Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task (College Magazine), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product (Music Magazine)?

I always began approaching my tasks with research. I think it is very important to do this to enable you construct a clear, innovative idea. This allows you to be able to find clear conventions that apply to a particular magazine. For my college magazine I looked at ‘College Magazine’, to aid me in creating my magazine effectively. For my music magazine I looked at ‘NME’, which caters for the audiences of indie/rock music. 

The first obstacle I came across was when it came to editing my photos, because I originally used another model, however due to the fact the background being a similar colour to her hair I struggled when it came to editing the pictures. This meant that later on I had to make the decision to do a whole new photo shoot. This was still a problem because it meant I was unable to use the DSLR camera, my pictures still weren't of a high quality.

Organising my human resources proved a lot easier during the preliminary task, as I used my peers, which made the process afterwards, a lot more efficient. As, this was different when it came to creating my music magazine, I ended up spending more time on gathering my resources than the production itself. Because of this, I had to spend more time doing my planning to make sure I was more organised with things such as, costume and location. 

My management for locations and equipment for my music magazine was more effective, as I was more independent with my planning and set-up and allowed me to have more control over the aesthetics. This is because, during my preliminary project, I had used the BOA studio, with professional equipment, that had already been set up for me to take the photos, whereas for my music photo shoot, I used a different location with limited professional equipment. However, I think my costume choice for my music magazine worked because it fitted with my genre and the mis-en-scene of my magazine, which made my magazine more visually interesting.

I believe I could have managed my time more successfully, However I was able to produce all of my work and meet each deadline. I think I was set back, after my first photo shoot proved unsuccessful, and I had to take time out of my production stages to re-organise my entire magazine. I am happy with the work I have produced, and feel as if I have conformed to the conventions of an indie/rock music magazine.

The skill, I would say I have developed most is my ability to use Photoshop. This is because I have never used it before and I had to use it to create a professional looking project.  I used the image adjustments to make the main image on my front cover black and white. I also used royalty free font from dafont.com and then used the background eraser tool to remove the white background. On the main image, I used the magnetic lasso tool to remove the background from around my models shoe, as the colours were to similar to use the background eraser tool.