This is my media evaluation done on Prezzie
http://prezi.com/heoimmqiqatl/edit/#0

After a series of sleepless nights and hard work. Here is my finished products:

I am having trouble uploading my contents page on to blogger. I think this is because i have saved the page wrongly and cannot reverse the changes therefore my contents page is too big to fit into my blogg

I have finished my Contents page. I have to admit, it was a  bot of a rush as i was under a lot of pressure to finish it quickly. I stayed up late lastnight working on the critiscim my teacher gave to me. She said yesterday that my contents page did not look as if it was part of the rest of my magazine. Due to this i changed many things and its a finally finished. Now, all i need to do is edit and improve my other pages...IN 2 DAYS!!

All the pictures taken yesterday have been uploaded on to my contents page. Now all I need to do today is apply my AMAZING Photoshop skills ;) If i can do this as quick as possible I may be able to pull it off.

Over the weekend i managed to do alot on my contents page. The only problem was, i didnt have enough pictures and i didnt want to use the same pictures twice. So today i am planning to go and take some last mnuite pictures of my main feature on my contents page. Lets hope it goes well!

I have just started on my contents page today and am still very lost for ideas. I am worried  a lot as the deadline my teacher has given to me is 27th of Aril, this is actually an extended deadline as I informed her earlier i would not be able to complete all of my contents page, double spread page and front cover in time. I am now under a lot of pressure as i have basically a week to do my contents page and run over and do last edits on my other pages. This week will surely be a struggle!

I have finally finished my double spread sheet today. My next task is to go on to my contents page but I will start this another time seeing as I am knackerd from doing my double page spread. My only problem is that I have no idea what to do for my contents page. I will have to have a long think about this.

I have nearly finsihed my double spread page but just have to actually type up my interview taking place on my page. I feel as if my phototshop skills continue to improve and I find out new things each lesson and each time i use the program. Its going great so far!!

Today i have been a little stuck on what else to do and add in into my double page spread. So instead of going on photoshop today, I bought a handfull of music magazines and researched online for some ideas on double spread pages. I now have a better idea on some of the things i can add in mine. So far it seems to be going
well. This is a picture of the magazines I collected and looked through...

I was able to view the billboard magazine online. Unfortunately i could not find the entire magazine and therefore not find any double spread page in the magazine but i did try very hard as Billboard is a magazine that i believe is most similar to the image that i am trying to portrait through my magazine.

This left me with the 2 double spread pages below the billboard front cover, both  have different designs and layouts that left me thinking how i would like mine to be formatted. The middle one has a portrait layout with the text spread right across the page. The text isn't the only thing spread round the page, the main character herself is spread right across the page and is really useful in capturing the eyes of the audience.

The last double spread page is formatted in a landscape way. This double spread page intrigued me as i hadn't thought of anything like this. This is the advantage of researching and looking up other magazines  as i get ideas that i wouldn't have thought of. This magazine intended to have half of the double spread page just  displaying a picture of Tinie Tempah  while the other half gives an article about him. I believe having half of the double spread as just a picture emphasises the character and can also capture the eye of the audience VERY easily depending on the look of the character or in this case the reputation of the characters ( Famous Rap star Tinie Tempah).  Both picture and article are Landscape, this opened a new channel of thought for me as i only imagined a double spread page being portrait but this magazine have done it the other way and it still looks good.

I have made a start to my double spread page today and though of a great new concept for it. I have decided to have someone being signed by a record label as my cover story. I have decided to add this in on the front page so my front page gives a slight insight on my double page spread. I personally think this is a good idea. :)

For this double spread page it is important that I get the right characters and the right props to make the scene of the double page spread realistic. I plan to have a manager of a record label signing a young new rap star. I will ensure that the manager of the record label is dressed distinctivly different from the newly signed artist in order to diffreitiate between the two different characters. I will ensure that the newly signed artist is clothed in urban fahion in order to appeal to my target market of 16 - 21 year old urban youths.

I am getting close to finishing my front cover and i think it is really begging to look good. I am pleased at what it looks like and just need to edit a few things. I think i will leave it at the stage it is now and begin my double spreadsheet.

I have had to change a few things on my front cover. Reviewing my front cover along with another classmate I started to realise that the some conventions used didn't actually fit in with the Genre of my magazine. My magazine title was initially done in a graffiti font saying Taste. I felt this gave more of a rough and hard vibe to my magazine and due to this I decided to change the font of the title and the rest of the writing to 'bauhaus 93'.  I also decided that my theme colours gave off a rough sense too as the colours were all dark Reds and black. I didn't make a decision today on what colour were suitable to use but I did make a decision that I should have made to start with. I properly decided on the type of look and impression I was trying to give off through my magazine as I don't think that I really thought this through to start with. I confirmed that I was trying to be a 'smooth' and cool magazine more that rough and hard and confirmed the Genre of my magazine to be R&B. I believe this decision making really helped as I now know specifically what i need to do and my personal specifications that i need to meet to keep to the genre of my magazine. Today I basicallly started all over again!

My front cover is coming along well. I  am extremely pleased with the progress I have made on photoshop so far. Knowing this was the most crucial part of the coursework I made sure I kept on trying and I am now very confident using photoshop. All the pictures I need for my front cover have been uploaded on to photoshop and theme colours and other bits and parts have been put into place. I am now just editing and making improvements to  my front cover. I should be finished in no time! :)

I think i am finally getting the hang of phtoshop, I now feel confident using many conventions on photoshop like rotating, enlarging and modifiying pictures. To me this is a great achievement as i hav e struggles alot in the past few weeks on photoshop.  Here is a print screen of my use of the Roation feature in photoshop :

I have finished taking all the pictures needed for my front cover. The main featrue of my front cover is a charcater called Raymond Royster. I plan to have him headling my front cover. I have take a series of photos of him and have a rough idea of the ones that i will use. I will flick through the pictures again to confirm which ones i will use. This is exactly the type of look i planned to have as the front cover is supposed to be designed to scream out URBAN!! This is some of the pictures I managed to take of my main feature for my front cover

This is my analysis of the NME magazine.

In this magazine I analysed many different aspects of the front cover. This is a NME magazine, a typical rock/punk genre. Looking at this front cover it is clear to see their target audience through the look of the main character. The man headlining the front cover has a very dark outlook about him. It may not be possible to see from this picture but i believe his eyebrows have been edited or make up has been applied to make his eyebrows darker and also he has eyeliner on himself to make the eye area darker. From this I can clearly figure out that the Target audience is punks/ greebos.

Also other props like the number of chins he has o his neck point to the same social group. I saw from this magazine that they made sure that they did all they could to make it clear what social group they were aiming t and made the magazine appeal o them greatly.

The left third is filled with all of the exciting subheadings that are likely to attract readers. There are no  subheadings on the right and side of the magazine, this has been done strategically as the left hand side is what people always see first hen magazines are out in the shops. This is a very important pointer that i must remember to add in to my magazine as all attraction will need to come from the left hand side of the page

I have also noticed the enticements and prize that NME have put on the top of the front cover. This seems like a very smart idea as a Chance t win something will once again attract readers and may even attract those outside the target market as they may just be planning to try and win the prizes and may read and buy the magazine as a result of this.

My progress so far...

This is my end product. I dont think it is terrible but I was hoping to do better.

I am nearly at the finishing stages of my primary school prospectus. I am glad at the fact I have been able to get on with it and do what i need to do even though i am not very good at photoshop. However looking at what is nearly a finish product I am not very pleased of the quality of my school prospectus but Miss Breen says I am bound to get better in time. I am making a conscious effort to try and improve on photoshop but I feel as if its taking me too long to get a hang of this.  I am now just looking foward to finishing this task and getting on with the next one as it is becoming not so pleasant.

Today went much better for the first time. Though I still needed assistance in working photoshop I was able to get a lot more done and edited. I also feel like I am understanding more of the features of Photoshop. I know understand the use of The layers and can confidently change the size of images and its rotation. For the first time, it seems as if I am making progress.

Today i was able to take photos of year 7's in my school. I intentionally tried to take pictures that help make it look as if the school children were from the same school. This was challenging but i think i done a good job of this today. I have displayed some of the pictures above.

This lesson did not go any better, i am beginning to think that Photoshop may be a weak point of mine. Many other people in my class are getting the hand of the program as many people have previous computer knowledge, however i have not done any classes on IT since 3 years ago. I think my little knowledge on computers means that Photoshop surely wont be a strong point of mine.

Today i finally got started on my preliminary task on Photoshop. In all honesty i found it terrible. As i have not used Photoshop since our Photoshop lesson, i had forgot all the little things that i had picked up before. This lesson i was completely lost.

Today was much better, after re - scheduling my appointment with potter street primary school i was finally able to get hold of a high quality camera and go to the school to take the photos I needed. The headteacher was very helpful and polite in showing me round the school and allowing me to tkae pictures. I was also able to take pictures of some teachers who kindly agreed to participate.
This same day, I was finally also able to think of a solution to my problem. i have decided that i will use the school that I am in to take pictures of year 7's. I have chosen year 7s and the smallest ones as they will look most similar to primary school children. I am over the moon that most of my photos have been done and this means i can now get on and start on photoshop.

Today did not go as planned. Following the events of yesterday, i was scheduled to come in to the primary school that i selected at 3:30 to take pictures of the school. Unfortunately, the camera that i was suppose to use to take these photos was unavailable for me to use. This meant i had to cancel the appointment made with the headteacher of Potter Street Primary School and reschedule for tommorow . I am very disappointed and believe this has wasted time. I am yet to find a solution to having no pupils in my school prospectus either. Today was terrible.

Today, everyone in my media class went out to take photos around the school. I on the other hand stayed in and continued planning as i would not have had enough time to travel to the school of my choice and back in the lesson time. After the lesson i was able to travel to this primary school and attempted to talk to the headteacher. Unfortunately, the headteacher was not available and i was told to come back on Wednesday. Due to the short time i have and bearing in mind I am already behind I improvised by visiting a different primary school. Fortunately i was able to speak the head teacher and booked and appointment to take photos on tomorrow. The only issue i have encountered is that they have told me i am not allowed to take pictures of the children as they all need permission from their parents or careers meaning i have to come after school hours tomorrow. This has left me quite puzzled as to how I will be able to pull of a school prospectus with no pupils included. I am still currently thinking of a solution.

On our last media lesson of the week, which also happens to be my birthday, we have just started planning our school Prospectus. We have had time since last week to think about what we might like to do. Today we were given the chance to sketch out and actually draw up a visual plan of our School Prospectus. In this lesson I decided on what i was going to do my school prospectus on. It seemed that the majority of people in the classes opted to do their prospectus on our school, however in the intention of trying to add uniqueness to my work i decided to do my prospectus on my old primary school. In this lesson i started to draw up the intend layout of my school prospectus as it was bound to be quite different from others secondary school prospectus. My teacher has made clear to me that by taking photos on another school it is likely to make this task slightly harder for me. I have accepted this and am happy to take on  the challenge.

Today we had another lesson just getting used to Photoshop. The good news is that i see some improvement from my first Photoshop lesson. Since Monday I have had one other lesson on Photoshop and have also been playing with the program at home. I have just come out of my Friday media lesson and feel as if improvements are being made. Today I was able to use certain features of the program very successfully. Today i was able to rotate and change the size of a picture while ensuring the picture sustains its clarity by changing its megapixels. I was also able to use different Layers to make a coloured background for my image. Though there are still many features i do not know how to operate i think i have got much better since my first lesson with the program on Monday were i was completely clueless and confused. Hope i can keep up the good work.

Today was my first lesson on Photoshop. We have all just been introduced to the program as a class, some of us have previous experience with the program while others like me have no experience whatsoever. I found it very difficult and challenging in this lesson. i struggled in getting the hang of the program with my basic IT skills and in all honesty found this lesson nothing but confusing. However it does seem like one of those skills that  have to be nurtured and hopefully as i use Photoshop more i will find it easier to use and really get the hang of the program. It wasn't a completely wasted lesson though, some new skills were learnt like the use of layers in Photoshop. this was something i seemed to understand and use, however apart from that i felt the rest of the lesson went dreadful.