AS MEDIA STUDIES PRELIMINARY TASK

The cover and contents of my college magazine…

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions

of real media products?

FRONT COVER SIMILARITIES…

Masthead

Plain background

Rule of thirds

Medium Close up

Coverlines

FRONT COVER DIFFERENCES…

My college magazine has a barcode whereas

“FASHION” magazine doesn’t.

I have used a medium closeup shot of a male student who has direct eye contact

with the reader which makes it more direct and is givinga more friendly approach.

Whereas “Fashion” magazinehas used a medium close up of a famous celebrity who is

looking elegant and fresh facedwhich suits their magazine

genre perfectly.

The use of colour schemes for mymagazine cover is rather bright

and colourful so it’s eye catching, although “Fashion” magazine haveused a more calm and cool colour

scheme which also stands outbecause it’s on a white background.

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF MY STUDENT MAGAZINE COVER…

STRENGTHS:• The fact that I have used bright colours on top of a

dimmed background makes the magazine seem more alive and eye-catching, creating an interesting affect.

• There is not a lot of dead space on the cover, however, it isn’t overly full with information either.

• In my opinion, the medium close up shot looks quite professional and it works well with the genre of a magazine because he is a student from the college.

• Important words have been emphasised such as “free” by being in a different colour so it stands out.

WEAKNESSES:• I could have used a few more coverlines included

on the cover to entice the readers more.• An improvement could be to increase the size of

the masthead a little more to make it more noticeable and clearer.

• I could have included a bit more information to fill up a little dead space that there is.

CONTENTS PAGE SIMILARITIES…

Both magazines have the initial masthead on the

contents pages.

The text layout are roughly the same due to

the fact they are organised into columns.

Each of these contents pages have images which

give an incite of the magazine issue.

CONTENTS PAGE DIFFERENCES…

Vogue contents page gives away more information that

my student magazine.

My magazine contents page shows to be more colourful and attractive to the younger audience whereas “Vogue” is

more simple and seems to target towards the more mature and older age.

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF MY STUDENT MAGAZINE CONTENTS…

• The layout of my contents page is set out into the rule of thirds which makes it easier to follow and read.

• I think I have used to right amount of images for a contents page because it gives a little incite into the magazine but at the same time it doesn’t give too much information away.

• The page numbers are easily readable and affective.• Another strength would be that I have included huge

magazine information such as the magazine website and phone number at the bottom right hand corner to further advertise the “REVELATION”.

• I could improve it by spacing out the headings of each section and moving them a little bit away from the pictures so it doesn’t look too squashed.

• Only a small colour range has been used and it may look a bit better with a more variety of colour.

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

STAGES…

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Firstly, I went onto file and then placed my chosen medium close

up shot to Photoshop.

Secondly, I used the textbox to create and design the

masthead for my cover.

Then, I started including the coverlines and main sell line and

edited them to individually stand out.

This print screen shot shows evidence that I have included a

barcode and the number and date of this particular issue.

Finally, I extended it further and added “FREE” to advertise it as well as including a banner at the

bottom.

I used Adobe Photoshop to create and design my own student

magazine cover. Throughout this process I have learnt new skills and how to develop a new media product.

USE OF THE CAMERA…

ALSO ON ADOBE PHOTOSHOP…I edited my masthead and added several different affects

to make it more modern and original. I did this using a tool called ‘fx’. The image to the right shows the effects

which I chose to you for my masthead.

I used many different pieces of technology throughout the process of constructing this product and one would be a digital camera. This was used to prepare and take the images needed for my magazine. It tested me on using the camera to capture multiple camera angles and shots such as: close up, medium close up, medium shot and a long shot. By using the camera

myself, it increased my skills as well as making sure the photography was original and my own. Whilst taking the

photos I was also acknowledging the rule of thirds and aiming for a MCU. Furthermore, I was able to give the student- who I chose to model for my magazine-clear instructions as where to stand such as in front of a plain background, so there wasn’t a huge interference when it came to editing and adding text and

also to smile so they seemed friendly.

USING IN DESIGN FOR MY CONTENTS…

I used “In Design” to create the contents page for my magazine. The first thing I thought about was arranging the boxes to make sure they were organised into the rule of thirds. I also thought

ahead about the colour scheme I was going to use and I decided to keep it the same as the front cover to keep it looking

professional and not too tacky by using a wide range of colour.

I think one of my main strengths was making sure all the text was lined up and arranged appropriately as well as making the page numbers a different colour, font and bolder to make them

stand out more. I could have improved my contents page by adding an affect or two to the images such as rotating them

a little or edited them into a different shape. However, I think I used the correct amount of colour variation.

Once I had placed an image into “In Design”, each time they would appear to be to big to fit into the

boxes so I had to resize them by making them smaller. I experimented with quite a few different

fonts but come to the conclusion that it looked more professional with only a limit of two. To conclude, I found “In Design” quite difficult and complicated to use being as I have never used a piece of technology like this before, however, by the end of the task I had

learnt a variety of new skills which I hope I can develop further in future.