Production Diary

30/01/14- Adding To My Blog & Improving My Magazine

 This week, I have continued to organise my blog by adding more posts such as my 'Cover Drafts'. I thought it was appropriate to create a PowerPoint showing the transformation of my cover page from my sketches to the various different drafts as I changed my ideas a lot. For example, I was unsure how to lay out my sell lines as well as being unsure about my cover image. This PowerPoint explains why I have changed my ideas and displays all the other ideas I had (including the selection of images).

 I have also continued to improve my magazine, for example I finally added some social media content to my content page. I added a way my audience can get involved with my magazine via Twitter and Facebook and also added both logos so my readers can clearly identify with the opportunity. I have also started to include headers and footers on each of my double page spreads to make the overall page look more interesting/more typical of a real life magazine.

Cover Drafts

This is the transformation of my cover page including my sketches and previous ideas. As you can see, my ideas about my cover page have changed a lot, yet this is still not the final draft as I feel there is still room for improvement to make it look more like a realistic music magazine.

Image Manipulation/Process: Before and After

 

These are two of the images I used on my third double page spread. The original images were in colour however I edited them in my magazine to make them look more original. On my double page spread, I include five photos of my model with the second and forth image being in black and white to contrast with the other images in colour. I managed this effect in Photoshop by first of all removing the background and then turning the image black and white. To remove the background, I used the magic wand tool and to change the colour I went onto the layers section to create a new fill or adjustment layer. I then selected black and white. I found removing the background the hardest task because of the way my model’s hair was styled – this meant I had to go in between the gaps to remove any excess background.

Production Diary

 
21/01/14 - Organising My Blog

This week, I continued to improve the posts on my blog as well as creating ones I hadn't yet posted. I made sure each blog post had the appropriate label such as 'Audience' or 'Research' and added any relevant information to explain each of my posts.

I also created another survey aimed at my target audience, asking what improvements I could make and what they liked best about my draft magazine. I personally think I still have a lot to add and improve so I will consider all comments and feedback that I receive. Personally I think it is important to contain some sort of social media that my audience can use to get involved with my magazine so I will add this to my contents page.

Audience Feedback Survey

Click here to take survey

This is the link to my survey that I will use to gain feedback from my target audience about my music magazine, including what parts of my magazine I could improve and what parts they liked best. I will send this survey out to my friends and my fellow media students who can give me their own range of ideas as well as constructive criticism and feedback. I will also interview people about my magazine as part of my feedback so I can ask them my own questions face to face.

Chosen Images

Production Diary

04/01/14 - Completing My Evaluation

 During the holidays I have been working on my evaluation as well as improving some of my blog posts and overall keeping up with my blog. For my evaluation, I have completed all seven questions in draft form and plan to edit them later on. I made sure all my answers were lengthy and included as much information as possible to explain why and how I made my music magazine. I also had to research some magazine companies and publishers for some of the evaluation tasks as well as looking back at the equipment I used and comparing my preliminary task to my final magazine.
 After I had completed my evaluation I continued to add other posts onto my blog. I made sure I added my sketches and wrote about them - explaining about what I drawn and I also added the first draft copy of my magazine. At this point, I can see a few improvements I can make so when it comes to posting my final draft I know my final magazine will look significantly better however at the moment I am happy with what my first draft looks like.