Note to examiner

To Examiner,

throughout the course I have learnt many new skills and especially the importance of time management. By doing this course I have been able to develop my skills to create a final media product which I enjoyed making and I hope you enjoy viewing.

Thank You
Charles Timms

Final Magazine Design

Preliminary Magazine

Evaluation 7

Looking back at your preliminary task (the school magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

My magazines vary hugely because I have learnt more skills, techniques and conventions over time which will have increased the quality of later magazines compared to older versions. The skills I have learnt since the preliminary completely change the look and style of my magazine designs for the best.

Mise en scene and camera work

Firstly looking at the framing you can see the huge improvement, the College magazine has the subject too far back leaving far too much white space however the Vine's subject is closer and makes for a more interesting looking magazine. White space makes the reader think subconsciously that the magazine is not as full and therefore not worth buying another reason against having the subject framed improperly and in this case too far away is that the reader does not see the subject's features well and would not feel as much of a connection with them. Secondly since the preliminary magazine I have learnt a lot about mise en scene and how to style my model the right way. The preliminary magazine's model was photographed in his own clothes that he happened be wearing however I learnt that this can cause problems as the clothes may not be right for the genre I am shooting for which in this case is indie/alternative. In my final magazine I chose a dark green parka for my subject to wear because it is alternative and would attract the right audience. I chose a second outfit for him too which was a shirt for the contents page and a jumper for the double page spread these were all indie outfits. I learnt from looking at other magazines to vary the models clothing to keep the content original and interesting rather than the same thing from different angles. The backgrounds on my magazines vary hugely, my preliminary magazine uses a very simple white background and my final magazine uses a black background with stars on top to make it look like the model is in space. The simple white background is boring unless it is filled with something else and all of the pictures used in the preliminary magazine have white backgrounds making the whole thing rather boring to look at and could lose the readers attention however once I had researched other successful magazines I realised I needed to vary the setting more to keep the readers attention. In my final magazine I used different settings which made the magazine a lot more interesting and more balanced rather than just black and white with very limited colour. I decided that using limited colours was the best idea, the black and white with the red/burgundy colour on top drew the readers attention to the most important information. Next I changed the lighting more often rather than just using the studio and the light boxes to get a perfect lighting effect I used natural light in some pictures to get a more natural look to the magazine and to give a certain feeling to a band for example if the band/artist are more peaceful and innocent looking I would take a picture around nature however if the band is more 'hardcore' I would use a more urban setting which is a bit darker and harsher. The poses my models used have changed very slightly as I have learnt how much this can change the look and perception of the artist, as you can see on the 'College' magazine the subject has a slight smirk which makes him seem more playful and would not be taken as seriously however my final magazine model is completely serious so he would be taken seriously as an artist and because he is playing to a persona. On my first magazine the photoshop skill was not very good as the spot healing brush was used improperly and made the subjects skin look unnatural however the final magazine uses the spot healing tool well and although the skin still looks slightly unrealistic it is far better than the first attempt. I learnt a lot about using photoshop in the time making these magazines and I believe it shows through in the final piece.

Preliminary photos above and final pictures below

Text layout and other graphics
The magazines vary hugely in how they are presented, the text layout makes a huge difference in the look and general feel of the magazine. My preliminary magazine uses a more hectic and full cover page style which uses different sizes of text as well as different colours. The way the text is lay out is not perfectly aligned on purpose to give the magazine a hectic look which also makes it look full which makes readers think the magazine is full of content. I got the hectic look partly from NME's cover pages and the rest was my original idea, I chose not to bring this to my final magazine because I wanted to follow convention and have a more simplistic magazine that would suit my target market. My final magazine uses simple style which I learnt how to make by researching other indie/alternative music and fashion magazines. On my contents pages I learnt that I needed to make my final version more busy and interesting which I think I managed well however the preliminary contents page is very poor and looks unprofessional.

Evaluation 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Camera
For the photographs I used the Canon 1100D it produced the best image. The test images I took with it were impressive with great quality and a crisp look. The impressive images indicated that I should use the camera for my final photo shoot which will be crucial to the success of my magazine because if the images are poor customers will not want to buy the magazine. I had to find the right settings to get the right look I wanted and I also decided I could get a better picture by taking it portrait for the cover page so there is less white space wasted.

Lighting and other
For some of my pictures I used artificial lighting to get the best effect and light the subject nearly perfectly. I used two or three light boxes depending on the effect I was going for. I used a white background to make the models stand out more on the front of the magazine and to make it easier to cut the subject out from the background in Photoshop.

Photoshop
I used Adobe Photoshop CS6 and CC to make my magazine. My photo editing skills were definitely improved by the continued use of the program and I got better and faster. I learnt how to cut out pieces of images such as people with different tools; how to use layers; how to improve how pictures look and using fonts the right way. I learnt how to use nearly all the tools on offer and feel like I improved on what I knew before I started this project.

Online sites and other programs
I used many different websites and programs to produce my magazine. Firstly I used Blogger to create my coursework blog where I put everything I have done and used as well as research to show in an easily accessible way. I used iMovie to make a pitch for my magazine which I had not used properly before so it was very educational using it. I uploaded my pitch to YouTube, I had never uploaded or used YouTube from the creator end before so this was a good learning curve. I used Google to find images and research as well as finding fonts with Google Fonts or 1001 Fonts. Finally I used UK Tribes which was brilliant for helping me work out which groups to target and which not to.

Pictures of me using the studio to take photos

Evaluation 5

Evaluation 4

Evaluation 4
Some of the text may appear out of alignment as uploading the powerpoint has changed the framing.