Evaluation

What have you learnt from completing this task?

Firstly, as an introduction to media studies I learnt what mise-en-scene is and the conventions of a magazine cover. Mise-en-scene is what makes up the cover, such as: location, props, figure behaviour, costume, hair and make-up, lighting and camera framings. This was important to plan out so I could relate these aspects of mise-en-scene to the audience of my college magazine. My target audience is for female students, age 16 to about 25. I learnt that the conventions of a magazine make it look how it looks; it could give a completely different perspective if there wasn’t a specific storyline or a plug for example.
I learnt that an ideology is a set of opinions or beliefs of a group or an individual. Very often ideology refers to a set of political beliefs or a set of ideas that characterize a particular culture. Knowing this helped me analyse adverts and magazines by identifying the language, ideology, institution, audience and representation.

Then I started to look at different camera framings, although magazine covers generally use the same one. This helped me understand which shot I was going to use for my front cover. There are different shot types for different responses, including: long shot, medium shot and close up, then there are different angles such as high angle, low angle and dutch tilt. There are shots of multiple people, for example, a shot of two people is called a two shot and a shot of five people is called a five shot. I used a medium close up for my cover, focussing on the model and the prop which is her notebook.
A week ago I didn’t even have a blog, or know how to use one. So I’m quite proud that I have accomplished what I have in seven days. I chose a floral theme of my favourite colour to give it my own personality; this made the task more enjoyable. I learnt how to write posts to put of the blog including images and videos. I also learnt something very simple, but I didn’t know how to save a document in Publisher or PowerPoint as a JPEG. This was the only way I could upload them onto my blog.
Finally the hardest challenge was learning how to use Photoshop. It was hard to get used to but once I knew my way around my confidence increased – which you can tell from my first Photoshop lesson in comparison to constructing my magazine cover! I learnt how to edit the scales, the fonts and colours, how to use the ‘quick selection’ and ‘fx’ tools, how to insert multiple documents, using layers and that I must always duplicate my most important layers – in case anything were to go wrong! Thankfully nothing drastic went wrong, I just kept changing my mind as I went along to decide what looked best!

How have you used technology?

I have made use of Microsoft PowerPoint, Publisher, Word, Photoshop and a camera during the preliminary task. I used each of these for different tasks. I used PowerPoint for a lot of the planning and research, this is because there was multiple points to make for one task so I made several slides to keep my work organised. It was also easy to make it look presentable for my blog, using images, gradient backgrounds and templates. I used Publisher to create a mood board, selecting many images to make a ‘college collage’. I saved both of these as a JPEG file so I could post them on my blog.
Microsoft Word I have used for a word count of a lot of the writing I have posted, such as this. Writing posts straight from the blog don’t show a word count or acknowledge your mistakes, therefore this is a more presentable and precise way of typing up text. I then have to copy and paste this text into the blog post ready to upload.

I used a camera – both digital and on my iPhone – to take images for my magazine cover. This is because the images had to be original, taken by ourselves. I took photographic and video recordings for my blog. The videos were longer and more precise, unfortunately by putting them on the blog the website has shortened them and they aren’t the shots I was going for. I posted them anyway so that I can show that I have done this. The images for the magazine cover included backgrounds – pictures taken around the college – separate to my model. I did this so that I could have one good image of the model that I liked and I could still place her with any background. When constructing my magazine, I also discovered that because they were two separate layers so I could put my masthead behind the models head. This looked a lot more professional and I have seen it previously in many famous magazines. I also had taken some casual photos of my friends having a date during our dinner hour; I would have used these as secondary images for my cover. I didn’t carry this out as there was litter in the image which would make the college look untidy, also my cover would have looked too overcrowded. If we were to have designed a contents page I could have used the images on that instead.

I used Photoshop to create my magazine cover. This was the hardest task although I am proud of it for my first ever attempt in very limiting time. I realised how much editing or constructing I could actually do on Photoshop and I’m looking forward to using it again. I have talked previously more about what I have done on Photoshop in introduction post, the previous question and on my ‘Constructing the Magazine Cover’ post on my blog.

What conventions have you used and why?

I have used many conventions as part of my cover page, many because they are crucial for a magazine cover and some because I felt I had more space to use up or wanted to make it look more realistic. The masthead is crucial as it tells the reader what it is called, what kind of genre it is and so that the public can recognise the magazine. For example, if somebody wants to buy a gardening magazine, they won’t find a masthead anything like on the magazine ‘Kerrang’. For my magazine I used a basic font as there isn’t really any specific font relatable to school or college, although I did find some on www.dafont.com. Unfortunately they were too small an image to use on my magazine. The examples are in a previous blog post.

I made a skyline to express more features stories on the magazine without taking up too much room. It’s a simple way to get the insights of the magazine across and looks quite effective. I did not include a footer on my cover as I thought that a skyline and footer could look too much for my first project on Photoshop.

The date and price are also crucial for a magazine, they tell the audience what issue number the magazine is and how much it is worth. People can keep up to date with the magazine if they know what date it is published. The price helps people decide whether to buy it or not depending whether it’s a good deal. It also helps them acknowledge the price without having to ask someone to scan the barcode. Shops could also change the price of the magazine if there wasn’t a set price from the magazine company. This brings to me conclude why I have used a barcode. The barcode is most importantly so the item can be bought, the shops can also track how many is left to be sold by scanning them.

The feature stories tell the public what the magazine includes, they also have to match the genre. The stories have to be appropriate, that’s why mine are all college related because it’s a college magazine. Its purpose is to discuss a particular topic of interest. It differs from a newspaper article because it demonstrated the opinion of the writer. They use many techniques such as using quotes, facts, anecdotes and transitory paragraphs. For my cover I used a pull quote for the main feature story, this matches the girl on the main image. A pull quote usually indicates that an interview is inside. I also used previous events that students are interested in and exam tips because a lot of students can relate to that, widening the audience.

I created a plug about NUS Discount Cards because it’s something pretty much every student at Wyke College wants or has. It also attracts young readers as everyone loves a good deal or a prize! Putting this feature in an ellipse/circle makes it stand out from the image and easier to read as it’s more attractive.

What would you change if you were to do this task again?

If I was to do the preliminary task again I would change the colour of the masthead to match the feature stories. It comes close but there is a slight change in the colour of blues. When Constructing the magazine on Photoshop I thought that they were the same colour as it shows in my print screens, although when I posted the final cover onto my blog I noticed that the colours are slightly different. Thankfully this isn't a drastic change.

I would also change the scale of the feature stories. The text is quite large and even though they stand out I feel that they take up a lot of the magazine. If I had made them smaller I may have even been able to add another feature story.

The bottom of the page, below the pull quote, looks quite bare compared to the rest of the cover. This could be because of the way I used the text ‘BEST A LEVEL RESULTS YET’. Although, I didn’t want to use a footer as it would have looked too much.

I also think that the ‘10’ doesn’t look as 3D at the other shapes/text does.  I may have forgotten to use the depth tool as it was one of the first conventions I made.

Overall I am quite happy with the way it looks as it’s higher than my expectations! Although I will have to triple check what I have constructed in the future.

Finished Magazine Cover

Constructing the Magazine Cover

Images

Backgrounds

Model

Secondary Images (Feature stories)

Camera Framings