PSHCE day WWRY video advert

Convention questions

1. Which were the most influential conventions for you? How did your study of them affect your decisions and outcomes?

Throughout the design and planning process for my magazine project, I looked up current music magazines that are out there already so I not only had something to boost my own ideas, but so I knew what had already been done. Coming up with original ideas can be quite difficult if you've never made a music magazine before, but because I had researched into ones that are big and on sale now, I knew what was working well with its buyers. Things like giving the front cover a big photo of a popular band  and saying you've done an interview with them. This will stand out to fans and draw them into buying the magazine as they want to read and find out things. So I took this into consideration and even though it's done constantly with other magazines, I tried to make my image slightly different before placing it on the front cover. This change was having only selected areas of the image in colour and the rest in black and white. Even though it is only a minor change and has probably been done before somewhere, I thought it gave my magazine that bit of originality.

The names of some current music magazines are either really obvious to what the genre of the magazine is such as 'NME', or there are really random names such as 'Music Planet' which could realistically be about any type of music out there today.

2. Did you subvert (go against) any conventions that you studied in the music magazine project?

I did end up going against particular conventions such as the layout of the front cover. I went against it by wanting to place my ideas in particular ways rather than just straight forward onto the page. I wanted to change the angle of the text and also put the text on top of my images. 

Post Production

For my music magazine, computer program's played a main part in the post production part. This was because I had to create and edit all my material together which I couldn't do manually. Once I had my material such as the photos, band name and the interview, I had to put it all into these four pages of the magazine I was making, and decide on a way of making it all seem creative and interesting for whoever is going to see it. Sometimes I had photos I didn't like the originals of so I used photoshop to help me combine particular two images together. I did this by using the magic wand tool and selecting all of one of the band members, copying what I had selected, and then pasting it onto the second image and placing it where fitted best i.e. next to the other band member. This solved my problem and therefore gave me an image I hadn't actually taken in the first place but worked more conveniently with my design. Being able to do this gave me the skills and knowledge of being able to edit photos that don't necessarily work originally. This new found skill soon developed into being able to do more drastic changes such as changing the colours of certain areas and not the whole image.

Revision Questions

1. Detail how your understanding of the importance of good research and planning skills developed throughout the pre-production of your AS and A2 coursework.

Having good research and planning skills throughout the project was a key aspect as we needed to treat the project as if it was the real thing from the start. At the beginning of the pre-production AS project, we needed to research into other magazines within the same area the magazine we were making was going to be. Once we had our research we then used it as a guide to help us produce our own.

2. How did your knowledge of digital technology aid your research and planning skills throughout the pre-production or your AS and A2 coursework?

My knowledge of digital technology helped me with my research a lot as I needed to know how to use particular websites and programs in order to give my research done. Websites like YouTube and Google were my main source's as I would use Google to give me factual websites and information, and then YouTube to let me look up music videos and songs that fell under my chosen music genre. Photoshop was my main program to design and edit my magazine, and it allows me to set out and produce my material in the way I want it. However, I did have some cut backs as I couldn't do everything in the way I first planned out and so I had to make a few adjustments. This therefore gave me more knowledge about photoshop and for when I use my planning skills again, I will know what I can and can't do.

Questions

1. Do you think you were creative or not throughout your coursework?
In my coursework I feel I wasn't as creative as I could of been. I think this because I didn't do anything out of the ordinary to make the magazine something the audience will really remember. I did try and make things stand out and interesting, but looking back on it I could of tried things that are much more unusual e.g. making the music band's 'look' more wild and unique. By doing this the band would stand out to an audience as they'll either love it or hate it, like for example Lady Gaga who tends to dress in extremely unusual outfits or do crazy things in her music videos, and all of this is remembered.

2. Did technology enhance your creativity or not?
I definitely feel technology helped my creativity as I was able to change and design things in certain ways to make the magazine how I'd planned, but on the other hand it also effected some of my ideas by not letting me create particular things how I wanted them. This problem left me having to change my ideas either slightly or dramatically, some of which I did end up preferring. I think situations like this aren't avoidable as technology hasn't yet been made so you can do everything you want, so I think I should of come up with more ideas at the start which I could of turned too if there was a problem.

3. What ideas did you communicate and what stylistic techniques did you use? How did it relate to your interests/self-identity? 
For my magazine I used things such as questionnaires which I gave out to a certain amount of people to fill out and then collect back in to rally up the results and help me with what I would include. The results for example, told me how many people liked or disliked something, and so I would then put something appropriate into my magazine. Competitions and eye-catching text was another way of communicating with the audience as it caught their attention by having things such as 'WIN' in bold. This is obviously going make most people want to read on and see what they could possibly win. 

4. Was your product influenced by your environment?
I think my product was influenced by my environment in some ways as it was based on a magazine I would be interested in myself. I go most days seeing a bit of 'Indie' music somewhere even if it's not on purpose, and as I enjoy Indie I decided to create my product in that style. I feel a lot of people my age are in into Indie music as well and as I was aiming it at my age group, I thought it fitted well. However, I did doubt that the Indie style would be too difficult to pull off in a magazine as it can be subtle but still interesting. 

5. Was it original or did you add something extra to an original media text?
It was original as I created it all myself, including the band which was just made up, but I did look through lots of magazines and media texts that were already out in the media to give me ideas and something to relate back too. The designing was often me having to improvise as the original idea wouldn't go to plan, but in the end I found some way of creating what I wanted each time that happened.

6. Would you take any creative skills into future projects or have you been influenced to engage these skills in any other projects? 
Yes I would definitely take any creative skills into future projects as I feel they would benefit me when it came to designing and producing a media product for example, that needs my current skills and more. I think taking skills you already have to something else is always a good idea as you can learn to improve them and make them more successful. The skills could also be engaged with other projects as I know them now and therefore am able to use or not use when I choose.

Positive and Negative

This image gives you the stereotypical look that a high percentage of people would think a nerd or geek would look like. A number of particular looks that are portrayed by people who dress up as nerds or geeks tend to all be unfortunate e.g. by dressing in formal clothes all the time from a young age or having they're hair and features in a way that isn't so popular with everyone else. This is a negative point as aspects like these can result in bullying just from the fact they're unique to everyone else around them.

This was another common look for a nerd where they have really maximised lenses in their glasses and even spots on their face too.  I don't always imagine a geek or nerd to be unattractive however I still picture them with glasses and possibly the slight bit of acne whatever they look like.

I think this is a negative way of showing how a nerd may look as it's making them seem unattractive just because they are intelligent.

Velma from Scooby Doo is an example of how they can be portrayed in children's tv shows. She has the glasses, the freckles, and a not so popular fashion sense as well. She is also the majority of the time the one who comes up with the ideas and solutions in their 'mysteries'. So from a young age, people are being given a stereotypical look for intelligent people through the media.