LOOKING BACK AT THE PRELIMINARY TASK WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION

FROM IT TO A FULL PRODUCT?

HOW DID I MANAGE EQUIPMENT?For my preliminary task and my main task, I used the exact same canon camera so between the time from my preliminary task and my main task I had learnt how to use the camera well enough. I changed the setting for my pictures from the school library, for my preliminary task, to the green room for my main task. I made the decision as I believed the lighting would be better in the green room as I could alter it and make my pictures look more professional. The lighting wasn’t very hard to use and I was able to change the lighting and the back drop in the green room to suit my magazine well, for example if I wanted an all white background if I wanted to edit a different background on to my magazine later on.

HOW DID I MANAGE HUMAN RESOURCES AND TIME MANAGEMENT?

I managed human resources, i.e. my model my first picking a model I believed would attract my audience of teenage girls who were interested in the genre indie pop. Choosing a model had changed a lot since my preliminary task, as before I could have used any student for my college magazine, however now the person preferably a girl had to be very specific. I now also had to dress my model in a specific way to attract the indie pop genre, which was very different to my preliminary task where the only thing that was key was my setting in a school environment. I had to make sure I booked the green room at an appropriate time where I was free and also her, so we both had to manage our time tables to take pictures.

Time management was key because what if I took pictures the first time which were not suitable or the lighting was too dark? I had to make sure I had enough time to take more pictures, if was needed, and to also make sure my model had enough spare time to take more pictures also. This was a massive step up from my college magazine, as I only took one round of images for this.

CREATIVE DECISIONS:

My creative decisions from my preliminary task to my main task and what they were based on changed a lot, as a college student I was pretty aware of what to do and what to use for my college magazine, it was very familiar. However, even though I do listen to the genre Indie pop, I had to do different rounds of audience research to see what the greater audience who listen to this genre expect to see on an indie pop magazine. This really affected my creative decisions and how I made my magazine, for example many people said they expected to see the model looking very happy and positive on the front cover to draw them in. I had to then make sure I didn’t take any pictures of my model that didn’t reflect her happiness. My audience research didn’t generate much surprise, because I had a general idea of what to include on my magazine, but it really helped confirm what I needed to do to attract my audience.

I looked at various different Indie pop magazines/ artists and music videos to help with my creative decisions, I didn’t do this for my preliminary task so a lot of my prior research and knowledge really did help the final product for my magazine.

I created initial drafts for my indie pop magazine based on my research and I tried to stick to these drafts as much as I possibly could, however my magazine did show levels of variation to my drafts as I was constantly obtaining new audience research and constantly searching new ideas to make my magazine look original.

PROBLEM SOLVING DECISIONS / PROPS & COSTUME:

I didn’t have many problems with this task, but I did have a few in regards to image editing. My model has frizzy blonde hair, which did really suit the look I was going for with my magazine, however when it came to editing and changing the backgrounds for my images her hair became a real issue as pieces of green screen were left within spaces of her hair and then green colour also reflected on her hair colour, I therefore couldn’t just use the magic wand to cut out pieces of her hair and used other tools such as the burn tool which eliminated the green reflection in her hair.

I decided to use the prop of an acoustic guitar for my model which I eventually placed on my contents page, I knew I wanted my genre to be indie pop so I needed my magazine to look edgy to a certain extent I believe the use of this prop really helped me.

I knew I had to dress my model in bright clothing that would fit with my initial ideas for a colour scheme, therefore I decided to dress my model in a bright Hawaiian shirt which is very current to indie pop clothing / fashion, I knew the right audience would understand this and associate themselves with this clothing.