I set up my blog on Blogger.com when I began the preliminary task. I had never made a blog before or been on the blogging website so it was a new experience to me. I learnt how to construct text posts and insert photos which was useful for tasks in the future. I also used Photoshop in the preliminary task to create the college magazine , which I had also never used before. It was good to use both of these technologies as they gave me practice for making my real magazines. I also gained new skills on Photoshop, for example warping text to make it look more interesting.

PRELIMINARY TASK

RESEARCH

For my research I used search engines such as Google. I have used this many times before so it was easy to use and I could the sources I was looking for easily. I found examples of front covers, contents pages and double page spreads from existing magazines such as Q and NME on Google Images. From this research I made an analysis of each using Microsoft PowerPoint. This is another software I have experience with so it was easy for me to annotate m findings. I used Slideshare to upload my analysis to the internet to put on to my blog. I had never used this website before but I found it was quite simple to embed my slideshows and transfer the HTML to my blog.

PLANNING

The planning stage of my magazine was quite simple because my model was my sister. I used my phone to text her to arrange the time to take the photographs. We also discussed the mise en scene of the pictures – i.e. the costume, make-up props and location etc.

As well as this, I began to create a flat plan for my magazine layout. I used Microsoft PowerPoint to construct a plan for the front cover, contents page and double page spread. As this was a software I was familiar with it was easy to make, however I used tools such as copy and paste to speed up the process.

PRODUCTIONAll of my images were taken with a Canon camera. Using a professional camera was a new experience for me because I had to practice using it and learn how to take the images properly. This is shown by the first set of images I produced for my magazine. They are more blurry and the lighting is bad which is why I decided not to use them. I also decided to change parts of the mise en scene when taking the second set of photographs. My model wore the same costume (white shirt, black jeans) and make-up (red lipstick, natural wavy hair), however I changed the setting so that she was stood against a white background. This made the pictures brighter and more clear, as well as looking more professional. This task was useful because I learned how to take the images properly and the how different lighting etc. affects the outcome of the image. I also brought in previous knowledge I had gathered in my research when looking at different camera shots.

First Final

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POST-PRODUCTIONAfter I had taken my images I used Photoshop to edit them. I learned many useful skills from this, such how to remove shadows using the brush blending mode. This created a brighter, clearer background as well as making the photo appear more professional. It also helped to remove shadows on her face and clothes etc.

During this stage I also used dafont.com to find different fonts for my magazine. I had to search specifically to find the fonts that would suit the style of my magazine so this involved trial and error. It helped me to gain knowledge in that I would know where to get more advanced fonts in future.

When constructing my magazine I used the skills I gained from the preliminary task to make my final product look more professional.

EVALUATION

I used a range of different technologies to construct my evaluation. I used Microsoft PowerPoint and Slideshare, both of which I am familiar with due to various blog posts I have made for previous tasks. I also used Prezi as an alternative way of presenting and evaluating my work. From this I have gained skills as Prezi was not something I had ever used before, so each post gave me practice as to how to work and slideshows look better.

Another technology I used for evaluation was a Pixton comic. I had never used Pixton before so it was difficult at first to work out how to use it. However after I had gotten used to it became relatively easy to use and will be useful in future if I need to make a comic – it offers many different scenarios and characters etc. to fit in with the style of work you are doing.

PIXTON

PREZI