http://prezi.com/0ov5fv4qujlq/edit/

Here is a link to my prezi.

I had time left to make some adjustments so I changed my contents page. I wasn't happy with the colour scheme and the fact I had my magazine name on the contents page so I made some changes. I did this because I wanted to get extra marks and felt that it was letting down the rest of the magazine. Now the colours go well together and the page numbers and titles are in the bold text rather than all of it being in the bold and looking to similar. It is still simple but I didn't want to make it to in your face as such because its only a contents page. I think it stands out though and the colour scheme goes well together. If I was to do this again then I probably would of taken more photos to add to it but I still feel that it looks good without it. I know a professional magazine would of included photos to make it more interesting. My mistake was that I didn't take enough photos and the ones I did are too similar. I feel this is the worst page out of my magazine but I think that it is still better than my previous one just because of the colour scheme and the contents on there.

This is my contents page finished. I feel that keeping it basic has made it look effective, the colours go well together and I am happy with my overall magazine. However if I do get time to add or change this then I am going to because I feel that there is too much of the blue and looks to simple. I also may remove the magazine name because I don't feel that it is nessacary to be on the contents page. The reason for this is because I have been comparing it to other contents pages and they haven't had their magazine name on there. I still think it would look better with a photo on there but I don't have any different photos, this is where I went wrong and if I was going to do this again I would of made sure I got a good amount of photos using different range of camera angles.

Over the weekend I have been working on my contents page and now feel its up to the standard that I am happy with, there a few more changes I need to make. Overall I have been pleased with my progress since the first task. Photoshop has been tricky at times but once I got the hang of it I now feel that I have a presentable and professional magazine. I am hoping for a good grade in this unit as its worth 50% of my overall AS. I would of improved it if I did it again because I would of known what to do differently, however I am still happy with my magazine and hope I gain a good grade from this.

I am struggling with my contents page as I don't know what features to add. I've added the main pages but there is room that needs to be filled. I am thinking about adding some competitions which will then attract the reader more as they know there is prizes to be won just by purchasing the magazine. It has been a hard programme to get used to using. It has been frustrating but hopefully I will be able to get my magazine looking how I want. I didn't take enough photos to make it look professional and the ones I have used are to similar so there would no point on adding them to my contents page. I will carry on practising using photoshop so hopefully I can get it looking good. I have downloaded the free trial at home so I can play about with it and get to know it more, I am happy with my front cover but I think if I knew more about photoshop then I would be able to make it look like a proper magazine.

I am now starting my contents page, I want to keep it simple and use the house styles that I have been using through out. I'm going to add pages that seem interesting to the reader and if they was in the shop thats what they would look at after the front cover. I want features that include grime artists and rap so you get a flavour of both. I also want to attract the readers with good and interesting stories. This is what is going to sell the magazine after the inital front cover. If I include interesting stories then it has a higher chance of people going to buy it if it was in a shop. I also want to include competitions so that if they do buy it they wont feel that the money was wasted because they have chance to win iphones or meet the artists.

This is my double page spread finished, I am happy with the outcome. I still feel there is something missing but I am now going to start my contents page. If I have time afterwards I will go back and make some changes but for now I'm happy and feel it looks professional. However I feel that the clothing they are wearing represents my genre, for example the snapback makes it look more 'ghetto' as such and people would be able to relate this because its the similar clothing. The red writing is very in your face and attracts the readers and the white goes well with it for the questions. The blue writing is the house style of the whole magazine and I have taken out quotes to catch readers eyes and make them want to carry on reading the interview.

My double page spread is nearly finished now, I have added quotes from the interview to catch the readers eye. This is on the first page of it, this has photos and big lettering to stand out. On the second page is where my interview is and has the titles of the group I am interviewing. I have kept the same text throughout my magazine so it looks professional but I have changed the colours of the text so it stands out from the rest. Paradox is the name and it is in red rather than blue like my magazine title. However the background of black still makes it look good and the colours go together nicely. This will be finished soon.

My double page spread is coming along now. I have got my interview together and now starting to add things together. I have used different photos from my front cover and have also used the lasso tool again. This is one the most effective tools as it allows me to cut out the people from the original background and add it to my magazine background. Theres a few things I need to add before it being finished but I feel I am on track to meet the deadline.The colour scheme works and the photos I used are appropirate to my genre. The clothing that they are wearing is sterotypically what a rap and grime artist would wear with hoodies and snapbacks. This would show to readers that they are wearing the same thing as the artists.

This is my front cover finished, I am happy with this and feel that its going to get me a good mark. It is quite simple but I feel it is effective. I'm happy with the colour scheme and feel it stands out. The left third has the information needed on it and feel that if it was in a store it would catch the readers eye. The double act are wearing clothing that fits to the genre, for example hoodies and hats. This shows the readers that they are the same as the artists and will infulence to buy the magazine more because they can relate just by the clothing that they are wearing. I feel that the title goes well because of the similar colour of their clothes. I edited their photos to make it more blue to add the effect. I feel it stands out and has that wow factor to it. Also the special edition writing is still in the same font but the orange colour works well with it. I was struggling what colour to have on there because none was working really but I couldn't of had it all blue or it wouldn't of worked.

It is all coming together nicely now, things are starting to going into place. I have finished my front cover and now I'm working on my double page spread. This is harder than expected because I had to interview my act and then make it look right, the colour scheme is hard becuase you want it look professional but don't want to use to much of the same colours so it looks bland. I think in a couple of days my work will be done and ready to be marked. I can then go onto my evaluation questions after this. It has been hard because sometimes you want to do things which you don't know how too because photoshop is a new tool. I haven't used it before so it has been hard. Also the preliminary task didn't help as much as I would of liked because it was basic and I didn't have the skills I needed too.

I have be working on my front page for a few more days now but I am struggling in some areas. As its a hard genre to do I can't find many examples. I have to decieded to change it to a rap & grime magazine. This gives me more examples and allows to me add more into my magazine. It also allows me to appeal to a wider market and if it was selling I would attract more customers. I have added a selling line to make it look professional and have used different fonts. I feel that I need to work a bit longer for it all to come together but I feel their is potential there to make it look good. The school computers are not the best so I am going to try downloading photoshop on my iMac so I can process faster and work from home.

Today I have started my front page. The house style that I will be using is a light blue, I am going to have this for my title and other text. I have picked this colour because of the clothing that my models are wearing, I feel it goes well but I don't want to have too much blue. I am working out what photos to use and the cover lines also. I used the magnetic lasso tool to cut out my models from the background and then cut and pasted them into my new background. I did this so it was on an A4 page and so that I could move them freely with the free transform tool.

Today I went out to take photos for my magazine, I used two of my peers within my class and went to different places to get different backgrounds. I used many different angles such as close ups, medium shots, longs shot and many others to get a range for my magazine. I feel the photos have come out very professional and with work in photoshop I can get them to a quality that I need. I am a bit worried that I didn't take enough though because the ones I did take were very similar. I went to an school that isn't used anymore so there is a lot of building work and old stuff around. I feel that its giving it a good feel and meets the grime genre.

Today I am starting my magazine, I have come up with the name Maximum. I have worked out what font I am going to be using and how I am going to lay it out. I am doing Grime as my genre so it is going to be difficult to get ideas for this. I have only found one grime magazine that is avaliable to buy in stores where as there are many magazine with genres such as rock and pop. This is going to be a challenge but I feel I from the preliminary task I have the skills capable to create a professional looking magazine.

This is my review of Kerrang magazine, I labeled the key features of the magazine which will help me when Im making my own magazine. The features I have described are the contents page, double page spread and other features such as the barcode which are less important but still needed in a magazine. This will help me when making my own magazine.

This is my final school prospectus, I have used text, photos and backgrounds. This is going to help me for the magazine I have to create because I've now learnt the skills in photoshop that I didn't know before. My magazine is worth 50% worth of my final AS so it is important to know what I'm doing. I feel that this task has set me up and allowed me to be ready to create a professinal magazine. I feel if I didn't do this task then the magazine I'm going to create wont be as professional as it will be now I know what I'm doing. 

Today is my first pratical lesson on photoshop. As I have now collected all of my photos that I needed I was able to start my work. I'm finding it very difficult. It is a software that I have never used before the tutorial and I am getting frustrated with it. Although in the tutorial we was taught the main skills there is many to remember and it is much harder when trying to merge photos together as in the tutorial I was only using the one photo. I have made a start but at this rate I don't think I will be able to get it finished unless I increase my skill level with the tools on photoshop.

Today we went out and took photos for our school prospectus. We already knew what shots we wanted because of our plan last lesson. This increased the time that we needed with the cameras and allowed us more time to work on photoshop. I have photos of the front of school, the new sixth form building and other photos of students in lessons. The photos are professional looking because of the way I took the photos, I knew what shots I wanted and where I wanted them. I used close ups, establishing shots and many others. The reason they need to look as professional as possible is because I am trying to make my work as high quality.

In today lesson we was told to come out with a plan for our school prospectus. We drew up our ideas with boxes seperating the spaces for where we want our text and photos. We also wrote what photo shots we was going to use such as a close up. I decided to use different angles such a long shots and medium close ups because they were effective for the photos that I wanted to use. This will help us for when we are going to take our photos. I feel this is going to increase my chance of a better piece of work because I will know what photos to get and where to place them. This task will be a way of practising for the final magazine cover. It will allow me to know what I am doing and then once I have finished I can look what I need to improve on.

Today I had a introduction on photoshop. We learned a few things, one of the things I learnt was how to use tha magnetic tool. This is where you cut round the part of the photo you want to put onto your front cover. We also learnt how to save,
 copy and paste,
 lasso,
 blur,
 include text,
 colour
 and eraser.
This is the main skills that I need to know for my plimary task. This will be hard to skill as I have never used this software before. If I can get the hang of these skills then I will be able to produce a high quality piece of work. We was shown the skills and then was allowed to try it out for ourself, I found it hard as I had never used this before.

Today I had my media exam. After that I was introduced to the plimary task by my teacher. We have to make a school propestus, using photoshop. We was told that we have to produce a front cover of a new school or college featuring a photograph of a student which is a medium close up. We also need to include a laid out text and a masthead.  I have never used this software before and I am looking forward to because it is a good skill to have. We also got introduced to our main task, it is to produce a front cover, contents and double page spread of a new magazine. This intrests me because I can do this take on a music magazine, I will enjoy this because music is a big impact in my life. The plimary task will help me gain practise for my main task.

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