Evaluation of new school magazine
In what ways does your media product use,develope or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I found that my collage magazine front cover was adequate but there are many faults. Firstly there are very little cover lines which made my product less attractive to collage pupils. Usually there should be about 3-7 cover lines, and I only have 3 when I could have came up with more ideas for cover lines to make it more appealing to the target audience. I put the date and title on the magazine in a purple header, however we are unable to see it because of the colours I have used. The colour scheme I used in my contents was blue, red and white, and did not match the front cover, which was red purple and black, or the rough sketches I dreW. i think that i should have made the colour scheme more appealing and attractive that matched both contents and front cover. The writing at the bottom of the front cover cannot be seen because of the purple graphics I placed around it also the font is not very visible. I used the same size and font for the cover lines and the colour was black so against the main image it was not that easy to see. I used graphics around my price but on nothing else apart from the ads so it looked really tatty with a black block at the side of the front cover.
The good things about my work i would say were, the mast head which mast head kept to the forms and conventions as there was direct address and it was in a medium close up shot and it was eye catching as the pupil was wearing bright clothing. Also the Mast head was on the front cover and contents it was very bold and bright in the colour red, however it looked a little boring so I could have possibly jazzed that up a little or used a more appealing font. I made sure that in my contents, it was split into columns and I had three columns one with all the writing and then the other two were used as a double spread so I could use it for cover lines other images and the collage contact details. I organised my contents under heading with the page numbers. Each cover line matched with an image and linked with the story. I also made sure it included date and price.
How did you use new media technologies in the construction of your media product?
The technology I used a camera to take the pictures for the mast head and cover lines. It was the first time i had used the kodak camera and it was difficult to understand at first, but then I finally figured out how to work it and I would like to be able to uses this camers again throughout the course at some point.
I used a piece of software called Photoshop which i last used to years ago some things i remembered but when i was re-taught how to use it i finally got to grips. It allowed me to construct my magazine front cover. I find this software really useful and easy to use as I have used it many times before, it allows me to cut out and crop the picture to form the shape or position I want it to. It has been really helpful through out this task and I am looking forward to using it throughout my coursework. I also used another piece of software to create my contents page. I found this hard to understand at first as it didn’t have all the necessities that Photoshop had so I had to deal with what it had. E.g. no cropping tool, shapes, background colours. I eventually understood how to use it and it. To allow power points on my blog I have been using the sights ‘prezi’ and ‘slideshare’ this is how I have been creating presentations and uploading them onto my blog, I understood what I had to do to make it work and they are really good to work with.
what are the strenghths and weaknesses of both the product and your use of the new media technologies?
My strengths in this task have been that I have worked well on the software that I have been given to work with I now understand how to use these software’s and i will be able to use them in my up coming tasks. However th weaknesses i have shown in this task are time, I need to make sure that I do as much in the lessons that I possible can with out getting distracted. Another weakness it that I didn’t follow my sketches for the magazines and I changed them as I went along. so i need to make sure that the sketches I draw are the ones Iam really certain I am going to work from. I have shown some development in my work because I have improved a lot more in Photoshop and I have also had the chance to use a piece of software I have never used before. What I need to improve on is the ability to stay focused and to follow all codes and conventions Of the producat I need to create. I need to make sure that I stick to the same colour scheme for the front cover and contents page of the magazine. I need to use a wide variety of shots when taking my pictures. My mast head needs to be appealing and catch attention.