In Media studies at AS level, I was asked to create a school magazine front cover, along with a contents page for my pleminary task. I had to complete my front cover and my contents page within 4 weeks of starting it. I have found that this Peliminary task has allowed me to learn various new skills in photoshop and Blogger and has also made me learn that deadlines are very important to keep to.
My school magazine uses, develops and challenges many forms and conventions of real magazines. The layout of the text and images on my front cover are similar to that of 'VIBE' magazine, a high selling music magazine. The close up image I used on my front cover used conventions of real school magazines as most school magazines have one particular image on the front, specifically a celebrity. I chose to put an attractive and eye catching close up image on the front much like the close up images on the 'VIBE' magazine. My school magazine does not develop too many forms and conventions of real school magazines and does not challenge many conventions of real magazines either. My front cover does however challenge conventions of real school magazines with the title. School magazines have big, bold and very 'in your face' titles. My school magazine has challenged this by having a bold and big title but having the text warped to make it look nearly bubble like.
How does your school magazine represent particular social groups?
My school magazine does not represent different social groups through people as there is only one person on my front cover. The person on the front cover does however portray one type of social group within the school, which is a happy and fashionable social group. Another social group is also shown through the background colours and distortion. A gothic social group is shown through the colours shown in the background as they are very dark and spooky.
What kind of media institution might distribute your school magazine?
The kind of media institution that would distribute my school magazine is the school itself (the school which the magazine is about).
Who would be the audience for your school magazine?
The audience for my school magazine would be ofcourse teenagers from the ages of 12-16. This is because the magazine would be about the school, mainly from the pupils point of veiw. Although the magazine would be informative, it would not be suitable for parents to pick up and read as there would only content that youths would be interested in.
How did you attract/address your audience?
I attracted my target audience by
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this school magazine?
I have learnt about many processes on Adobe Photoshop 7.0 throughout the course of making my school magazine. I have learnt how to proffesionally cut out an image from it's background. I have learnt how to repair a photograph's quality to make it's standards higher. For example, adjusting the colour to turn a blue-ish photograpgh into one which is balanced in colour. Along with many more processes, I have come a long way from knowing nothing about Adobe Photoshop, to creating a school magazine on it.
How did you find making this school magazine and what did you find particularly difficult or easy?
Making this school magazine to a high quality in a fairly short amount of time was averagely difficult. It was harder for me at the beginning as I had never used Adobe Photoshop, but gradually I came to understand what different tools did. Towards the end, I was much more organised than in the beginning and had a personal goal which I had to reach. Due to this I was able to reach the deadline, otherwise it would have been almost impossible. I found getting started particularly difficult as I did not really have any pictures to work from and experiment with. It was a difficult because I was not organised near the beginning but then I piced myself up and found it much easier to get on with the work. I found taking my pictures easy because I already had in mind what kind of image I wanted on my front cover. Therefore, I was able to compose the best image for me.
If you had the chance to do this school magazine again, what would you do different to improve it?
If I had the chance to do this school magazine again, I would include more blue on the front cover as that is what my target audience mostly wanted. I do not think I would make many changes to it as I created it based upon my results that I got from my school magazine survey. I would change my contents page to make it slightly more similar to the front cover, rather than having such a diverse contents page from the front cover.
Ahmed
ReplyDeleteGood evaluation, particularly where you detail some of the specific Photoshop processes that you used. Your blog generally is of a high standard.
Your cover shows a basic level of ability in most areas of creative production and is beginning to show proficiency. You need to spend longer editing in Photoshop to achieve excellence. Excellence is achieved through real attention to detail. Make sure that your image mixes well with the background (I think the colours are a little too contrasting here).
You need to use features and more clear space on your contents page. There should be a more limited and subtle use of colour at this point in the magazine. Your yellows and greens would have more impact on a white background.
Overall:
33/60 marks
Overall you show basic abilities (normal for your first attempt with the software). You need to work really hard to try to achieve excellence with your final product. Keep up the good work on the blog and evaluation.