Creative Critical Reflection --- Draft #3

Production Skills

     In the beginning when the class was told to decipher between creating the magazine and the film, I was already convinced about producing a magazine. The film option seemed enticing as well, but I knew that it was imperative to choose the activity that I knew I would be more successful in. Like I've stressed many times before in previous posts, I had a specific idea of what I wanted my magazine to be, but to conceal my originality, I had to rearrange my plans and come up with a similar, yet innovative product to get my point across, which I feel that I did. Prior to taking this course, I had taken Journalism 1, where I'd developed the fundamental skills to create what we call a "feature story". With this in mind, I figured that I would use these said skills to produce one, along with the help of my model to interview. The interviewing and writing process was one of my favorite parts of the production of the magazine. I thought it was fascinating how I was able to train my model to take on the voice of that of another person (Missy Elliot). We did this by watching interviews, reading articles and practicing the cadence I wanted to portray in the magazine, and I definitely feel as though my research paid off in a good way. The scouting locations and taking the photographs was a new concept for me. I had never had to do that, so when I was actually in that stage, I felt that I was accomplishing a task that I learned rather quickly and I can honestly say that I acquired a new management skill from this project. Picking the clothes for the photoshoot was also one of my favorite skills, because it allowed me to again, take on the personality of another person and eventuate my point of why fashion is essential to the music industry; past, present, and future. And the very last part of the project that was my favorite and most influential was actually creating the magazine. The layouts, cover page, table of contents, flat plan and etc. This served as my favorite part, because I appreciated how I had all the creative control over the product. I was able to pick out the colors, the theme, fonts and pictures. It was also the most purposeful, as far as learning goes. Prior to this project, I never developed a magazine before. I've always had the ideas, but to actually create one to its full extent was very influential in the projects entirety. Overall, I have definitely acquired new-found skills that I will be able to take along with me, hopefully in my future involving the media.