In my first year I used Photoshop to produce my music magazine. Prior
to starting the course I had never used Photoshop before in depth, so
throughout the year I learnt how to use the different tools to greatly improve
on my preliminary task of the college magazine. I learnt how to improve skin
tone and remove blemishes by using the spot healing brush tool. In addition, I
used liquefy to create a slimmer profile for my model in line with my magazine
conventions as well as using the quick selection tool to remove any background
that I needed to be clear so I could add in a background for my magazine.
Another medium of digital technology I used was the camera, I had no prior
knowledge of framing a shot and lighting a shot before I started the course so
throughout the year I built up this knowledge until I could confidently frame,
position and light a shot. I did have to retake my pictures several times until
they matched the conventions of music magazines and this demonstrates the fact
I have built up my skills over the year.
I feel that over the course of the first year I developed my
creativity, which helped me to produce a much better magazine at the end of the
course than my first attempt. My first preliminary effort, my perfume advert,
was an abstract idea with no model which proved to be an ineffective choice
creatively so I improved this for my final magazine where I used a model in
full creative costume which reflected the indie genre of my music magazine.
Furthermore, I used much more interesting and creative text and image choice on
my final product, which made it more effective and overall a higher standard
piece of work than my original advert and college magazine. My creativity has
been influenced by other magazines such as NME, Q and Kerrang which inspired me
to produce work at a higher standard than before, as well as using software
such as Photoshop which allows you to perform more tasks such as blemish
removal and interesting text which the software I used for my preliminary task,
Publisher, doesn’t allow you to do to the same level.
Throughout the course of the year I improved the depth of my planning
and research that allowed me to produce a higher standard of finished product
compared to my original college magazine. At first, my research was fairly
basic. I used mainly essay form and didn’t analyse to a proficient level
however throughout the year I managed to improve the quality of my planning and
research. I achieved this by using different software to present my research
such as Prezi, an online presentation software, Slideshare, which allows you to
upload presentations from your computer and Go Animate, which allows you to
produce mini-movies to present your work. These are a much more creative, fun
and lively way to present your work as opposed to a fairly uninspiring
essay. Furthermore, I analysed work in
much more depth than at the start of the year, which allowed me to access
higher grade boundaries as well as showing how my analytical skills have
developed over the course of the year.
The postproduction of my final product was much more advanced,
complicated and developed than my original college magazine. For my college
magazine, the only postproduction I really engaged with was adding text and a
barcode to my magazine, as I did not manipulate the image. This produced a
fairly basic product that did not compare with my final product in terms of
quality and creativity.
However, for my final product I completed the postproduction on
Photoshop that instantly improves the quality of my magazine. The first stage
of postproduction was actually retaking my images several times to get the
prefect shot. This entailed new lighting techniques and reframing of the shots.
After this was completed, I manipulated my image on Photoshop which included
improving the skin tone and removing blemishes, reshaping hair, slimming the
profile of my model as well as improving the brightness of eyes and small yet
important features like that. The next stage was adding texts and backgrounds
to my products. I used a background adapted from the Internet for my double
page spread, which really tied in with the genre and made it look professional.
I added text to my cover and contents pages from dafont.com that allows you to
pick any type of font you desire and this increased the verisimilitude of my
final product.
I followed media conventions strictly in my final product, which I
didn’t do in my preliminary texts. In my college magazine, my image was poorly
framed with little genre specific mise-en-scene and used a poor choice of text,
which went against conventions thus producing a product that looked more like a
poster than a real music magazine. Throughout the year I developed my skills
and knowledge of media conventions that allowed me to create a much more realistic
and professional music magazine. In my final product, I used a colour scheme,
which reflected my genre of indie that is conventional. Furthermore I added a
skyline, a footer, pull quotes, a barcode and a price which I either didn’t do
or added unconventionally in my earlier attempts which adds to the
verisimilitude of the magazine. The costume my model used was much more
conventional than the costume used in my preliminary task. It was more
conventional as she wore dark colours and make up and posed in a ‘rockstar’
fashion that is conventional of indie music magazines. In terms of my image,
the shot was framed more conventionally in my final product so you could see
her face and her pose much more clearly than in my first task. Overall, I feel
my skills have developed rapidly and to a great extent over the course of the
first year that allowed me to produce a proficient product.
