Viet PhamChrist the King: Aquinas13L4022

Question 7: Looking back at the

preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to a

full product?

Location: For the location of the front cover, it was done

in the model’s room which was conventional because the colour of the background was clear and so I asked them to do use that background to clearly highlight her features.

My other location for the contents page was outside my friends house as it was convenient in that the natural green background that I wanted was there and so I used it for the location for some of the photo shoot.

I have learnt that plain coloured backgrounds can be effective in order to bring out the models’ attributes and appearance.

Props: For props, I mainly used items that were

music related such as the guitar and headphones and had my model pose in various positions in which I was able to choose which photo I wanted to use in my music magazine.

I feel as if I have learnt how to use the right props for the images to indicate to the reader what the model and magazine is about.

Drafting During the creation of my music magazine, I went through

various drafts for my front cover image, contents page and my double page spread.

For my front cover I used a couple of other shots at first to see if I felt it was appropriate to how conventional other front covers of music magazines are.

Also, originally I had a couple of more cover lines and different colours on those cover lines to make them seem more eye catching. However, I felt that it looked out of place and so deleted some of the cover lines and changed the cover lines colours to make it look more professional.

In addition, there was various drafts of the masthead as I was unsure of what font I should use and the positioning as well as the size of the masthead but eventually came to a conclusion of how my masthead should look like.

In my contents page, I had originally designed the contents page to have one main model. However, I took into consideration how many magazines did the same and there were not many and so decided on having two images of two different models to make it look more conventional

On my double page spread, I was generally happy about how I did it and there were not many drafts except for the title and its font and as well as the size of the text.

Equipment: One of the main pieces of equipment I used for the photo

shoots was the camera itself. As time passed I felt as if my skills with the camera improved in terms of camera shots and its other various components such as reviewing the images and distorting them to using the flash.

The computer itself is also a crucial instrument in the development of my music magazine and as with the camera, with the procession of time, my skills in operating specifically Photoshop improved.

My models: I feel I have learnt from my models is that they too

can contribute to how photos should be taken as I found some of their pieces of advise to be very useful and so I feel as if it is important to ask the model to review the shots to see what their opinions and how it could be possibly be improved.

Organisation: Throughout this preliminary task to the full product, I feel

as if my organisation skills have improved as I am able to keep track of whether or not I am on target to finish some tasks

Another reason as to why I feel more organised is that I also kept track of when my models were free and also was planning what could be used in my photos to make it conventional or make the reader understand what the magazine is about.

How my target audience influenced my final product: The participants in the questionnaire helped me greatly about what colours I should use as I told them that my music

magazine was indie and I took into consideration the colours I was going to use for my text when receiving these answers.

They also influenced the kind of artists that I put on my coverlines as it had to be related to the indie genre and so they come up with bands such as 2 Door Cinema Club which gave ma an idea of what to say about them on the coverlines.

The participants were the ones who also gave me the idea of basing my music magazine on the genre of indie as many of them were fans of the genre and so I thought I could use their help on particular aspects of the music magazine such as colours and artists.

Differences in production In terms of production between the two magazines, I feel as if I have understood that planning and production

is key in creating a magazine in timed conditions. This is because in my preliminary task, the production was on and off in the fact that I planned shoots on particular days but then would do something else non related to the magazine and so for some of the stuff I put on hold (i.e. shoots due to other commitments). What I learned from the preliminary task is that you must be able to produce a product effective and quickly and with that in mind I set out my production through plans and generally saw them through.

What is the differences and similarities?

There are many similarities between my front covers such as the conventional things that you would expect to be there such as a masthead, coverlines, a model and so on.

Another similarity is the use of the advertisement of a specific piece of news, in my case its the words that are in the circles. This is not always on front covers of magazines and thought it would may my magazines stand out more.

One difference is the use of selling lines, with one showing two words which may attract the reader because of the fact it’s about college life and is simple. The other is more overdramatic and emphasises it’s point in contrast to the other one which may be seen as meagre.

Differences in design: With the preliminary magazine, it

can be seen as more simple compared to the music magazine in terms of its structure and design.

The first being that the preliminary uses one main image which can be seen as a positive and a negative. This is because the structure compliments the model’s posture as if it is a mirror and seemingly works well. Although, it is not conventional unlike the contents page of the music magazine. I have learnt that contents pages can be effective even if they have one image.

The sub-headings and the title in the preliminary are rather simple, only differing from the content by colour. With the music magazine, it uses more than one font as well as highlights the subheadings with black rectangles which may be seen as more eye catching. Thus, showing that I have developed in my techniques to attract the audience.

With the front covers on the previous slide, the design is different in terms of the shot that was used. I learned that various types of shots can be effective as long as the colours and the text also go well with the image.