2. HOW DOES YOUR PRODUCT USE OR CHALLENGE CONVENTIONS
AND HOW DOES IT REPRESENT SOCIAL GROUPS AND ISSUES ?
3. I developed a fitness magazine for my foundation portfolio as
fitness is something I am very passionate about. The sub genre
of my magazine was men’s fitness. Throughout the production
of my magazine, I followed and challenged many of the codes
and conventions of popular fitness magazines and used 3
particular real media texts which helped me with my research,
planning and execution. The real media texts I researched were
the popular fitness magazines; Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness and
Flex.
4. After intensive research on my real media texts, I
gathered the information about the codes and
conventions of my genre to begin production. I
followed many codes and conventions such as
using a big and bold masthead as seen on the
cover page of FLEX magazine. Furthermore I
dressed my model in simple, plain colored
clothing as it is a convention usually seen in
Men’s Health magazine. I used a plain
background since that convention is followed by
most fitness magazines. Other codes and
conventions include using a Mid shot as my
camera shot and using the eye level camera
angle. Using bold coverlines is also a code I
adhered too as well as using gym based
equipment as props for my magazines. However
a major code and convention I challenged was
not following the usual color palette of Red or
blue. Instead I used a green, black and white
color palette as I wanted my magazine to have a
very patriotic feel to it so I used the colors of my
5. The main reason I selected this genre is because I feel like there
is a lack of fitness and fitness based knowledge in Pakistan.
Health is a major issue in our part of the world and I wanted to
tackle it by creating the first ever fitness magazine in Pakistan. I
feel that it is paramount that our nation acquires general fitness
and health based knowledge for the sake of the nations overall
fitness magazine. Overall, my magazine has a very masculine feel
to it and I think it brings to light the lack of fitness based
knowledge in our country.
6. HOW DOES YOUR PRODUCT ENGAGE WITH AUDIENCES AND HOW
WOULD IT BE DISTRIBUTED AS REAL MEDIA TEXTS ?
7. As I mentioned earlier, This is Pakistan’s first ever fitness magazine and
fitness lovers from all over the country will be very excited to pick up a copy.
However, my main target audience is Men between the ages of 18-40 as they
are usually the most interested in fitness. To engage with my audience better,
I conducted and audience survey about what the content of my magazine
should look like and I analyzed all the Reponses and tried to present the
audience with what they wanted. For example, the color scheme, model, price,
content, camera shot etc were all decided after going through the results of
my audience survey. I also think that the patriotic look of my magazine is
something that will really sit well with the audience. My unique selling point
along with the eye catching coverlines are sure attract the attention of my
target audience.
As for distribution as real media texts, my magazine would be distributed in
places where fitness lovers are sure to be found, for example, Gyms, health
clubs, healthy restaurants or café’s and of course , magazine outlets around
the country. Also, most marketing will be done on social media as well as
places such as health clubs and gyms.
8. HOW DID YOUR PRODUCTION SKILLS DEVELOP
THROUGHOUT THIS PROJECT ?
9. The process of developing my photoshop skills from being completely unable
to use photoshop and being a decent user has been a long and difficult one.
Starting off I hardly knew the basics of photoshop and with the help of my
teachers I developed all the skills I needed to create my magazine. Learning to
use tools such as the polygon lasso tool and the shape tool was a great
experience and is a skill which I’m sure will aid me even in the future. Editing
was a long a tedious process but it really helped me develop my skills in
photoshop.
Other technical skills I learnt were using lights and camera techniques to get
the best out of my photoshoot. I conducted an initial photoshoot but I was
mot satisfied with the lighting and camera angles. This is why I arranged a
reshoot and rented a studio light which I used to get the best results possible.
I also used different camera techniques such as using the eye level angle to
take better pictures.
All these skills I developed along with learning how to blog using different
blog sires such as tumblr and weebly really helped me become a more
versatile individual and helped me create my foundation portfolio.
10. HOW DID YOU INTEGRATE TECHNOLOGIES-HARDWARE,
SOFTWARE AND ONLINE IN THIS PROJECT ?
11. Learning how to use different hardware and software were essential
elements used to create my foundation portfolio. The hardware I used
to create my foundation portfolio was a computer, camera, mobile
phone and memory card. I used a high quality DSLR camera for my
photoshoots and my mobile camera for all the evidence I collected. The
memory card was used to back up all ,y important data and the
computer was used for editing and blogging etc.
I used a variety of software to create my foundation portfolio which
included Photoshop CS6, Tumblr, EMAZE, slideshare, powerpoint and
various other presentation creating software. Photoshop was extremely
important as it was used to edit my entire magazine, Tumblr was the
website I used for blogging and it is a very user friendly website. I used
various tools such as EMAZE and Powerpoint to create slideshows and
presentations for my blog posts.
I had all my data backed up in my google drive as well as my
computer. Overall it was a wonderful experience working with all these
tools to create my portfolio and I am proud of what I have achieved,
