Step one in the magazine project was to go about creating a school magazine as a preliminary task in order to investigate and shape my understanding of the codes and conventions of specific genres of magazines.
So the first job was analysing existing school magazines and assessing exactly which conventions I would follow in my own magazine, once that was completed it was on to creating our own magazine.
I created a mock up on 'Adobe In Design' using frames and went about taking photos of my models within the school building for the front cover. We organised the costume (borrowed school jumpers from lost property - a keen example of improvisation at work) scouted the best locations (areas with good natural lighting due to a lack of transportable studio lighting) and took a close-mid shot of the two models.
The next step was organising a collection of various types of photographs to place on the front cover and in the contents page. I scheduled in a shoot in the studio with the lighting kit and backdrop, took shots of the rehearsal for the school performance of 'Beauty and the Beast' and staged shots referring to various stories planned for a mention in the contents page.
The images were edited in Photoshop and placed in the In Design frames and then it was on to choosing the fonts to present the magazine's house style. I chose a sky blue and white colour scheme to represent the school and downloaded a collocation of scripted and display fonts in campus and handwritten calligraphic styles to create a brand that appears associated with descriptions such as fun, dominant and informative.
And so the images, typography, text and shaping were all placed together to create the preliminary product and I met the deadline... just! With 2 minutes to spare I handed over the product and got the feedback from my teacher.
Now that the preliminary task is all over and done with (I passed by the way!) I can look back on it and self reflect. Overall, from my own experience and feedback from my teacher I am reasonably pleased with it, however, I have learned a few things that will help me with my music magazine task. I will be making sure I listen closely to the instructions, I came very close to placing the wrong type of image on my cover (a long shot instead of a close-mid-shot) and this effected my overall timing. Timing is another lesson I learned, without a proper plan for photographs or a very detailed schedule for shoots (alongside the whole wrong type of image on the front cover mishap) I came very close to missing my deadline and going over which cannot happen in my Music Magazine project!
And so, in all, the preliminary task came in very useful in advising me on my upcoming task which, hopefully, will be better! But that's all for now, stay posted.
Izzy
