Project Progress- Week starting 3rd February

This week I have started to create my 'The Man Behind The Mic' article layout. I just need to edit the interview so that I can add it in. The first image shows my original layout, however, my assessor advised that I take the top left image on the right page and make that bigger so that is a feature on the right page. He also advised that I only use the image where Andrew is leaning out from the microphone on the left page. I agreed to experiment with his suggestions and it came out as the second image.

I have managed to meet with my model to discuss poses and I have also done a trial run of the make up needed for tomorrow's photoshoot. I am really happy with the outfits and the make up that I have chosen. Honestly, most of my time and energy this week has been put into the planning of the fashion photoshoot. Because it has little text, the article has to rely on strong images and so I feel that the most care must be put into this photoshoot.

I wanted to play around with the make up because it's an indie/alternative magazine, I wanted the make up to also reflect this. This would mean that I would get the look right before the photoshoot instead of realising during the photoshoot itself. I experimented with different eyeliners and smokey eyes to get this affect. I have decided to use both black and silver eyeliners for my photoshoot. This make up trial helped me to decide this and also gave me confidence that I can easily recreate this look for the photoshoot.

I decided not to redo my Facebook photoshoot and to just use the existing photos to create the DPS. Because I have already created most of the aspects of the layout, this DPS should be quite easy to create.

I created the Facebook article out of the lesson. I decided to take inspiration for this Andrew Backhouse DPS from Cooler magazine, especially for how the masthead is set out. I think I'm going to keep this element the same for each DPS that I do. I think's important for a magazine like mine to create a strong brand identity. My magazine should have a close relationship with its audience and therefore they should be able to both relate and recognise the magazine.  

This is just the first draft of my Facebook article. I wanted to get at least a first draft so that I can focus on other DPS' and come back to this one later. Again, I kept the same masthead and type of imagery the same so as to create brand identity.

Call Sheet

Production Schedule: Call Sheet

Title: I Wear Your Grandad's Clothes. I Look Incredible.

Client: The Northern Echo

Staff: Lighting assistant- Mark Dixon

Location/Venue: The studio

CALL DATE: 7^th February 2014

CALL TIME: 3:10pm

Transport: -

INSTRUCTIONS: Go to the studio at about 3:05pm and start setting out the outfits that I will need and in the order that I will need them. I also need to make sure that the right backdrop is set up. I will also need to get the lighting set up in the correct way for my shoot.

Project Progress- Week starting 27th January

This week I have been focusing on my The Man Behind The Mic DPS. I carried out my photoshoot with Andrew and have also chosen a few of the images that I want to use. A difficulty I had was the background in the images. At the time of the shoot, I thought that the lighting was good enough but in hind sight, it wasn't bright enough as you could see parts of the background. So I then started to cut them from their backgrounds. This editing has taken me longer than expected. I think that the images work well.

I also managed to have a clothes fitting with my model for the article 'I Wear Your Grandad's Clothes. I Look Incredible.' This helped me to better visualise the final outcome of my DPS. I was also able to experiment with various outfits and develop the outfits so that they work in the final magazine and are appropriate/appealing for my target audience.

I also concentrated on the editing of the images from my photoshoot with Andrew. Because the images are an accompaniment to an article, I didn't want to add a background or anything that would detract from Andrew or the article itself. In the editing of these images I spent the most time cutting out the background from around Andrew's body. I used the magic wand tool to do this. These are the edited images that I have chosen to use for my DPS and front cover:

I also started to create my front cover using the flatplans that I created. Originally, I had wanted to merge my front cover and contents page so that I had page numbers on the front cover with pictures from the articles. However, when I came to translating my original flatplanned idea, I found that it wasn't as successful as I thought it was going to be and I just didn't think it was successful.

I think I will now have to abandon this idea for a front cover and create a front cover that is separate from the contents page. I think I will wait a while until I create my front cover so that I can do more research into existing magazine front covers.

 

This week, while trying to create the front cover, I realised that I hadn't done sufficient research into existing magazines. The research that I had done had been for almost a different genre of magazine. I was completely thrown when my original idea for the front cover didn't work. My magazine has developed so much since I first decided to do an alternative lifestyle magazine. Originally I had wanted to create a wacky, edgy, creative magazine filled with drawings but as I went on my ideas changed and so I have now started to create a simpler, minimalistic magazine. This week I started to panic about my whole magazine. I didn't feel that I had a specific existing genre that I was following. My assessor then helped me by showing me a variety of magazines that I hadn't even considered such as Cooler magazine. I had thought that that magazine was too girly for the type of magazine that I wanted to create but I found that it actually had a nice design layout to it that I myself could use. I have also looked at Dazed and Confused to see what techniques they use. I think I want to create a front cover similar to Dazed and Confused as it's simple but it's not boring at all. You can definitely see that it's an alternative lifestyle magazine which is what I want to come across on my own front cover. It has to be able to set the tone of the whole magazine. Because I had this panic this week, most of my time was spent looking at magazines to emulate and so not a lot was actually produced. Even though I hated having this meltdown, I'm glad I had it because it means that I am more focussed as to what I want my magazine to look like now. I can continue to research magazines and decide what elements to take from various magazines.

Call Sheet

Production Schedule: Call Sheet

Title: The Man Behind The Mic

Client: The Northern Echo

 

Staff: Lighting assistant- Mark Dixon

Location/Venue: The studio

CALL DATE: 27^th January 2014

CALL TIME: 10.50am

Transport: -

INSTRUCTIONS: Go to the studio at about 10:45am and start setting up my microphone stand. I also need to make sure that the right backdrop is set up. 

Project Progress- Week starting 20th January

This week, I wasn't able to create all the layouts I needed on InDesign. This was because of the difficulties I had with using InDesign. From not using the software for a long time, I found that I had forgotten what tools to use.
Also, a lot of my time was taken up with preparing for an important university interview that I had on the Wednesday. Because of this I missed one of my media lessons and that reduced the amount of time that I could work towards my project outside of lesson. This has been my main focus this week, putting together a suitable portfolio of work for the interviews.
I did, however, start thinking about the outfits for my 'I Wear Your Grandad's clothes. I Look Incredible.' article and I was even able to buy 5 pieces of clothing for the photoshoot. I bought them from charity shops and I discovered that it was surprisingly easy to find the styles/types of clothing I wanted to find. I have particularly liked finding the clothes because I love fashion and it has allowed me to be creative with that.
I was also able to get in touch with my models in order to find out their availability for photoshoots. I also booked the studio time slots in accordance with their availability.
I also met up with Andrew to discuss how I want him to pose for the photoshoot. I also asked him about what types of clothes he had so that I could decide what I wanted him to wear for the photoshoot.

Schedule

Production Schedule and monitoring document

Week	Date	Activity
1	13th Jan	1. I need to create a schedule so that I can plan what I will do each lesson, in order for the completion of my product by the deadline 28th February. 2. This lesson I will complete my schedule. I will need to make sure that I enable time to study for my January mock exams and I will also need time to prepare for university interviews including adding to my portfolio. 3. I will do any research I may need for my fashion article, including what clothes/accessories I will need for each outfit and where I can get them and any props needed. 4. Project Monitoring & I will refresh my memory of using Photoshop. Homework 1: I will finish off any incomplete work such as making sure that my blog is up to date so that I can focus on the production of my magazine. Homework 2: I will get in touch with my models Kinga Nowak and Andrew Backhouse to see when they are available to do the photoshoots. Once the dates have been discussed with Andrew and Kinga, I can book my studio time slots at college. I will also need to discuss with Andrew his availability to be interviewed. Homework 3: I also need to go shopping for the suitable ‘grandad’ clothes. It is one of the first things I will be doing because it is an article specifically about fashion. Therefore the fashion needs to be of a high quality and I think I will need a lot of time to do this. I won’t be doing the fashion photoshoot until after the Andrew article has been completed to a first draft standard. This will then give me time to keep shopping and completing my outfits. Exams/other subject deadlines: I have a university interview on the 14th that I will need to do some last minute preparation for on the Monday night and Tuesday morning. I have a mock exam on Monday afternoon, which means that I am unlikely to do any work on the lunchtime of this day. I also have an exam Wednesday morning that I will probably be preparing for on Tuesday. I think most of the homework tasks are likely not to get done during these 3 days but on the study days (Thursday and Friday).
2	20th Jan	1. In this lesson I will also refresh my memory on how to use InDesign by creating the basic layouts for my front cover and DPS’s. I will do this by using my flatplans. By doing this I will then be able to add my text and images straight away when I have created them. 2. I can continue to create the basic layouts of my magazine. I will write any sell lines that I may need for the front cover. I will also research further into different fonts and have a select few that I know I will use. This then means that I can add the titles and sell lines to the front cover and DPS layouts. 3. - 4. Project Monitoring & I will create an interview plan but instead of having a set out layout of ordered questions, I will just write some key questions. I want the interview to not be too structured and formal. I do just want it to read as an informal chat so my interview plan will direct me but I don’t want it to be too inflexible. Homework 1: I will interview Andrew Backhouse. I will also discuss with him my plan for how the photoshoot will run. I will also show him the types of poses I want him to do. I will also discuss the costume he should be wearing for the photoshoot on Monday. Homework 2: I can collect the props needed for my photoshoot on Monday with Andrew. Exams/other subject deadlines: I have a university interview on the 22nd of January and so I am unlikely to do much work on the night before, as I will be preparing for the interview. This means that I will be missing lesson 3 of the week.
3	27thJan	1. This lesson, I will carry out my photoshoot with Andrew Backhouse. This is likely to take up the whole lesson. 2. I will choose my favourite photos, edit them on Photoshop and then add them to my DPS layout. I can also add any of the images to the front cover/contents page. 3. With the interview complete, I can edit it into a format that works and insert it into the DPS layout. I can also experiment with the text in the few selected fonts that I had previously chosen. 4. Project Monitoring & I want to finish this article this lesson so that it is a complete first draft. Homework 1: I will get feedback from my target audience about the interview article. I will create a questionnaire/interview/focus group with my target audience asking them what needs to be changed. Homework 2: I will also meet with my fashion model to do a trial run of the fitting and styling of the clothes to make sure that they will be ready for the photoshoot next week. We will also discuss hair and make up and I will do practice styles/techniques on her as I am the stylist/make up artist for the photoshoot. Exams/other subject deadlines: I will be needing to edit my extended project report ready for the deadline.
4	3rd   Feb	1. I will restructure my Facebook DPS in line with the feedback I received on it and the interview layout that I have already created. I will spend this lesson on editing the article text itself. 2. I will finish editing my Facebook DPS this lesson. This will then be a complete first draft. During this process I will decide whether or not I need to redo my photoshoot. If so, I will need to get in touch with my model to arrange a photoshoot. 3. I will book my studio time slot for my Facebook photoshoot, which I probably will have decided to redo. Doing the photoshoot a second time will mean that I can use the first experience to help me decide what I need to do this time and what I can improve. 4. Project Monitoring & I will carry out my photoshoot. This will take me the whole hour or longer. Homework 1: I will continue to carry out my photoshoot if I didn’t already finish it. This may take me about an hour as I will have had to factor in the model’s costume changes and also styling time. Exams/other subject deadlines: This week and next I will be finishing my extended project report ready for the deadline of the 14th February. I will also need to prepare a slideshow ready to make my presentation.
5	10th Feb	1. I will choose my favourite images from the photoshoot and edit them using Photoshop. This may include cropping, changing the contrast/brightness etc. 2. I will insert the chosen images into my DPS layout. I may restructure them depending on how they look without any text. This will be a first draft. I will also add any of them on to my front cover/contents page. 3. I will carry out my Facebook re-photoshoot and add the images to my DPS layout and front cover. 4. Project Monitoring & because I wanted my magazine to be quite creative and artistic, I wanted many of the elements to be cartoon/hand-drawn. At this point, I will have mainly finished my DPS and front cover. I can then start to design ideas for the cartoon images on each page. I will look through magazines that do this and use art in the same/similar way. Homework 1: I will draw my ideas, experimenting with different media and textures. Homework 2: I will scan in my drawn images and edit/cut them out. I will then start adding them to my DPS and front cover/contents page. Homework 3: I will make any final adjustments to my magazine. Exams/other subject deadlines: I need to be starting to revise for my summer exams for my other 2 subjects.
Half term	17th Feb	Homework: Complete Monitoring and make sure that blog elements are complete
6	24th Feb	ALL WEEK: This week I will get feedback from my teacher, my target audience and my peers on how they think my product has turned out. I will then make any changes they have specified. Exams/other subject deadlines: Again, I will need to be studying for my summer exams and preparing my extended project presentation as they start next week. I also have a university interview on the 4th March so I will probably miss the lesson.
	3rd  Mar	Audience/Assessor Review Week 1. Create Audience review questionnaire 2. Teacher assessment of project 3 & 4 Complete prep work for evaluation E exam Unit 5 Blog Deadline 7th March