AS Production

Skill Development

Throughout the process I developed new skills from creating my magazine, the program photoshop was dominated by my mouse as I played around with cool effects and tried to see what worked and what didnt. At the start I had no knowledge at all of what I was doing and I was even considering using paint for a while. I chose to just get on with the nitty gritty work and practice designing logo's and editing pictures which eventually got a bit better.


Digital Technology

The technology that I used in AS was so helpful as even on post production could I use cool gadgets to completely remake my pictures. I used a Canon 500D to take photos of my model and this was a big asset for me as it was such high quality and was handheld. I was able to take hundreds of photos of my model at whatever angle I wanted and at the same time see the picture on the screen at the back. This enabled me to see if the lighting was ok or to see what angle my next picture should be at. I will be using these cameras to record aswell as they have extra features on them.

Creativity

Creativity is an important aspect in designing my front cover as I had to come up with new and cool ideas that would entertain the reader and essentially attract them straight away so that they would buy my magazine. I used certain effects to represent the music artists in my magazine and I had to think be open minded for critisism so that I could come up with new ideas.

Research and Planning

Throughout the creation of my magazine I had to collect information from certain peers, teachers and others so that I could have an overall opinion on what looks good and what doesnt. The research I had to do was for the pricing of my magazine, I looked at similar magazines such as Vibe and XXL so that I could see what kind of price I should price at due to the similar audience that I am targeting.
I planned my front cover, contents and double page spread by drawing numerous amounts of sketches by hand and seeing what kind of layout and colours worked. This planning helped me significantly as not only did I have knowledge of what I was creating before I actually turned on the computer, but I could research and find out from others if the designs looked good instead of me wasting time on my design and it turning out bad.

Relation to Real texts

My magazine was based around young people in urban London who have been through the struggle but have made it big. The relation is clearly there and the colours and pictures represent young urban culture.

My past experiences

I have never really got hands on experience in photoshop but I have always been surrounded by people who design for a living. I am used to filming or being infront of a camera so taking the pictures and designing the magazine was new to me but I really enjoyed it. I practiced designing silly designs and logo's with my friend before I started the production so I only had a day or two experience before hand.