Evaluation Question 3

Q3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

At the beginning of the project, with no inkling or experience as to what complications the foundation portfolio held in store for me, I found myself apprehensive upon approaching this section of my Media Studies course. But over the course of two months, my production skills developed in both the research and planning and construction process of my preliminary and final tasks.

The regulatory tasks taught me to structure my ideas first and put them into action later. Trying to get everything done too fast and without a proper game plan leads to stressful and frustrating situations, which is why I sought to construct a timeline and a budget on Microsoft Word to make navigation of my list of tasks easier.

Next, the pre-production stage commenced with extensive research into what the genre of a Literary Magazine entails and what its codes and conventions were through viewing various presentations on sites such as SlideShare and Prezi. But researching mainly into online articles, cover pages etc. was not enough. For any magazine to become successful, it is a perquisite that the institution acquires knowledge about the preferences of their target audience through demography, psychographs and analyzing the hierarchy of needs of the readership. This thought process resulted in a detailed questionnaire regarding what material would constitute the cover, content and double spread pages.

Coupled with the questionnaire was an analysis of existing Literary Magazines such as World Literature Today, Juxtaprose and Bookforum. 

The analysis of the cover, content and main spread pages proved essential and help the layout and conventions of the magazine. With progression of these components, I had a clearer idea of the placement of the masthead, the cover lines etc. It so helped immensely that I put my ideas onto paper through doodle drawings and constructing graphic designs on Microsoft Word. Conventions, however, weren’t followed religiously because I wanted my piece of creativity to shine as room for innovation is vital to any project.

As important as it was to decide which masthead or headlines I would be incorporating into my magazine, it was just as crucial to decide specific fonts suitable for the target audience and the genre. For this purpose, I conducted a research on fonts, enhancing my knowledge on typography, word spacing, alignments and justified texts and knowing when to keep text within the virtual frame and when to allow words to seep or bleed out. I ended up choosing the fonts Oswald and Abril Fatface to match the bold but simplistic nature of a literary magazine.

Since the questionnaire pointed me to the fact that more people were interested in short stories and novels than poetry, I sought to research on the purpose of props in order to make their inclusion on the cover more meaningful as I would know that they make indication of the genre obvious immediately and act as a crutch even for the most simplistic covers.

Moreover, analyzing a plethora of magazine covers, the importance of cover lines came to notice and I conducted some research regarding them as well. The cover line is what draws the reader in and could make or break the sales as the audience wouldn't bother buying the magazine if interesting and worthwhile content isn't promised inside. This is the reason cover lines are inquisitive, mysterious, contain an enigmatic code to maintain the reader's attention. I have tried to maintain this convention for both my preliminary and final tasks.

A great addition to the development of skills during the production stage was getting to the root of the nooks and crannies of how a digital camera works. Through researching Google, I learned what various exposure modes work and the specifics and uses of symbols such as Auto, Program, Aperture Priority, Bulb etc. With the help of presentations displayed in the classroom and tutorials on YouTube, as to how to use settings regarding shutter speed, aperture and ISO to my advantage.

In addition, I learned the elements of photography such as following leading lines, rule of thirds, framing the subject and depth of field, also capturing some photos following the rules to incorporate those techniques, when I photograph for my magazine so that they don't turn out a usual boring style. Furthermore, for a greater understanding of the philosophy of photography I watched videos on YouTube of theorists such as Susan Sontag, John Berger and Vilem Flusser. All of this made the final task easier to manage.

Never having used Photoshop, InDesign or Lightroom before, I was reluctant to do so. But the plethora of tutorials available on YouTube directed me towards how to operate the myriad of tools available for editing the photographs I took. I used Photoshop Mix, PS Express, Photoshop Fix and VSCO Cam applications on my phone as they were easier to operate and sought to find user friendly online magazine making websites such as Canva, to make the production process smoother and undemanding.

I also learned from a mistake made during the preliminary task of bombarding the cover page with a bunch of cover lines. For my final task I learned the value of less is more and incorporated a more clutter free and sleeker design.

Ways of marketing were also integrated into the production process, where I not only learned how to make and run a blog but also how to successfully advertise a product to the audience by employing enigmatic and attractive content on the cover pages to lure the audience into buying your product. Knowledge of institutions and audiences from Component 2 were applied to the working of the magazine which helped give a deeper understanding of how institutions work. Through the making of the timeline and budget, I learned the importance of treading meticulously when dealing with capital and also the importance of planning. Lastly, I learned the discipline and routine required to make months long projects work and time management and dividing up work load pays off at the end.