Magazine construction involved researching magazine conventions using hard copy magazines. A mind mapping website was used to organize research findings visually. SurveyMonkey surveys helped determine article design ideas. Photos of draft designs were taken on an iPhone and edited in Photoshop before creating the double page magazine spread layout in InDesign, allowing visions to become reality closely matching original plans. Further InDesign functions were discovered during magazine production.

1. How did you use media technologies in
the construction, research, planning &
evaluation stages?
Magazine

2. Similar to the research and planning of my film and poster, I began my search with google
and research the codes and conventions of a magazine front cover, and a magazine article.
As the results were mostly other students work, I felt that to make my information reliable, I
looked more at actual hard copy magazines instead. Examples included Empire, Total Film
and Sight and Sound. Luckily, copies of these were already in the media room. In order to
present my findings in a visually pleasing format, I used a new website which I had used
before for my poster research: Examtime. The website enabled me to present my research in
a colourful mindmap and I was able to use a variety of fonts to group different aspects
together. The website was simple and clear to use, plus other functions are available to help
with revision. However, the only drawback is that with the creating process of the mind map,
the ‘nodes’ or ‘spider legs’ could only veer off from the 4 sides of the title’s rectangle. As so
many different little sections and ideas had to be drawn away from the title, about three boxes
came from the same spot. This made it difficult to keep track of, as some boxes looked like
they were representing the same thing, yet this was not the case. I then had to use other
fonts and colours to make sure everything was separated and nothing was linked that didn’t
need to be. By using this programme, I was then able to screenshot the little creation and
post it onto the blog.
Research & Planning

3. SurveyMonkey was a useful tool again, similarly because of the same
reasons that was it successful and effective for my film and poster. I
was able to ask my audience questions about the layout and design of
the article, which helped to determine my final ideas and preparation,
therefore it helped me in the process. Whilst creating my designs, I
used normal A3 paper and pens, yet in order to put this onto the blog, I
had to photograph the posters by hand using an iPhone, as my camera
was unavailable at the time. I then emailed myself the photos, to then
post them to the blog. This was particularly helpful as I could take the
photos whenever I wished, as all it required was my mobile and the
poster, allowing me to do this at home. I could also take numerous
photos quickly in order to get everything in the frame, which would have
been more difficult with an actual camera, especially in terms of
exposure and lighting - both of which are simplified to a great amount
with the iPhone.
Research & Planning

4. For my magazine article, I had already captured the photos that I wanted
to use in my poster, which was lucky and saved me time. Although, I still
had to edit the photos on the software Photoshop. This was because I
had to remove the background of the original photos, so I could then use
only the creature and young girl to go onto the left side of my double
spread article. In order to actually create the review and article, I used
InDesign, as the software is famous for work in textual layouts and
publishing products. Using this programme, I was able to create a double
page spread, and choose the background colour which was what was
initially planned. I enjoyed using this programme as it allowed my
magazine visions to become a reality and therefore stuck as closely to my
original plan as possible. Furthermore, as I had used it for my poster, I
knew the basic functions, yet whilst producing my magazine, I was able to
discover a lot more settings and functions to make my magazine
successful.
Construction