Production Diary - Blog Alterations

This week, the deadline for my magazine was set for the 20th December and this was for a copy lof my final draft to be uploaded to my blog on the programme which you are able to sign up for for free called issuu - it is an extremely useful way for displaying and presenting media coursework. I faced a few problems over the past few days - the main one being the hard copy on in design nit saving properly, therefore I didn't have the proper copy meaning I will have to do the additions and adjustments I made again once I get back to school. This draft will be marked by my teacher and I hope to make all the necessary adjustments needed. The deadline for my blog tasks to be uploaded and completed is 6th January, and my aim is to get each piece up to a level four as I hope to achieve as many marks for my coursework as possible. I have also now completed two of the questions which make up the evaluation of my product and over the course of the christmas holidays I hope to complete a further 1-2 questions alongside other blog alterations.

Magazine Draft

Production Diary - Front Cover

This week, I have been focusing on finishing the front cover of the magazine and inserting the last few pictures into the slots I have open for the contents page and double page spread. With the deadline for the first set of feedback coming up on the 19th December, I want to make sure that the draft is one which has everything inserted inside, but it definitely will be up for improvements in the following months after the Christmas Holidays in January and February. It is important to get it right as this is 50% of my overall AS Media Studies grade.

I have always found that when making media products, I struggle to choose the right image for the front cover as I tend to over take the pictures making it harder to narrow down what pictures to use. However, I have now decided on a close up to mid shot of the chosen model, and also made sure that the choice of outfit is bold and eye catching.

This week, I also focused on writing up another question which will form a part of the overall evaluation of my product - the task I focused on this week was 'Who would be the audience for your media product' because even though I have not fully completed the media product, I have already done some primary audience research and made an audience profile - also gaining feedback for my proposal where I put forward the ideas of what I would want to feature in my magazine, therefore I hope that it would be as successful as planned.

Contact Sheet

Here are some of the images that I took in the two photoshoots that I did for my magazine in the form of a contact sheet.

I wanted to keep my photoshoot quite minimalistic as I felt it would detract the attention from the model keeping her look quite open to the audience of the magazine. I chose to use a hat and a stool as the only chosen props to highlight the effectiveness of using various levels within images, whilst the hat fits in quite well with her chosen outfit.

Production Diary - Starting the Final Evaluation

This week, as a part of the task I have been set over the next seven weeks for my homework, I have been set to answer a variety of questions based on evaluating all aspects of my media product. It is important that I have all things covered as a I am able to evaluate the progress that I have made so far and compare this to when I created my preliminary task at the start of the year. The question that I have started with is looking at the distribution of my magazine and if it were to be distributed, what company would I choose an why. I also had to evaluate the means of promotional methods that  I would use also.

Last week, Thursday to be precise. I had a second photoshoot for my magazine as I felt that the photos that I took primarily would not suit the front cover of a music magazine so felt I wanted to widen the available choices that I had and take some more images after the consent needed from the model. It was not as long as the initial photoshoot, however I still felt that it was successful and will soon be uploading the contact sheet for both of my photoshoots.

This week, the one task that I wish to complete is choosing the photo I would like to use on the front cover of my magazine as I feel I can be overly pedantic when it comes to choosing so - especially after experiencing this first hand at GCSE. I need to make sure that it goes well with the rest of the magazine and fits in nicely with the chosen genre.

Production Diary - Cover Draft

This week I also uploaded my cover draft for my magazine. I left it in it's scaffolding form as I felt this would make it easier for my to add all the images and text I want into the given places once I was ready to do so. I have already added in the basics such as the masthead, issue number and date of release - however I still need to add in the picture that I will use on my front cover and also make some adjustments to the sell lines.

When I start to create my actual front cover I want to make the front cover look a little bit more interesting by adding drop shadows to some of the text and add a little description underneath each of the sell lines. I think that the block writing looks quite boring if I use it consistently across the front cover so when I add the text to the button, I will use a different font.

Production Diary - Double Page Spread

This week I have added the text from last weeks homework, (creating the text I would use in the box outs which are featured on the last page of my double page spread). I chose three different Box Outs; they included tour dates, the artists review of another artist (in this case Adele) and also ten quick facts about Delilah Rose. By adding in extra bits like this it will hopefully keep the audience of the magazine interested because there are loads of bits and pieces put together rather than one big block of text.

Another thing that I did this week was to make a few small adjustments to blog posts I have posted prior to this. I want to make sure that I can pick up as many marks possible for my blog so by readjusting points I will be able to do so.

Finally, I uploaded a post about the varied equipment I will use throughout the duration of creating my coursework. This covered the hardware and software that I have been, and will continue using over the next few months.

Equipment

This post looks at the equipment - hardware and software - that I have been and will continue to use throughout the coursework I am creating over Year 12. The hardware relates to the equipment such as cameras and lighting equipment that I use over to take the images for my final piece. These images would feature on the front cover, in the contents page and also the double page spread. The software refers to the programmes (Adobe Photoshop and Adobe InDesign CS6) I will use to put the magazine together. Photoshop will be used to edit an adjust the images I take on the cameras whereas InDesign is the programme I will use to put it all together.

Cover Draft