2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
6. What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing the product?
A Canon EOS 1000D was used to take all of the photographs. I used Av Mode - or Aperture Value Mode which allows the user to adjust the light exposure and shutter speed. A high aperture value is very useful for outdoor photography.
I used the auto-exposure button which allows the camera to focus on its own, without human assistance. However, the image stabilizer can be used to manually change the focus is the user wants to.
Adobe Photoshop CS6 is the program I used to edit the photographs and create the magazine pages. As its name suggests, photoshop excels at photo-editing, but it has a variety of other uses as well.
Photoshop requires a lot of knowledge to use well, so it might be difficult for people to use at first, but it's very rewarding once you get used to it. The software allowed me to edit photographs, create neat layouts for the magazine, and make use of aesthetically pleasing filters.
I learned to use a variety of applications for presentation creation. Slideshare was probably the worst one as it's interface is inconvenient and counter-intuitive, and there isn't much freedom for the user to edit things.
Emaze and Prezi were very professional, the interface was easy to navigate, and the user doesn't need much knowledge of the app in order create an attractive presentation.
I think I could have made use of other mediums, such as videos through Youtube or Vimeo.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learned in progression?
I think that the problem with my final cover is that it's too similar to my preliminary one. They both have a masthead in the upper right corner, and a model posing in front of a brick wall.
On the other hand, I do feel like I made a few improvements. The fonts in the final cover are easier to read, and I feel that everything was laid out better. Also, the quality of the photograph is higher, because I better utilised my camera.
The overall magazine just seems more professional in general, and there are more relevant images and information. It's not perfect but I think I made a notable improvement.
The model in my final cover is closer to the camera than the one in the preliminary, so more of the reader's attention would be directed towards him. I learned the importance of a headline, so I used one that better indicates who or what the article is about, unlike the motivational quote I used the the school magazine.
My preliminary cover and contents pages had a lot of empty space, which formed an awkward layout.
I learned different ways to put more textual and graphic information into my magazine which improved the overall aesthetic. The photoshop knowledge that I gained also allowed me to make the magazine look less stale.
I also learned that banners can often make a magazine look more professional, as it creates more space to insert text around the model. The button and fonts that I used in the school magazine looked very childish, but were to some extent fitting for the magazine type. I tried to make the rock magazine stylish while keeping the professionalism that I tried to portray.
Research and Planning also allowed me to create a better product, as the final materials were the result of a lot of theory work. The preliminary magazine did not have much conception behind it.
I generally kept the products in line with my sketches, while improving the layouts slightly over the course of drafting.
Others have generally said that while my work looks nice and has a decent layout, it doesn't really look like a typical Rock magazine. I understand their views, as it is really important for an audience to know what genre a magazine is by looking at it. I should have tried to make the product look more like a rock magazine by making use of grungy fonts and graphics.
