For this year's FMP L3 Creative Media were given the task of creating our own projects using the skills we have learnt throughout the year and combining them into our chosen second year choice, for me this was publishing. Using a combination of research, experimentation and my creative skill set as a student i created a magazine which, overall i am happy with. As a student who takes fascination of publication work i found myself really pushing myself this year and enjoying it, too.
Pre Production
The pre production process for my FMP started in late March, we were given a brief of the work expected of us as well as how to get the top grades thanks to marking boundaries but apart from that we were sent to work on our way paths. Initially, i really struggled with what to create for this project therefore my raw starting point was to create mind maps of four possible ideas i could pursue, creating these mind maps made everything so visual for me that i almost found it easier to weigh up the pros and cons from potential topic. Once finalising that a magazine is what i wanted to do with a mixture of both photography based content as well as channeling myself to do some articles, which isn't something i feel particularity comfortable in my research began. To begin with i gathered inspiration from magazines that really inspired me which varied from Vogue magazine to more 'indie' magazines like Paper and V, as these were my starting inspirations i created a mind map, much like my initial ideas as i found this so effective. Over all i believe that it was a good idea for me to do it that way because you can see my progression from a few basic ideas into actually finding what inspired me to do this magazine, which aspects of each i would like to incorporate into my own magazine which aspects from each i dont like and so on. Once my inspirations mind map had run its course i began to think about other potential aspects that i would need to think about in my my magazine, things such as potential colour schemes, editorial makeup which really spoke to me that i could incorporate into my own magazine and also the styles of writing that i liked, this was important to me because i knew that if i wanted to add in articles to my work, i wanted them to have a 'blog' style to them in the sense that they were slightly informal, had personal opinion in them but also another key feature i really liked about the blog style writing i found was that they spoke to the audience, allowing for them to really ponder about the chosen subject. All of this tied into one made one large mind map that had all of my starting bases on it for where i could take the ideas next, on top of this i had to keep in mind my time frame.
Back in March i felt like i had all the time in the world, i realised very quickly this was not the case therefore i had to act sharp on my ideas if i was to create a magazine i was going to be proud of. Once creating my mind maps as well as blogging my responses, i set about doing alot more primary research and some more secondary research on areas i haven't yet touched upon like font types and layout, for my primary research it took shape in the form of two major projects. One was a survey using a focus group through social media and the other was through an interview i would be conducting with a local, dedicated magazine shop owner who had invited me in to talk to me about important aspects of magazine i had not thought about yet. On reflection i feel like i could have done more in terms of giving out my survey to the type of audience i was trying to attract, instead of just sharing it on a facebook wall and hoping for the best i feel like i should have been more active in my research by going around my local shopping areas things like that, i feel like would have benefitted me more that just hoping for the responses to come to me as although through sharing the survey would have given me the demographic i wanted to reach, i did not get as many responses as i would have liked. One top of this, i do not feel like the questions i had asked on my survey were direct enough, they were too vague and did not give the direct answers i needed in terms of what i needed to know for my magazine and its contents. Another issue i fell into was the fact that when sharing my survey online, i didnt get the control i wanted in terms of who answered it. I soon realised that younger boys were answered my survey and that was not who my target audience was! therefore i have learnt for next time do just hand the survey out myself to those i believe would be in my focus group.
However, my interview at Magairella was really interesting, i had pre prepared questions i had wanted to ask, after the disastrous survey and they were more than happy to help. In asking questions like 'Do you believe that print is a thriving business, still?' it give me more confidence in my choice to do a print based magazine, as yes they believed it was. Interviewing the shop was really eye opening to me, i feel like i got all the answers i needed to now carry out my secondary research in more depth. As i knew that i wanted my magazine to be very article based i found the three topics i wanted to cover as researched them alot more, from this i found five or six reliable news sources that contained factual information about my news related story which meant i knew that i would be documenting mistruths. Next up i knew that i wanted to do a review based article also, coincidentally the controversial Netflix program '13 Reasons Why' had just been realised therefore i knew that i wanted to have my say in the matter, so i knew what my review based article was going to be. As for my photography inspiration, i was recommended the photographer Brandon Woelfel and once i began to research him i fell in love with his photography style, he gave me the inspiration to do a photography series for my magazine using flares which he had done and it looked incredible, especially after editing! Once i had the contents of my magazine out of the way, i progressed through to study layout and font as these are both key elements in which can help create a magazine, i believe that if a font is unreadable for example, then this may discourage a reader from the magazine. The same can be said for layout, as said in my primary research, of course i had a look of lots of magazines currently on the market and what they had to offer. I found a specific style of layout that i really liked and so it heavily influenced me during the production process, the layouts i personally liked had alot of geometric squaring, minimalist images and text but also alot of plain spacing, which i thought was really effective. Once this form of experimentation had taken place i wanted to push myself further, creating potential page layouts, experimenting with front covers and also looking at magazine characteristics such as contents summaries on the front cover, taking into consideration if i wanted that for myself or did i want things differently, all of these aspects of consideration can be found through my other blog work, of course. On top of this, i had to think about my outside shoot as well, therefore i created a recce of potential locations that i could use, this was really interesting for me s there were a lot of factors i had to think about such as danger to the public and roads, the amount of natural lighting we would have all of the aspects had to be considered, i also created an inspiration, mood board which showed how i wanted my model to be where i wanted my flares to be positioned and how i wanted my lighting to look which all helped me out on reflection.
Another key part of my pre production process was, of course my test shoot for my front cover. I took inspiration from my previous research using influences such as Paper magazine and I-D mag to also my own influences and tastes as well as from photographers such as Brandon Woelfel, ensuring to push myself into doing a shoot i hadn't before. By doing my test shots i was able to really understand what i would need for my actual production, things like equipment set up needed to be considered before moving forward but since i was doing my test shoot, i knew what to do for the real thing. When conducting my test shoot created a mood board also really helped me as i could relate back to what inspired me, whether that be from a model's positioning to the lighting style used it really helped me to convey my ideas visually in my personal path way, which is key during this project. By doing my test shoot not only did it prepare me for what i would need to do for my actual shoot but also help me to convey my ideas in a way that shows progression for an idea, to trying the idea, to changing something, in addition to this by doing so many experiments whether that be from layout to front cover styling it enables me to develop my ideas further constantly, pushing myself to better myself. Throughout this entire process of pre production i have found myself increasingly confidence when it comes to softwares like Lightroom and Photoshop, of course all documented through my other blog posts. I feel that in experimenting with editing, different forms my magazine can take and also different styles of layout i have grown accustom to using these platforms and if i have had any issues, google has been my best friend, such as overlapping images or manipulating text. If i could change anything else about my pre production process it would probably to have to be not spending as much time physically researching however just making notes on what i have done and then filling my blogs up later, i feel like i spent too much time researching which may not necessarily be a bad thing however, i soon found myself falling behind others in the class and struggling to catch up, if i was to do this project again i would probably attempt to find a balance between enough research however it be thoroughly blogged about as well as being analysed to pinpoint the exact parts of any particular section of research that i like.
Production
In contrast to my final sentence, i feel like if hadn't done as much planning in my pre production phase, i do not think that either of my photoshoots would have gone as smoothly as they did. Thanks to my research and experimentation i feel that my studio shoot was executed with swift transitions from one stage to the next, prior to the shoot i was able to book out all of the equipment i needed such as studio lighting and back drops and set up quickly thanks to my test shoot. Whilst doing my photoshoot i allowed a friend and fellow student into the studio with be to help take pictures of any of the behind the scenes stuff i may feel like needed, such as me doing my models make up and then directing her into postion so that after, when blogging about the whole experience i could explain why i did what i did and how, in doing the behind the scenes pictures i can also reflect on what i could do differently and how i could improve it, which i am glad about. After my test shoot i was under the impression that i would keep some of the images taken and also use those in my magazine, but after doing my official photoshoot i decided to disregard those images as the ones taken this time around i had found to be better and more to what i was attempting to re create. Once i had my photographs taken altogether, i uploaded them onto my Mac and began to edit. It chose to go straight into Lightroom for the editing process as i wanted to encourage myself to be more familiar with the software, as i had little to no experience with using Lightroom, i found myself struggling to use the software accurately however i soon found myself adjusting to it, i know i didnt use Lightroom as best as i could have however i managed to edit the pictures to a standard that i wanted correcting issues such as white balance and enhance them in other ways that i also liked, which i am thankful for. One issue i found with some of my images were that they seemed be discoloured with a white wash tone which meant that no matter how hard i tried to enhance my images, they looked bleached out and there was no way of using them, due to this some images were unusable from my cover shoot but i had taken to manage through, luckily.
The same could be said for my outdoors photoshoot, thanks to my careful planning and recce i found shooting with the flares easy enough, i ensured that we left before the sun had set otherwise we would have been able to see the flares at all and thanks to the fact we shot in a forest i feel like the smoke going around the trees was really effective and therefore the shoot went better than i could have ever previously planned! thanks to my moodboard work the model knew what do to and i set up the flares as carefully as possible to ensure no health and safety hazards were present. Once let off, we let the flare do its thing and encourage the model to work with it, which he did. I believe that alot of the smoothness of this shoot came from my mood boards and clear visions on where i wanted the photo shoot to go, showing my model the moodboard meant that he understood what i meant when i said follow whatever the flare is doing, the pictures can out exceptionally well and i was so pleased with the shoot there is nothing that i would do differently next time, my research and experimentation worked hand in hand to find me the perfect location without any concerns or problems.
After editing all of my images together and writing my articles to go inside the magazine, i set about doing my first print trial, this was to see how to colours of my editing would hold up, it also gave a me a visual physical copy of magazine to see if there were any alterations i would need to make before researching where to print my magazine and then eventually, sending it to print. In order to send my magazine to print i wanted to ensure that the print company was right for me in the sense that i wanted to ensure that they could offer me the paper quality i wanted, the quantity i wanted and for the magazine to be printed well, all for a fair charge. I am really happy i shopped around before confirming my definate answer as i found the similar website to the leading uk brand who i much preferred and who also seemed much better, honestly. I wanted to blog all of this because it shows a progression for wanting to print but not knowing where to go to gathering quotes together and comparing potential businesses. However, before finalising my magazine and sending it to print i wanted to do one last survey using a focus group to ensure changes that needed to be made were, learning from my previous experience i only shared the questionnaire with those who i trusted, printing off more mock ups of my magazine and also a digital copy so that those in my focus group could find and go back to look at the magazine if needed. The feedback i received was overall really informative and the most of the changes recommended to me i followed through with as i agreed with them, on reflection i am glad i made the changes i did as my magazine looks so much better for it.
Overall i am really happy with the photoshoots themselves, i feel that if i had not done my extra steps like create a recce or test photo shoot then things wouldn't have gone so smoothly in the production process, one thing i am slightly critical of however is the fact that when doing my cover shoot i did not shoot enough varied shots of my model which were of a portrait size, for some reason i kept turning the camera landscape (probably because that is what is most natural for me when holding my camera), this was slightly annoying as it meant a lot of the images that i really liked i couldn't use as my magazine size is A4 portrait without warping the images or cropping out important aspects of some of my images which i really liked, other than this i had no issues. Once i had edited my images in Lightroom i then went on to export the images out and create my layout in InDesign, that way my images did not lose quality, which i am glad i did.
Post Production
Post production probably the most simple part of my entire project, once i had sent my magazine to print it was about me evaluating my work the best i could but also gathering feedback from my focus group again, now that my magazine has been printed. Overall i am happy with how my magazine turned out but next time i would like to push myself further, i like to push myself further than just an Instagram page and i magazine, i would like to create a video launch if i did this project again. Creating an advertisement for a magazine is a way for me to really reach new audiences but also reflect the style i am trying to portray from my magazine. By collecting another set of data from my focus group i feel like my work can be properly evaluated, as well as this evaluation created by myself. As a whole i feel that this project has been successful in the sense that i set out do what i aimed to however on reflection, as i said previously i would like to stretch myself further next time and really push my comfort zone in ways i havent during this project. Looking at my printed magazine now in comparison to the mind maps i created only a few months ago, is a strange feeling. I feel that i have remained consistent in my work throughout this project committing to blogging all i can to show you the improvements and progress i have made, which i believe i have done. If i was to do this task again i would want to push myself not only with the video advertisement to go with it but also with what i do with my contents, i would like to push myself to do another shoot as well as write more articles as i believe i could do it in the time frame we have been given for this project, providing i stay on top of my blog work. In doing this it will stretch me further in the sense that i will need to encourage my time management more.
As for my secondary research, I mainly used the social media's of LJ Hugs to see how they interacted with customers, what their social media currently looked like and how they market themselves currently. From what I can tell; the website is not currently updated with new images or exciting news, it has stayed the same since the last time I check which is unfortunate because as a food stall, Lj's needs to be active on all of its online profiles in order to stand out and not fade into the saturated market of restaurants. Although their website could do with some more activity, it is still informative. It gives information on where it is, what they have on offer and prices which is all a basic website truly needs. I did, however, notice something very disappointing when we spoke to Lewis, owner of LJ's he was very passionate about the fact the LJ'S was fun and vibrant. I understand that the black and white theme he has chosen currently is slick and minimalistic but I feel like it takes some of the fun away from his current aesthetic, therefore I feel like I may look into maybe redesigning his logo and website to inject some of the fun into his branding.
Another observation I made was on LJ's Instagram, to me personally the theme of its uploads were not very consistent nor did they flow together very nicely which makes me think that however is running it, expectedly Lewis does not know what is doing with it enough to really be promoting his business through the site, also the page does not seem to have a lot of followers which isn't great if he is wanting the promote the business through instagram, I would like to see someone take over the page and really promote, work with bloggers who can put word out his food and instise others to take the walk down to southgate and try his food out. The images used on his Instagram seem to be low quality and don't do the food justice therefore if we could get some high-quality images taken that could really take the business in a new direction.
