Welcome!

Hello there!

Welcome to Euan Stenhouses blog.

I am using a blog to post all of my media coursework.

The reason for the dates are so I can put my coursework in order so it is easy for the examiner to read. The dates that are given are not the dates that it was published.

Codes and Conventions

The school magazine I used for the research on the preliminary task was fusion.

Front Cover




· The magazine ‘Fusion’ has used clear conventions on the front cover. The font is a big bold font and has big red, black and white a 3 colour scheme. This stand out to the audience and make the magazine attractive. The white text colour has been used to make the text stand out from the background and also the black picture used.

· Capital letters are used exclusively for the title of the magazine, this is to make the audience look at it first and then read the rest. Also by doing this to the word ‘free’ in the top, right-hand corner, the magazine stands out as it would encourage the audience to read it.

· The cover does not give much detail of the content inside the magazine this shows that the main aim was to attract people and get them reading the inside so they carried on reading, by only using titles of what the magazine contains. This may make the magazine unappealing to an audience but it may also keep the focus of the front cover mainly on the black and white picture used.

· The text ‘words of wisdom’ used inside the black and white picture give an impression that the magazine will be detailed and interesting, but also gives an insight to the content of the magazine itself.

· A block colour scheme does not look very appealing to the reader. Since an attractive front cover is one of the main conventions of a magazine, this example comes across as not being very well put together and unprofessional. The front cover also contains no barcode because it doesn’t need a barcode.



Contents Page




· The contents page has been given a much better layout than the front cover. It is easy to read as the text is set out so it is not cramped it is spread out. The article headings are also brightly coloured, which makes them stand out and easy to read.

· However, the different coloured titles shows how the producer of the magazine has not stuck to a strict colour scheme, or the same colours that have been used on the front cover. This again shows how the magazine is poorly put together, which makes it very unappealing to the audience.

· The picture used at the top of the page is quite bright and attractive, but shows no relevance to the content of the magazine. Pictures that fit with the theme of Science or Clothes would have been a much better choice to use in this magazines case.

· The language used in the contents page appears to be varied and has no specific theme. The description of each article is also very vague and does not describe what each article is about enough to make the magazine appealing through the contents page.


· The editor has made a few different spelling mistakes. For example the caption ‘keep you eyes peeled for issue 2... .’. This again shows an unprofessional production of the magazine.

Diary entry 1

Hey guys, this is my first diary entry enjoy it!

This week I learnt how to use photoshop and how to take professional photographs.

I spent a week and a half of lessons learning from the basics up to the final touches needed for it to look professional. I enjoyed this because I didn’t know much about photoshop and I found it really easy to pick up and it was easy to understand.

I already have a dslr camera so I already new the basics of a dlsr and the different settings on the camera and how to make them work in a professional way.

Preliminary task sketches

preliminary final cuts

Diary entry 2

Hey guys

Enjoy the first dairy entry? .... good.

This week I did my evaluation from my preliminary task  and then I started my research into different music magazines.

The music magazine I was basing my research on was NME , I chose to do this because it is my style of music and I like the bands that feature in it.

I found the preliminary task well because I has some good ideas on what to put in it and on it and what is was going to be called. I also thought that it was a good starter for the music magazine because it gave you a chance to practice your skills on photoshop and photography.

evaluation for preliminary task

Media Evaluation

In what ways does your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In comparison to the colour schemes I had looked at in my style model, I decided just to keep a simple colour scheme for my front cover in order to make the magazine look basic and not too complicated. The reason I used such a bright colour was to grab the reader’s attention which I have found, from past class research, is a necessary convention of any magazine.

I have strictly stuck to the “rule of thirds” by keeping the magazine name at the top, and the subheadings on the left. I decided to keep the magazine simple and not challenge the codes and conventions of real media products too much, in order to keep the magazine looking simple and professional, instead of making it look too busy and complex which is one of the negatives of the style model I looked at.

My contents page sticks to the same colour scheme as my front cover. I did this differently to my style model, because I found that this was a negative point, and didn’t make the magazine look professional. I do think my contents may be a bit too basic, but this was only because I didn’t want to challenge the conventions of real media products too much. I am planning to when it comes to doing the real project.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have my personal digital slr therefore I already know my way around a camera, I used my knowledge of different settings to get a effect in my photographs. I used this for an advantage to give a high quality and professional finish to my school magazine and will carry on using this in the future. On Photoshop I also used several things I was taught my Mr Convrey. The things I were taught are the magnetic lasso, hand/move tool, click the tick, hold shift to resize in proportion, colour tool, text tool the spot brush and the healing brush. My blog is what I am uploading all of my coursework to therefore the examiner can read all of my coursework and means that I can access it from anywhere with an internet connection.