During the process of making my music magazines I have learnt many lessons and transferable skills, I really enjoyed the designing although I did get rather stressed when certain things wouldn’t work.I learnt to take a deep breath and relax and not put so much pressure on myself.  The other transferable skills I have learnt are patience, you have to be patient with designing and not rush things, time management is also something which I can take from designing my music magazine. I struggle a lot with time management but getting used to the applications and exploring them has helped a lot with my time management issue. One thing which could of gone better is if I stepped completely out my comfort zone, this would encourage more creativity in my magazine.

During my time so far in media I have developed many skills, one major skill I have developed is my design skills. I have developed these skills through the use of applications such as  indesign and photoshop. I think I have done well at developing my skills however I need to remember to be patient and make my front cover star appear as natural as possible.

I began by first developing my design skills in photoshop, this was to perfect the image for my front cover of my main cover star and make him stand out. The first design skill I learnt was how to use the blur tool, the blur tool can be found on the tool bar which is on the right hand side. The blur tool button is shaped as a teardrop and once you click on the icon it is the first tab. I used the blur tool in order to clear some blemishes which appeared on my main cover stars chin, in order to blur it as precisely as I could I zoomed in closely. Blurring these imperfections helped to minimize distractions on his face and helped to make him appear even better.

Another skill I developed in photoshop was painting, due to my models hair being curly and very impossible to cut out naturally I had to paint the background behind him. This worked really well and I am proud in how it turned out. I managed to do this by clicking on the paint tool which is the paint icon seen 8 icons down. I used the colour palette to create the colour I wanted as my background and began painting, to ensure I was painting around my main cover star correctly I adjusted the size of the brush. I also used the eraser tool if I accidentally painted onto my model. 

I am now ready to photograph my star, I will be sure to stick to my brand values and mission statement when completing my shoot. This includes making sure I keep up my mission brand values for my magazine which includes edgy, aesthetic, mellow, modern and approachable content. To achieve this I will be using the techniques of mis-en-scene which will help me to create a narrative. My stars costume is conventional to an indie style and aesthetic e.g striped shirt, chinos, and doc martens. The lighting will be mellow and soft to illustrate the relaxed nature of the magazine which is a brand value of mine as the genre is relaxed and mellow. For acting I will ask my star to pose in a way which represents the genre and is a conventional pose, e.g for my genre head on hand and looking into distance. Makeup will be none and props include fake glasses which are also conventional of the genre. The use of camera I will use will include aperture, shutter speed, appropriate angles and framing which I will use to represent the mood, genre and star image of my star. I will be sure to also include the conventional layouts of music magazines e.g Masthead, cover lines, cover stars etc. When completing my shoot I will be sure to keep in mind Hall’s theory of preferred, negotiated and oppositional reading in order for my target audience to be able to decode the media text. Maintaining the star image of my star is very important and I will keep in mind Dyer’s ‘paradox of the star’.

Using the knowledge I have been learning these past few weeks I can now collect all of it together to help me create my own media. The things I have learnt which I will be sure to consider when making media are CAMERA, Mise en scene, layout, typography, AIDA (attention, interest, desire and action) and  Blumer and Katz theory.

Below is a brief overview of each technique that I have learnt which I will now use in my own media.

CAMERA= can be used to represent a mood, character, or a genre through the use of framing (composition/rule of thirds), angles (high angle,low angle, looking inside from outside, side on) and distance (close up, medium close up, long shot). I will need to include CAMERA in my own music magazine to represent the mood, or present my artist and the genre of music which I am advertising in my magazine.

Mise-en-scene=(this helps to convey a mood, represent a character, and convey a genre) it includes costume, lighting, acting, makeup, props and setting.  When it comes to my music magazine I will have to consider the Mise-en-scene I will use to present ideas, moods, characters and genres in order to create clear messages to audience and attract in the target audience.

Layout=Conventional layouts of music magazines are important in advertising and drawing audiences in through the use of design features, for example: plugs, mastheads, pugs, insets, captions, main cover stars, cover lines, main cover lines, issue/date, price, and barcode. Layout is very important when it comes to creating a music magazine, it provides the audience with information about what is included in the magazine, it also represents the brand and genre of music which attracts the target audience in.

Typography=The type of font style used and the message, mood and genre this displays to my audience.

AIDA= (attention, interest, desire, action) – Making sure media attracts in the attention of specific audiences, interests them and makes them desire to read more, and take action from this desire (buy the magazine). Keeping this in mind when creating my own media will help me to maximize my audience and draw in the target audience to my magazine resulting in more sales.

Blumer and Katz theory= The Blumer and Katz theory (Uses and Gratification) sates that media users play an important role in choosing and and using media, it suggests that the user consumes the media which best fulfills their needs. This theory assumes that the audience chooses what media they want to consume from four different reasons: entertainment, social interaction, personal identity, and identity. This theory will impact the production of my music magazine as in order to maximise my audience and response of the audience I will need need to apply media which will fulfill each aspect.