My photography experience

    
As the images above suggest my idea for the magazine revolves around life at preschool and how it can be made fun instead of it being monotonous for both, the kids and teachers. The images were taken during our media studies class where we devoted two hours to photography, while one hour was fully dedicated to choose what pictures i would keep as an option for my media magazine.

These three images have been taken keeping the idea in mind that the magazine should be simple yet attractive, the colours of the magazine are very important as they act as an indicator to attract consumers, no one would want to purchase something dull and unattractive. Preschool life is fun and colourful, photographing children was the hardest task since getting the correct expressions is what we aim for- the pictures definitely have some flaws but those would be catered to during the editing process.

I hope my magazine turns out to be the way i would want it, attractive for both children, teachers and parents with interesting activities that would lighten up the mood of the viewer!

Layout for Content

The layout for the content page is on the basis of the general conventions of the content pages, following these conventions would help us set a standard for the magazine:

Layout For Cover- page

Before we start off with making our magazine for the media studies foundation portfolio, the task given to us was to make a rough sketch of what our media magazine would look like following the general rules and conventions of magazines:

The cover page sketch is as follows:

My Inspiration for Photography- A preliminary task

Before taking pictures for the magazine cover we searched on the internet looking for different sorts of inspirations in order to figure out what we would want our photographs to look like.

This was one of the images that depicted the type of photography i wanted to do and show in my magazine. The expressions of the child in these images are phenomenal, it shows clearly how preschool life can be. Though there is a common understanding for us that in preschool students aren’t given so many books, its just the basics that they are taught. Also, the images show how children enjoy being in school around their friends, playing around and learning new things everyday. They feel fresh and energized and this image definitely shows the energy they have.

This is another image that shows high-school student life. It shows how school isn’t only about academic performance but also about being able to enjoy the free time hanging out with friends, talking about and discussing things apart from studies. High- school is not only about being drowned in books, they are also given chances to prove themselves excellent in other activities such as different sports, dramatics, art, photography etc. This picture very clearly portrays the lighter side of student life and that is one of the things i can show on my magazine cover.

The colours of this image are very very crisp and stand out well with the way the character is presented. This scenario is possibly of a library where a student is looking for books to read and enjoy the leisure time she has. The background has been very efficiently blurred which allows the character to look sharp and it clearly shows the expressions of the character and that she is not bored but is enjoying being in school. Also, we need to realize that the school library has books of different genres to attract students to read them and find out what interests them the most.

These are the three image references that attracted me the most keeping in mind a student magazine. These images depict student life in the best possible manner and how at every stage from being a toddler to a high-school student, school can be enjoyed as it is the best time of ones life. Something like these images is what i would like to show in my magazine.

Understanding Camera Shots & Angles

Understanding camera angles and shots is essential for anyone to learn photography, some of the techniques we learnt have been applied in our practical work.

Tasks to take pictures with different camera shots was assigned to us;

This is an extreme long shot, showing clearly the background and where a certain act is taking place with little focus on the characters itself.

This is a long shot which shows the background but also gives a specific idea of the character and where the action s going to take place.

 

This is a full shot that gives a complete view of the character and what it looks like and represents.

This is a mid-shot that shows the character from the waist-up.

This is a close up which focuses only on the characters face.

This is an Extreme close-up which focuses on a specific part of the characters face.

The camera angles are:
1) Birds- eye view: Angle that looks directly upon a scene.
2) High- Angle: camera angle that looks down upon a subject to make it look inferior and weak.
3) Low- Angle: Angle that looks up to the character to show that it is stronger and more powerful.
4) Eye- level angle: the audience is at equal footing with the character.
5) Dutch Angle: Is to demonstrate confusion of the character, it shows uneasiness of the situation.

Understanding Media Studies

Media is used to communicate information in the everyday world. To understand and analyse media, an individual needs to be media literate. Media literacy enables people to analyse, evaluate and create messages using a variety of media forms. Some essential tools are needed to analyse any kind of media text; it is basically tool box that would be needed at all times.

Remembering media concepts is extremely easy, with a word as simple as:
M- I- G- R- A- I-N

Media forms
Institution
Genre
Representation
Audience
Ideology
Narrative

These concepts allow us to understand the message that is being transmitted and why and how a media text is effective.

Some detail about these concepts:
Media Forms: It means the different types of media or platforms used to create messages, such as, print, film, TV, Radio, Music, Radio, Video games, Billboards, etc. For example, a magazine is a form of print media. Different media forms help us decide the type of media text that is to be used. For instance, if a newspaper has to be analysed, then the headlines, captions, bylines and cropping, etc. A lot of media forms are hybrid.

Institution: Media Institutes are basically people who are involved in the construction and transmission of media. They cover three areas: Production -> Distribution -> Exhibition.

Genre: Way of categorizing a media text through style and form. Categorizing text in genres is vital for production and analysis.

Representation:  All media texts are representation of reality. Representation is a two way process, producers position text in relation to reality and audiences asses text in relation to reality. 

Audiences: People who consume media text, also known to be the victim of media.

Ideology: Are the views, beliefs and values in the society. These values and beliefs are often perpetuated as dominant ideologies; also known as hegemony. It is referred to as hegemony because there is complete agreement over whatever is being told to an individual.

Narrative: Coherence given to a series of facts. Narratives are stories that make sense of the scenes being shown. Media text is understood through a narrative.

Introduction: Starting Off

I’m Fatima Ali, just another 17- year old, who just started A levels at Learning Alliance. I’m nothing more than an average teenager who’s much more interested in being a part of co- curricular and extra- curricular activities rather than being completely absorbed in course books. My main idea of what i wanted to do was fine art till the second year of my O’ levels but with time, exposure to internships and media itself dragged me to taking up media in my A level and i don’t regret changing my decision. I believe media is much more interesting and since there’s always so much going on it just gives us a chance to give our point of view and let’s us explain what we believe which boosts our confidence level to a huge extent. I, as an individual always preferred fine art but that was only because i was good at it, but then taking up challenges is what i love.  I was recently an internee at an advertisement/ event management firm, “Urimage”. I got a chance to spend time with new people and learn how one small project can be so much more successful than what is already a huge business. Researching about various projects and promoting events everyday on social networks, allowed me to converse with people with different interests and i don’t regret giving up my summer for such an internship. It has given me the confidence i need to grow further and come up as a successful human with an entirely different way of expressing myself. I hope to enjoy my two years of media studies- have a lot of fun and learn a million things and become something i want to be because that’s what we are taught at our institution, being who you are. In the first class of media studies we got an introduction of what media studies basically is. The main task we have is to make a magazine. There must be a front page, content page and a double spread page of the new magazine. All images and text used in the magazine must be original and produced by the candidate.  All the tasks done to prepare the magazine should be posted on the blog to ensure that all the work has been done by the students and not any professional.

The preliminary task for the media studies project is to produce a cover page and content page for a school magazine using an image manipulation program, such as photoshop. Additionally we must produce a mock-up of the layout of the content page to demonstrate the understanding of the program.

The marking criteria is as follows:
The unit is marked out of 100: 20 marks for the presentation of the planning and research; 60 marks for the construction; 20 marks for the evaluation.