Preliminary

The preliminary task was to create a front cover and contents page for a new school magazine using a photo of a student in medium close up. Using the Lumix Lx7 I began to take photographs to use for my school magazine cover and contents page. I experimented with different lighting sources and camera angles and got the following results.

Looking at the photos I had taken I decided that the second was the best to use for the cover of my magazine, it captured the subject in the middle of the shot but still left room at the top and at the sides for text. The photo itself was of higher quality than the previous two and boasted a better light source with more contrast making for a better image with more depth. I used Photoshop to edit the photo to industry standards and made use of the clone stamp and blur tools to conceal any imperfections.

I began to outline the layout for my cover and decided on a dark green colour scheme to work with the colours of the school logo. I also decided that I wanted my cover to be a special edition and used a pixilated font to make it a technology based issue.

I used the school logo at the top left hand side of the magazine and put the name of the magazine next to it in a larger font. Further down on the left of the page I included a section of text detailing some of the contents of the magazine in a lighter green text. On the opposite side of the page I included two short passages about articles inside using the same green colour scheme. The bottom of the cover has a large title of another article inside and the date the issue was published.

The finished cover:

For the contents page I carried over the green colour scheme and pixilated font. I used 50%transparent boxes created on Photoshop to back text detailing the articles inside. I also included a short paragraph and photo to give a brief overview of the writer of an article and an editors letter, all common features of a contents page. I also used a blurred photo of the school grounds as a background, to create this effect I used the Gaussian blur tool on Photoshop.

The finished contents page:

 

 

Evaluation of preliminary task

 

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

- After researching the common features and conventions of school based media, I found that most media I looked at used brash colours and looked unprofessional, so in keeping with the general conventions of school based media, I worked out a layout that mimicked these conventions in a slightly more sophisticated manner which I feel worked effectively

 

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

- My cover and contents pages are intended for the use of a school magazine, the use of images and text relatable to students makes the media representative of them and issues they care about.

 



 

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

- A school would distribute this media as it's students would take interest in its contents as it is relevant to them

 

Who would be the audience for your media product?

- Students and possibly teachers

 

How did you attract/address your audience?

- I used themes that appeal to younger people, for example I made technology a central feature of the cover and the large text at the bottom of the page would arouse interest from students.

 

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

- I learnt a lot about the different functions of Photoshop and how it can be used to manipulate photos and the different ways to take a photo using a camera with different lighting and settings

 

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

- I have learnt about the different conventions that a school magazine typically conforms to and how they do it and I have also developed my knowledge of Photoshop and camera skills