A2 Media Holly Huzzard: September 2013

From the beginning of AS media I struggled in understanding the technology and software we used throughout the course. These made it difficult for me to create the ideas I had visualised, and the work I developed took longer than expected to complete.

However, over the course of the year learnt the techniques and skills needed to develop a suitable and professional product. Photoshop was what I found most difficult to learn. However, after understanding the concept of layers and how using them makes developing my idea easier, I began to create my product with less time needed. One of the hardest things to learn about for me was a layer, as this was the basis to the whole of Photoshop. Once I understood layers, the rest was practicing and experimenting. However when learning about layers, I found it difficult to understand how to lay them on top of each other in a way that suited my needs for the process. This held me back as without knowing about this, I couldn’t progress any further with the development of your work.

The tools I used the most on Photoshop, were the ‘Quick Selection Tool’ and the ‘Blur Tool’, as these allowed me to layer up my product in a way that looked professional and realistic. However these weren't the only tools used, I used a variety of other to add text, brighten images, erase imperfections and crop out unwanted imagery.

Initially, I had the idea to base my magazine on the genre Pop, as I thought that create what is a mainstream magazine would draw more of an audience. However, I later changed to developing a Niche magazine with the genre of Indie Rock. I changed this because I found that by choosing a magazine with the same genre of music I like, I would be able to relate to the style and content more, and understand what I would like to feature if reading the magazine.

To create my magazine I had to learn how to use the conventions and stereotypes of a particular music genre, and develop on them in a way that appealed to the reader, was original, but didn’t sway far off the traditional appearance of the stereotype of the music genre. By doing this I was able to use colours and fonts to change the whole appearance and feel to the cover. With my genre being Indie rock, I found that I needed to use a lot of bold, chunky, and sometimes distressed fonts. This gave the magazine a rough and edgy look, stereotypical of rock bands. I also used darker colours, avoiding pinks, oranges, and yellows, as these would detract from the main image and could possibly make the magazine fall into a different genre when it came to the layout.

As I prepared to gather the images for my magazine, I needed to think carefully about what I needed to portray with the feature act, and whom I was going to present. Stereotypically, there are more bands featured in the genre ‘Rock’, this is why I steered away from featuring purely one artist on the front cover. However this made fitting text and header more difficult, as a larger proportion of the cover was taken by the image.

The main image was a key feature to the front cover and needed to portray the characteristics and emotions of an Indie rock band, using conventional poses for the magazine. This meant either getting the band to look directly at the camera with either blank or serious facial expressions, or having them further away from the camera with either there instruments or an image of them causing disruption. However I found it difficult to find suitable instruments for the shot, and with time running out, there was more chance of something going wrong with a shot of disruption. This lead me to settle with a simple medium shot of the band staring into the camera, drawing the reader into buying the magazine.

The majority of my research was found on the Internet, researching into current indie rock bands, other magazines in the same genre, such as NME, KERRANG, and Q. however I focused mainly on studying into the layout and style of KERRANG. By doing this I was able to research into what bands are usually featured and how they are displayed in the images and what usually the interview is based around. This allowed me to develop my ideas on what my featured act might be and the basis of my double page spread. I also researched into the audience my product will be aimed at. Looking into what advertisements could be featured and what fashion, style, and appearances are favored by this particular focus group.

When I began to plan and develop my ideas for my product, I started by creating drafts of my contents page, deciding what exactly will be featured. This allowed me to create a structured layout for my font page, making sure I could easily fit all that was needed in my product. After doing this I was able to create a magazine that followed similar layout and structures similar to the ways in which KERRANG does.

This year I hope to develop my skills with Photoshop and develop on my skills with editing of videos and images. I will also dedicate more time into researching other media texts, finding examples both in my chosen genre, and in others. This will give me a better grasp on what is needed to develop a successful and professional product. I will also give myself sufficient time to plan ahead, and schedule shooting for my music video, allowing time for re-shoots if there are any problems on the first shoot.

By doing this I will allow my self-time to develop suitable work, following ideas I will develop, and suitable to my chosen genre whilst using the conventions and stereotypes of typical music videos.