Preliminary Task

Cover for the school magazine:

Budget Planning:

Photoshoot:

Intro to my foundation portfolio

Reading newspapers and skimming through magazines was something I was a fond of since my childhood. However with time as I grew older, I started realizing that there was this little hidden desire of being able to create my own magazine inside me and hence I decided to create a magazine. The genre I picked for my magazine was “Photography”, a hidden talent in many yet to be discovered. I, with the help of my magazine focused and aimed on promoting photography and helping people discover the hidden skill of photography that they possessed. I titled my magazine “Capture” and expect my magazine to promote photography in the present time as nowadays photography seems to have a huge role to play in everyone's life. From expressing a feeling to giving something a deep meaning, to saving a memory forever, photography has a capability of doing it all. For the preliminary task, I have already worked on a school magazine which talked about Music and in term led to me developing a basic and better understanding of how a magazine is produced. 

Questionnaire and Results

Photography Magazine-Results( Pie Charts)

Budget planning

Photoshoot for the magazine

Most of the pictures for my magazine were snapped at various landmarks across the city of Lahore in Pakistan. The famous sites include the picturesque Lahore fort, the ancient Badshahi Mosque and the all day long busy Food street, a dining spot next to the mosque with a mind blowing ambience. These spots are a great resemblance and representation of the city and give a complete essence and insight to the art, architecture and culture of the present Lahore. 

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Timeline

Evaluation

Question 1: How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

Conventions are the typical elements an audience expects to see in a media product. Prior to producing my magazine I performed a detailed research to find out my generic conventions. I used several magazine issues to draw inspiration and gather ideas about the type of conventions I would utilize in my magazine. The genre I chose for my magazine was “Photography” and it focuses and aims at discussing and promoting the basic concept of photography.  The name of my magazine is “Capture” which evidently describes that the magazine is all about photography. The name of a media product always needs to be attractive and appealing to the audience so they are influenced to buy a certain product.

The image on my cover is of a historical building which is Badshahi mosque located in Lahore in the centre of the page. My magazine is all about photography related to buildings and architecture. The impact of this old building with a touch of arts and history is enough to attract audiences to buy this magazine by just viewing the cover. The image is perfectly photographed in symmetry and edited directly relating to my genre. Just like other photography magazines I examined and analysed, I used a very professional photo for the cover.

The masthead is located at the top middle of the cover page, stretched from edge to edge written in bold font style to make it more eye—catching, like most of the magazines so it is conventional and appropriate. The color of my masthead is ‘darkbrown’ which matches the colors of the building. I used black and white colors for the cover-lines so they stand out, highlight and are visible in front of a brightly colored background and capture the reader’s attention. Various styles and sizes of the fonts are used to makes it appealing to the reader, just like other photography magazines. I used very catchy cover-lines for all the kinds of readers who would be interested in learning and knowing all about photography.

Most of the photography magazines I studied had used ‘Plugs’ to further attract the attention of the audiences through promotion of various brands or something interesting related to the edition. They are usually allocated on the top right or left corners of the cover. Similarly, my magazine also has a plug on its top right corner mentioning a “free disk inside” the issue. This will surely attract a lot of people to buy the magazine.

As all magazines contain a barcode so I also placed it on the bottom right corner to make it look more authentic. Along with that, I also added the issue number and date of my magazine just below the masthead.

For the content page, I used a photograph of a building as the background since my main focus is on professional photography. All the text and contents are placed over the image. Similarly, the background for my double spread is also an image of a building along with an exclusive interview by a professional photographer. This is how my magazine goes in line with the conventions of a photography magazine.

My magazine is a great way to promote photography in the present time as currently photography is very important and a main element in everyone’s life. Photography is a way in which you can express a feeling, capture a moment and give a deep meaning to a fleeting moment. This magazine covers all the important things you need to know about photography. It caters to and targets everyone who is interested in photography.

Question 2: How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

The genre of my magazine “Capture” is Photography. I am targeting and catering all the people interested in photography, regardless of the age or social group they may belong to. It is all about learning and knowing photography and ways of how to capture a certain thing or moment. It is a complete insight on everything one needs to be a photographer including all the techniques, tips and tricks.

My magazine contains several different fonts, its sizes and colors to engage and attract the reader. I used black and white colors for the cover-lines as they are always eye-catching and appealing as my background is an image so black and white are more obvious and visible in front of that image. My cover-lines include interesting things about photography such as how one should capture low-light landscapes or baby portraits along with important tips about photography etc. Such cover-lines will always attract a person who loves or want to learn photography. It also provides valid advice about cameras, lenses and editing techniques. Such a guideline about photography will definitely attract the targeted audience.

The use of ‘Plug’ in the magazine also engages the audience as it provides special offers. I added an exclusive interview by a professional photographer which will make people eager to buy this magazine and invite them to further read it. I have used several relevant images in the magazine which keeps the audience interested. Cover-lines about special interviews and articles will raise their interest and cause them to open and have a look at it which will eventually influence them to buy it.

On the cover I have used an ancient building’s image. I have used this picture because of the focus and impact it has. The image has been captured with an outstanding photography which will definitely attract audience to read the magazine. This picture also attracts the people who are fond of architecture, history and buildings and also creates a relationship between the reader and the magazine which influences him to read it with greater interest. My magazine engages with the audience by providing them with a better photography experience.

In my opinion my magazine will be best distributed in places such as book shops and magazine shops where it will be accessible for people who are searching for photography magazines and a huge variety is offered. I will also like to distribute my magazine to different filming, shooting and photography studios as it is related to photography so will prove to be of use to the people visiting these areas and raise awareness about the availability of my magazine. I will also provide my magazine at airports so people can browse through it while waiting or travelling. I will also make it available online so people have easier access to it.

Question 3: How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

For my AS coursework I was given the task of designing a school magazine which introduced me to a number of digital technologies which I utilized creatively in this project. I decided to create a magazine based on music within the pop genre as my school magazine, and tried to make it appeal to a target audience of my school which comprises of young teenagers, as this is the group the pop genre aims to appeal to.

For my A2 coursework I used digital technologies to a more advanced level as I had to create a final magazine and this time I chose “Photography” as my genre. I tried to make it appeal to a larger target audience by following various codes and conventions, such as giving a wide variety of articles in the magazine for all age group, to be able to target a larger group of people.

 For our AS coursework we were introduced to ‘Adobe Photoshop’ in order to edit images and create magazine covers and content pages. I was introduced to simple tools, such as the ‘spot healer’ tool in order to edit a close-up of my main front cover artist and give the image a conventional, airbrushed look so our target audience would be able to easily identify the magazine.

In A2 I had the opportunity to use ‘Photoshop’ to a more advanced level as I had to create a final magazine and the genre I selected was ‘Photography’ so I got to use different types and models of cameras or DSLR’s. Here, I used tools on a more professional level. For example, for the magazine cover and content page and in order to make my headlines more obvious and prominent, I used different effects to make my text look bold and highlighted. Here, effects like ‘Outer-glow’ and ‘drop-shadow’ are used along with a variety of Fonts. Moreover, on my school magazine I used a lot of various types of fonts and colours which made it look messy and unprofessional. But now I know a perfect proportion of colors and fonts to be used so it would not give an overwhelming effect. In the final magazine I learned how fonts and colors carry messages and connotations that the producer wishes to convey and how important they are when it comes to appealing to and influencing the audience.

My editing skills were not as professional during my preliminary task of the school magazine as they are now. I am able to produce better and more attractive magazines after my foundation task is done. I got to know about various tools and editing skills. I also designed a double-spread for this magazine unlike the previous one. I learned how important the arrangement of all the text and cover-lines on the magazine cover are. It plays a vital role in luring the audience.

Before producing my photography magazine, I went through a wide range of magazine analysis of the same genre which helped me produce a similar one. A few examples of magazine of this genre I analysed were “Digital Photographer” and “Outdoor Photography.” Producing this magazine also improved my own photography skills. The photos I used in my school music magazine were too simple and did not show much of passion that the audience would be attracted to but in this magazine the photographs are high definition, professional and eye-catching. 

Question 4: How did you integrate technologies, ‘software, hardware and online’ in this project?

Throughout my project, I used various technologies in order to complete my final magazine. Some of the softwares I used were the ones that I did not previously know how to use, but I learned them with time and usage. I used and integrated different technologies throughout the project so that I could come up with the desired effects.

The computers I used for my work were Apple Macbook Air and HP. The computers gave me an easy access to Internet and Google Chrome so that researching, blogging and editing photos was easier.

Adobe Photoshop is an application that I used in order to design and create my magazine components- The Front cover, Contents page and the Double-spread page. I used Photoshop for my entire magazine such as for creating mastheads, layouts, picture editing cropping etc.

The camera I used for the photography was Canon EOS 700D along with Tripod stand and Flashlight. All of the photoshoots for the magazine were done on this camera. I did not really have problem using it as I was already used to it. Lastly, the Internet is where I did all my research and blogging for the magazine. It helped me keep my blog updated and have a look at other’s works too.