Magazine Cover Conventions Blog Reflection

Learning Process:

  Learning magazine conventions was easier than I expected. Initially, I saw a magazine as a complex thing and could never imagine myself making one until now. On the contrary, I enjoyed learning the different conventions, my favorite being the cover image and how celebrities are incorporated on the cover. What I didn’t like was using InDesign and designing my magazine cover.

Magazine Explanation:

  My magazine is called *America Daily*, where they talk about news happening in the United States. For my cover image, I used myself holding two American flags to celebrate the 4th of July, which my cover is based on. I used puffs and banners with a red, white, and blue pattern to represent the United States. Moreover, I made the masthead different colors representing the U.S. to show that the magazine focuses only on U.S. news.

Challenges/Successes:

 The main challenge I faced was learning how to use InDesign. I’m currently still confused about how to use all its functions, and it was difficult for me to convey my idea because I didn’t properly learn the app. Furthermore, using the effects InDesign provides was hard because I didn’t know their purpose. Overall, this was the biggest challenge I faced, but I was still able to make the cover, and I’m content with how it turned out.

  A success I had was learning how to change text color and fonts to better express and design my cover. I also learned how to integrate puffs and adjust their color and opacity, making it easier to blend the text with the background. All in all, this was the success I had while making my cover.

Main Take Away:

  In conclusion, I learned how complicated yet creative making a magazine cover can be. Although this experience was valuable, it made me not want to do a magazine for my portfolio project. It was stressful but very rewarding to finish the cover, even though I barely learned how to use InDesign. However, I learned that less is more; by only using what I knew, I created something I love, even if it’s not my best work. Being able to edit certain images in InDesign could be very helpful for future scenes or edits in my portfolio project.

 

Video Editing Practice Blog Reflection

Learning Process: 
  Learning Premiere Pro wasn't difficult at first until I was shown the vast amount of things your able to do which overwhelmed me. I had to rewatch and even research other videos for better understanding of certain tools. It took me a while to
understand but once I felt comfortable knowing all the tools I felt confident doing the clip.

45 Second Clip:

 Creating the clip wasn’t inherently difficult since there was plenty of footage to work with, but organizing it was the real challenge. I spent a lot of time cutting and arranging clips in the right order, which was a bit of a hassle. I also had to use audio and video effects on certain clips to ensure smooth transitions to the next scene. Other than that, making the clip was fairly easy.

Challenges: 

The main challenge was organizing and choosing which B-rolls to use and how to incorporate them into the clip to make it look neat. In the end, everything came out clean in my opinion, it was the best I could have done currently.

The Take Away:

I learned how to use all the tools in Premiere Pro properly and got to experience what it’s like to make and edit a video clip. I also learned about effects and how to use them to make the clip look cleaner. Throughout the process, I was able to deepen my understanding of what I learned from the videos, which made it easier for me to use Premiere. Now that I’m more familiar with the program, I’ll focus on improving in my next project. Furthermore, for my portfolio, I’ll build on what I already know and learn some more advanced editing techniques.