College magazine draft

On the 30th of September, I was working on making a college magazine draft (Outlining where things will go.) Here is the draft for the front cover and contents page:

                                                   

College magazine research

On the 29th of September, in class I was researching college magazines (front cover and contents page) and annotating them.

Photoshop Workshop

Photoshop Workshop

On the 26th of September I was working on how to use photoshop, we did this as a class and I took some notes on how to use photoshop. Here are the notes and some pictures:

-Blog (Photoshop workshop)
-Preset (International paper)
-view (rulers) to make line in the middle
-when opening a picture they will be two tabs and then you just pull the picture
-unlock layers double click the eye
-Drag the picture to the main document
-whatever layer is blue, it is the one you are working on
-ctrlT (little grid come out to make the picture bigger and you drag it from the corners
-Txt tool (highlight to make the text bigger)
-change the colour of anything click on the layer and change it

Group task: Analysing music magazines

On the 22nd and 23rd September, I was working in a group, analysing music magazines as research. We looked at the Q magazine featuring the Foo Fighters while other groups, analysed other music magazines. We looked at the contents page and DPS (double page spread) and front cover. Here is the analysis of the Q magazine: The magazine we looked at had 2 pages of contents as this was quite a thick magazine. All of the editorial items were listed as there were page numbers. There were several of columns and 18 sections. There were three colour schemes throughout the magazine and the lighting was bright. When we were looking at the magazines DPS there were a lot of columns and it contained a biography and then an interview and also a full picture. There were also a lot of paragraphs. The front cover was a long shot view and the framing was rectangle. Here are the common things we found in the magazine we all looked at as a class: Most of the magazines had branding on them so for e.g. the masthead was at the bottom of every page in a much smaller font. What we also found is that there were three colour schemes in most of the magazines and this is to make the it minimal however attract the audience in a sophisticated way and also this is a type of branding. Most of the magazines were informal however the weekly magazines were a bit more formal. In the weekly magazines we looked at, there were only one content and the monthly magazines had about two pages of content, the weekly magazines had one page of content as they do not have as much as time as the monthly magazine and maybe have less money to spend.

Production Schedule Timeline

AS Media Induction assignment evaluation

  Induction Assignment Evaluation

Research:
Research helped me a lot as it would give me an idea of viewpoints I can explore in my magazine. It also helped me with finding artists points of view which I found a variety of artists on. For research I used the internet as this is more sufficient and saves time. Here are some examples of the sources I used: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8471290.stm, http://www.metalinjection.net/latest-news/metallicas-kirk-hammett-piracy-destroyed-the-music-industry-but-hes-learning-to-embrace-it and many more. I would say that one of my strengths of research was that I found a lot of viewpoints regarding my magazines topic and I was able to use them viewpoints to give me inspiration to come up with my own viewpoints. I would say that one of my weaknesses was that I didn’t include many viewpoints as I did not have enough time to include sufficient journalistic techniques when it comes to arguing viewpoints. Overall, I would say that my research outcome was good as I got a lot of inspiration from the quotes that I found on the internet and so on.

Journalistic and Writing skills:
I struggled at first as I wasn’t sure how to structure my viewpoints however I started finding versatile viewpoints and used this as a basis to start thinking of what paragraphs link and which paragraphs do not. I used what I learnt in GCSE English Language, which was techniques for forming an argument and made sure I included them techniques to form a good argument so that my Journalistic and writing skills were up to scratch. Overall I would say that my Journalistic and Writing skills was good as I did include the persuasive techniques and didn’t form a one-sided argument which is vital when it comes to Journalism however I think what I lacked in was more in depth viewpoints.

The InDesign Skills:
I learnt how to make a double page spread. I learned how to import pictures and blow it up so that it fits the whole page. Also, I learnt how to get a background colour so that it attracts the audience. I would say that one of my strengths was that my layout was sufficient and easy to read however, I would say that I could have added more pictures as the pictures was very limited. My pictures were very blurry at first, however I searched for pictures that weren’t blurry and this took me extra time resulting in me not adding sufficient amount of pictures. Overall, I would say that I learned to use InDesign at a satisfactory standard and I think that with a little more practice I will know how to use it more and present my magazine better.

Web Publishing Skills:
I did not have enough time to blog everyday on what I was doing so I would say that this was a big weakness as this could loose me marks and I need to keep up to date with exactly what I am doing and when I have done them. Overall, I would say that I lacked in web publishing skills as I had very limited time.

Audience Feedback:

My audience feedback was from a student from another AS Media class. The audience feedback was: “You should have added more colours to make the magazine stand out. The layout is very neat and very readable. Also, you should add more pictures”. I found this very helpful as this helps with improving my work and these little tweaks will make that magazine a lot better.

Four Targets for Improvements:
The first target I would set myself would be that I should add more pictures as there is very limited pictures. The second target I would set myself is that I should add more colours as one colour might not appeal to everyone. The third target I would set myself is I should have more in depth viewpoints to make the journalism more persuasive. The last target I would set myself is tried to organise my time better to ensure that I blog everything I do so in other words, be organised.

Induction Double Page Spread