What I did today...08/04/2011

Today I have uploaded my question 7 to my blog, I have just written out the improvements I think I have made. I also checked everything was on my blog.

Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Looking back at the preliminary task I think I have improved my music magazine a lot. When we began media it was the first time I had ever used a Mac computer and the software on it, including Photoshop and InDesign.

For the preliminary task we only used Photoshop, when creating my front cover we had to take our own images and I realised I hadn’t had enough time otherwise I could have got a lot better photographs, when taking my photographs for the final product, our music magazine I made sure that I had a lot of time to take photographs and worked out how, where and who I was going to use. I set up a photography plan so I knew everything I was going to do so I could manage my time better. I didn’t really edit my photographs in Photoshop for the preliminary task as I did not have a lot of time, whereas my music magazine photographs I did edit and they looked a lot better.

I think my skills in Photoshop have improved a lot as at the beginning of the course I had never used it, but now I have used it and understand most of the tools included. I also brought the Photoshop programme for my own computer at home so I could carry out things that I didn’t have time to do in class. Also having this programme at home allowed me to have a play with it and understand things more then what I did in my lessons during college.

For our final product we had to use another programme like Photoshop but it is called InDesign. It was also the first time I had used this as we didn’t create a double page spread in the preliminary task. InDesign was quite confusing as I didn’t know what it was like or how it worked but after using it once I got my head around it. Also this came on the same disk as Photoshop as they are similar products so I could also explore with this at home.

I think by looking at my college magazine- preliminary task and looking at my music magazine – full product that I have improved in using the software, as I edited photographs for my full product unlike the preliminary task. I realised that I had to add more to my front cover and especially my contents page improved as my full product is a lot more busy then my preliminary task, I prefer my music contents page as there is no white on it and carries on with the colour scheme from the front cover.

 

Creating a double page spread was also a lot different than creating just a front cover and contents page but I think it did pretty well for it being the first time I had used the software and the first time I had created it. For the double page spread you had to think of a story or interview and the artist’s response that you had done on the front cover. This was time consuming so I planned out what I was going to write on it at home so I didn’t waste time on the Macs at college.

Using the college Macs was quite a risk and when creating this music magazine you have to use a Mac as we began creating them on it. When you work on a Mac your documents were only on Mac systems in college and that was difficult as there are only a few around college, but we had them in our lesson so you had to use your time wisely when in our lesson. Also having our things on the college server was a risk as some of the time it crashed, so you had to make sure that you saved everything as you went along. Some of the times the programs mucked up as well so I just had to put up with it but it was a threat to my work as I could not continue with it. One time I also thought I had lost my work and thought I would have had to do my whole double page spread again but luckily it was on my memory stick, so using one of them helped me a lot.

Overall I think I have improved a lot since creating the preliminary task, using different software, creating new things and just using a different computer. My music magazine – full product is definitely a lot better than my college magazine as I have become more familiar with the software and how to use the Macs. I am pleased with my final outcome and definitely think I have learnt a lot from media, as I have done lots of things I have never before. My music magazine is definitely more thought out, making it look a lot better. Editing the photographs on photoshop as well helped me learn how to do that and also made the final result a lot better. I am pleased with my outcome and I have learnt alot.

What I did today...07/04/2011

Today I answered questions 4, 5 and 6 and uploaded them to my blog. Question 4 I made a portfolio for the people I think that would read my magazine. Question 5 I annotated my front cover, my contents page and my double page spread with the things that I thought would attract and address my audience. Question 6 I just wrote out the answer onto my blog with images of the things I used, so you could see what I used whilst creating my magazine.

Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

The technologies now used throughtout the magazine industry are deffinately increasing. The things needed to create a magazine are very technological. For example we need a computer with many programs on it such as photoshop and indesign these are used to create the magazine, you will also need a camera and various other things becoming very technological.

Technology is taking over magazines for example instead of buying the magazine you can now subscribe online or even use the emagazine which is a magazine but online. So it is very economically friendly as they will not print off as many.

During this time of creating a magazine I have used a Mac, I have never used a Mac Computer. I have never used one before so I had to adjust to it, itwas quite difficult at first as the keyboards are different to normal ones, also has many different shortcuts. But once I got used to the Mac I was fine.

I used Photoshop for the first time as well when creating this magazine. I used this for editing my photographs and I also used it to put together my front cover and contents page. I could not get the hang of photoshop to start off with but once I had some help I was also fine with that. I just needed some time exploring it.

I have also used my Computer at home to help me I bought and downloaded Photoshop onto my computer so I could aslo continue with some work at home. This helped because I couldnt get everything done in my lesson and it also gave me free time to explore the programs on it and get used to them a bit more.

I used my Samsung Camera to take my photographs, I study photography so this helped my in the photographic department also the fact that I had my own camera when I needed it.

To make sure I would always have everything depending if I did it at home on in college I would use my memory stick, also to back up my files and make sure I still had them.

Another I used whilst creating this magazine is Indesign, I have also never used this and it came on the same disk as photoshop, it is very different to photoshop and quite hard to adjust to. Once you have had the practice and know what you are doing it is a lot easier. We used this to create our double page spreads as it was better for them then photoshop.

So I have everything together I uploaded all my things I have done to blogger. This is an easy way for anyone else to see all my work. I have never used blogger before either or done a blog or anything like that, so it was a nice experience to use other programs and see other ways or how things can be done.

I have also included power points in my blogger so the only way to upload them to my blog was using slideshare. I have also never used this before and just had fun exploring with it and finding out how to post things to my blog.

The final thing I have used during this is YouTube, I used this for my research to listen to songs that I think were in the genre I did. Once I found a YouTube clip I posted it to my blog, so others can see the videos I have posted too.

These are all the things I learnt how to use whilst creating my magazine. Some for research, some for my blog and others to create my magazine.

Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted my audience by adding various things on my magazine front cover. Below is a picture of the things that i think will address and attract the audience.

This is my contents page, I have annotated things on here that I think will address and attract my audience into my reading my magazine.

Here is my annotation of my double page spread showing the things that I imagine will attract and address my audience.

For Question 5 I annotated my front cover, my contents page and double page spread, outlining the things that I thought attracted and addressed the audience, the things I added to do this job.

Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

For Question 4 I created a myspace account for 2 people. One male - Zaak and one female - Lottie showing there interests and other things about them.This will explain the type of audience my magazine is for. Many other people may read the magazine but this it the stereotypical view from me of who will read it.

What I did today...5/04/2011

Today I answered questions 1 and 3 and uploaded 1, 2 and 3 to my blog. For question 1 I did a PowerPoint and uploaded it via slideshare. Question 2 a prezi and uploaded it and Question 3 I did a video on www.xtranormal.com and uploaded it.

Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/11671601/distribution-of-my-media-product
This is video that I created on http://www.xtranormal.com/ I chose to answer question 3 by using this product and here is my final result.

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

http://prezi.com/1nbbeyhbmkyx/social-groups/
Here is my response to question 2, I created this on http://www.prezi.com/ This is a new program that I used and I enjoyed exploring it and learing how to use it.

Question 1: In what way does your product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

For my response to Question 1 I created a Powerpoint. I answered the question within this powerpoint comparing mine and others magazines. Here is my powerpoint on slideshare.

Question 1

View more presentations from Jade Taylor.

Final Double Page Spread

What I did today...1/04/2011

Today I made sure that I was happy with my front cover my contents page and my double page spread. The only thing I didn’t edit was my contents page because I am really happy with that. I also began my evaluation. I started question 2 in class using www.prezi.com this was a site I was new to and enjoyed it.