Reflective diary V3

Week 1
Background research and proposal
Writing my proposal has felt very strange as I only just discovered what I wanted to do my final
major project on. But, I am very happy with the idea and feel that it is going to go well. Also
the topic I have chosen offers lots of creative ideas to incorporate into my magazine. Based
on the research that I have done, I think that I do have enough knowledge on this particular
subject to proceed. However, when it comes to production, if feel that I don’t have enough
information I can always do some research in my own time outside of college, that is if I want
more info or need more. I do want to research the cult and killer that I choose, some more,
so that I have enough information to fill the pages of my magazine. But having said that I
would have to ensure that the information that is provided to me is valid and reliable
information. I would most likely do that by looking at lots of different sites and seeing if the
information matches. I also need to look into some more books and magazines about cults,
killers and crime in general for some inspiration for my magazine. I would also like to watch
some documentaries on the cult and killer that I decide to dedicate my magazine to in that
issue.I am very happy with the amount of work I have produced this week, however I believe
that I could always do more by researching every killer and cult in the list that I created in the
background research power point. But, I think that the amount I have produced is suitable for
the time that I was given.

Week two and three
Research
During this week I have managed to find out who my target audience was through an on going
investigation throughout the week. I looked at lots of different sources and statistics on what gender and
age group are more interested in crime and serial killers. I also did this for social class as well. I have also
learnt ‘Real Crime magazines’ general style that they use throughout their magazine covers, from
researching them throughout the past two weeks.
Overall I think that I have gathered enough research over the past three weeks however, I would like to
carry on researching as I go, as there may be some information that I have missed and may be useful for
the magazine when it comes to production; The research that I hope to carry on researching will be
research on the cult that I have chosen and the serial killer I have chosen. One aspect of research that I
can take forward in to my project, is the style of the products that I have analysed. I will most likely be
combining elements of each magazine cover and pages that I have looked at and using it for my magazine,
however making it my own, with my own twist and style on it. In regards to my research changing how I
will approach my project It hasn’t so far however it may do in the future when I carry on the on going
research. My research has not highlighted any potential problems that I may need to solve except that it is
going to be very difficult for me to get primary images so the way around this is either get secondary
images like crime scene photos etc. But then to edit the images making them different. I think that the
most successful part of research is the target audience, going into this project I thought that this would be
the hardest of tasks to do, as finding a target audience for cults and serial killers, would be very difficult to
find out. However, I managed to research audiences for subjects that relate to the topic of my magazine in
this case it was crime that got me, my statistics on my target audience.

Week four
Problem Solving
I have found many potential problems that could easily happen in production. I have identified
that finding primary research, imagery will be difficult. The subject I have chosen as my magazine
topic will be very hard to gather primary research on. Therefore, to counter this I will either
gather imagery myself by taking my own photographs, and then edit the photos using Adobe
Photoshop. Another way that I could gather my own primary imagery is to collect lots of images
online, and then put them together to make one large image using photo manipulation. The last
way is that I could make my own primary imagery by manipulating and editing images that I find
online. I would say that the problem solving process has influenced my project partly. It has made
me more aware of the problems, and because of the solutions that I thought to counter the
problems, I now do. An example is I now save my work in three places, instead of two places. I
save my work on a USB stick, email, and documents on the main computer that I use. I could save
my work regularly, so in case of a power cut or my computer freezes, I will not have to do all of
my work again. Another activity to help solve potential production problems is to check that all of
the research I collected is valid, through searching other sources and media techniques like a
documentary. This would help prevent false information. When it comes to production I need to
make sure that all of the images are primary research in my magazine to prevent copyright issues.
I will record all of my solutions to problems in both planning and production through an on-going
process of writing it into my reflective diary each week. I think that I am good at solving minor
problems to do with my work, but I could get better at solving more complicated problems.

Week Five
Problem Solving and Experiments
• Problem Solving went very well. I have thought of lots of potential problems that can be fixed. I
managed to do most of it the following week so I don’t have to think of lots of potential problems
this week. The one task that I focused on this week was to think of more complicated problems
with solutions to them. I managed to come up with a few complicated problems with solutions to
them. The biggest problem that I came up with was gathering my own primary imagery as the topic
that I have chosen, crime. Is a hard topic to gather primary imagery for especially when I have
chosen for my idea to be on an American cult and American murderer, whom are both dead. The
way I have thought to solve it is to gather secondary imagery and turn it into primary imagery by
editing it so much that it looks as if it’s a different image. If I don’t wish to edit it to much just edit it
slightly but enough to tell that I have edited and make sure that I can use the image without a
copyright strike. One problem that could happen if I don’t follow my plan is that I could run out of
production time. Solving this is going to be hard as I will also have to write an evaluation and the
deadline will be shortly after the evaluation week. I would either have to come in on my days off
and or do work at home if its possible for me too. I also started my experiments this week that I
thought went well. I didn’t want to make them perfect and spend lots of time on them. I just
wanted to practice and get use to Photoshop again and the tools. So that when it comes to
production I will know what to do. I haven’t learnt much practical skills this week as I already know
how to use most of the tools on Photoshop as well as most of the effects or at least the ones that I
want to use. I would say that I am ready to start planning next week as I have done all my work on
time and am ready to start planning the crime magazine. My website it not up to date yet, I need to
add the problem solving power points to it, however I will do that over the weekend so that
Monday morning I can start planning straight away. In terms of having anything else to do, I have
finished everything and just need to start planning now.

Week Six + Seven Planning + More
Experiments
I have found that planning has gone very well, I have managed to do lots of it so that starting production
should be easy for me. I have made plans that during week one of production I will try to get as much of
my magazine cover done as possible and if I don’t finish it that week to carry on with it the next week. I
will spend as much time as possible on my cover as it’s the most important part of my magazine as it’s
the fist thing people will see. I have also made plans to start writing my articles that are going to be put
inside the magazine on my days off when I am not in college, as doing them in college will waste my
production time as I can do them at home whereas I don’t have Adobe Photoshop or Adobe InDesign at
home. I don’t have any planning issues so I don’t need to work on my planning schedule unless I am ill
and have some time off. If I do I will change the plan at home when I have the time to do so. I think that
I am ok with planning neither good or bad as usually in other projects I don’t stick to the plan. However,
I am going to try to stick with the plan this project as it will help me with my time keeping. The most
difficult part of planning is sticking to the plan as it is so easy going off plan and doing something
different one week. My website isn’t quite update to date yet as I need to add the planning power point
onto my website however I usually do that over the weekend. I also did some more experiments and
added them to my planning power point and then re-updated my website. In terms of planning things
have gone wrong in the past, because I have not followed the plan. However this project I am going to
stick with the plan and if I am ahead of the plan then I will do the next task that is required for me to do
in order of the plan.

Production Week 1 (Week 8)
The first week of production went very well. I have managed to be ahead of my schedule, and
have completed my magazine cover. For the next upcoming weeks of production I will stick to
my schedule and start the pages of the magazine next. That means that I will finish early having
a spare week to further develop my work. Even though I have finished the cover I will still look
for ways to complete it. However, I am currently very happy with the way it turned out. Whilst
creating my cover I had Google images open to have a look at magazine covers with similar
topics to the topic I have chosen, crime. This helped me with the layout as well as the
experiments I had done in the past for layout designs. The finished cover I am very proud of, I
think that it looks like a professional magazine cover. If I am to do anything further down the
line in terms of production I will try to edit some of the pictures more to make them look more
like my images rather than images that I found on Google.
When I was editing the images I used lots of ‘adjustments’ to make the images differ from the
original images. I changed the brightness and contrast of the images. I changed the RGB
colours, as well as the red, green, and blue brightness. I edit the curves which determines
which colours show as bright. I changed the exposure of the images. With the image of David
Koresh I managed to edit him to make him have a cartoonish look about him.

This week I made my magazine’s content page, I decided to make it a simple contents page as I
wanted it to be easy to read. I decided to have a colour theme for the page which was black, red,
and white. I also added a few images to the page to make it more visually attractive rather than
just having lots of text in a list. I managed to get this done quite quickly, and thought it was an
easy page to do, as there was not much to create on that page. I also started another page which
was the David Koresh cover page, I wanted to make this page unique but yet simple with not to
much on it. After looking at designs for inspiration I decided to make the page a pin board
background with a pinned up picture of David Koresh. I made the image look old and distorted. I
also added a picture of the Branch Davidian’s logo on there also making that distorted and old
looking too.

This weeks production went very well. I have managed to complete my double-page spread crime board page.
This took me most of the week as I kept adding images and removing images as well as changing things around.
I think that it has turned out very well however, as I wanted it to look realistic. I tried to make it very varied as
well, as I didn’t want each image to match one another. I may add more images to it in the future as I progress
more with my magazine. I still need to add some type of text to the post it notes to make it look as if it has
been wrote on the post it note. I didn’t have as much time for production this week as I was absent for a few
days so I couldn’t do any work on Adobe Photoshop CC or InDesign. I managed to finish the article on Ed Gein
and David Koresh, ready to add to my fake newspaper article page next week when I begin it.

At the beginning of the week I started creating a newspaper article, I made it from looking at images of
other newspaper articles of the same time period of when the Waco Siege took place. This helped me
get a feel for what the newspapers around that time period were like, and helped me to create my
newspaper article. I found that using Photoshop to write articles is very difficult as you cant just press
enter to start a new line. Also the text is very annoying to work with on Photoshop. Therefore, I took my
time with adding the text in, making sure that it all lined up correctly and was even like a real
newspaper article. The article will be a page in my magazine. I also decided to make a timeline page of
what pop culture icons are inspired by Ed Gein and his crimes. I also managed to finish it within one
lesson. I am quite happy with the way it turned out since this was a last minute idea that was suggested
to me. The images that I used are all from second hand sources, however I have made sure that I am
able to use and edit them. I edited each of the images so that they looked different from the original
image. I made lots of adjustments to the images such as the brightness/contrast, levels, curves, etc. I
tried to make every image look like an old photograph. I also further edited the newspaper page. I
decided to delete the text that I had already added and re-add it into the page again but this time more
tidy and neat. I wanted to make the text fit into columns.

The timeline of Ed Gein that I
made during this week.
The images that I gathered
were all secondary images,
however I edited them
using lots of effects.
This is the fake newspaper article that I made a
start upon this week. I am thinking of further
editing it sometime during next week when I get
time to. I want to make sure that each line is
lined up correctly like that of a newspaper. I
want it to look as professional and realistic as
possible.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
This week I have managed to complete two double-page spread pages and a single cover page for the Ed Gein
part of the magazine. So far I am very happy with what I have done with production. I am well ahead of my
schedule. Because I am so far with my schedule I have decided to make additional pages as well as a more
detailed back cover than planned. I have stopped looking at my schedule as I don’t really need it anymore as I
am far ahead. With the pages that I have created this week I tried to make them all look completely different
from one another but not to complicated with lots of text. During tutorial this week we were given a reflective
sheet to be done in the lecture. I wrote down what I am considering doing for my next two weeks of
production. I am considering doing 3 to 4 more pages for my magazine as well as the back cover to the
magazine. Once doing this I will need to convert it all into InDesign in the correct order then add the
completed, and exported final version of my magazine to my website. I also still need to add all of my
production to my website and improve all of the work that has had feedback.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday
I have managed to complete all of the work that I got feedback on. I also further edited on of the double-page spreads
that I made. I added more text and made the text in vertical rows with a black box. I also made a start on one of my
double-page spreads that I planned to do next week. I have decided that I need to do one double-page spread for both
Koresh and Gein. So I have made a start on the Koresh double-page spread. I need to add text to the page but don’t
want to add too much text on one page, as I want it to look neat as well as unique compared to the rest of the pages in
the magazine.

Last week I set myself a plan for this week and next week as it is my last two weeks of production. Therefore, I
thought that it would be a good idea to set myself a plan so that I don’t go off track. In the plan I have planned
out what day I am doing what. In the plan I decided that this week I would try to get both double-page spreads
done. So that the next week I can focus on making it an actual magazine. I managed to get both double-page
spreads completed this week. The first task that I started on was making a double-page spread for Ed Gein. I
tried to make it look as much like a professional magazine page as possible. By the end of the week I had
finished both double-page spreads on Gein. I am very happy with the way it turned out. I was trying to get a
professional look to it, making it look as if it would be in an actual magazine in a shop. I used a range of tools as
well as techniques such as the ’pen tool’, to make the text wrap around an image, like you see in magazines. I
also made every bit of text in columns rather than rows, as this is what they do in magazines. I made the pages
quite similar in style which I said I wouldn’t do before starting production. However, throughout the production
I had been looking at different types of magazines both on the computer and in person to help me layout my
pages. I found that in most magazines the pages have similar layouts and style. Therefore, I decided that for the
remaining double-page spreads that I am making I will make them similar to one another. I am very happy with
the way they look and am glad they I did this, as they are still not the same as one another.
The image on the left is the first double-page spread that I created
at the start of this week. The layout is very similar to the second
double-page spread that I created after creating this one. I made
the pages monochrome with the main colour coming from the
images. Even though looking back at them I think I should have
added some colours, I still am very happy with them and the
monochrome and desaturated images suit the topic, that being Ed
Gein. As when the crime was committed it was around 1957.

The image on the bottom left of the page is the second double-page spread that I created. The layout is very
similar to the previous double-page spread that I created, but is still its own designs. However, both double-
page spreads do continue from one another and are supposed to be read back to back from one another.

This week I made my back cover to the magazine and started to add all of my production onto my website.
Before adding my production to my website I needed to make it an actual magazine by combining all of the
work using an InDesign template which I used in a previous project. I am very happy with the end product, and
did not expect my magazine to turn out this well. If I were to have more production time I would make more
double-page spreads and possibly make these pages about another crime/criminal and or cult. However, with
the time that I was given for production I think that I have made a good sized magazine. I am most happy with
my cover as I spent the most time on this, as it’s the first part of the magazine that you see. I think that it looks
professional, and would stand out amongst others in a shop. I have also managed to do everything that was
needed in the project all that is left is to start and finish my evaluation in the following two weeks. During this
week I also went through all of my production work checking everything, making sure it is all up to standard.
However, I found somethings that I needed to change. I found that the two double-page spreads that I created
the week before this week had the page dividers still present in the document. Therefore I removed them, as
they were only to help me know which page is which whilst doing production. I also decided not to include one
double-page spread as it didn’t look as good. Also I found that the article that I had on that page I also had on
my most recent double-page spread therefore making me decide to get rid of the two pages all together.
These were the two pages that I created during the last
day of production they didn’t take me to long to make.
However, I am happy with the way they look and turned
out. I wanted them to be simplistic and not to much on
them. I managed to get everything done this week and
am happy with all of my production. If I were to have
more time I would make lots more pages to make it even
more like a magazine, however with different topics.
Back-cover Page next to the Ed Gein inner cover page

Reflective diary V3

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