Monday, 15 April 2013
Wednesday, 3 April 2013
Q7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back at my preliminary task I feel that I have learnt a lot, from the progression from it, to my full product. My preliminary task was very simple, a lot of my research and planning was not of as much of a high standard as in my main task, so therefore my final product for my preliminary was not of a high standard. My knowledge of software was also lacking in the preliminary task, so in ways the preliminary was practice of all the different software so that when I came on to my main task my knowledge was much greater.
In the preliminary task, my research of other magazines was almost insignificant compared to my main task. I feel as if this was a huge setback on the final product of my preliminary as my knowledge of the basic conventions of a magazine were lacking. As I did some research, I knew a few things about conventions of magazines, for example, having a house colour and a master head at the top of the page. This minute and undetailed understanding did not enable me to create a professional looking magazine. So for my main task I took more care and time into the research of other magazines so that I could get a clearer and more precise attainment into the conventions of magazines. I also thought it would be more appropriate to analyze magazines that were similar to the one I was going to create, so I researched, in depth, two rock music magazines. This gave me more of a focus on my product and helped to me to see the more specific conventions of a rock magazine.
The research on my target audience for my preliminary task was also very vague, so I didn't have a clear understanding about what readers of my magazine would want and this led to my magazine not being able to attract my target audience. For my main task I undertook a lot more research about my target audience with a reader profile, this helped me gain a distinct knowledge about what I needed my magazine to look like and what content I needed to put in it. My final magazine then ended up looking more typical for the genre I wanted it to be. From this I learnt that doing research on my target audience was a fundamental part of creating a magazine.
All in all, I've learnt that research plays a considerable part in the construction of my magazine. It has made me realize that making a magazine is more complex than I originally thought and each little aspect is important as it all comes together in an overall picture. During my preliminary I didn't look into detail whilst researching into other magazines and my final product didn't come together properly so it looked messy and unfinished. Whereas on my main task I did lots of research and was able to see each little aspect, so my final product came out looking professional and complete.
I also feel that I have learnt a lot in the software I have used in the process from my preliminary task to my main task. During the preliminary task my knowledge of certain softwares and the appropriate times to use them was vague. For example I decided to use Microsoft Word for the front cover of my preliminary task. Word is a very basic piece of software and the amount of tools that you can use on it are limited. I then used Adobe Photoshop for the contents page of my preliminary to test it, and it looked much better than the one on word, as Photoshop has considerably more tools available. After attaining this knowledge, I decided for my main task to create it all on Photoshop and my final product came out looking a lot more professional as the tools on it allowed me to edit photos and I had a choice of more tools to change the way my page looked.
So therefore, my knowledge of software has helped me develop from my preliminary to my main task, as it has helped me create something of a higher quality.
My preliminary task also helped me evaluate where I went wrong and what I could approve on. I feel as of it has helped me develop in my knowledge of how to successfully create a magazine, as I feel it was a chance to experiment and practice different things.
Conclusively, I think I have definitely progressed in my knowledge of how to create a magazine, and this is shown by the quality of my main task compared to my preliminary task. Even though I feel there was more that I could have done to make my final product better I am pleased with the progression I have made.
Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
During the creation of my magazine, I used many different technologies to research, create and enhance my product. Some of these technologies I didn't know or knew very little about so whilst creating my product I learnt a variety of different skills on various different pieces of hardware and software.
Hardware used:
Mac
PC
Camera
Tablet
Smart phone
Printer
Scanner
Software used:
Blogger
E-mail
Internet Explorer
Microsoft Word
Adobe Photoshop
Instagram
Pixlr-o-matic
Mac
I used a Mac computer more than I used any other computer as they had these at school so they were easily accessible to me. Before I started this project I had never used Mac before so when going them I had to learn were all the basic things were, but they are fairly easy to use so it didn't take a long time to find my way around it. In the end I found that a Mac computer is much easy to use than a PC, for example on a Mac when I wanted to screenshot anything I had the choice to either save it onto my desktop whilst screenshotting, whilst on a normal PC when you screenshot something you have paste it onto a document. This made the Mac much easier to use as I had to do a lot of screenshotting for my construction examples during the process of making my magazine, they were all easily accessible on my desktop. The internet was also much easier to use of a Mac, I was able to quickly save pictures by simply dragging them onto my desktop and files were easily accessible so uploading them up onto my blog saved time.
PC
I used a PC during this project as it was the only computer available at home. As I have been using a PC for a long time, I already knew how to use one before I started constructing my product. I didn't really learn anything new using one as the software that I used on it I had already used before and I only used it for a few things.
Camera
I used a Nikon D3100 camera to take the pictures for my final project. This camera has 14.2 megapixels so the picture that I took were all clear and of a high quality, and as my pictures were taken in a dark concert room with flashing lights a decent camera was needed to be able to capture a clear shot. This was the first time I had used this camera in this kind of lighting and I didn't know how it would work out so I experimented with the different setting whilst using it to get the best image. I found it was best to keep the flash off and i turned on the Active D-Lighting setting to lighten the shadows and control washed-out highlights. I also found that images saved in JPEG form worked better after putting then into a computer.
During my preliminary task I used one of the school camera to take my picture, as the megapixels of this was fairly low and the quality of my picture wasn't that great. This made my magazine look fairly shabby which made me want to use a higher quality camera for my main task to make my magazine look more professional. In the end my magazine did look more look more professional using better quality picture.
Tablet - Nexus 7
I used a tablet for a lot of my project as it was the most available to me at home and as it is small I could take it away with me anywhere. It came in handy a lot as I could quickly access apps such as e-mail, the internet, instagram and blogger. This piece of technology was fairly easy to use and as I had it before I started my task I didn't really have to learn much. But one thing I did learn from it was that at one point blogger on the Mac computers wasn't allowing me to upload pictures, my tablet came in really handy then as I could send the pictures to myself, save them on my tablet and then upload them onto my blogger app. I also sent lots of the images to myself so that I could edit them on instagram and pixlr-o-matic, as these are better photo editors than on the Mac or PC computers. So from this I learnt how to successfully send pictures between different pieces of hardware so that I manipulate them the way I wanted to and upload them to my blog successfully. The only problem with the tablet was that it is unable to hold any Microsoft applications, so there was a limit to what I could do on it.
Smart Phone - Sony Xperia Tipo
I used my smart phone in a similar way to my tablet, as I had a blogger app I was able to upload pictures and edit my posts whenever I wanted to. I didn't use my phone as much during this project as it is smaller it was harder to use then my tablet and the internet connection was not as good so therefore everything worked a bit slower.
Scanner
Before I started the process of constructing my magazine, I had never used a scanner before. I used it so that I could scan my draft designs and put them onto my blog. This was fairly easy to do as it is well instructed and everything you scan is automatically put into a picture format, but I an say now that I can use a scanner with ease.
Blogger
The blog site I used to present the process and the final product of my magazine was blogger. I found that blogger was a fairly easy blog to use. I used my preliminary task as a chance to experiment with the site. When I was new to the site I didn't realize that you could edit posts, but by the time I started on my main task I realized you could and this helped me greatly whilst creating my product. I also downloaded the blogger app onto my tablet. This was helpful to me as I was able to edit my blog whenever I wanted to. There were some issues with this app though, as there is not as many options of things to do compared to blogger on a Mac of PC, for example when you uploaded pictures you weren't able to position them were you wanted to, they were all posted at the end on the post. You also don't have a choice of font on the app.
E-mail
I used e-mail to send myself pictures between my different computers so that I was able to use them for different things. But the main use for e-mail was so that I could communicate with my teacher. He was able to send us tasks and deadlines, so I was able to get my coursework organized.
Microsoft Word
I used Microsoft Word to create my questionnaire, questionnaire analysis, and mock ups. Microsoft word is fairly easy to use and I had used it before so I knew basically how to use it. Word was really good for my questionnaire analysis as there was a tool I found that you could use to create graphs, you usually have to create graph in excel but it was much easier doing it on word, as some of the answers were qualitive data and some were quantitive, I could create graphs or write down the answers making my data much more clearly presented. There was also a tool on word where you could quickly draw boxes onto the page so I used this to create my mock ups.
Adobe Photoshop
Before I had started the process of creating my magazine I had never used Photoshop before, so everything that I did, I leant during he process. During the preliminary task I used Photoshop to create the contents page for my magazine, so during that I learnt how to do a few basic things so, going onto creating my final project I wasn't completely new to it. Photoshop was probably the trickiest piece of software that I had to use during this process, but once I got to grips with it, it became fairly easy to use. Creating the front cover of my magazine was the hardest page I created as it was the first one that I did and it had the most components on it. Photoshop was really good for this page as I had to edit out a black mark that was on the bottom left of the picture, using the brush tools I could edit out the black mark to the colour of my models top and add detailing on it to make it look more realistic. In general Photoshop was a really handy piece of software to use for my magazine as whilst I was making it, I needed to experiment with the layout of my pages so that I could make it look as good as possible. Photoshop allowed me to easily move different layers around, edit them and delete them if they didn't quite fit. Without being able to do this my magazine wouldn't have looked quite as professional.
Pixlr-O-Matic
The Pixlr-O-Matic is an app that I downloaded onto my tablet so that I could edit some of my pictures. It was a fairly easy app to use, all you needed to do was upload the image you wanted to use and choose from a large variety of effects to put onto your picture. I used this app to get the scratchy and dirty effect to the pictures on the contents and double page spread. Out of all of the photo editing pieces of software I used, this one was the best for getting the most interesting effects.
Overall all of these technologies have helped me create a professional looking magazine for my final product, and throughout the process I have learnt a variety of different skills on various different technologies. I can confidently say now that I can easily use all of the technologies I have listed.
Q4. Who might be the audience for your media product?
Before I started designing my magazine my target audience where both males and females aged 16-18 that listen to rock music, but looking at my final product I think that my magazine would still be aimed at both sexes but could be aimed also at people in their early 20's as this age group like to listen to new rock bands aswell as people in their late teens.
The name of the magazine 'Lithium' is quite and edgy, dynamic and exiting word, this would appeal to the target market of people that listen to rock music as a stereotype of those type of people is edgy and dynamic. The fact that it is quite an exiting name also appeals to a younger audience as they would be looking for something fun when looking for a magazine.
On my magazine front cover I had two advertisements, one for a festival and one for free posters included in the magazine, both these advertisements would appeal to a younger audience, as teenager would like to fill their room with posters of their favourite bands and the age range for people wanting to go to festivals is from around 16-25 so that advertisement would appeal to that audience.
The main colours that I have used on my magazine front cover are blue, pink, green and white. The colour pink is predominantly associated with girls, so the pink writing make the magazine look quite girly, but as there is a very deep blue in the background and blue is usually associated with boys, it balances out the oink to make the magazine look more attractive to both sexes. These colours that I used are also quite bright, synthetic and edgy, which would appeal to people that listen to rock music.
On the front cover of the magazine, the main image is of a girl singing. At first I thought this could maybe make the magazine appeal to more to females, but after looking at other rock magazines, I could see that they often put images of females on them, such as Paramore on the front of Kerrang down below and Kerrang appeal to both a male and female audience. It could maybe even appeal to men even more.
The price of my magazine is £1.99, I did this so that my magazine would be more affordable to my target market of 16-18 year olds as most only earn a little bit of money. But this price range could also appeal to people in their early twenties aswell as many young adults are either at university or starting out in a new job which doesn't pay as much as you have to work your way up, so they don't have much money to spare so this price would be appealing to them.
I think the class that this magazine would appeal to would be the middle classes. In the magazine their is a gig guide, pages about festivals and concert photos so to be able to afford to go to these events you have to have a bit of money. I don't think this magazine would appeal ton the upper classes as much as they are not stereotyped for listening to rock music very much, but it could appeal to lower classes aswell as it is fairly cheap and has free posters inside of it.
Overall, I think that my magazine has target the audience of both males and females age 16-18 as I wanted it to, but I think that the she range has widened into people in their twenties aswell.
Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Here is a link to my powerpoint presentation for this question: http://www.slideshare.net/natalieamydawson/q2-18357085
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