Skills Development Essay

Introduction

Before I started my Foundation Portfolio I had to produce a preliminary exercise. Using desktop publishing and an image manipulation program (photo shop) I had to create a front page of a new college magazine and it had compulsory feature a medium close-up of a student and appropriate laid out text and  a masthead.I also produced a mock-up layout of the contents page along with the front cover.This magazine I created gave me a good grasp of using manipulation programs and what conventional magazines are like.
For my Foundation Portfolio I created a double page spread, contents page and front cover for a new music magazine. All of the images and text used had to be original and at least four images had to be included all produced by myself. I chose to create my music magazine within the rock/indie genre as I felt I had the right tools for this.

Digital Technology/Post-Production

In my foundation portfolio I used a program called Adobe Photoshop CS5 in adjustment to manipulate my photos I had taken to make them more appropriate and more professional looking for my music magazine. This software I had used shortly before in my preliminary task, other then this is was completely new to me and seemed slightly confusing. Photoshop allowed me to edit my digital photos to a high standard that of those existing music magazines. The main issue was getting to grasp all the different tools and options. Before  even editing the image I had to have a good image for a magazine. A 'good image' of a music magazine had to be in focus and preferably a medium close up of the artist, this was to show eye contact. Another issue was making sure there was enough room above the models head to insert a mast-head. These expectations created me to have a lot of mock ups, changes and more then one photo shoot. Other typical conventions also had to be included such as having a main feature headline, dateline, bar-code, issue number, skyline and subtitle.Tools I learnt to use included airbrushing, cropping, merging and liquefying. Liquefying for example gave my the option to stretch my models ear and insert a plug, cropping and merging allowed me to add more space to the right of my model to add more space to put text in on my double page spread.  By following these conventions I was able to communicate with my target audience that my creation was professional enough to be worth the money I priced it at and easily show what genre my magazine was.

Creativity

As a part of the creativity process I first had to identify the typical conventions of any music magazine for example a mast head on the left usually so when a magazine is stacked up all information is still visible. I began to merge typical conventions and conventions of a rock/indie magazine to come up with a good idea. My college magazine had already helped me identify typical conventions so mainly I researched the genre conventions. Important conventions in my college magazine included and organised structure and a house style which made it look professional and planned out. The main ideas I got from my college magazine for my music magazine was the eye contact of the model and a suitable background. By considering the conventions of rock/indie magazines I began to research the most successful magazines, these included Kerrang which I got my main ideas from. The main model in my magazine is shown to be not overdressed (hood up) and smoking in an outside area. I felt this image fitted my genre as it is very stereotypical of a rock band member to have the attitude of being a bit different and not caring much about anything but the music. Once I was in the final stages of my project I decided to give my audience a print out of my front cover, contents page and double page spread along with some questions. Questions included "can you identify the genre?" and "how much would you pay for this?". My results clarified that it was easily shown that the magazine was rock/indie and that £1.99 was a suitable price for my audience which is young people in the C2/D and E category of social class.

Research & Planning, Genre Conventions

I firstly researched the elements needed for my brief by analyzing existing rock/indie magazines such as Metal Hammer, NME and Kerrang. I also did this to see what conventions they had used and how it effected the final product. For example the main image on this front cover is Foo Fighters giving eye contact. The lead singer is standing slightly in front of the other band members. The main colours are red, yellow, black and white, this is the house style. Around three different types of fonts are used in this front cover. The main font is a San serif font which makes it more clear. The smaller headings are also similar.  There is also a smaller image of another band member in the bottom left hand corner. With my LIIAR analysis (language, institution, ideology, audience and representation) I found it easy to come up with a good idea for my magazine. My main inspiration for my magazine was the successful American band A Day To Remember, I used a lot of there style including a casual and laid back style. I also used the internet to research an institution that could of possibly taken my magazine on if it really got published. Development Hell limited an independent media company based in London currently don't have a indie/rock music magazine as they only produce a monthly dance and clubbing magazine called MixMag. This creates a gap in the market for my magazine and to make their company more successful as both magazines would target the younger generation. 


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