FABYAN MEDIA STUDIES A LEVELS
2022/2023
CREATIVE CRITICAL REFLECTION
how does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
presentation link:
script:
conventions
I would say I used pretty much most of the conventions but just added my own twist to it. Basically, the primary aspects of what makes a magazine a magazine is all there.
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A convention I challenged might be the genre of magazine. If my magazine project was an actual magazine, it would use random people as models and not necessarily models who are models for a living. Just people who are interesting. Because it is a people/culture magazine, different magazine issues can have drastically different contents to it. Thus, the ''art and music'' edition. Of course I chose the art & music edition to make. It's the only thing I know. There can also be a video game, hobby edition, fashion edition etc. Basically, what people are up to.
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The visuals are also odd and much more abstract than typical magazines. This is to be more symbolic and to show my technical skills. The visuals of the magazine follows the direction and style of the designer [me in this art&music edition] not the subject if they have no artistic catalogue [visual] to follow as a theme.
cover page
main photo:
The photos were made to look grainy yet still be eye-catching using colours and crazy effects to make it stand out to emphasize the 'art' of the magazine.
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barcode ,date and price:
These are a must when making a magazine because after all, the magazine is still a product so its information has to be tracked.
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thumbnail photos:
Some photos overlap others to make it imperfect because I want it to look handmade. The thumbnail photos were put here to also make use of the empty space.
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credits:
The credits are put there to fill up the empty space.
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main cover line:
I only included one coverline because there was already a lot going on in the cover. If the magazine were real, the coverline would be chosen based on how good the pictures look or the person has some kind of fame.
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masthead:
The masthead is hand drawn to simulate a logo instead of using typography because I wanted something that can be put anywhere and spreads on an even surface area unlike traditional text [takes too much space horizontally or vertically]. I didn't put the masthead on the top because the space was taken by the piano graphic which I had done first. I added the text on the top to give a way for audiences to identify the name of the magazine when it is behind other magazines displayed in book shops.
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The text on the top left is used to indicate what issue or edition the magazine is.
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The piano graphic was added because I needed a graphic that represents Joshua. So I edited a photo of his synth.
contents page
For the contents page, the contents and the bullet point format is inspired by old books but I added the blue bubbles to make it look more modern.
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The text on the top left is added to match the cover page. By adding it also gives it a nice asymmetry which is a thing I like that makes things branch out more to look less formulaic and constricted.
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I'm not sure if other magazines do this but I added a description under the contents header to give further context to the magazine and its contents about its whole concept.
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The main photo and the graphic used are correlated to the main article featured in the cover page. Instead of using the model as the photo, I made a logo instead because it gives more variety.
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title:
I stretched the font's title to make it stand out more and make it less boring.
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articles:
The naming of the articles don't follow a specific formula. It could either be someone's name or something unique about the person. As long as it's short and sweet. I added descriptions also to tease audiences.
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credits:
Credits were put there to balance out the whole page with more text as it will look unfinished without it. I took inspiration from i-D magazine which I chose to conduct my research on.
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Graphics that extend out are used to decorate the page and make it stand out more.
double page spread
main image:
The main image is clearly an absurd one [photographer's hand in the shot and Joshua hanging off a balcony]. I chose this not because it represents Joshua's work but his mindset. Not caring. It also looks good as a background dues to its haziness and absurd subject that makes it able to support the whole page.
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captions:
Some of the captions might be difficult to read because of the light background but I darkened it enough so that it makes sense in context with the image because I want to preserve the consistency of the image. Other than that, I couldn't do anything crazy with the text because a magazine needs to have readable content. I followed an interview format with background information before it. It still might be difficult to read but it's not completely invisible.
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headline:
The title sahuo doesn't have an exclamation mark as seen in the cover and contents because as owner of the name says the exclamation mark is purely for style and that it can be left out. In this case, when I made the logo, leaving out the exclamation mark looked better.
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blurbs:
I added a quote on the right side of the page to also give the page that nice asymmetry that I love so much. If it weren't there the page would have too much empty space because the main image can't fill the whole page and that explains the black bars on the side. The only way to combat that problem was the blurb. The blurb also has to be big to be considered a blurb which causes the text to be broken up. This gives it an unusual look that I like. It looks better compared to it being vertical text.
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page number:
I only added the page number on one side because it look more elegant and simple that way. It looks more professional.
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One clear convention I broke was me actively adding textures to every page to make them look weathered because it goes well with the visual style. I also could't fit all the information such as where to find Joshua's music as well as concluding the article into this page. Let's just imagine there's more pages.
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Compared to the other pages I made, this is the only one with black background. The whole magazine is not tied to a single colour scheme. Depending on the pictures used, colour scheme will have to suit the colour of the photos used not the magazine as a whole. My housestyle depends mostly on the form and effects of the graphics not the colour.
social groups & issues
Overall, my magazine represents people of all kinds no matter the beliefs. It seeks to explore the concept of sonder. A realization that everyone's lives are as complex, detailed and filled with nuances same as oneself. Social groups and issues are represented depending on the person being documented.
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In the article I made, I mentioned about cultural cringe which effects the way locals preceive local media in a negative way which ultimately plays a role in its struggle. Joshua also mentioned about how neglected the music industry is from musicians not being paid to shows being rare. It is due to them having a bad name among conservatives because it's normally associated with enjoyers being 'sampah masyarakat' which is a term meant to describe people who don't contribute to society but normally people misuse this term in a way that is with prejudice, ignorance and misunderstanding. People go to shows to enjoy music, let out emotions and such.
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Basically, the main issue is the people's mentality. People wait for each other to react a certain way to actually formulate an opinion on something. People wait for something new and daring but criticizes it when it happens. This plays a part in everything in this country not just in media. I'm not really a patriotic person but this just bothers me. A simple solution is just to have an open mind.
how does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as real media text?
In a perfect world, I would want everyone to enjoy my magazine. Its content suggests that it would attract an audience with a taste for art and music along with the curiosity to find out about what is going on locally that not a lot of people talk about because the articles are supposed to be very personal to the subjects documented. Various readers can relate to their words or understand what they are going through or even have a laugh implied by some of the jokey descriptions for the dummy articles in my contents page. I have no intentions on targeting on a specific demographic because I do not want to gatekeep anything I make and in my opinion, focusing on a specific demographic indirectly limits the creative directions that the magazine or any creation to take. Social issues and representatives of various groups whether it be race, sub-culture, political and such can speak upon their topic of passion and their interest and it's bound to strike a chord with the reader either positively or negatively. Either way, it is impactful to the audience.
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If my magazine was a real media product, it would have its own office with its own printing equipment and distribution run by an independent team. It doesn't have to be large and corporate because this kind of magazine should be limited. Substance and quality should be kept strong and consistent. If not, it's better to stop publishing new issues. The magazine should also have some online presence [making a website and social media accounts mainly Instagram and Youtube] as promotion and also to reach international audiences. If there is success, promotion of the magazine could be done by hosting events that give platforms for artists to perform and showcase their art. Mainly, the most important form of distribution for this magazine is preferably by printing because physical things have more sentimental value.
how did your production skills develop throughout this project?
In the case for this project, mainly my skills for improvising and making use for what I have have improved. During the shoot, I just only had rough plans for the composition of pictures I wanted to take which the photos I end up not using. I composed everything else along the way.
I was put in a tight box in a good way because when I make posters in my own time, I mainly use photos from the internet and my access was unlimited but for the project, I only have my own photos to use. So, I tried my hardest to apply the photos effectively into my magazine which was the most painstaking process. I have to not let hatred of my photos demotivate me and that's the reason why doing this project is different from making posters for fun. Whenever, I make posters for fun, if I don't like the photos I use midway in editing, I lose interest and abandon the poster. For this project, I had to push through, stick to the theme and make it work.
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Still, the difficulty I faced was time. Shooting was to be held during the December holidays originally but Joshua was going on a holiday with his family so I had to wait. In January, I had to balance media with other subjects which made me burnt out so there might be creative potential sacrificed because of stress. What added insult to injury was wix being glitchy and slow so I couldn't arrange photos properly. Furthermore, indesign in my laptop stopped working so I had my friend who lent me his laptop for a limited time. Time was also wasted in order to get inDesign working on my little brothers laptop. Even acquiring his laptop, he is a gaming addict. He would never let go of it. It's only during weekdays I can use it when my mother takes it away from him.
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I could say that I'm getting better at doing work during the last minute because I'm normally not good at that.
how did you integrate technologies? - software, hardware and online in this project?
presentation link:
script:
software
Photoshop is what I use to edit photos, make graphics, add textures like distressing, make logos from typography and such. It's the software which I am most skilled in. As for inDesign, I mainly use it to edit text. I could do it in photoshop but the main star of the indesign is the text wrap function. I really don't like using indesign. Photoshop better. I think that for this project I explored more of both adobe softwares and applied most of what I know into this project, being able to learn new tricks as well as improving my weaknesses.
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For the transferring of the cassette footage, I used the app called OBS studio to screenrecord while the tape is playing. For scanning paper to make the 'sahuo' logo, I used the software the flatbed scanner came with called IJ Scan Utility.
hardware
The equipment I used for acquiring footage is my Dad's Canon Eos 80 for hd pictures along with a tripod for stabilization and a camera flash attachment that can switch colours. The thing I like about the flash is that the object that is closest to the camera follows the colour of the flash while the background stays in its natural colour. Its usage can be seen in my double page spread. My sony vx1000 camcorder for cassette video footage. To transfer the footage, I finally bought a reliable adaptor to transfer the footage to my laptop.
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I'm not sure if pen and paper is considered hardware but I used it to make the logo for the main headline in the double page spread. After that, I used a flatbed scanner to scan the paper to edit it in photoshop.
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A difficulty that I faced was that inDesign stopped working in my laptop for some reason. I had to go back and forth and edit photos on photoshop in my laptop because of my precious downloaded fonts and on my friends' and little brothers laptop for indesign. I put a lot of strain into my little pendrive even some files being corrupted due to not ejeting it properly.
online
Throughout most of this project, I used the website wix to document the process, planning and everything else inside it as a diary in the form of a blog.
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Most of my research was done using various websites, wikipedia pages, blogs, pinterest, instagram. These are also the places where I have drawn inspiration from also from physical magazines, product catalogues, album covers and such that I have found at home.
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I also have used messaging apps like Whatsapp and Telegram to communicate with the model to work on scheduling shoots and conduct an online interview with him. I also used youtube to learn more techniques about the softwares I used.
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Currently, I am using Prezi to make a presentation for my critical creative reflection.
conclusion
I had fun making the magazine. I treated the process as if I'm actually making it into a reality. The thing that still bothers me is how the masthead looks. I was playing around in photoshop with the project file and I turned off the masthead layer and the cover looks better. So, the only thing I wish I would have done different was the masthead. For the contents page, I wish I explored different layouts for the contents page but due to the short time I have, creativity was limited. Finally, for the double page spread, it's actually one of my favourite things I made so far. so I don't have any complaints except that I wish I added more photos in it.