimed more for the target reader. I found the same thing with music magazines of different genres. Rock/heavy metal magazines will use raw language whilst still maintaining the right level of formality and mode of address. The pictures in most music magazines are of famous artists and therefore the pictures are generally iconic as the images are showing off that person. The images in music magazines also have directed poses and the celebrity in that photo all coordinated right down to their clothing and props. This lead me to learn that every little micro as well as macro element of magazine designing is all thought about and tested. I put this into practice by taking iconic photos of my models the leave an impression that they are all what is said in the picture. Also by reading other interviews in different magazines I wrote mine as a very free flowing story conversation as I thought it was fitter for purpose than doing a scripted interview. Overall, my research was essential as it aided me in the sparking of ideas and in the the basics of do's and don'ts in the industry conventions.

Constructing an interview and the interview pages

For the double page interview, the first thing I decided to do was to create the layout with the pictures for the interview to go on So I decided to make the background of the pages black and white. I did this as i feel that it conforms with the rest of my magazine and are two colour that suit my magazine so well. i added some effects to add some impact on to the page to make it more appealing to look at. I also wanted the top left quarter of the first page to be the area where the title of my story 'Living the Dream' would be placed and a picture of my band, including their logo. Linking back to my contents page, where it says 'STAGE Exclusive' I placed the same text in a bar at the top of the page so that it stretches along both pages. I did this to show the link to the contents page and that I haven't forgotten about it and it all links together. I chose the two pictures of Sam and Izzy doing hand signals as it is the perfect iconic image to welcome the reader onto the page and read the interview. It also shows some character for these two people. Another Choice i had to make was about putting another image at the bottom centre of the page so the text can be flow around it. I thought this was a good choice as it brings attention to the page of the two band members posing, baring in mind they are the same model I thought that I had to pick two similar pictures. Every Band has a manager and I thought it was only fit to include an image of their manager, Gaz, on the far left centre of the page. Another thing that I learnt I could do to motivate my images more was to add an anchor to the images I felt needed them. I put one next to Gaz and the picture on the bottom centre of the page. Furthermore, I took the image of Gaz as if the camara was looking up. I did this because he is the manager and has power of the band. In addition to this, to make my pages look professional i thought that the inclusion of the page numbers at the bottom was important as i shows the magazine convention and is the correct number that is shown on the contents page.

After creating the basic layout, all that was left was to write the interview. I didn't want to write a very robotic interview that was just full of question and answer. I wanted to write more of a story interview that was written in some parts like a dialogue and had a running commentary with it. I also wanted to write it in such a away where it never got boring and was full of interesting facts and stories about the band. I also chose a couple of interesting, fruitful quotes from the interview and enlarged them. I did this as it seems to be one of the conventions in interview writing for magazines.


After receiving Constructive criticism on my work i went back and adjusted. One of the problems with my work was the layout. I was advised to set the second page out in columns as it followed the idustry convention also I was told to move some images and add some around to make it look less wordy. Finally, I added who the article was by and who did the photography (which I missed out first time round). After tweeking it this was the final result:

Plan for 14/12/09

For the last couple of weeks of this project i have decided to focus on the interfview pages as i believe it is the hardest and most complex out of all the pages.



Construct interview pages- Constructing the interview pages involves me choosing other images for the phtots taken and also producing a rough mock up of the layout with the pictures and colours spo there is room for my interview.



Write up interview- Writing up an interview will be quite difficult, but through my research of looking at magazine articles and interviews in such magazines as Classic rock and reading interviewws like Jimi Hendrix, Jay Z and Dizzie Rascal it shouldn't be too complex.



Proof read interview and whole production- This willl involve me fixing any little problems on all ofn my pages and seeing if everything is right and accurate. Also, Proof reading my interview will allow me to see if there are any spelling or grammatical mistakes.