Over the course of the
first year, I have gained and developed knowledge and skills when it comes to
production work, in particular using Photoshop. Before I started the Media
course, I had no familiarity with Photoshop and the tools required to make a
successful media product for instance media language and terminology.
Beginning my learning by creating
a draft of a college magazine’s front cover and contents page provided the
opportunity to learn about the software needed in such areas, Photoshop, for
example, and the various techniques which I could then apply to my music
magazine. The ‘blogger’ system was also an unfamiliar programme I had not used
before. I found that it is not only advantageous for my coursework, but for
anyone wanting to publicise something. Living in this short-attention span
global society, everything is digital and consumed at an incredible rate. When
researching and planning my final product, I was made of aware of all the
different institutions and how each worked for example I had not heard of many
of the existing music magazines available until I had to look at all ranges of
genres and analyse them. This is when I realised how each organisation uses the
same type of conventions to persuade the reader to buy them and publicise their
product on the market.
When using Photoshop, I
decided to experiment more with the tools provided to try and make my work more
unique and professional-looking. I researched into how to airbrush a subject’s
skin as well as use the ‘burn’ tool to enhance the colours in certain areas
such as the eye and lip makeup and around the edges of the entire page as a way
of framing the image. When developing my product, I changed my mind about small
things such as the colour and font of the title, where I would often change the
blending options like the inner and outer glow. To get the mirrored effect of
the title, I simply duplicated the title layer and inverted it, then used the eraser
tool to gradually delete the bottom half of the text. The rest of the text on
the page features the drop shadow tool in order to stand out and the barcode
was produced on an online barcode generator. For the double-page spread and
contents page images, I adjusted the brightness/contrast, colour balance,
exposure and channel mixer. I added blue highlights to her hair to fit the
genre more using the brush tool. I had to change the opacity of the brush
throughout to make some areas look richer in colour than others.
When comparing my college
magazine to my music magazine, it is clear that the early drafts have many
blemishes. The page seems quite plain and empty, with no splash or puff to
attract the reader. The house style only consists of two colours; green and
purple which are not as eye-catching and attractive as three colours in the
colour scheme for the music magazine. The final cover of my music magazine is
very different to the earlier drafts – this is mainly due to the feedback and
advice I have received which has helped me cultivate my abilities and ideas as
well as giving me the confidence to be more creative and original in my work.
My contents page was not as informative or as interesting as existing ones. It
lacks many features and those which are present look odd because they are
unevenly spaced. I have learnt that the layout and organisation of the magazine
is incredibly important and I think it is visibly clear that my technological
skills have progressed throughout the making of the final product.
In conclusion, my understanding
of the production, layout and overall view of the media world has improved a
great deal over the course of the first year. The feedback, thoughts and ideas
I have received have helped me massively with the development of my learning and
final outcome because I think that I would not have learned so much if mistakes
were not made initially. I feel I have improved on all aspects of the task
given (digital technology, creativity, research and planning, post-production
and using conventions of a real media text). For example, the college magazine
contents page is very plain with a lot of wasted space – I learnt from
producing this what elements need to be improved by simply equating it to a
professional contents page already on the market which is how we began the
project – by researching into already existing magazines and creating a LIIAR
analysis of each, be it a classical, R&B or alternative magazine. Each magazine
is aimed at a different target market but I found that they all use the
conventions and codes of a music magazine and rarely deviate from the rules.
