For my Foundation Portfolio I created the front cover,
contents page, and double page spread of a new music magazine. All of the
images and text used had to be original, produced by myself, which
included a minimum of four images. I chose to create my music magazine within
the genre of jazz. Also for my preliminary exercise I needed to produce, using
desktop publishing and an image manipulation program, the front page of a new
school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium
close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally I
produced a mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate my grasp
of DTP.
In my foundation portfolio I used Adobe Photoshop
CS5 in order to manipulate my photos to have the desired and make the
publication look more professional. I had used the software briefly before in a
previous project, other than that it was completely new to me and I had to learn
how to use it. Abobe Photoshop CS5 allowed me to edit my digital photos to a
high standard, but my main technical challenge was learning which tools to use
to create which effect. Also creating a photo which would allow space for the
typical conventions of a music magazine such as a masthead, main feature
headline, dateline, barcode, issue no, skyline and subtitle. In order to
achieve a professional looking magazine along with all the typical conventions
I took photos and then tested them out on Photoshop by adding all the elements
and seeing if it worked. Following this I would take some more photos with the
layout of a typical magazine in mind in order to achieve the desired result. By
creating a magazine front cover with all the typical conventions I was able to communicate
to the audience that publication was a professional one, i.e. something worth
buying. For example I used certain tools within Adobe Photoshop CS5 like the Gaussian
blur tool to make my model’s skin look flawless, the way in which professional
publications make it look. The blur tool enabled me to edit my photo and
enhance my model’s skin. I adjusted the Gaussian blur to a suitable level so
that I could still see the outline of her silhouette, but the skin appeared
softer and completely unblemished due to the blurring of the skin tone, because
it becomes less grainy and more porcelain. I then added a layer to the
duplicate layer to allow me to edit the eyes, mouth and other features. Then I
used the brush tool to erase away the blurriness around the key features.
As part of the creative process I identified the typical
conventions of a music magazine. I explored different ways of setting out the
conventions across a layout and also considered the conventions of jazz, my
chosen music genre. My college magazine had proved to me that it was possible
to use a variety of conventions while still having a professional looking photo
that wasn't swamped by the amount of layout feature e.g. smaller features and
subtitles. I used a plain white background on Photoshop and figured
out how to lay all the features out and then posed a photo that would fit into
the space left. For example I took photos that had a gap above the models head
in order to fit in the masthead. By considering the conventions of jazz and how
people dressed when jazz was at its peak i.e. the 1920s I was able to dress my
model in a suitable way for the genre of the magazine. Once I was in the final
stages of production I gave my audience my front cover, contents page and
double page spread along with some questions about my project and what sort of
audience they think it is aimed at. My results assured me that I had made the
right decisions when taking my target audience into account as all those asked
knew it was a jazz music magazine. I felt as though jazz artists are people who
are more serious about their music than artists within the genre of pop for
example. Due to the fact that jazz isn’t as heavily publicised therefore people
aren’t as interested in the fame. Because of this I related my main feature
model back to the roots of jazz and the music’s influences, such as the 1920s
which is the inspiration behind her clothing. Also because there are no
mainstream jazz magazines I was able to create a magazine, which was original –
as there aren’t any publications to take inspiration from I had to get that
from other media texts.
I researched the elements needed for my brief by analysing
existing (e.g. NME, Billboard and Rolling Stone) music magazines and the
conventions they have used and to what effect, such as Rolling Stone using a
black and white photo to represent their main feature. It makes their magazine
really stand out especially alongside the yellow typeface. I later analysed the
genre of jazz by looking at their more successful artists and an already
existing magazine, Blues and Soul, a big reason why I chose to produce a jazz
magazine is because I believe there is a gap in the market for it but this also
made it hard to research into existing publications, because there aren't any
popular ones. The source of this research was mainly the internet, but also
some magazine hard copies. I used the internet to find magazine front
covers from a magazine, genre and year of my choice. The LIIAR acronym
(language, institution, ideology, audience and representation) helped to shape
my analysis.
From creating my foundation portfolio to moving on to
create my advanced portfolio, I have developed skills for using the specific
software which enables me to create a professional looking piece of work. I am
now more able to look at existing media texts and take inspiration from them,
by analysing them and considering what sort of an audience they would be
suitable for. For my advanced portfolio I will need to consider the codes and
conventions of my chosen brief, creating a music video, to help me with the
creative process. I have now learnt how to implement typical conventions into
my work while still making it original. Also going through the conventions is
part of my research and planning and I have also developed skills on how to use
the technology to display my research such as Prezi.
