Linking Theorists to my Music Video

Slide 15- Conclusion

To conclude, I feel I have created a very good piece of work, which is suitable for my genre and very fitting to my target market. I believe that my media product is life like and I have managed to create a magazine which I am proud of. I would not change anything about my magazine as I feel I have worked to my full potential in order to create something which I believe to be very applicable and sufficient. Overall I am satisfied with the outcome and am content with my ability in all the areas of media in which I have studies over the AS Level course. I feel that my achievements are reflected in my progression and this also shows the hard work and time I have invested into ensure that I am able to produce work of a standard which I deem to be the best of my ability.

Slide 14- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

This is showing the progression in my abilities when creating contents pages. Contents pages are crucial for keeping the attention of the reader. They open up what is to be found in the rest of the magazine. They need to fulfil the expectations which are implicated on the cover page. To do this a consistent theme must be kept. After reflecting back to preliminary task, I do not see this much needed consistency, apart from in the text used. The background is very different and there is still no real feel of meaning behind it. There is no real target audience and the magazine contents page is as vapid as the front cover. When I look at my music magazine I get a completely different vibe. It has a meaning and reasoning and the target market is unequivocal because of this. It creates an atmosphere and you instantly feel attached to the magazine because of this, as though you have a connection. This attribute is absent from my preliminary task and this is a great deficiency.
My music magazine categorises its contents, another vital feature which is not present within my preliminary task. There is no connection from the magazine to the audience and it is very dull due to this. I think that my progression is phenomenal and I have improved an awful lot.
My contents page on my preliminary task only uses one main image, which is something I did not do for my music magazine. After researching and studying, I found this was very rare and that in order to capture the audience’s attention, I would need multiple images to continue to keep the interest of the reader.

Slide 13- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

As you can see from my two front covers I have progressed a lot in developing and constructing magazine covers. I have learnt the significance of using space and have now mastered the ability to use this efficiently. In my music magazine, you can see clearly that I have managed to use space well and also fill a page effectivel, without overdoing it. When I reflect back to what I acheived with my preliminary task, I am able to see just how far I have come in terms of my competence in Photoshop. My school magazine is very bare and is not overly welcoming, I feel this is something which I have worked on a lot in my music magazine and have overcome my inability to do this, as I have produced a magazine front cover which friednly and inviting. My school magazine is very simplistic which completely contrasts the music magazine I have created, with its very busy, image packed outlook.
My use of images has become much improved. As you can see, the only technique which I had mastered when completing my preliminary task was feathering. This is the only resource of image editing which I used. However, when I moved on to my music magazine, I used many different tools and editing techniques in order to create a striking front cover and to make the images appear perfect.
The use of colour is another thing which I feel I have managed to improve upon. My preliminary task shows a colour scheme of only two colours. I have now managed to incorporate many different colours into the colour and still allow the cover to not look overwhelming or too busy. This is something which I needed to work on in order to find the arrangement of colours which worked well off of eachother.
I found that over time I have learnt how to make a magazine cover appealing and I believe that this has become a very important factor when contructing. Every aspect of my music magazine links in with its “fun and lively” theme which is what is so appealing about it. However I do not see any of this in my preliminary task. When I reflect back to this I do not feel or notice any theme and therefore there is no specific audience that it reaches out to.
There is some similarites which I have noticed however. When looking at both magazine covers I can see a definite two sections which are separated horizontally in the middle of the page. I did this subconsciously, however I now see that this must just be a preference of mine when choosing a layout of a page.

Slide 12- Feedback

After copleting my magazine, I was given some feedback on what other students in my class thought of my magazine. When I received my feedbcak I was extremely satisfied to find that the majority of people found no weaknesses in my final product and had no suggestions of improvement. However I was given one constructive criticism which stated that my heading on the cover would have looked better had it been filled with a yellow colour like so on the other pages which I created to keep the consistency. While I take this point on board, I do not believ this to be true. The title of a magzine is very important and must differentiate itself in some way from the other titles within the magazine.
I have noted some of the positive feedback I have received in this slide, and I was exceedingly pleased to see that everyone who analysed my work understood the message and feel of the magazine that I was trying to create. This is eveident in the comments I received. They also understood who my magazine was aimed at which reassured me that I had done a sufficient job at fulfilling the needs of my target market which is a very important factor to focus on.
Aside from the titles consistency, the class noted that my work showed great continuity throughout and were very impressed with how I managed to keep the house style and yet still add an individual touch to each page. They praised my ability to familiarise the the pages and yet still manage to distinguish them each and keep them all individual. I was very pleased with this as I also felt this was an attribute to my work.
When asked to comment on the impact of my magazine the class were in agrrement that my product reflected a happy and cheesy atmosphere which is very aparent within pop music. They said that I was able to immulate the genre and put it into a print form which was considered artistic and outgoing. I felt this did reflect the music genre of my magazine very well and believe that my magazine was very easy to associate with its genre as it related to it in so many ways.
The class also agreed that my “posed” and “cheesy” images very well suited the magazines representation as pop is highly associated with these two aspects. I was very pleased to see that people were understanding the reasoning for everything which I did in order to link the images to the genre. Another thing which people picked up on on the double page spread was how the image in the bottom right corner intenified the secretivity of the appeal. The image was looking down on “Amelle Marie” and almost suggested vulnerability and that she was being open with us. The fact this image was placed in a corner gave the feel of a secret corner and added further to the mystery I was trying to create. This was something I was surprised that people had noticed as it was a motive which I had thought hard about.
Overall my feedback was all very positive and people felt that I had suceeded very well in this task and was impressed with my progression and efforts.

Slide 11- What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

This slide is showing the process of how I managed to create this bubble effect where the person is jumping out at you. This is something which took me a lot of time to figure out and I used trial and error methods until I finally figured out how to complete this efficiently. Firstly I needed to create the pink circle by using the Ellipse tool. To get the same colour pink I had used previously I used the eyedropper tool to keep the consistency. After drawing this circle, I then drew another one which was slightly smaller and coloured white which I placed over the pink circle. I then opened up the image. Firstly I had to remove the background and to do this to a sufficient standard I used the magnetic lasso tool which differentiates colours in order to outline the image you wish. Once I had done this, I then I then need to transform this image into a circular shape so that it would fit nicely into the white circle and sit along the base of it. To do this I used the cookie cutter tool and selected a circular shape to create the same circular base which was needed. I then had all the resources needed to be able to put it together to create the finished looked. I placed the image at the base of the white circle and arranged it so that it was bought to the front. The outcome shows this bubble effect with the person looking as though they are jumping out at you.

Slide 10- What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

As well as blogger.com, I was also able to gain a greater knowledge in Photoshop elements. I used this software to create my magazine cover, contents and double page spread. I had previously used this software when I carried out coursework assignments at GCSE. However this was a relatively long time ago and my memory of it was extremely limited. I did not remember a lot of what I had previously learnt, however once I had started using Photoshop elements, certain aspects did begin to come back to me.
I used many different tools on Photoshop which all contributed to my finishing product. However there are a few which I will mention here, that I deemed to be very significant and useful which guided me through the process. Firstly we used Photoshop to complete our preliminary task. This allowed us to grasp and understanding of how to use and develop images using Photoshop. As you can see my progression was notable and reflects how I managed to achieve and grow within this area. The gradient tool became a very important contribution to my magazine. I used it multiple times and explored the different ways in which it can be utilized. Firstly I used it to create concentric circles by using the radial gradient. After exploring the other ways to use this tool I discovered the linear gradient which created a misty and pervious feel which I added to the bottom of the pages. It gave a smoky impression which I felt could be associated with stage smoke which is often featured at concerts/shows. The concentric circles were extremely useful to me as this become almost part of the logo and gradually familiarised itself on every page creating a house style which was consistent.
I also learnt how to edit and air brush photographs. This was something which I enjoyed learning about a lot. The image featured on the bottom right has been edited mainly using the smart brush tool, I then selected portrait and fake tan. After I had selected this I ran the mouse over the area which needed the skin tone adjusted and the results are as shown. I felt the need to do this as previously “Amelle Marie” seemed slightly pal and unwelcoming. I wanted to add some colour to her to make her appear appeal, friendly and warm. I also needed to sharpen this mage and so to do so, I enhanced the image and adjusted the contrast and sharpness. This made the image more striking and outstanding.