So… How is it going?

Throughout making my magazine and keeping this blog updated, I have learnt many transferrable skills :

  • Organisation – the use of the blog league has made my work much more easier to track
  • Design skills – Over the course, I have developed design skills with software such as Photoshop and InDesign, I will be able to use this skills in any creative industry that I go into, due to many businesses using them.
  • Communication – I have been able to imply meanings within the text I have added to my magazine, this can be especially seen in my article

 

Overall I am happy with the following:

  • The overall layout of my magazine
  • The colour schemes found in my magazine, especially in the contents page

Design Skills 2

throughout making my magazine pages, I have become more confident in both Photoshop and InDesign.

One of the most useful tools that I have learnt to use is the InDesign colour hex editor, this features allows me to find any colour I want, find its hex colour and I then can use it in my own work, this has been especially useful when creating my content page, as it had extremely vivid colours, and all the colours needed to be consistent, the colour palette also helped me with this, as I was able too store colours that I had already used. Both of these tools, would make my magazine look both more contemporary and fit more to the indie subgenre, due to the modern design and aesthetically pleasing colours.

In photoshop I have particularly found the curve tool useful, it allows the user to change the tonal level of the image, this means that you can change the shadows and the highlights of the photo to make the photo look more appealing overall. You can add different points to the tone line, this either makes the shadows or the highlights, more or less prominent in the photo, this is particularly useful in changing the mood in the photo. For example you can make the shadows more prominent to make an image appear more dramatic.

 

 

 

Design Skills 1

Throughout this first term of my media course, I have improved my design skills, especially on software such as Photoshop and InDesign. In photoshop I learned both the use of the curves tool, to change lighting to either make a photo brighter or darker, and using the noise affect to add grain to a photo. I also used the colour filter if I wanted to change the appearance of a photo overall.

While I had a previous knowledge of photoshop before I took media, I had no knowledge of how to use Indesign, through using indesign, I have learnt how to create more basic things like textboxes to more advanced things such as gradients using the gradient feather tool, there is also a range of formatting options for text, being able to change the angle of text, move them closer together and moving them closer apart from each other. I also learnt how to create a drop capital in an article more recently.

Overall I think that I have added to my photoshop knowledge and gained a lot of knowledge of InDesign. I used these tools to make my design fit the genre, for example on the masthead of my magazine I added a white border around it to make it a more calming colour, to fit with my overall calmness of my indie magazine, it also made it stand out against the background.

So… I am ready to photograph my star.

Mission Statement : ‘Carnation’ is the hottest magazine for the Indie scene, whether it be old classics of the 1980s to the debut albums of today, It will be found. .’Carnation’ inspires those who read it to express themselves, no matter what background, It invites them to a new meaningful movement.

Brand Values : Carnation aims to bring a new perspective to the indie genre, and aims to provide the reader with new regular content, as well as making them feel part of a community.

In order to make this magazine to the best standard, I will have to use the knowledge I have gained over the last few months. Such as Mise-en-scene (C.L.A.M.P.S) and the technical side of the camera (Aperture, Shutter Speed, Exposure)

Along with researching how I will do the shoot, I have also looked at the conventions of the genre and overall magazine conventions (Mastheads, Plugs, Pugs). I will also try to create a star image for my model, this will be done by using Richard Dyers Paradox of the star. I will have to make my star appear both absent and present swell as creating them ordinary and extraordinary. I will also have to factor in Hall’s theory of three responses, Preferred, Oppositional and Negotiated Reading to make my magazine reach my audience.

So… I’m ready to make some media!

When I create my magazine cover I will have to consider several aspects of it before I create it.

  1. Blumler & Katz – The theories stating both the uses and gratifications of media, all factors will be essential when creating my magazine as I will need to create the right content that will gather a large audience and also make the content relatable so the audience can identify with it
  2. Mise-En-Scene – I need to make sure that all my photos of the musicians in the magazines  I will need to use all of the factors of MES to ensure that the pictures are appealing to the audience
  3. Target Audience – Before making my magazine, I will need to research into the target audience of my magazine, this is who I want to be buying the magazine.
  4. Magazine Design – I will also need to follow all the general conventions of a magazine cover, for example, I will need an appealing layout, and aesthetically pleasing colour scheme.The fonts should also be legible.
  5. AIDA – this stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action, when creating my magazine I will have to create the articles under this format, for example having an attention grabbing article title then creating interest and desire through the article, then a place to give Action, e.g an email address to type to the magazine.

So how can an image communicate meaning?

.Camera framing can affect mise-en-scene in different ways, a good example would be with angles. With a low angle it could derive power and strength, where as with high angles it could connote weakness and feebleness. CLAMPS is also essential for communicating meaning, as it is needed to create any kind of narrative with a just an image. CLAMPS stands for:

 

  • Costume – How the actors are dressed in the scene, this is very important for things like costume dramas for example
  • Lighting – This is especially helpful in setting the mood of the scene, such as creating shadow on faces which could suggest the nature of the character
  • Actors – The age and gender of the actor both affect the scene majorly, as casting the correct character will help the scene majorily
  • Makeup – Makeup affects how the characters look, for example a more upper class character would have a very clean face and perfect, where as a poorer character may have a dirtier face
  • Props – Props are essential for any scene as it can add depth to what would be a plain character
  • Setting – Setting creates the environment for the scene to happen in.

 

These will all be very useful when creating my magazine cover as I will need to create a narrative in them.