Evaluation question 7
Looking back at your preliminary task (the school magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product? The Preliminary task where we had to create to create a school magazine, i think really opened my eyes to how difficult producing it would be, especially without me having any knowledge on the programmes that i can now use confidently and with ease. I think i can now confidently use Adobe Photoshop, to manipulate any Photos. Whether i want to make the model a bit darker, to make it look like the model has a tan. I can now also remove spots and scars on my models face with the use of different tools, for example the spot healing tool and the blur tool.
When it came to the time where I had to take my pictures for my main task music
magazine, I had a couple of ideas that I wanted to take. However I came across problems that I had to get past to take the correct picture! For example when setting up i had to move a number of objects so I had the clean crisp white wall behind my model. I had to move an armchair, wardrobe and cushions to get the correct backdrop. When setting up the photo-shoot there was hardly any natural or electric light to bring the colour out of my model's face and to give the background a beautiful glisten. I took a normal house lamp which had curly prongs coming off the top of it and positioned it behind and slightly to the right of my model, I did this originally to of course add extra light to the picture, however beautifully and by complete accident, a funky marvellous pattern formed behind the model, this added another element to my picture.
In my three pieces of coursework contain four images. All of these photos were manipulated and corrected in Adobe Photoshop CS4, in this programme I used effects to make my model look darker, prettier and a lot more beautiful. However I also used some marvellous effects to change the actual appearance of the overall photo, for example making it darker, lighter, adding a drop shadow and adding an inner glow to the picture.
I used the burn tool on a couple of occasions, one for lightly burning the side of models skin to make her look darker and look like she had a tan maybe form a music festival? I also used the burn tool to darken her eye shadow to really bring out the colour of her eyes. I used the spot removal tool to obviously remove any spots or marks on her skin, I also used the blur tool to blur over her skin to have a consistent colour and also to blur out any spots or scars on my models face. I used the brightness/contrast tool to adjust how bright I wanted the overall picture, using this tool I made the background lighter and also her face lighter. The picture on the contents has also been adjusted using spot removal tools and blurring her make up using the blur tool. But this time I have also used effects on the actual photo, on the contents and the double page spread photo I have used an inner glow and a drop shadow. The inner glow adds a faint yellow glow to the outside of the photo shining onto my model, the drop shadow adds a dark shadow onto the picture, you can adjust how dark and how far away you want the shadow to be.
I didn't actually realise how important trialling your work is. For my school magazine Preliminary Task I hardly did trial my work, I got opinions from friends working around me on how to improve the colour or take part of the image out or to add a drop shadow. But apart from that I didn't trial my work. I really should of asked my class mates to comment on my Preliminary Task, that way it would of looked a lot better. They could tell me to enlarge the font or take new pictures.
I learnt my mistake of not trialling my work in my school magazine task. For my main task I did decide to trial my work, so I encouraged my friends and class mates to comment on my front page, and for them to tell me where I went wrong, I let them be a as brutal as possible! I had eight comments to view and look to see if these comments would improve my work. Most of the comments were very positive for example "Yes Jacky boy, the font page is looking quality. The font colour and the lips work well. I can't really think of any bad things to say about it. Also! The lightening looks wicked as it meets her face. WELL DONE!" these comments really made me feel very proud about my work. I was also given comments on how to improve my front cover "My only other nitpick is that your cover may look better with another small image on it, perhaps on the left side above the CHA." I took this comment on board and actually trialled my work with another image on it, like the comment suggested to do. After playing around with effects and lighting, I decided not to include it, the main reason was it took a lot of the attention away from my model.
In terms of managing locations for my Preliminary school magazine task. Originally I wanted a very professional clean and crisp white background however when I put that onto my magazine, it looked very poor, there was too much space to fill and the white of the background just completely dominated the whole front page! Therefore I needed a new picture with a different background. But my original picture was very good and I had corrected in Photoshop to my liking, so instead of taking a brand new photo I just took a selection of sporting backgrounds to place my original model on top of the backgrounds. Backgrounds included: goal posts, long green fields, penalty spots, rugby posts and cricket stumps. With my minimal knowledge of Photoshop at the time I did not understand how to cut my model out with a transparent background, somy problem was I had two very nice images but they were both separate. Therefore my model has the very ugly and dominating white square around it, which completely takes control of the page!
Managing locations for my main task, I wanted a classy white background and my white wall was perfect for this in my house. I knew I wanted a close up of my model, I didn't have to worry about filling up space like in my preliminary school magazine task. The only props I used were make up and an indie fur coat, I wanted her to have dominating red bulging lips. I think the fur coat links well with the indie genre that's why I used it. During my research of magazine front covers, I noticed that hardly any of the models use props not even guitars! That was one of the main reasons I didn't use props in my picture, I also didn't want to take any attention away from the model herself and her make up.
Managing props and costumes for my Preliminary school magazine task I had an idea that I wanted my model to have as soon as the brief was set to us. I wanted my magazine to be sport based, so I needed my model doing some sporting poses. The rugby/football shirt was in my possession and it was perfect for a school magazine, with the blue and yellow being the school colours. I didn't want an action pose, simply because when I experimented with it the photos were coming out very blurry. Therefore I had the idea to tie the boots around my models neck to give the impression that he had just played a game of football or rugby, and was coming off the pitch for an interview!
Managing props and costumes for my Main task image was fairly straight forward, I knew I wanted a close up of my model so costumes were a minimal, one item I did want my model to be wearing was a fur coat, I think a fur coat is very related to an indie girl and was perfect in my picture. I didn't want any props simply because during my research I noticed hardly any front cover image contained props, I also didn't want any attention being drawn away from the character herself. One thing that was important for me was clean crisp and beautiful make up. I used conditioner, red lipstick and eye shadow on my model, this make up was subtle yet classy in the final outcome.
As you can see by my drafts on paper designed a few months a go, I have stuck with my original ideas because at the time I thought they were very good. I have made a few adjustments to my pieces of work. Most notably in my opinion the double page spread image, I decided to change the image because I wanted her arms in the picture so I could show off t
he skill text wrapping.
My time management on both tasks in my opinion were fairly good. I met every deadline given to us, for example the front page, contents page, double page spread article and the actual double page spread. However I really should of begun taking photos before Christmas, in my opinion I did leave it to late to start taking pictures. I think if I had taken pictures before Christmas and after Christmas it would of given me a huge range to pick from. Therefore I was fairly limited with my choice of photos, but that was down to my poor time management, it was a one off which I really regretted.
I decided to follow these deadlines, which really kept me up to date with my work:
Monday 8 February - double page spread article finished
Thursday 11 February - contents page complete
Wednesday 17 February - Double page spread completed
In terms of learning new skills in photography I think you can see the clear details between my two pictures below. I can now frame a picture well without cutting edges off and I can really see the importance of framing a picture well, for example if you cut an arm off or a part of the picture it will look poor and very average. I can now confidently set up a photo-shoot with correct lighting to bring out colour of the skin and the eyes. I have learnt all about new angles and shots when it comes to taking photos for a magazine. For example a medium close up is good for a front cover as it shows off most of the model, with key facial figures actually being shown. I have also learnt positioning your model in the centre of your page when constructing a front page is vital, because you can surround them with your selected tag-lines.
Layout is very important when making any type of magazine. You need it stylish yet contemporary, after researching into similar music magazines that targeted my genre, for example Q and NME I noticed they very rarely use any props, simply because they don't want to draw any attention away from the actual model. I wanted to keep my house style running smoothly through all of my three pieces of work, I think I have succeed in keeping the red and white fluent through out. Experimenting with different fonts from dafont.com enabled me to change the way I was laying out my front page and contents, I stuck with my design that I had crafted from the drawings through out the production of my magazine. However when constructing my Preliminary Task school magazine my layout was poor and very average. This was possibly because I didn't make a plan of what I was going to do. In the end I had a very ugly and very dominating bright yellow background which dominated the whole of my contents page, I also centralised the text on the contents, it made it look very boring! I have learnt that layout is very important, if your audience buys your magazine you want to keep them entertained to buy the next issue, if you have a boring layout you will fail, you have to keep the layout scruffy yet sophisticated to keep attracting your audience. You can see the clear difference in layout between my two magazines below, for example my poor Preliminary Task layout is displayed well here! You can hardly see the text that says "the latest top tunes, selected by kiss" that is a severe downfall on my part, i sould of selected different colours or swapped the colour from the one above. On the other hand my layout on my Main task music magazine is vibrant its interesting and most importantly its engaging! The two colours work well with my models vibrant red lips. The part where it states "reviewed inside:" I have text wrapped the famous artists/bands around her neck. The colours all work well on the page keeping the consistant house style feel to it. The quote from Charlotte "Kanye West is a loser" I have aligned to the right. To make sure the audiences attention isn't drawn away from her bold demanding name!
I think you can see the clear difference of my fonts used in the Preliminary Task and the Main Task. The fonts in the school magazine task had to be common schooling font, nothing too extravagant or over the top! Therefore it was hard for me to get passionate about the font on my school magazine task. It was a different story all together on my main task music magazine. I used Arial for my school magazine text and 84 Rock for my magazine title (WGSB The News) I used dafont.com for a lot of inspiration and using it to get some amazing and very funky fonts to impress my target audience. In the end I used 28 Days Later for all of my headings and cover lines. So for example FTT, News and Features. As you can see below my fonts are extremely different. My Preliminary Task font to the left is very straight and all in line with each other. I haven't used any effects to improve the appearance of the font like a drop shadow or stroke. On the other hand my font from my Main Task is completely different! It is scruffy, and imperfect, there are jagged edges to the font and some words are slanted in appearance, like the I in Bailey.
Getting your modes of address correct are very important in a magazine, you want to keep the audience interested and engaged in what you are talking about. I decided to have a formal and very mature mode of address for my Preliminary Task school magazine, I think this fitted in well with what you expect from a traditional school magazine. For the school magazine I didn't use any teenage vocabulary for example "aint", I wanted to keep the smooth school approach running through out. On the other hand my Main Task music magazine was the complete opposite. During my research into similar products i noticed that most magazines have almost a chatty effect to the double page spreads, i wanted an informal and fairly scruffy style to my work, yet sophisticated. I think this type of mode of address works well with my indie genre. For example in the photos below you can see the clear diffeerence in the modes of address that i have used. In my Preliminary school magazine task, I have used vocabulary and phrases like "revision tips" and "all ages". These words and phrases are common schooling terms that reflect the school magazine well.
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