Lucy Bradley AS Media Foundation Portfolio: April 2014

Sunday, 27 April 2014

Sunday, 20 April 2014

Evaluation Question 7

What do you feel you have learnt in the progression from creating the school magazine (preliminary task) to creating your music magazine?

To begin, below are the images of my preliminary task alongside of my main task:

FRONT COVER

CONTENTS PAGE

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

Prior to creating my preliminary task front cover and contents page I created two very basic flat plans. Following this, I used a digital camera and went around the College taking various unplanned photos which I felt I could use. Then, I began constructing my front cover and contents page using Microsoft Publisher. I made up the coverlines, list of contents and editors letter as I created the magazine and had no prior planning of the text which appears on it.

Creating this preliminary task gave me an idea of what I wanted the general layout of my magazine for my main task to be, however, apart from this I believe this is of low quality and appears as very amateur. For example, the masthead almost illegible due to the background image and there is a large gap beneath the list of contents.

In total, I only spent around four hours or less on the whole planning and constructing process of my preliminary task.

From this I learnt that time management and planning would be vitally important in constructing a high quality main task. Deconstructing existing magazine front covers, contents pages and double page spreads allowed me to identify existing conventions to apply to my magazine in order to make it appear as professional. Although I was aware of the key features of a magazine cover prior to creating my College magazine, I was not aware of recurring conventions and so this was an element I learnt in my progress from the preliminary task to main task.

I became aware that in order for my magazine to be a success it had to be appropriate for my target audience and as a result I used the results gathered from my questionnaire created on SurveyMonkey throughout the creation of my magazine. For example, due to the question shown below I priced my magazine at £2.50:

However, during the process of creating my College magazine I gathered no information on what College students would like to see within the magazine and I believe that is why I struggled in creating a list of contents and left a blank space beneath.

Furthermore, I took a lot more care and spent a great deal more time creating the flat plans for my main task compared to those I created for the preliminary task and constructed a detailed written rationale. Due to this, I was able to take photographs and pick fonts accordingly.

Taking photographs for my main task was a completely different process to that carried out for my preliminary task. I completed an in depth photoshoot plan prior to taking the photos in order to ensure that those I gathered were appropriate for the genre and target audience of my magazine.

To conclude, in the progression from creating my preliminary task to creating my music magazine I have learnt the importance of planning and time management. Every element of my magazine, from the colour scheme to photographs, fonts and the article itself had been considered and planned in detail before I added them to my Photoshop document. I have also learnt a lot about using Photoshop itself as prior to creating my music magazine I had not used this software before. I practiced and developed my skills prior to beginning the magazine itself and by the time my magazine was underway I was confident in using multiple tools from the magic wand to adding a gradient background. I also learnt how photographs are an extremely important part of magazines and therefore used a high quality SLR camera for my main task as opposed to the digital camera used for my preliminary task. Fonts change the whole aesthetics of a magazine and this became even more evident when I used simple fonts such as Arial and Bradley Hand ITC on my College magazine. This was an error I learnt from and as a result used the website DaFont in order to find appropriate fonts for my music magazine. Throughout the creation of my magazine I ensured that every element I added was appropriate for my target audience of teenagers to young adults and appropriate for my genre of R&B/Pop and general Chart music.

Evaluation Question 3

Institution from lucybradley95

Evaluation Question 1

Evaluation Question 5

Evaluation Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your music magazine?

- Blogger - Prior to beginning this course I had not used blogger before. Now, I thoroughly understand all of the features available in creating and upkeeping a blog.

- Microsoft Publisher - I used this software to create the front cover and contents page of my preliminary task. Although I had used this software previously, creating this magazine allowed me to develop my skills, particularly on the front cover where I altered the original colours of my main image.

- Photoshop - Despite knowing what it was, I had never used Photoshop before I began my Photoshop skills development. Following this, I continued to develop my skills however throughout the creation of my magazine I obtained new methods. I am now confident and comfortable in using Photoshop without assistance. The use of photoshop allowed me to have the masthead fall behind my model on the front cover and was incredibly useful for the task of cutting out images, particularly those within the sub-article on my double page spread.

- Cameras - I had previously used a digital camera similar to that used for my preliminary task and so I was already aware of how to use the various settings. However, I had never used a camera the same or similar the larger SLR camera utilised for taking the photographs for my music magazine. I was briefly shown the different settings such as 'auto' and from there I took a few photos on differing settings in order to see which I believed had the best and most appropriate effect for magazine.

- SurveyMonkey - I had never heard of this website before however it has proven to be incredibly useful throughout the construction of my magazine. Using this website I was able to create an online questionnaire and gather data about the musical preferences (and various other elements) of my target audience. This allowed me to ensure that I remained focused on the task throughout and did not steer away from elements appropriate for my audience.

- Slideshare - I used this for my magazine front cover deconstructions and evaluation question 3. This website allows you to create a PowerPoint as usual on your computer and then upload it. Following this, you are provided with an embed code and consequently I was able to put this into the 'HTML' part of a new blogpost and upload a PowerPoint onto my blog.

- Soundcloud - This is 'an audio platform that enables sound creators to upload, record, promote and share their originally-created sounds' which I used for my first evaluation question. Using this website I was able to record my own voice and download the file. I could have also chosen to embed the audio onto my blog however I chose to combine it with a video creating website.

- Stupeflix - This website allowed me to create a video including images and text as well as adding a soundtrack behind it. I used this website for evaluation question 1 and 2 however I used a different 'theme' for each in order to make them appear differently aesthetically. Whilst creating a video on this website you are given the option to choose how long each piece of text or image remains on the screen and so I chose timings which I felt would give people enough time to read without having to pause the video. As previously mentioned, I added a soundcloud audio behind my video for evaluation question 1 and consequently I chose timings so that the audio was appropriate for what was shown on the screen. Behind evaluation question 2 I added an instrumental version of Drake - The Motion as this artist fits in with my music magazine genre.

- Animoto - This website is similar to Stupeflix in that it is used to create videos. However, as I only created a free account on Animoto the video can only last for a maximum of 30 seconds. Due to this I used Animoto for evaluation question 4 as I felt this question was quick to answer. In the same way as Stupeflix, the user adds images, texts and a soundtrack to their video. However, I did not choose the timings for my video created on Animoto and the website done this for me. I added a soundtrack of Pia Mia covering Drake - Hold On We're Going Home as this is also appropriate for the genre of my music magazine.

- Prezi - This is a presentation software which I used for evaluation question 5. Despite having never used this software before it was very easy to navigate and gave the option of a tutorial. I was able to enter text and videos into various 'boxes' and once completed the presentation plays and zooms in on the various aspects one at a time. It allows you to stay on each aspect for as long as you want, until you click next, which is useful for the viewer as they may have different reading speeds.

Throughout the planning, construction and evaluation of my music magazine I have used multiple new technologies, many of which I hadn't even heard of before. I have developed a much greater understanding of Photoshop and would be confident in using this, and the other above technologies, in the future.

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 4

My Audience

Friday, 4 April 2014

Final Double Page Spread

I kept the same colour scheme throughout my magazine however when I uploaded the above JPEG to my blog the red colour appears different. I can supply the original JPEG should this be an issue.

Final Contents Page

Final Front Cover

Wednesday, 2 April 2014

Final Changes to My Magazine

I have completed a draft of my front cover, contents page and double page spread. Below are the printed versions (the outside of each page is missing due to the margins set on the printer):

FRONT COVER

CONTENTS PAGE

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

I have annotated the pages identifying which features I would like to alter before I submit my work for moderation.

Tuesday, 1 April 2014

Improving my front cover image

As previously mentioned the legs of my model on my front cover were jagged and messy. To clear this up I created 2 white rectangles and placed them on either side of her legs. Below is the result: