Unit 1 FACT SHEET Steven Tweedale

Production Process

Production refers to the making of the media product. There are three key stages of making
a media product
● Pre production- this is the planning stage of the product
● Production- this stage is the gathering of the materials to be able to complete the
product
● Post production-the editing and production of the media product.

There are 3 main things needed to produce a magazine they are

● Editing software eg photoshop
● Camera
● Computer

Magazine Production Equipment and Software

DSLR camera
DSLR camera stands for digital single reflex lens. This can be
used to take high quality images that can have different apertures
and a variety of other settings for different photos. This is used for
magazines as they can get a high quality image for the magazine.
They are able to identify little detail in images which is what makes
them high quality. A camera like this can be bought from amazon
for a price of £347

Price:£347
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Canon-4000D-Camera-18-55-3-5-5-6/dp/B07B199LGK

Photoshop
Photoshop is an editing software that allows you to edit
images to your liking. Photoshop is used in magazines
as some of the images have to be edited to make them
stand out more. On Photoshop you are able to crop
images as well as being able to remove and add things
to images. You are also able to add text to the images.
Furthermore you are able to change the contrast of
images
£9.98 a month-this software is a subscription for £9.98 a
month

https://www.adobe.com/uk/products/photoshop/pricing-info.html?

Quarkxpress
Quarkxpress is a desktop publishing software. It lets you create documents using page
layout software on a personal computer and it also allows you to edit text easily. It is used
by individuals as well as by large publishing companies to produce a variety of products.
These range from single page leaflets to much larger print products such as magazines and
full catalogues. Quarkxpress lets you move images around on the pages and add text. All
text and images can be reshaped and parts can be made
transparent so that layering can be created, For example
the background to text can be made transparent so the text
can be laid over the image, as would be seen in captioning.

The cost of Quarkxpress is £259 for a prepaid annual

subscription.

https://shop.quark.com/?aelia_cs_dgd=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc

Magazine Production Process

Pre-Production: Content
This stage is Where the editorial team gets together to discuss plans for the production. In
this stage writers and photographers find out what their role in the production is going to
be as well as understanding what research they need to do. This state is important as it
requires decision making and planning.

Pre-Production: Flat Planning

Flat planning is where the editorial team creates a flat plan where they can layout the
order of the content in the magazine. Also the use of the flat plan gives the editorial team
an overview of the content that needs to be included in the magazine. In addition it allows
the editorial team to make any changes to the plan. The flat plan is important because if
this is not completed it will negatively affect the rest of the production.

Production and Post Production: Writing and Sub Editing

In this stage the sub editors check each article in the magazine for any spelling or
grammatical errors. They also check the length of each article if the article is too short the
sub editor will ask the writer to write more but if the article is too long they will be asked to
cut part of the article out or the sub editor will do it themselves. The layout staff use
desktop publishing software like quark to layout and format the article. Also the sub editor
has to find images that link to the topic of the article that are not taken by the magazine
company. The images are normally taken from historical moments. Sometimes instead of
making a layout from scratch the layout staff will use other layouts from previous
magazines that have the same house style.

Post-Production: Checking Printers Proof

In this stage the magazine is sent to the printers so that a single copy of the magazine can
be printed and assembled; this is called a prototype. The prototype is then sent to the
editors so that they can check and approve the magazine.

Post Production: Completion and Distribution

In this stage if the magazine is approved by the editors multiple copies of the magazine
are produced and sent to the distribution centre.
Magazine Production Roles

The image above is the credits column from an issue of

Four Four Two. This column credits everyone who was
involved in the making of this magazine.

Magazine Job Roles

Editor-
An editor for a magazine is responsible for the content and quality of the article. They have
to make sure that the information used in each article is interesting,engaging and
informative.

Sub Editor-
A sub Editor is responsible for making the articles structure and that they make sense and
are easy to read. They also have to make sure that the articles follow the house style. They
also can add more information to any article that is too short and make information more
simple so that some paragraphs are shorter.

Photographer-
Photographers have to be able to find high quality images to use in each issue of a
magazine. They also need record news events so they know what they are photographing