Media coursework.

1. What do you feel you have
learnt in your progression?
Evaluation 7.

2. Photography.
Photography was a important aspect of the magazine, and is something that I had to carry out
professionally in order to achieve a goo d magazine. I learnt about certain conventio0ns of music
magazines and about the images to use, I learnt that a medium close up was the usual form of
photography employed on a front cover and this is what I used when making the magazine.
As well as that I learnt that incorporating elements of mise en scene was also important in achieving a
good image. For instance dark colour clothing was associated with the genre of music that my music
magazine is I also used props as an element of mise en scene on the double page spread where the
artist is holding a guitar as well as making a festival wristband visible and a shirt also associated with
the genre wearing another bands themed T-shirt.
Photography on the contents page also required me to learn how to zoom in and out effectively to
achieve relevant images as well as this I also learnt how to focus the image at one point and distort the
background which was a technique that I felt gave me a powerful effect on two of the images that I
used.
In summary I feel that I learnt a lot from the photography and can see clear improvements from the
preliminary where images was poorly lighted and not well shot at all with casting shadows across faces
as well as other negative features. I feel that I was able to learn and apply a wide range of photography
techniques and that I progressed significantly throughout the course of construction.

3. Photoshop.
Photoshop was used in the construction of the magazine, I feel as though I learnt a sufficient amount
of knowledge from using the software since the preliminary. In the preliminary stages I had a limited
knowledge of Photoshop and the features available and I know have a better understanding and are
able to create better covers. I learnt how to add a background to the page through the gradient and
colour overlay, I also learnt how to add texts to the page and how to effect them in a way that looked
better on the page, for example I used a stroke effect on the masthead to give it a bolder look on the
page I did this by using the blending options that I was able to learn about in my coursework. As well as
this I was also able to edit the masthead further incorporating other elements of media and
technologies that I had learnt on Photoshop, for example I used the polygonal lasso tool to draw
around the top corner of the masthead and layer via cut to make it separate from then rest of the text
was then able to rotate it and add stroke to give the masthead a sticker effect.
As well as that I learnt to add shapes such as the rectangular shape and how to affect it in a way that
looked more appealing by skewing the shape and making it progressively bigger. Photoshop was also
massively important in the construction of my magazine by how I learned to edit images, for instance it
allowed me to delete the images background by using tools such as the magic wand it also helped me
in adding affects to images and learning new elements of editing. As well as that I also learnt how to
sample colours by clicking on the colour and being able to apply it to other areas of the page giving me
a more professional effect.

4. Quark.
My knowledge of quark has increased dramatically since the preliminary stages of the coursework, I
think that perhaps the thing that I learnt that made the biggest difference to my work was how to
format the page in a professional way, what I mean by this is by how I constructed the coursework
using the column guidelines setting the page out into three equal columns that I could then list the
articles in.
Because I didn’t know this in the preliminary I had no way of correctly structuring the columns and
therefore left me with a poor production, however the structured finish of the music magazine
contents page looks professional and is formatted well. As well as this I also used guides for other
features such as picture alignments, numberings, title taking thorough care in the presentation and
alignment of the page makes it look a lot more professional than the preliminary pages.
I also learnt about how to use other features on quark such as the inclusion of shapes and text using the
shapes to separate the text on the contents page and the text to list the articles.
The double page spread also required me to apply techniques that are available on quark, the main
image on the double page spread has been edited through blending options and is added as a black
and white effect in order to fit in with the conventions of the magazine, guides were also used on the
double page spread to keep production neat. As a overview I feel that I have really progressed and
developed an understanding of quark where I feel confident to now produce a decent quality of work.

5. Features and conventions of Magazines that I
have learnt.
Front Covers
Contents
Double Page Spread.
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Skylines.
Masthead (largest text on the cover)
Image. (medium close up)
Varied cover lines.
Issue information.
Barcode.
Banners.
Puffs.
Buzz words.
Anchorage.
Smaller/Varied images.
Positioning statment.
Title.
Masthead. (optional)
Featured articles.
Regular content.
Columns.
Varied images.
Captions.
Page numbers.
Large main image.
Page numbers.
Title.
Quotations.
Drop capitals.
Questions.
Columns.
Introduction paragraph.
There are also other elements of magazines that I have learnt about in my coursework, for example I have learnt about
the significance of mise en scene when in order to create a effective image; incorporating props, lighting, accessories
and other relevant features to make a powerful image. I have also learnt about the importance of house style. It was
important for me to establish a house style and have features of that house style present in the magazine. For me I
identified the distorted font styles as something that I was keen to carry out throughout the magazine as well as the
more noticeably black and yellow colour schemes that I think worked well in my magazine.