Project 1 - My Magazine
Context/Planning /Production:
My Current Media Experience:
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Current media skills and experience:
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Edited school ski trip video
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Grade 9 for sound design in drama GCSE
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Have produced YouTube videos in the past, using filming and editing skills
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Edited photos in Photoshop
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I have a lot of experience using Sony Vegas to edit videos
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I have a lot experience using Audacity to edit sound
I have been involved in the project of a drama performance at school for our GCSE, and I was the sound designer. I used my skills within the audio editing programme of Audacity to produce perfectly timed sound effects and tracks to go alongside our performance and enhance its effect to produce the best experience for our target audience. I added effects to the audio such as reverb, echo, distortion, and cross-fades, to ensure a smooth and impressive final sound design.
Furthermore, I have filmed videos using a video camera during holidays for example, and taken this footage and edited it in an exciting and artistic way in the video editing programme of Sony Vegas, to produce a final film to show my friends and family.
Additionally, after my school ski trip, my friend sent me video footage from the trip, and I edited this into a short film which was then shown in the school assembly to showcase the trip and to advertise the school’s ski trip for the following year.
I have a YouTube channel which gained 1000 subscribers, as I filmed and edited videos usually revolving around sport, into montages by clipping up footage and adding exciting transitions and effects, before uploading them online, which allowed me to grow a small following.
In the long term I am aiming to work within the sports media industry to edit videos to be broadcasted online.
I know about this role as I spend a lot of my free time watching sport, and I always enjoy watching the montages of highlights that the editors produce for football matches on platforms such as Sky and BT sport, which inspired me to start editing videos of sport. In the future I would love to be an editor for a sports television company, this requires a large range of skills, for example a very competent understanding of the professional editing software, AVID. I would like to learn how to use this programme in the future, alongside completing my media college course, in order to give me the best chance possible to reach my long-term future goal, of being a video editor for a sports television company.
Magazine Mind-map:
Media Studio Safety Group Poster:
Magazine Brief:
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For my magazine project, I have chosen the theme of football trials for my target audience of 16-18-year-olds. I will be using the location of the college campus and specifically the artificial football pitch on site, in order to take appropriate and creative photos for my magazine.
I am using research such as questionnaires and student interviews to understand more about my target audience of 16-18 year olds, so that I can tailor my magazine to their best interests, to make it as exciting for them as possible.
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In order to learn and understand more about the tools and features available to use in Adobe Photoshop and InDesign, I will listen carefully to my college lecturer’s tutorials of the different tools that may be useful to us, as well as going online and watching videos and demos of how to use the programs in an effective way.
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I will be updating my reflective journal, in order for me to evaluate and record the steps I've taken in the sessions, and how effective these steps were in reaching my final goal. I will critique myself and write about how I could have improved my approach and take up that advice in the next session, in order to create a better final product.
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The skills I am learning relates to my future career plans because I am interested in journalism and using editing software, and this encompasses both through the text content within the magazine articles, and putting together the magazine layouts in an attractive and creative way.
Layout, Text and Imagery Plan:
My Target Audience:
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My magazine is aimed at 16-18 year old boys, who live in Sussex. Based on my research, I am aware that the audience use magazines occasionally and mostly as digital copies, for educational and entertainment purposes. They also use the media to connect with friends, as well as for entertainment and educational purposes.
Furthermore, they are comfortable using online programmes as they are young adults. My target audience are athletic, interested in sport, particularly football, and like entertainment in media.
The magazine will be interesting for them as they are aspiring footballers, and want to be successful in this particular field. Not all the information will be relevant that I receive about the target audience, such as if they are interested in other sports, as this is a specifically a football trial.
Research:
Magazine Example Analysis:
Chuck Anderson:
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He is a visual artist designer, photographer, illustrator and creative director; the majority of his work is rooted in photography.
From a young age he always loved drawing, and making things using his creativity as a child, and started using simple programmes such as Microsoft paint, before later moving on to Photoshop where he really began to develop his photo editing skills.
He didn’t go to college but continued to practice his skills in art and online work, producing advertising flyers for clients.
One of his first real breaks into the industry, was when he helped with a McDonald’s television advert. He later went on to working for ESPN and designed a magazine cover for a college football feature.
He now designs magazine covers for large companies, takes photos and compiles them into advanced, creative edits in Photoshop for clients. Additionally, he makes photographic edits for his own company, NoPattern, where he displays his work online. One of his most famous pieces is the Window 7 default background which he designed for Microsoft.
From his approach, I can learn to look at my photos in a more creative way so my work draws people’s attention, this can be through using lots of layers and colours to create an advanced edit.
My opinion of his work is that it is very impressive, and exciting to look at through using many effects, techniques and photography styles.
Richard Avedon:
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His route into photography involved him dropping out of college and becoming a war photographer. Later on, he started working in a department as an advertising photographer, however he was then hired by Alexey Brodovitch, who worked as the director for the magazine Harper's Bazaar, which took his career to the next level.
His photos are mostly portraits, with a unique minimalist style, he allowed people to move freely in front of the camera and demonstrate their natural flaws and insecurities, instead of always taking the perfect image. This went against the tradition of photography in media at the time, making Avedon stand out to the crowd, leading him to become very successful and taking photographs of increasingly famous people, such as Marilyn Monroe.
After viewing his approach towards photography, I have learnt to not always use the well-known photography devices, and to try and be unique with my style, to make my photos stand out. Furthermore, using minimalist techniques can prove that less is more in photography, and focusing on less at once within photos can make them more aesthetically pleasing to the human eye.
Table Of Methods Of Research:
Media Theories:
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Hypodermic Needle Theory:
This theory is based around the idea of the mass media influencing the audience. It suggests that the mass media injects thoughts and ideas into a passive audience to impact their views. An example of this could be the WW1 propaganda posters, which influenced the public into joining the army. Additionally, football boots can be modelled by professionals, making the consumer think they may play more like the player, and making them want to buy the football boots.
A drawback of this theory is that it can disappoint the public, with false hope through manipulating the truth in the product’s advertising. For example, a male perfume does not attract women as the advert suggests, this could leave the customer feeling unsatisfied.
Psycho-graphics:
This theory is based on the idea of defining the audience, and classifying them into groups based on their personality. This is an example of qualitative data. The psycho-graphics theory talks about the audience as consumers and buyers, as it is all about targeting audience types in order to maximise sales and profits for companies. The audience are categorised based on their opinions, beliefs, values and interests. Examples of these categories are: resigned, struggler, mainstreamer, aspirer, succeeder, explorer, and reformer.
This theory of audience types is useful to define audience, in a more accurate way than socio-economic grouping, as it relates to their personality. However, a drawback is that it can be seen as derogatory, offensive and stereotyping.
Target Audience Media Usage Questionnaire:
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Practical Skills:
Technical Notes:
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Use of Digital SLR Cameras:
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Focus: the point at which an object is positioned with respect to a lens for an image of it to be well defined. It is a device on a lens which can be adjusted to produce a clear image.
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Depth of field: the distance between the nearest and furthest objects producing a focused image.
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Exposure: the light levels reaching a digital sensor, altered by the shutter speed and lens aperture, within the camera.
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ISO: measures the sensitivity of the image sensor. A higher ISO allows for a faster shutter speed to freeze the moment.
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Shutter speed: the length of time the digital sensor inside the camera is exposed to light, it is also how long a camera's shutter is open when taking a photograph. The longer it is open, the more light is let into the camera lens, increasing the exposure of the photograph.
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Aperture: the opening in a lens through which light passes to enter the camera.
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Manual settings: allows the camera operator to manually control shutter speed, aperture, and ISO, in order to control the exposure of the image, as well as change the overall look of the image.
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Auto settings: This mode allows the camera's software to fully control all aspects of the photograph, such as shutter speed, aperture and setting the focus.
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Tripods: a three-legged stand which supports a camera in order to produce a steady image.
Use of Adobe InDesign:
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Tools shown: Page size, margins, grids, baselines, placing a picture, using the master page to control the format of all other pages.
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Page size: Can be used to change the size of the page, this could be used to change the style of magazine I am going to produce, e.g. magazine, leaflet, and newspaper.
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Margins: Used to show the safe zone for printing the magazine, and can be helpful for adding in page furniture and lining up areas of the page such as the title/header.
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Grids: Used to easily measure the spacing between items on the layout of your magazine spread, and to ensure that they are lined up correctly and at the correct angle.
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Baselines: The invisible line where letters ‘sit’. The distance between each baseline forms the basis of the baseline grid, and once again allows you to produce a consistent layout within your magazine pages to produce a professional final product.
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Placing a picture: You can add a boxed area where a picture will be placed into and then resize the picture within it, whilst maintaining its original aspect ratio, in order to effectively incorporate images within your magazine spread.
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Master Page: Can be used to alter the properties/format of all the other pages to save time and produce a consistent layout throughout all the pages of the magazine. For example, it can allow you to place the same grid on each page to ensure your dimensions are consistent, thus limiting user error. Also, you can add a header/footer and page numbers to each page without having to complete this task individually on each one.
Photography conventions:
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My Magazine Photoshoot:
Reflection and Problem Solving:
Reflective Log:
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13/09/19
Today, I very effectively explored Photoshop, by beginning to learn new techniques such as the magnetic lasso tool, polygonal lasso tool, spot healing brush tool, curving and filtering. This enabled me to successfully cut sections out of photos and to change the brightness, contrast, saturation, etc. allowing me to edit my photos to a high standard for my final magazine.
I have used online research to help me understand how to use the keyboard shortcuts to control the magnetic lasso tool, such as backspace to remove the last point, and escape to cancel the usage of the tool allowing me to continue to operate the program as normal.
BEFORE AFTER
To improve, I would like to learn how to use colourisation more effectively in order to make exciting visuals for my magazine. Furthermore, I will explore online tutorials of the use of feathering within Photoshop, so that when I cut and paste sections of images, they look as if they could have been in the original background, due to the edges being softened and making the human eye be less drawn to these parts of the image.
During my spare time, I will be able to practice and learn Photoshop independently, through the use of online YouTube tutorials, as well as the tutorials within the programme itself, in order for me to understand the techniques and features more clearly so that I can demonstrate them myself in my final product of my magazine.
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20/09/19
Today I created a brief for my magazine and overall intentions during this project. This was a success as it brought together all of my initial ideas, making me feel ready to create my final product. I asked for critical feedback from a peer, who suggested I needed to explain further in my brief why this magazine would be appropriate for 16-18-year-old boys (my target audience), so I improved my brief by explaining this in more detail.
I continued exploring new skills in Photoshop, and finding the best tools and strategies to complete tasks. I feel I really improved today and am beginning to understand the program much more clearly. This was evidently portrayed through the work I did to create a silhouette of one of my classmates, to use for the front cover of my magazine. I cut out the image using the magazine lasso tool once again, before rasterizing the layer so that I could use the paint bucket tool to fill the image black, in order to create a silhouette effect of the player. After this, I used the stroke effect on the outside of the layer, to create a white outline around him, giving the image a less harsh edge, and fitting in with the style of magazine I wanted to create. To improve this, I could have used the feathering tool around the edge of the image to soften the edges further, and this is something I will definitely be looking to use more competently in the future.
Additionally, I edited one of my favourite photos I shot, using the photography convention of rule-of-thirds, to not only filter the image to produce a more exciting gradient in the sky and more eye-catching vibrancy of the green pitch, but also to remove the hockey goal on the right-hand-side of the original image. I used the spot-healing brush, as this tool is content aware and so can make very subtle edits. This was really successful, as the area where the hockey goal was previously appeared to fit the rest of the image, and you could not notice any changes very easily. Unfortunately, this was cropped out of my magazine front cover anyway, however it was still very beneficial to learn how to use a new tool, and will be very useful for my future in Photoshop.
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BEFORE AFTER
23/09/19
Moving on in my project, today I made the cover for my magazine. This required a variety of tools in Photoshop, which I believe I used largely to great effect, and I am happy with my final front cover. I researched magazine covers, relating to my theme of football, in order to receive some inspiration. I noticed lots of bold fonts, with brightly coloured and vibrant front covers, making them stand out on the shelves. I filtered the main background photo for the magazine, to increase its vibrancy and saturation, and used a variety of effects on my font, such as bevel, stroke, inner glow, satin, pattern overlay and drop shadow, in order to create an attractive and eye-catching font for my headline. Reflecting on this, I am happy with the font as I believe it suits the magazine’s style, and I learnt how to use the basic effects in the font editing section, which will be a very useful tool for the future when using Photoshop, as well as for the rest of my magazine pages during this project.
27/09/19
I finished the pages of my magazine today, and was really pleased with their overall appearance and content. The layout of my double-page spread was really successful on the whole, however there were a couple of mistakes I made along the way, which I would be careful of next time I use photoshop. The main mistake I made was after I finished the column of text on the left, I accidentally rasterized it instead of the shape behind it, which is a change you cannot revert. This meant that there were a couple of punctuation errors in the text I could not change as a rasterized layer of text and no longer be edited to change the words within it. However, more importantly, I used the font that I was using for my subtitles in the rest of my magazine for the whole article, rather than the lighter, less bold font, which I could no longer change due to the rasterization, so it did not correspond totally to the format of the other pages. Reflecting on this, I will be more careful in the future and double-check which layer is selected before rasterizing, although overall, I was very happy with my double page and believe it looks quite professional, whilst remaining in the fun and bold style of my magazine.
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Final Presentation:
Final Evaluation:
I aimed to achieve making a magazine based on my chosen theme of “Football Trials,” in a creative way that attracts my target audience of 16-18-year-old boys.
At the start of this project, I looked at my current media experience, this was useful as it allowed me to see what I already knew and what I could add to my skillset throughout my project, to improve my media experience and ability.
To start this project and think of some initial ideas, I produced a mind map. This was very effective, as my ideas grew and became more detailed as I linked them together. To make this more visually interesting and useful for later on in the project I could have included some sketches for my initial ideas.
Furthermore, I researched into football magazines and viewed their styles and layouts, which inspired me before I planned my own. I also analysed a magazine effectively, this helped me understand the link between photography and text, and how they can symbolise emotions within the magazine. To improve I could have analysed multiple magazines and compared them in order to find my favourite style that I could base my plan and final product on.
Before carrying out my main research, I evaluated multiple types of primary and secondary research, and listed their use, as well as their advantages and disadvantages. This was really useful, and saved me time, as I could carry out the type of research that had the most advantages, in order to find out the most about my target audience, within the given time. If I had more time I would have liked to experiment more with the idea of a focus group. Although, I essentially did this as the focus group was the other students on my course, but I could have developed this further by asking other students who did not take media, in order to avoid any biased results during my research.
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Additionally, I produced a set of technical notes, this was a really useful part of my project, as it gave me an insight into the different uses of a DSLR camera, before I went out for the photoshoot for my magazine. This allowed me to take more advanced photos by using manual focus, and adjusting the exposure, however I would have liked to play around with more techniques if I could do my photoshoots again, such as altering the depth of field and aperture to create more visually interesting photographs to use in my magazine. Also, I researched photography conventions (secondary research), as this gave me an idea of the type of photographs I could take before going out to shoot them. I effectively used framing, leading line, symmetry balance and rule of thirds, to make my photos more eye-catching.
When researching my target audience, I successfully made a questionnaire for fellow students as they are in my target audience age range for a method of primary research. The questionnaire was on media usage, this effectively helped me understand the audience better as I could see what kind of media they view the most, which was social media, meaning I could tailor my magazine to suit that style. Furthermore, I could see that football was one of the most popular sports, particularly for boys, which was important as I could see males between the ages of 16-18 would be interested in taking part in a football trial (the theme for my magazine).
To improve this questionnaire, if I had more time, I could have asked more students to fill it out the form, this would give me a broader range of quantitative as well as qualitative data, which would have allowed me to calculate more accurate averages, meaning I could have understood the audience even more clearly, to help me with my final magazine. Also, I could have included more questions, specifically about the type of magazines that they would enjoy reading most, such as formal, educational, picture-based, to see what kind of picture-to-text ratio would be most appropriate and interesting for 16-18 year olds.
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Continuing on, I wrote a description of my target audience, tailored to my theme, as a way to round off my specific research on them. This was very useful as it gave me a final description to base my magazine on, allowing me to understand my intentions, and style of magazine that I wanted to produce. Arguably, I could have gone into more detail but I believe it was helpful for me to keep it short and to the point, in order for me to see and understand clearly, the audience that I was focusing on.
Moreover, I carried out some secondary research by finding out about two famous professional photographers/editors, Richard Avedon and Chuck Anderson. This was really useful as I learnt new techniques and tips to use on photo shoots, such as a more minimalist approach as seen in some of Richard Avedon’s work, as well as using multiple layers to create an exciting image depicted by Chuck Anderson. I effectively applied the basic sense of these techniques in my work, however I would have liked to experiment even further with layering, to produce a more exciting and eye-catching front cover, for example.
An example of layering in my work inspired by Chuck Anderson. This was really effective as it mimicked the motion of the player kicking the ball through the varying opacities and layering, which provided a very visually interesting and clean effect to the image.
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I also used a more minimalist approach, which was somewhat based off of Richard Avedon’s idea of less is more. I was really pleased with this image and I ended up using it for the background of my front cover. This goes to show that my research was effective and allowed me to use more techniques to help me improve my final product.
Furthermore, I made a project brief which allowed me to clearly state my ideas and intentions for the project as a whole, before planning and designing my final magazine. This was useful to all bring my ideas together to create a clear plan of how I would produce my magazine and target my audience.
I produced these structural designs for the individual pages I wanted to include in my magazine, to plan the layouts, images and text that I wanted to include on each page. This was effective as it was very easy to put together, and clearly conveyed a basic idea of the format and content within each page. However, next time I plan for a project I may experiment by drawing out the plan by hand, to give me more freedom and allow me to express my ideas more creatively through drawings, to give me a clearer image of the final pages that I want to produce, saving me time when making my final product.
Throughout this project, I have greatly improved my skills set in Photoshop, to allow me to understand more tools, this allowed me to effectively alter the design process, based on my audience research, as I could use my editing skills in photoshop so that the magazine could fit the style that the target audience was most interested by, based on peer critiques and my questionnaire. I believe I could have improved my research on my target audience, by adding another section of primary research of student interviews, as this could have been a good way to get their real opinions of my theme, and my magazine. However, I was still able to get their opinions of my magazine during the design process, through several peer critique sessions, which allowed me to steer the pages into an eye-catching design for my specific audience.
For example, I tried to create a very bold advertising image for my magazine:
However, although I liked the way I played with the colourisation, saturation and hues of the image, my peers critiqued my work by saying how it did not fit in with the overall style of my magazine and felt like it was targeted at a younger age group than 16-18-year olds. To improve this situation, I removed the text, to fit the style of the rest of my magazine pages, and I used the photo in a much more subtle way with simpler filters, as I did want to include it, as I liked the way I successfully brought the photography convention of framing into my photograph.
Throughout this first project, I believe I managed the task well, as I used the information, I collected through research to inspire my photography shoots, as well as to inspire the way I edited my photographs. Also, my planning went a long way in making sure I could achieve a final product I was happy with, through several drafts before coming up with my favourite layouts for the final designs.
Furthermore, my research into photography allowed me to look at photo shoots in a new creative way and style, giving me some brilliant results with some of the photos I produced for my magazine, through the use of photography conventions and manipulation of the settings in a DSLR camera. In addition to this, I believe I have developed a lot of technical skills, particularly in Photoshop over the last three weeks, and would feel very confident using this program for a future a project now, when before I felt very inexperienced. I also learnt the basics of Adobe InDesign, which I used to bring all my pages together at the end, ready for printing.
On reflection, another way I could have approached this task would have been to edit the photos and logos for my magazine in Photoshop, and then bring these together in my planned layouts, in InDesign. This would have been easier to manage as it is a lot simpler to manipulate text physically than in Photoshop, which would have been probably less-time consuming, particularly when writing my double page spread, to alter the shapes of text boxes to curve around the cut-out of the footballer, in a much more simple way. It also would have avoided the rasterization error I explained in my reflective log, meaning there would have been no errors in the font style on that page.
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However, overall, I was still very pleased with how my final double page spread turned out as well as the rest of my magazine and I loved the layouts I used. They felt consistent throughout, giving it a feel of professionalism, whilst constantly targeting the audience, exciting them and drawing them to my theme.
References:
Chuck Anderson Image, 2012:
https://reasons.to/2012/brighton/speakers/chuck-anderson
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Richard Avedon Image - Article: 25 April 2017, Claude Gauthier