.

1. Production Reflection
Tom Batty

2. Process
For week 2 of our FMP, I was firstly completing my research power point. What I was
completing was the rest of my existing products. I ended up changing up what I was
reviewing and found it a bit more difficult to talk about but with some help I eventually
got on and completed it. The final part that I needed to complete of the research
power point was collect my survey result. I had to talk about each question that I got
results from and mention my observation, what does this say about my audience and
would my product appeal to this target audience. I found this easy enough to do
simply because we have done it before which made it easy to just get on and finish
quickly.
The other task I have been completing is my production experiments. I have only
managed to begin one design for a front cover so far but it is coming a long well and
this is a good chance for me to try out some new skills that's I haven't got to try or
learn. Because I am doing a magazine front cover I thought that the mast head is an
important feature, so I looked up some tutorials to learn on how to improve the looks
of some letter and fonts. It was an effect that made the letters and fonts look like they
had been painted and personally I think it looks really good but it might not suit my
magazine stile I am going for. But some of the techniques from that tutorial I know I
will be able to use them in other areas to improve my front cover. I know that I'm
going to look up more tutorials because of how many other techniques I will be able to
add to my work to get a better grade.

5. Process
For week 3 it was all about my production experiments and completing my proposal. I ended up completing 4
different experiments. I did two different font tutorials and I have to say my first tutorial wasn't hard and was
relevantly easy to complete and follow. The first tutorial was a dripping paint effect. I got some useful knowledge
from it because I had never done something of that style before and I found out a completely new set of skills and
methods of making my masthead look attractive to the audience. The second font tutorial was a lot harder to do for
me and harder to follow. even though it involved some skills I knew of and I had dabbled with it brought a lot more
factors into the mix. The font style was an 80s chrome look and I didn't do as well on this one as the font before but
was pretty close to the same look. There were more steps involved but that meant more skills and little talents to
learn to then improve my work. I know from doing both of these tutorials I have gained some good knowledge to
improve my final product. The other two tutorials I learnt were for images. The first image tutorial was probably the
easiest out of all four but is one of the most effective looking examples. The tutorial was a 3D effect and it was
reasonably short because it only involved a few steps. even though it was simple I still learnt a new skill that I'm
thinking of involving into my final product. For the second image tutorial, again I found it relatively easy to complete
but what I would say for this tutorial is that I don think I'm going to involve any of the style or techniques into my
final product just on that fact that I don't think it would fit well at all. But I'm still glad I did the tutorial due to the
fact I know the skills will come in handy at some point.
Once I completed all of that I began my proposal on Friday. the proposal wasn't really anything difficult because I
had done them before multiple times in previous rotations. This proposal though was different in the fact there
needed to be a lot of depth in detail and explaining my idea. Also a planning sheet was involved in the proposal this
time so that took no time to fill out because I knew exactly how and when I wanted to do things. Finally I just had to
complete the rest of my bibliography and have at least seven results but I ended up having eight. This week for me
has probably been the most enjoyable so far just because its slowly getting to the production which is the part I
enjoy the most.

8. Process
For week four of my FMP was to complete the pre production PowerPoint. This PowerPoint involved
me collecting fonts, colour schemes and picture styles of what I'm going to be using for my actual
product. I started by collecting three different fonts and I used a website called da font which is full of
multiple fonts to choose from. After having a good browse I picked three different fonts relating to the
style of my magazine. I had to explain why I chose the fonts and how they fit in with my product. But
two of the fonts were corrupted when downloading them and I couldn't fix it. So I then had to go look
for two more different fonts that would fit in just as well. Once finishing that I began founding colours. I
used another website to help me through this part and that website is paletton paint. The good thing
about this website is when you find the colour you want, you can screen shot the palette and when in
Photoshop you can click on the colour you want and find that same colour. When I found the colours I
wanted, it was just a rinse and repeat of talking about why I chose the colours and why they relate.
Finally for this stage was to get image styles that I plan to have involved in my products. Then again
rinse and repeat process.
After finishing that starter piece it was time to begin my layout plans. I created layout plans for my front
cover, website, double page spread and the merchandise I plan to create. For each layout plan I created
one mock and then another one that is still a mock but looks more of what I want to create. This for me
didn't seem very hard and very easy to complete in my opinion. I had a small set back on completion
because I had to wait for my fonts to fully download but this wasn't that drastic as I still finished this in
plenty of time.
The final part of this PowerPoint was to fill in my resources table, contingency plan then health and
safety. These were nothing I haven't done before so again I managed to get through them reasonably
fast but still I had to give a good amount of specific details. This week for I found it the most enjoyable
week so far out of the previous weeks. I think the reason why is that I'm finally creating my product and
that's the part I enjoy the most. I wouldn't say I learnt anything this week because its something I have
done in previous rotations, but this time it has required more detail.

11. Process
Starting on Tuesday, I began production of my Front cover, website and my merchandise. With my
Front cover I have managed to begin shaping where everything is going, such as my masthead and
cover lines. To create my Front cover I'm using Photoshop and having selected the international
paper measurements because personally that looks best for a magazine size. I have made sure
that all my cover lines are in line with each other along side the masthead giving a nice clean look,
which for a magazine is a must. I used what I had practiced in my experiments to make a very
good looking mast head in my opinion that will fit in really well. Its a surprise because I thought
that would've used my other experiments not this one. The front cover is all coming together and
I'm happy with the production so far. So far with my Front cover I have been none stop tweaking
and moving things to see what looks best and until I finish I can imagine I will be doing this none
stop depending on what I add. I managed to get a starting base for my website. What I had done
was select a layout using the website Wix and began editing it to my liking. I removed most of the
base content and then moved onto adding and changing pages to what information I'm going to
add. Both still have a lot more to be added to but its a very good start. Finally for my merchandise
again I used Photoshop to edit them both. The merchandise has been the easiest point so far
because I have the jumper and t-shirt front and back with the correct wording and fonts. All I need
to finish the merchandise is images of my rap group. I will be able to do most of my work on
Friday and after because that's when I have booked out the studio and equipment to take pictures
of my so called rap group. So overall for my first day of production, I would say it has been very
productive and a good beginning to the next 3 weeks.

12. On Wednesday, all I had done was touch up on my Front cover and begin adding
in information to my Website. I really was limited to what I could've completed
but I still went on with some progression but hopefully on Thursday I can get more
done then Wednesday.
On Thursday, I had managed to get a lot more done for my website. I have pretty
much completed one of my web pages which is the top 30 best rap albums of all
time. I made sure to involve height depth because I know how important it is to
involve this into my work. It also just gives my work a better look then it had
before. After that I moved onto my festival and tour web page. for this instead of
using other festivals I am going to create my own posters and tour dates. So by
doing this I began to create my festival poster and that concluded the end of the
day on Thursday.

13. On Friday, I managed to get a lot of work progressed forward because I had the kit and studio booked
out for first period. After being given a quick tutorial by josh on how the lighting works in the studio
and another refresher on how the camera works, I was ready to go. After taking roughly 70 different
photos of my mates I was ready to add the few that came out the best. I started with my Front cover
and added in a photo of the three and placed it in the center of the page and began tweaking and
editing the image. All I did to edit the image was use the quick select tool and go around the white
background and selecting everything but the three in the middle. When I was happy I right clicked on
inverse selected which effectively made it so when I click on layer via copy it will create another layer
without the white background. The reason I did this was so I could add that classic style of most
magazines by having the main topic person/people covering a slight part of the masthead. This to me
also Gives a more appealing look and almost catches your eye more then other magazines that don't
involve it. When I was content with how that looked, I thought that the white background was pretty
boring and bland for how the rest of my magazine looked. So I thought I would experiment with adding
in a fading background by using stroke. I'm not sure if I will keep it but I always have time to change and
tweak things about. For the final part of the day of Friday was to carry on with my festival poster/Line
up. From looking at a few of line ups of festivals I knew where my inspiration was coming from and so
far I'm very pleased with how well its looking. I feel that the two colours used surprisingly work very
well together and give off a nice eye pleasing but yet still eye catching look. Again I was obsessed with
making sure everything was in line and looking clean. Another big part I was focusing on again was the
height depth and perception. This is a big part of any festival line and helps people read them easier
and helps it more understanding. Just like my front cover I wouldn't say its finished. What I was thinking
to make it more legit to add in some advertisement of my own made up products or already existing
products.

14. After my first week of production, I still have a fair amount of work to do but I also
have another two weeks to get on and work hard and I'm fully confident I can get
it all done and finished to a good standard. The thing I would say I've learnt is how
to work the studio room lighting and join that with knowledge on how to use the
camera, I can come out with some good images. I've set up myself for the second
week of production.

16. Process
For Tuesday of the second week of production, I firstly began with re designing my merchandise. I found out a better way
of editing my designs and it was by using a website called Red Bubble. This allowed me to save my design as a PNG and
then apply the design to any item of clothing I wanted. For me it was just a white, uni sex t-shirt and a black pull over
hoodie. I had to re think some of my designs for my merchandise because they were a bit bland and boring but after
getting some more inspiration I managed to make my logo look more appealing by adding some bold text and gradient
colour. Also I ended up changing the logo from 'The Overachievers' to just the 'Overachievers' which again helped it suit
the merchandise more. I kept the logo the same for both pieces of merchandise because it will help people recognize it as
that then having a variety of different colours where people may not relate them to the rap group. But on the other hand
in another collection of clothes then the variety would be needed. Once completing the designs I saved them and then
added them to my page on my website. For a bit more context I added in a fake link to make it look more legit and then a
small description of the cost, size and what was on the item of merchandise. This was a bit of a set back in my plan of
production for today but again it was worth it because it looks a lot better then it would have been if I didn't edit. Once
finishing that part I moved onto finishing the rest of festival poster. All I needed to do for this was add a couple more
artists and a nice, important feature which was to add in some advertisement. For me this adds more of a professional
look and authentic look and overall offers a lot more to the poster. Again, when I finished that I placed it on my web page
on my Tour/Festival page. Just like my merchandise website I added a fake website for that authentic look and helps fill out
the page more. I'm slowly getting my website looking better and better. Finally for today I began to make a tour poster for
'The Overachievers' which will improve my work and I needed to make one to add more of a professional feeling for my
Tour/Festival page. I think for where I'm at with it for a starter is good and I have a good feeling of how it will turn out. I
made the Masthead standout nicely by adding black outline stroke to it and a green outer shadow. The colour of the
masthead is a nice dark blue and that's all sitting on top of a purple background with a black outlining. For me all of these
colours work very well together and its very pleasing to look at. The last little bit I managed to do was place two separate
images of two of the members of the rap group and for next time I'm gong to mess around with them to see what
outcome looks best. I still have a lot more to do but I'm slowly getting there and so far I don't think I'm reaching my
potential. What I mean by that is I'm almost rushing through and not thinking of how the best outcome would look like
and I'm just settling with simple designs.

17. For Wednesday, I managed to get on and finish my tour poster. To begin, I ended up changing the
title of the tour to something that sounded a little better then what I had before. Still keeping the
design of the logo the same, I like adding in thick lines to break up the text and logos and for me it
makes everything look a lot smarter and professional. I would say below the line it shows more of a
basic design but I still think works well. With the '2018' and '2019', I thought that both still needed
the outer shadow to keep the idea of height depth involved but didn't have the stroke black outline
like I have on the Masthead. So I have involved three different levels of the height depths that I feel
do work well. After doing that, I just made up some random dates an added them along side actual
arenas around the UK. That was all done in a simple font with a dark blue. The blue was the same
colour and the masthead and in a different font with less bold text, it didn't stand out very well.
When it comes to the images, I added in the last member of the rap group and placed them as three
separate images so I could position them in a certain way. So I changed it to a lighter blue which
stands out way more. The images them selves haven't been edited in anyway but for something like
this I felt it wasn't that necessary but I might change my mind if I think it needs touching up a little bit.
When completing that I just repeated the process of what I did with my Festival process, which came
to the completion of the Tour/Festival web page.

18. For Thursday, I planned to focus on finishing my magazine front cover. After being reminded to look back at my research
and what I was basing my front cover of, my whole design changed completely. I would defiantly say that my final front
cover design looks a lot better then my original design. It looks way more professional and I could see it on the shelves of
a shop and that it would fit in. What I started with was getting rid of the image of the group on the front. I did this
because I needed a more up close image of them all, so I selected the best individual images of the three and made sure I
got a good mid up close size. I firstly placed Jack(glasses) in the front and middle of the three and removed the
background by going to select whilst still on the selected image and go onto colour range. By doing this it helps me select
all the background I need deleting. After doing that I right clicked on the layer and clicked on select inverse and then click
again on layer via copy with gives me a near perfect cut out of the image without the background. I repeated that process
with Dan (on the right). I did that because then I would be left with one background hat I can edit with its natural look. So
I was left with Jack(on the left), now focusing on his image alone I repeated the colour range process so the background
was selected. What I did next was mess around with the curves. I went through cyan, magenta, yellow and black, with all
of them I made a shape which was helping me balance out a nice purple colour sticking to what my original design was
on. When I was happy with that colour I messed around with the Hue/Saturation to help contrast it better and I came out
with a nice eye pleasing colour. With all the images, I wanted to make them a little bit darker just to help contrast and fit
in a it better with the rest of the cover. So by using the quick select tool I selected them individually and layer via copied
them so I could then go back onto curves and just edit on the colour black. This helped them get just a nicer shade to
them which was the exacted look I needed. Once I was pleased with all the arrangement of the images I moved on the
text at the bottom of the page and realized that I couldn't have all the same style font. So I made the name of the group
its own individual logo to make it stand out more and look way more professional. Also by doing this, it helped improve
the height depths of everything. All I did to change it was add a different font and then add in a light purple, pin light,
outside stroke to give a nice eye pleasing look and helped make it stand out more then the other text above and below.
All that had to be done after that was to sort out my cover lines and the masthead placement. For the cover lines, I
decided to changed the text to a colour that will actually stand out instead of blending in. That colour was white. The only
place that was left that could fit in the cover lines was the top right corner. A small but also a quite big deal was changing
the text to start in the left side instead of having a lined with the right side. Again a small issue but gives off a bigger effect
to help it fit in well. When I was happy of the placement of that I only had to do the last little part that finishes a
magazines look. That look would be to have a part of the masthead partly being behind the main images of the front
cover. This is such a classic style of any magazine and I knew I wanted to add it into mine.

19. For Friday, much like Thursday I reflected on my tour poster and got pointed out that there could be a
lot more added to just give it at nice edge of a real poster. The first part I edited was that I did decide to
edit and add effects to the guys a the bottom of the page. What I did to them quick selected them all
and made them into their own layers so then I could add effects to them. What I thought would have
been a good idea was to go to image, adjustments, threshold and make them a nice black and white
colour which helped them stand out a bit more and fit in well. Once doing that I went to filter, pixelate,
mosaic which gives it a blurry effect but I only added a small amount because I still wanted them to be
recognize as the group. After doing that I began to change the tour dates. What was obvious about the
tour dates was the colour. The colour was an almost turquoise and just wasn't that easy to read even if it
was eye catching. So a safe option that fit nicely was to colour it in white. The other problem was that
something went wrong with the font I used. It all looked distorted and stretched and wasn't all the same
size. It was still an easy fix so there wasn't any major set back. After all of that there was some last
simple changes that made all the difference. I had originally mad the masthead a little too large for the
top of the page so I just made it a little smaller and centered it and again like I keep saying it made all
the difference. I then finally just added the same stroke from the masthead to the '2018' and '2019'. I
did this because I was told that it was a little hard to read without the stroke and I think it helps it all fit
in better. The final touch was to add in a gradient to my background instead of having just a plain colour.
The gradient I added was a diamond shape and using the second colour as a lighter purple. Adding that
lighter purple gradient just adds that bit more to make it more appealing to the public. When correcting
all of that it was time to add them to my website. For my website, I added in the front cover to my
Home page and deleted the new addiction web page. the reason for this is that it was a little pointless
just to have on one page dedicated to a magazine. To make it look more realistic I added some
description by the side of it just to advertise. Nice white text on the black background and then a purple
underline to help break up the text. I still kept the same masthead of the page and the same description
as the other web pages. Then all I had to do was replace to updated tour poster.

20. For the second week of production I feel that everything is forming together finally. I
also think I've managed to get a lot more work done this week that has given me a could
final head start for the final week of production. Recently with the course I personally
don't think my work is at a good standard and want to be able to come up with my own
ideas without that much inspiration. By doing that I will get the grades I really want and
need.

26. Process
For Tuesday of my final week of production, I began on finishing my Website. What I had
planned to do was add in relative news that involved the world of music. That news was of
course the Billboard awards. What I wanted to use from the Billboard awards was the
nominees and winners of awards relating by chosen genre, Hip/Hop. The awards I added in
were Top Artist, Top New Artist, Top male and female Artist, Top 100 and 200 Artist, Top
Streaming Artist Songs, Top Rap Artist, Top male and female Rap Artist and finally Top Rap
Tour. I didn't feel the need to add in any of the other awards because they had no
relevance to my genre and I already have a good decent amount of information added to
fill in the page. Like my other titles of each web page I have kept the same font, colour and
effects the same to fit in the rest of the website. For the layout of the content I added in, I
thought that having the text down one side and then having a couple of images down the
other side. I have added images next to the text relating to what has been said in the text.
My final finishing touches to my website would be to create my own side bar
advertisement. I want to do this because then it will help the look of my website become
more professional.

27. For Wednesday, I dedicated it to finishing and polishing off my website. To do that, like I mentioned on
my review of Tuesday I was going to create some typically seen side bar advertisement. I wanted to
create just two that would appear on all my web pages. The style of advert I wanted to create was the
typical tacky looking ones because for me personally all I ever see is the tacky looking adverts that
make you not want to click on them. For me this just helps at more to my work and gives that realistic
looks to it. Another thing I would say is that it helps fill out the website and not look plain and empty.
What I did to begin creating the advertisement was to first took a screen shot of the exact length of the
side where I would be placing the adverts. I did this because it help give me a good idea of what size
and how big I should make the advert. My first design I simply made a coloured box roughly the same
size as my template. I thought to make them eye catching would help give it the tacky and dodgy look I
was going for. So I coloured the background in a bright red and the main title of the advertisement in a
dark blue which contrasted well. I used a different font to the text below just to make it look at least a
part professional and believable. The other text I just coloured them in white and changed the font
because I didn't want to put loads of thought and effort into it because of the style I was going for. To
finish off my tacky look I placed a black box and then placed an album cover in the middle with a play
button on top. I designed it in this way because from what I've see personally a lot of these style
adverts look exactly how I've done. That was then the first one finished and done. For my second
design, I wanted to create something different so instead of having a coloured in box I just added a
outline and a thick outside pin stroke. Which gave me a nice thick line on the outside. I coloured it
green because its eye catching and this particular colour gives that tacky look. Again I added colours
that would contrast nicely together and the colour I added was red. For this design I didn't have a
different font for the main title and normal text but just like the outside of the box I added a outside
pin stroke to the title, which gives off that nice highlighted look. The only thing I needed to add was
some alright quality pictures but not decent for that tacky almost scam look. After that I just added
both of them onto each web page on my website and that completed my website.

28. For Friday, it was time to begin my double page spread. I decided to create and design my double page spread of
Photoshop, simply because after all this time using the software over and over I feel that I can create better work on
here then other software. I began by starting a new document and making my page an international paper, selecting A3
and then turning in landscape. Once I did that, I added in some guide lines to get me started on shaping my design. I
started by collecting my colour schemes from my pre production so I could have a nice variety of colours and choice if I
changed my mind. After collecting them I began with my masthead. I first use my origiside font and after a mess around
with the colours I decided that it really didn't look that good so I then changed it to my most used font, Progression. I
personally felt it looked a lot better once I changed the font but I still kept the same colours. I also thought it might look
good if I kept the question mark the same as the old font to add some edge to the masthead and I like how it has come
out. What I did just like on the front cover for the rap group, I added a outside pin stroke of blue which I knew would
contrast well with the main yellow of the text. I messed around with the size for a while and once I was satisfied, I moved
on to adding in a background colour to one side of my double page spread. I thought that I should keep to the more
purple side because that's the main colour that I have used throughout this process and in my work. What I added next
was something I did to my front cover and that was to add in a gradient just so its not a plain coloured background. By
adding in a diamond shaped gradient it just adds in that little bit more to make that half of the page look way better. For
the gradient, I used two colours and those colours were a dark purple and then the second colour I used was a lighter
purple to give it a nice faded look. After I was satisfied with that I picked three separate images of the members of the
rap group. I wanted to have a different style by spreading the three images around one side of the page. For each of the
images, I kept the background and quick selected them with the quick select tool and messed around with the
Hue/Saturation. What I was going for was to help the background more on the purple side so it fits in with the rest of the
background. I also ended up messing around with the vibrant setting with the images just to get less of a low saturation
but more vibrant and standing out in a way. What also added to the images was some effects from the filter gallery, just
to give off a different look. What I added to the images from the filter gallery was a dark stroke. I really liked how adding
that effect changed the images in a slight way and I think it improved the look of the double page spread so far.

33. Process
Due to the exams going on throughout college this week, I have only been in for four
lessons. What I had go up to was finishing off the rest of my double page spread. All I had
to do was add in all my text and content about the group, of which I created myself. Then
to add a bit more to the page, I decided to place another image of the three together with
another effect of messing with the curves giving it that same purple shade on the rest of
the photos. I also used the same font and stroke as the masthead for their names just so
anyone reading know which member is which. The only difference between the three
names is the change of colour and I did this just to add in a bit of variety. This can also in
some peoples eyes, helping highlight their individual personality instead of being seen as a
group. Once adding in all of these elements, I had to make sure everything was in line and
looking professional. At the moment I feel that I'm finished but I am going to keep looking
over this last piece of work because I might have missed something that I could improve
on.
Now its becoming towards the end of the year and handing in work, I'm starting to have
doubts on if my work is a good enough standard but I know what I need to do to secure
myself on next years course. So far this year I've enjoyed the course and I'm interested to
see what next year has to offer.