Just before I forget - for my evaluation, I used a prezi instead of something like a powerpoint presentation to show the progression of my Media project from start to finish, the changes along the way, how it eventually turned out... Things like that.
And another thing - since I was using a program / web service that I had never encountered before, I also added to my repetoir of skills learnt during the course. So now I've been given a huge boost to my photography skills, and a newly learnt aptitude for Photoshop, Prezi.com and Blogger as a result of this project.
Oh, you can check out the finished evaluation by following this link; http://prezi.com/guffomjkj0dd/my-media-evaluation/
(If you've never used it before, just click the little "play" button at the bottom to go to the next slide.)
Friday, 6 May 2011
Friday, 1 April 2011
Basically finished
Well, I've basically finished my media coursework. I'll spend the next few days updating my blog on all the technical stuff to do with the magazine, the photoshop techniques and everything like that.
The only thing I'm a little worried about now, besides the evaluation, presentation and the rest of the blog, is the fact that I'm supposed to save my magazine in JPEG format. I mean, that's almost the lowest quality file you can pick when saving an image, and the quality of my magazine is going to suffer because of that. I mean, if we were asked to save them in BMP format or something then I'd be fine, but because we're printing JPEGs, they're not really going to represent the standard of work that we've all been doing.
Yeah, it's a little bit annoying.
But anyway, the main bit's out of the way. Just need to finish up on the blog and everything and I'm done.
Shouldn't be too hard...
p.s Here's the completed pages. In JPEG form *shudders*
Looking back at the design I made for this back in February / March, there's been a lot that's changed. The only thing from the original design that made it to the final cover was the block capital title. What was originally going to be posters of five bands has changed to just the names of three, and the original idea of having a border and basing it on the same basic colour schemes of Kerrang! and NME has changed completely. Throughout the magazine, instead of the original Red / Black / White colour scheme, I've changed it to different shades of blue, white, silvers and a bit of pink here and there. It gives it a more cooled, chilled out and relaxed mood, and contrasts well with the idea of a battle and the image of the band member on the front pointing to the reader in a "Britain wants YOU" pose, definitely reminding observers of the WW2 propaganda campaigns in Britain and in the US.
The figure pasted on the relatively blank background means that they stand out from the rest of what is a relatively blank and uninteresting cover, but the pose of the lone figure means that casual observers will hopefully be intruiged by the mysterious figure that they probably have never seen before and will be more likely to either take an interest or eventually end up buying the magazine.
If this doesn't work, there's also the promise of free music for anyone who buys the magazine. People like free music, but it would probably only affect people who are unsure whether or not they want to buy the magazine in the first place. Someone isn't going to buy a magazine for free music, as it would kind of defeat the point of free music.
The contents page has the same style and colours of the front cover - cool blues, the silver-to-white transitional background, and the simple, sans serif text with straight lines and a clear, clean style. This makes it stand out from most other music magazines, as it involves music that is usually associated with insane colours, extraordinary and eye-catching fonts, and images that pack a punch and usually include allusions to anarchy and rebellion. However, the content of the text and some of the words used makes it clear that most people's first impressions about the magazine would probably be wrong.
I didn't include a page number on the contents page because it would most likely be on the opposite side of the cover, or at least the first actual page in it, so I thought it wouldn't actually need a page number.
The Feature Spread is my favourite part of my magazine. It follows a slightly brighter colour scheme from the other two pages, as it is not one of the "mandatory" or "official" pages - it's an article, which makes it individual and original, completely different from anything else in any other issue of the magazine, whereas the front cover and the contents page would be something that appears in every other issue ever. You could read a magazine without reading about three bands having a battle for a record deal, but you wouldn't expect to find a magazine without a front cover or a contents page. There hasn't been an "official" magazine without either of those two to my knowledge, but if there are, then they're probably not that important and / or useful or widely read.
With the images on this page, while I'm happy with the images on the far left and the far right, the ones just right of the centre could probably do with a little work. I should probably have left more room to move them around, but instead I've had to bunch them up together in a small group to make sure that they fit and don't intrude on the other band's space. I also had to bunch them up to avoid them spilling over the centre line and showing up on the other page, which probably wouldn't look too good.
Yeah, that was a pretty long PS.
The only thing I'm a little worried about now, besides the evaluation, presentation and the rest of the blog, is the fact that I'm supposed to save my magazine in JPEG format. I mean, that's almost the lowest quality file you can pick when saving an image, and the quality of my magazine is going to suffer because of that. I mean, if we were asked to save them in BMP format or something then I'd be fine, but because we're printing JPEGs, they're not really going to represent the standard of work that we've all been doing.
Yeah, it's a little bit annoying.
But anyway, the main bit's out of the way. Just need to finish up on the blog and everything and I'm done.
Shouldn't be too hard...
p.s Here's the completed pages. In JPEG form *shudders*
 |
| Front Cover |
Looking back at the design I made for this back in February / March, there's been a lot that's changed. The only thing from the original design that made it to the final cover was the block capital title. What was originally going to be posters of five bands has changed to just the names of three, and the original idea of having a border and basing it on the same basic colour schemes of Kerrang! and NME has changed completely. Throughout the magazine, instead of the original Red / Black / White colour scheme, I've changed it to different shades of blue, white, silvers and a bit of pink here and there. It gives it a more cooled, chilled out and relaxed mood, and contrasts well with the idea of a battle and the image of the band member on the front pointing to the reader in a "Britain wants YOU" pose, definitely reminding observers of the WW2 propaganda campaigns in Britain and in the US.
The figure pasted on the relatively blank background means that they stand out from the rest of what is a relatively blank and uninteresting cover, but the pose of the lone figure means that casual observers will hopefully be intruiged by the mysterious figure that they probably have never seen before and will be more likely to either take an interest or eventually end up buying the magazine.
If this doesn't work, there's also the promise of free music for anyone who buys the magazine. People like free music, but it would probably only affect people who are unsure whether or not they want to buy the magazine in the first place. Someone isn't going to buy a magazine for free music, as it would kind of defeat the point of free music.
 |
| Contents Page |
I didn't include a page number on the contents page because it would most likely be on the opposite side of the cover, or at least the first actual page in it, so I thought it wouldn't actually need a page number.
 |
| Feature Spread |
With the images on this page, while I'm happy with the images on the far left and the far right, the ones just right of the centre could probably do with a little work. I should probably have left more room to move them around, but instead I've had to bunch them up together in a small group to make sure that they fit and don't intrude on the other band's space. I also had to bunch them up to avoid them spilling over the centre line and showing up on the other page, which probably wouldn't look too good.
Yeah, that was a pretty long PS.
Thursday, 31 March 2011
I'm nearly finished.
As you can see from the title of the blog post, I'm nearly finished. Just writing those three words makes me feel great.
Today, I borrowed a friend's camera and took a couple of pictures on our free period, and then again in form afterwards. There were three people I took pictures with first, and since there were good bits in both of them I decided to copy and paste different people from two of the photos I took and put them all together. I then used the two pictures I'd gotten from form to add to the ranks of the first group and then to act as the last band. So that's the other two bands that I've finished, the Elite Four and Felix Uriel.
Basically, all the editing I did for them was using the pen tool to cut them out and paste them onto the blank background, as well as the transform tool to make sure they were in proportion to one another (except one of them, which I deliberately made slightly taller than the others so that they could be seen in the back, and also so they seemed really tall and looked like a guy you wouldn't want to mess with). If I had more time, I would have gone through and edited the exposure levels so that they all looked like the photos had been taken from the same place - as it is, the ones taken outside are far brighter than those taken from inside the building - although the way I've arranged them makes it looks like the photo was taken with flash on, with the people from the brighter photos at the front and the darker ones at the back. So yeah.
Feature Spread = Done.
Contents Page = Done.
Front Cover = ummmmmmmmmm
I have two hours tomorrow to finish the front cover, and I've got all the photos I need. One of the photos had the guy at the front pointing towards the camera, in some sort of WW2 propaganda pose. This'll work well for my front cover, as it's about a battle of the bands - obviously readers will be able to see the picture from a distance, and guess that there's some sort of conflict or battle being talked about in the magazine.
Yep, I'm nearly done. Just a couple more hours to go and it'll be completely done.
Then I'll have to start my evaluation and presentation and stuff. Oh, joy.
Today, I borrowed a friend's camera and took a couple of pictures on our free period, and then again in form afterwards. There were three people I took pictures with first, and since there were good bits in both of them I decided to copy and paste different people from two of the photos I took and put them all together. I then used the two pictures I'd gotten from form to add to the ranks of the first group and then to act as the last band. So that's the other two bands that I've finished, the Elite Four and Felix Uriel.
Basically, all the editing I did for them was using the pen tool to cut them out and paste them onto the blank background, as well as the transform tool to make sure they were in proportion to one another (except one of them, which I deliberately made slightly taller than the others so that they could be seen in the back, and also so they seemed really tall and looked like a guy you wouldn't want to mess with). If I had more time, I would have gone through and edited the exposure levels so that they all looked like the photos had been taken from the same place - as it is, the ones taken outside are far brighter than those taken from inside the building - although the way I've arranged them makes it looks like the photo was taken with flash on, with the people from the brighter photos at the front and the darker ones at the back. So yeah.
Feature Spread = Done.
Contents Page = Done.
Front Cover = ummmmmmmmmm
I have two hours tomorrow to finish the front cover, and I've got all the photos I need. One of the photos had the guy at the front pointing towards the camera, in some sort of WW2 propaganda pose. This'll work well for my front cover, as it's about a battle of the bands - obviously readers will be able to see the picture from a distance, and guess that there's some sort of conflict or battle being talked about in the magazine.
Yep, I'm nearly done. Just a couple more hours to go and it'll be completely done.
Then I'll have to start my evaluation and presentation and stuff. Oh, joy.
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Changed a couple of words
Just a quick update - I've literally just changed a couple of words around on my feature spread to make sure I get the coursework done. Felix Uriel is now just a talented musician and frontman rather than a cartoon mascot, and the Wonderband is made up of the hired musicians as well as two or three extra permanent band members.
This is just so that, instead of adding a whole other layer to my coursework and spending time messing around in Flash, I can instead concentrate on taking a bunch of pictures and just editing them. This will hopefully cut down on the workload I have for the next two days. I daresay I'll have to work overtime in order to get everything finished.
Goodbye Breaktimes, Lunchtimes, free periods and several hours after school. Sigh.
Wishing I hadn't come up with such a complex idea now. Ah well, if it works out, it should be a fairly decent bit of coursework.
This is just so that, instead of adding a whole other layer to my coursework and spending time messing around in Flash, I can instead concentrate on taking a bunch of pictures and just editing them. This will hopefully cut down on the workload I have for the next two days. I daresay I'll have to work overtime in order to get everything finished.
Goodbye Breaktimes, Lunchtimes, free periods and several hours after school. Sigh.
Wishing I hadn't come up with such a complex idea now. Ah well, if it works out, it should be a fairly decent bit of coursework.
Thursday, 24 March 2011
Messing around with the text tool
So I've almost finished the feature pages, and I'm nearly finished on the front cover. It's just a matter of getting together a few more photos - I really should have taken more when I had the chance.
Well, no biggie. I've got about two images to work with for when I eventually get around to the contents page, so it's all good.
Basically all I've been doing in photoshop has been messing around with the text tool, adding different styles of font and making sure everything aligns using the "view -> show -> grid" as a guideline. I'm focussing more on the actual look of the magazine, making sure it has style and is pleasing to the eye, rather than making it technically good. Probably not what I should be doing if I'm to get good marks.
But yeah, here's what I've got so far for the cover. It's literally just fonts, a gradient, and a single use of the ellipsis tool to make the little circle for the "FREE" thing.
Disclaimer: you don't actually get anything free with this magazine.
Well, no biggie. I've got about two images to work with for when I eventually get around to the contents page, so it's all good.
Basically all I've been doing in photoshop has been messing around with the text tool, adding different styles of font and making sure everything aligns using the "view -> show -> grid" as a guideline. I'm focussing more on the actual look of the magazine, making sure it has style and is pleasing to the eye, rather than making it technically good. Probably not what I should be doing if I'm to get good marks.
But yeah, here's what I've got so far for the cover. It's literally just fonts, a gradient, and a single use of the ellipsis tool to make the little circle for the "FREE" thing.
Disclaimer: you don't actually get anything free with this magazine.
 |
| Yeah, I just have to add something in the middle. Y'know, like, the main thing on the front cover. No biggie. |
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Racing to finish
So I spent a couple of free periods racing to finish my feature spread. I think I've pretty much finished what I can, with the resources I've got at the moment.
I'd already got the headline of the article and the smaller tagline sorted out, as well as the positions for both members of the first band (i.e. myself, twice, both looking slightly different). I then pretty much just used the text tool to copy and paste in what I'd written for the bands, and used the "enter" key a lot to make the text fit into a column. There's probably an easier way to do it than that, but I don't know how and it works for me the way I do it, so I did it like that. Yeah.
I've then been concentrating on making the larger titles and quotes look eye-catching. Using the same two colours over and over again is a bit of a gamble, I reckon - on the one hand, you end up with a very noticeable style, drawing attention to the main parts of the article, emphasising words, etc. But on the other hand, the simple style could also be considered boring. I decided to get around the slightly dull look by pretty much cheating and just using a gradient across the entire background, from white to a very very light shade of grey. Using italics for certain words helps add variation as well, so I used that a couple of times as well.
On the whole, I'm really pleased with how the spread has turned out. Now I just need to gather up a few more pictures and figure out how I'm gonna finish the feature and actually make a start on the cover and the contents pages. I really need to get a move on if I'm to finish everything before the deadline. Goodbye, free periods. Hello, hours of working on coursework.
I've never said this before, but I wish that the school was open on the weekend. Ugh, I can't believe I just said that.
Here's what I've got so far.
So that's what I've got done so far. Just need to get the images on there and I'll basically be done. Hmm, where can I get a camera from...
I'd already got the headline of the article and the smaller tagline sorted out, as well as the positions for both members of the first band (i.e. myself, twice, both looking slightly different). I then pretty much just used the text tool to copy and paste in what I'd written for the bands, and used the "enter" key a lot to make the text fit into a column. There's probably an easier way to do it than that, but I don't know how and it works for me the way I do it, so I did it like that. Yeah.
I've then been concentrating on making the larger titles and quotes look eye-catching. Using the same two colours over and over again is a bit of a gamble, I reckon - on the one hand, you end up with a very noticeable style, drawing attention to the main parts of the article, emphasising words, etc. But on the other hand, the simple style could also be considered boring. I decided to get around the slightly dull look by pretty much cheating and just using a gradient across the entire background, from white to a very very light shade of grey. Using italics for certain words helps add variation as well, so I used that a couple of times as well.
On the whole, I'm really pleased with how the spread has turned out. Now I just need to gather up a few more pictures and figure out how I'm gonna finish the feature and actually make a start on the cover and the contents pages. I really need to get a move on if I'm to finish everything before the deadline. Goodbye, free periods. Hello, hours of working on coursework.
I've never said this before, but I wish that the school was open on the weekend. Ugh, I can't believe I just said that.
Here's what I've got so far.
 |
| Here's the left page (except from that column on the right). |
 |
| And here's the right page (except that bit on the left). |
Tuesday, 22 March 2011
The Feature
I've started adding more to the band overviews. I'm hoping to make the bands involved seem either rebellious or slightly abnormal, or just over-the-top cocky, because I've decided to change the colour scheme. Instead of doing the rather over-done "red and white and black" colour scheme, I've decided to go for a more neutral and calming colour scheme. Hopefully this will add a stark contrast to the content of the magazine, with stories of people hiding behind cartoon characters, hacking into speaker systems during another band's gig, and just OTT "we're gonna win, no one can beat us" cocky attitudes.
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