Monday 25 March 2013
In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Overall, my magazine has challenged, use and developed conventions of a real media product.
USE:
My magazine has used many conventions that pop magazines have which is shown through colour scheme, use of typography, type of shot etc.
CHALLENGE:
Some conventions of my magazine challenge the normal conventions of pop magazines. This is because I wanted my magazine to stand out and to be unique among all other magazines on the market. The reason I had done this is because the number of magazine consumers is dropping rapidly. If I challenged the conventions of a magazine, it will bring up the sales because customers will be more interested to buy the product.
DEVELOP:
I believe that I have developed my pop magazine by presenting my product for a more sophisticated target audience. Although I have the genre of 'pop', it is usually portrayed as a young and playful luxury, it takes my target audience (11 to 15) more seriously to expose them to real life issues. I think this has proved that I have developed the conventions of a pop magazine aimed at 11 to 15 year old girls.
Friday 15 March 2013
How have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this project?
Try our slideshow creator at Animoto.
Whilst constructing my pop magazine, I used many different programmes such as ‘Publisher’ and digital cameras. Whilst working with my camera (Canon 400D), I have learnt to take main images at different angles to highlight certain parts of the face (medium close up shots). I have also learnt to use the camera on manual and changing the focal points of the lens, this will help me get what I want focused in the picture and what I don’t want to be, this will create shallow and long depths of field in my images. I also decided not to use the internal flash of the camera and simply use a reflector to shine light on the model.
These new skills I have learnt during my project have really helped to construct my main pieces. The main technology programme that was used is ‘Photoshop’. As you can see, in my presentation, there are different steps that I took to produce each parts of the magazine, for instance the pull quotes, sky line and adding in thumbnails. I believe that I have learnt many new skills from the constant use of ‘Photoshop’. By using the effects of changing the opacity of my shapes (for the skyline and pull quote bubble) is a new skill that using this programme has taught me. I have also learnt to airbrush the skin. This is heavily used by magazine companies who hide blemishes and spots on all the models skin making it look flawless. By trying to replicate this, it had made my main image look professional which imitates real conventions of a pop magazine. I have learnt new things about different types of technologies whilst constructing my main pieces.
By using these technologies has enabled me to produce this high level piece of work. Now that programmes such as 'Photoshop' has become available to purchase; although it is quite costly; (and in some cases free through illegal downloading), it has made it very accessible to produce and manipulate products at the same standards of real products on the market.
Besides from the practical elements of the technologies I have used in my constructed pieces, I have also learnt the importance of Web 2.0. This is because it is the main research source I had to refer to and compare, use and evaluate from. For example, the evaluation process of real pop magazines were found using the world wide web. This has taught me how I can use the internet as a strength to improve my work. I understand that a maybe half a century ago there was a restriction towards getting information through the internet and it is not as open as it was. I have learnt that I am very advantaged to be able to have so many resources from technologies that I can in co-operate with the construction of my project.
Thursday 14 March 2013
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Continued...
As you can see, this image shows how I have progressed from making a plain simple pull quote bubble to a more attractive one that stands out towards the audience. My photo shop skills have improved and it has enabled me to create better features on my full product.
A problem that I found when I finished my preliminary task was that I had text which became drowned out by the background. The way I fixed this issue for my final product was by adding a boarder on the font to make it stand out. This was a problem that was addressed to me in my preliminary task so therefore I made sure that my writing would stand out for my full product.
Other than the technical changes that I made, the preliminary task has taught me that I should take my images with a variation of shots. The first photoshoot that I comprehended with consisted of images that was 'long shot', this made it hard for me to create my front cover and therefore had to crop most of the images that I took. For my next photoshoot, I took a range of shots further and closer showing 'medium close up shots' and also 'long shots'. This really helped my to progress my final piece because it meant I could choose from a range of shots to make sure I had the best image possible.
I have learnt many new things from my preliminary task, one of the main things that I have learnt from my preliminary task was the use of photoshop and how I would and could improve the professional look of my magazine. Without the preliminary task, my final piece would not have been as good as I would have wanted it to be. Learning from my mistakes that I had made from the first attempt, I was able to change and improve my final piece for it to be the best that it could have been.
Friday 8 March 2013
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