PLEASE READ MY BLOG FROM THE OLDEST POST. EACH PAGE YOU CAN CLICK ON OLDER POSTS TIL MY FIRST ENTRY OF THIS EVALUATION

FINAL EVALUATION

Looking back on my preliminary task of the college magazine, i feel i have learnt alot in the progression from college magazine to the full product.

My magazine represents my target audience because i used a suitable name which symbolised teenage social life. I felt it represented music because that's what happens at a houseparty- you dance etc to music. The colours were both bold, bright - to the questionnaires results and uni-sex to suit both genders who would read the music magazine. The layout also, is similar to some of the magazines i researched, however i have adapted them well, by making them unique with logos and style. I used the same design throughout the magazine, thinking about the typical conventions (extracting colours from models clothing etc or keeping colour schemes) and making the pages look contemporary (not old fashioned- boring fonts and colours like beige).

If i did the magazine again i think i would spend even more time on each page, and try and perfect each anchor, and photograph (as some i didn't need to edit with the blemish tool, or add gradient too) more. This may sound alot like what i was going to change in my pre-lim evaluation. But i think no matter how much you work at a project, there's always something you can make room for improvement for, and i have definately produced a much better magazine than my pre-lim!!!!!

I was organised in the evaluation because i did all the pre-productions, ranging from mood boards to magazine analysis, and technically, my skills on each of the softwares i used have improved tremendously since my pre-lim task.

PHOTOSHOOTS

Firstly for the photoshoot, i took the main cover and contents images at college and the DPS photos at home (using a white wall, to enable easy "Magic Wand" usage!). I found using the SLR Camera, easy, as i understood the basics of getting everyone in the frame and zooming etc. We used High-lighting to make "The Band" stand out more in the camera photo footage. To gurantee a good photo we had to move the lights about and position them in the right place where all the models could be focused on.There were a few off-focus and non-scaled photos, which i had learned from, to make the other photos exellent! The white back drop was used so it would be easier to cut out the picture and apply a background, much like a green screen (which we had used in the preliminary task). I used three models for "BARNEY'S STARDUST" (The Band), which i felt was enough to create the illusion of a group, but so the photo could be more zoomed in to a Mid-Shot of the models. I got the idea from my picture inspiration mood boards and research. I used props like fairy lights (for added glamour and festivity- connotation of a party)a hairbrush and blusher brush, because i wanted the "backing singers" of the band to be posing as if they were pretending to sing in microphones whilst getting ready for a party. I used two girls and one boy, because my target audience is mixed gender and also because i feel, girls will think of it as "girls read this" because of the dominance of gender on the page. However the boys would think "these guys who read this magazine get all the ladies" (without trying to sound stereotypical).

LEARNING ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES IN THIS COURSEWORK

During this process i have learnt all about the useful technologies in this project. To construct my products i used Paint Shop Pro, Photoshop, and i played around on InDesign. These computer softwares have greatly shown me how to edit photographs from my photo shoot and perfect my magazine cover etc, by using tools such as "Polygon Lasoo" and "Magic Wand". These two tools helped me crop pictures and remove any un-wanted shadow etc around the selected image. An example of this would be Poppy's arm/upper area- so to look respectable and not promiscious i had to use a dropper and paint tool to create a patch more of clothing and also the wand to crop her arm, as i mistakingly drew it with the black "paint".Paint Shop Pro i found easy (not only because i'm used to it at home, but because the layout is simple), and alot like photoshop (Which meant i could change the saved format to a PDF and carry on the work at college). It has "Layers" which you can move and add objects too, and also many other tools alike, like... a "Dropper","Mover","Selection", Zoom and again "Magic wand". For use of InDesign, i thought it vital to use specific tools like "Gradient" (which helped me decided whether i wanted a multi-tonal background, or transparency to the design cover, to have a elemental magazine). I used other tools like the "Direct Selection arrow" to practise my skills, which i them applied similarily to Photo Shop.

Learning these tool palettes has been vital in helping me produce a good "cutting edge (as my brief insisted) music magazine, that stands out and looks much improved from my pre-lim task, which i'll admit was very basic. I 've tried to use all elements of the softwares, to show skill in this topic.

Websites such as http//:www.photoshoplab.com have been useful to learning the tools step by step. Especially when there hasn't been a teacher on hand (at lunch etc).

My photoshoot was very substantial to what i feel the success of my magazine. The photoshoot was carefully thought out, by doing magazine cover image research and general magazine photo research.

Magazine Cover Research: This was done by selecting a few magazines which my target audience were interested in, or had the type of music they liked. I then did a spider diagram around each one pointing out a few key elements, like "Poses", "Background" and "how many models" etc. This helped me generalise and again look back upon my typical magazine conventions.

General Magazine Photo Research: I created another mood board which had pictures that i felt i could base my photos around. I had to think about composition and elements of props/clothing the "artists" in my magazine where going to use. I wrote on assitate paper above the picture and wrote what i liked, and felt i could construct my photoshoot around. An example of this would be; the amount of people in the photoshoot, and also the black sequin dress which i made one of my models wear, because i felt it expressed a party, youthful/glamourous personality which my magazine target audience would appreciate.

Photo minipulation/printcreens in my scrap book proves the above points.

TILLATE.COM MAGAZINE DPS

My double page spread for Tillate.com magazine was key to helping me sort out my magazine layout for my final magazine cover. i divided the analysis in sections to do with design. The sections were divided into; typography (which included style colour and position),Images (size, position and mise-en-scene), design (colours, backgrounds and boxes), Layout (composition of elements) and Copy (Language, register and tone).

This helped with the success of the magazine as i felt it was important that each individual componant and denotations were carefully analysed, so readers of my magazine would notice similar representation.

KERRANG MAGAZINE DPS

Things are very much the same for this Kerrang DPS on Tyson Ritter, as to how i analysed

Tillate.coms DPS above ^

TILLATE.COM MAGAZINE CONTENTS