Photoshoot

When getting people to be involved in my making of the magazine I had people who were willing to pose as the band members. I just had to make sure they were all free when I needed to take the photographs. As this was very hard to organise a time to take them it took longer than expected to produce the front cover as a result of this. When I did finally get a time when I could take the photographs the place I wanted to take the them was already being used. I wanted to use the drama studio so it would have a plain black background. This would have been easier as I had to use a last resort and take the photographs in a classroom. I tried to get a fairly plain background to take them so they were easier to edit, however this was hard. As I didn't get my ideal background I had to manage with what I could get.

It was hard to manage locations for the photographs for my music magazine as I had to get my pictures done quickly so I had time to edit them on Photoshop and put it onto my front cover and my double page feature. As a result of this I took my pictures around school and I edited the pictures, so that backgrounds didn't matter. I wanted to use the drama studio so I had a black background but with the effect of folds in the curtains. However this wasn't possible as the drama studio was being used at the time when I had the people for my photos in costume. I decided not to use any props as I didn't think it was needed. I wanted to show the band members as themselves not as they were in the band. It was more of photos of the band members not just the band. I wanted all of the band members to wear skirts as they are suppose to be girly but the plains facial expressions on the faces of the band members made them look more fierce and more professional. A convention of an NME magazine main image is that it is a medium close up which the band members have a direct mode of address. This is what I tried to aim for in my images as well.

Creative problem solving

When producing my music magazine I encountered quite a few problems. I had difficulties on producing the magazine cover because of the program I had to use. When using Photoshop I found it difficult to use. Photoshop, as a program, was hard to use. When I first started using Photoshop I had no idea how to use it, but as time went on I got better at using it. I still am finding it quite hard to use and it took much longer then expected to produce the front cover and contents page. I decided to produce the double page spread on publisher as I was better at using normal computers rather than the apple Macs, as I was familiar with all the buttons and the layout of the computer. It took a much shorter time to produce the double page spread although I encountered some problems with the editing of the pictures on the normal computers. I used the program fireworks to edit my band pictures but I wasn't sure how to move the pictures from fireworks to Microsoft Publisher. It took me a while to figure out how to move it, but in the end I worked out how to move it by selecting all the layers and copying the image. After I worked out how to do it, it was quicker for me to produce and move the other pictures to my double page spread. When wanting to print my work, the printer was not always reliable, so I didn't know whether my work was going to print. Every time I tried to print my work it didn't work. So as a solution my teacher saved all of my work to her memory stick and sent it to a technician to have it printed off properly so it would be printed out in good quality.

Approaching the tasks

In the preliminary task I first worked in groups to get a general idea for a school magazine, but had to take the pictures and decide what to put on the front cover myself. I managed the time for my school magazine very well as I worked with people to start with the think of the initial idea faster. For my music magazine I had to think about everything in detail, for example the name of the magazine, the band name, what the band would where and how the layout of the magazine cover would be. I also had to design the double page spread. However I feel, that even though it took longer to plan the music magazine, it was better as I knew exactly what I was doing so I could just do exactly as I planned. Although planning it made it faster to complete I also had to work out when to take my picture as had to take them when my 'band' were in costume and when we had somewhere to take the pictures. When making my music magazine I wanted to make it an NME style magazine. However once I took my pictures and named my band the band didn't fit in with the name. At this point I hadn't named my magazine so I named the it diverse. So the band's style made sense with the name. The bands name was 'The Technos' and this took me a while to think so, because of this I didn't want to waste time thinking of another one, so I chose the name diverse. The band had an indie style about them so it didn't fit with the name The Technos. This would have made my magazine not seem as real, as I would be as if nothing was thought through properly and put together properly.

Real magazines usually have a medium close up as their main images. Depending on the type of music the magazine is based on, the mode of address could either be direct, or indirect. In a stereotypically 'indie' magazine such as NME the mode of address is usually direct. In music magazines, the same magazine always follows the same design. They do this to make sure their magazine is recognizable, and each magazine relates to the next. Pop and gossip magazines have distinct bright colours, a wide range of buzz words and graphic features to draw in the readers. However NME and other music magazine rely on the reader knowing about the music, and buying the magazine for information on their favourite bands, new bands, and interviews. For pop and gossip magazines it is completely opposite. The reader doesn't need to know anything about that topics inside the magazine as it tells you all about them.

My school magazine and music magazine both relate to existing examples of media forms. I based my school magazine on an existing copy of a Little Heath School magazine. I also looked at different school magazines to get ideas of the type of design that I was aiming to produce. By doing this it gave me the chance to make it as if it was a real school magazine and therefore would be successful as the original school magazine. However there were also ways in which it wasn't like a school magazine because it doesn't have a range of school pictures. For example in the Little Heath School magazine there were a range of pictures around school and at different school events that have taken place. This I couldn't do though as I had to complete my pictures myself and therefore wasn't able to get a great range of photos. However I did take pictures around school, of the site and of some pupils.

Using Technology

Technology

When using Photoshop or fireworks I sometimes produce things better than the way I thought it would turn out. Firstly I cut around the images of the band members to change the colour of the background, but when I did this the edges of the people were really jagged but I thought I would just leave it until I found out how to blur the edges of the people. I blurred the edges to make it blend into the background and look natural instead of the background standing out. When playing around on Photoshop I figured out to how to do things that i didn't expect to do. The background of my front cover was supposed to be plain white. However I found the gradient tool. The gradient tool made it possible for the cover to be different colours. The bottom half of the magazine was black and moved up to being a pale grey. As the colour went up the magazine it got lighter.

Technology did obstruct my creative process a few times during the making of my magazine. This was due to me having to use Photoshop and firework. I had never used either of these programs before which made it hard for me to get used to them and start my coursework and start to produce my magazine without using the programs before. Some things that I wanted to do on my magazine cover I couldn't do as I couldn't find a way to do it on Photoshop. I spent a lot of my time trying to find ways of doing what I wanted to, but I often couldn't solve this and had to try something else, this is what wasted most of my time.

Audience Feedback

The audience feedback confirmed expectations. They highlighted the parts which they thought were best and represented a real magazine more than other features. I already knew this and had reasons for not being able to get all the features looking like a real magazine. I based my magazine on NME and tried to use features so it looked as real as possible but it was hard to get the same effect and features when I had difficulties using Photoshop editing and creating the cover.

I gave my questionnaire to 20 people to fill in so I could analyse the results. Within my music magazine I produced the front cover and then produced a questionnaire to give to other people. Once I had had my results from the questionnaire I analysed these to see what the target audience of my magazine actually thought about it and whether it represented a real music magazine in any way.

From the questionnaire I could see that most of the people who took my questionnaire were between the ages of 14-16. I wanted my magazine to aim keen music fans at around the age of 16 so by having most of the questionnaires being filled out by people from my target age group it gives me accurate feedback from my target audience.

Preliminary task

Preliminary task

The task that I set out to complete was to design and make the front cover and contents page of a school magazine. I had to design four magazine covers, then choose 2 to design further, and then pick my best. Once I had chosen my best front cover I then designed it on Photoshop using my own photographs. My school magazine relates to existing magazines as it used the title of the Little Heath School magazine. It also uses the colours of the school to make the magazine and the school link.I approached this task by first looking at existing school magazines to get ideas of how they look. I then designed the covers, took the photographs and then put everything together. I left the contents page till last so i could focus on the front cover. I took each part step by step to make sure everything was completed properly and nothing was missed out.

My final outcome of my magazine cover differed slightly. This is because when using Photoshop some parts weren’t easy to create so therefore it was just easier and more efficient use of my time to change it. My draft design was only a template of what my magazine 'could' look like but getting onto the computers and actually starting to design it gets your imagination working and therefore I became more creative.Technology extended my creative control as it allowed me to do more things. I wasn't sure of what I could create on Photoshop so I kept my designs for the cover very simple so they would be easy to create. However getting onto Photoshop and using it made it easier to make it more complex. The more I used it the easier it became. The technology also obstructed my creative control as in the same way I could do more things, some of the designs that I wanted to do I couldn't as it wasn't possible on Photoshop.

There would be a few changes that I would make to my school magazine. This is because I don’t think it is the best quality that it could be. I would change the fonts that I used. This is because chose two different fonts which I don't think worked very well. I would stick to one font to make it look more professional and more appealing.