Preliminary Magazine Task - Production

For the first part in the production stage of the magazine cover and contents page was taking the pictures that would be included in our task. I had to pair up with another student and we set around the school taking pictures of what we drew inspiration from and would work on our magazines. We had to take quite fair amount of photographs as it would have wasted our time going around the school taking pictures when we didn’t like the few that had been taken, by taking a lot we had plenty to choose from. The picture that would go onto the front of my magazine is a photo of me with a plain white background so it was easy to cut out in Photoshop.

The next part of the production process was the editing of the pictures by using Photoshop. When I uploaded my pictures on Photoshop I began to cut around the picture of me by using the Magnetic Lasso. After the picture of me was fully cut out I inverted the cut and deleted the background leaving just the image of me. With just the image I began to edit the picture itself, I decided to play around with the contrast and brightness and ended up with a faded picture that I thought looked very professional. I then started to create layer and built on these to add detail and information to my cover.

The next task I did was to fill in my background, of which I chose a light dark green, I chose this colour because it stood out and worded really well with my edited photo. I now had to add the details on the front cover e.g. the stories, these were a simple black. I then added a darker green box around the writing and sent it behind the writing. The reason why I did this is, is because it made each piece of text stand out individually and drew in your attention. We were only allowed to use a three colour scheme; the colours I chose were a light dark green, a darker green and black. This colour scheme went very as no colours clashed and they also emphasised the picture on the cover. Another way to grasp attention is the font I had to pick, in the end I picked a very simple font; I also decided not to have any capital letters on the front cover as it made it more informal. Finally I had to add the date, price, barcode and website details to make it look as professional as possible.

 When using Photoshop something I struggled with was the cutting out of the photo, it took me a while to get used to the cutting tool as I have had no experience with the programme before. Overall the main skill I learnt was using Photoshop in general, after watching other classmates and getting help when needed I quickly picked up the essentials on how to use the programme. I am certain that these new skills will be put to use again later on in the course and am happy that I have picked them up as quickly as I could.  

Preliminary Magazine Task - Pre Production

For our task we had to design and create a front cover and a contents page of a magazine using Photoshop and our creative skill. I had to create a magazine cover and contents that was both eye catching and provided the reader with information about our school. I had to include a mid-shot of ourselves or a model that I had taken; any other picture included in the magazine front cover or contents had to be taken by us personally as well.

First of all I had to design our magazine cover which consisted of drawing up a rough sketch including a masthead, a photo and any other details on the front cover. I annotated my sketch, this included the expression the person was using on the front, the background, any font and colours used. When I sketched the front cover I had to take into account whom would be my target audience and what colours and fonts would attract their attention.

 After a long deliberation on what I should call my magazine I finally thought of Sticky. The main reason I decided upon this name is that it has many meanings including hot, informal and awkwardly difficult. All of these meanings represent the stories inside the magazine as they address the issues no one else asks. Also the concept of when you pick up the magazine you won’t be able to put it down, as if it was covered in glue.

The skills that I had learnt in the pre-production part of this process is that to make a successful magazine front cover and contents page is that you need to pay deep attention to the audience its produced for. For example if you include too much information on the front of the magazine then no student is going to be bothered to pick it up and read through it. Instead you need to include short stories that are going to interest the students, a good colour scheme and fonts. The most important has to be an eye catching picture that the reader can relate to and genuinely be interested in.  

Preliminary Task - Pre Production

For our task we had to work in groups of four. The task consisted of a short film being made, we had to include a character walking down a corridor, opening and walking through a door, and then swapping a few lines of dialogue with another character.

First of all our group had to create a story board which we planned and drew out. Camera angles were always a worry dyring the creation of the story board as we had to take into consideration what angles we would use and what angles were clear. Along side camera angles we had to include continuity, and character postions.

I had learned that next time when we create a story board we must make it a lot more detailed and clearer. We weren't as clear as we needed to be, we missed out on too many details, our drawings were too simple and we didn't explain our process enough which implicated the group who recieved our story board. We must learn from these mistakes so we can produce better pieces of work in the future.

Above are my groups story boards. As I have explained they aren't clear enough and are not at all easily legible, we are not surprised that the other groups short film was quite a way off what we had intended. When it comes for us to draw story boards for our final piece, I will have to use all my newly learnt skills from the Pre Production for example clearer and more detailed story boards.