7 Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

After conducting research into designing and creating a magazine I have learnt a variety of ways in which they are made. This includes using the F/E or Z layout to make the magazine comfortable for the audience to read and look at. I also found out that the most common colour scheme for magazines it red, white and black. I also found out in my research that masthead's are large, bold and also represent the genre of the magazine; Kerrang! has a cracked masthead which represents the iconology of it being messy. I also discovered that the register of magazine's are very low depending on their audience, they usually contain layers of taboo and colloquilisms.

When photographing my magazine, I tested camera angles with my test models who were the same height as my real models which meant I could get the right angle with ease. I experimented by using steps to but the taller model at the bottom of the steps, the shorter model halfway up the steps and then I'd stand at the top to get my desired high angle shot. However I did experiment with chairs and tables to get height but they weren't as accurate as using steps. I also learnt how to set up the Canon EOS 40D's exposure settings. I already had a good knowledge of shutterspeed, aperture, ISO, lighting and exposure however I had never operated a Canon before there I learnt how to set that up. The problem I had is I set the ISO so it wasn't very sensitive to light which resulted in 'noise' to be shown on parts of the picture which meant I had to sort that out on Photoshop.

When using Adobe Photoshop Elements I learnt that it is not the best version of Photoshop to use when creating a magazine. This is mainly due to the fact that it does not have a 'justify' option which puts the text into columns. Alternativly, I had Adobe Photoshop CS2 at my house which offered all of the features I needed to make my magazine. When using Photoshop, I learnt that it is hard to adjust the composition of the models to make the magazine look proffesional. I struggled trying to adjust the mise-en-scene. This is due to my drawings which weren't drawn well enough to show how large the models should be. I learnt that the best shot to use on models for the front cover is midshot however mine was slightly longer than that so I could fit my props in the picture. However this resulted in there being a gap in the middle of the page which was evident in my draft front cover. To fix this problem I inserted text to fill the gap and make the magazine seem more appealing to the audience. I also struggled to correct the proportions of the photograph in my double page spread. This is because I took the shot as a landscape shot however I had to fit it on one portrait A4 page.