Unit 1 Fact sheet Mo Miah

Production Process
In Media, production refers to the process of making a media product. There are 3 key stages
involved in the process which are pre-production, production and post production.
● Pre production- This is the planning stage.
● Production- This is producing the raw material stage
● Post production- This is the editing + construction stage of the final production

There are three main things that you need in order to create a magazine:
● A Computer
● Editing Software, e.g. Adobe Photoshop and Quark for desktop publishing
● A Camera

Magazine Production Equipment and Software

DSLR Camera
A DSLR, Digital Single Lens Reflex, camera is a camera that produces
high quality images and lets you experiment with a lot of different
features on the device such as aperture settings and many more. It is
needed for magazine production as DSLR cameras are high quality, it is
also digital so it is easily transferred to a computer and it captures
images crystal clear which will make images in magazines look high
quality.
A DSLR camera can be bought from many places such as Amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Canon-4000D-Camera-18-55-3-5-5-6/dp/B07B199LGK/ref=asc_df_B07B19
9LGK/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310510252538&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=32754
91653540039280&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9046506&
hvtargid=pla-565702338457&psc=1
The price for the following DSLR Camera is £347.98.

Photoshop
Photoshop is an editing software which provides many image editing features
to enhance the image and achieve particular effects, such as resizing and
cropping, editing backgrounds and changing settings like contrast and saturation. You can also add and
format text and effects. Photoshop is needed for magazine production to edit images, particularly front
covers and without it all magazines could look bland. Editing software like Photoshop can be bought
from the Adobe site for £9.98 a month: https://www.adobe.com/uk/creativecloud/plans.html

Desktop Publishing Software

Desktop Publishing Software is a software used in print media
and publishing, it is also used to produce and edit high quality
images and text together into a layout. Desktop publishing
Software , like Quark, is needed for magazine production as it is
used for creating and editing complex page layouts and also
editing and format text . Desktop Publishing Software like Quark
can be bought directly from their website for £259 a year:
https://shop.quark.com/?aelia_cs_dgd=1&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc

Magazine Production Process

Pre-Production: Content
This is the planning stage and this is when the editorial team get together, they share ideas together,
plan content together and make decisions together. The writers and photographers find out which
articles are assigned to them and then they will be able to identify what work and research what they
need to do for designed articles. This is important because this is a big stage of planning and
decision making.

Pre-Production: Flat Planning

In this stage the editorial team creates a flat plan together. A flat plan is where the layout of the
magazine is planned page by page on a flat layout. This helps with the construction and organisation
of the upcoming issue. It allows the editorial team to see an overview of the issue. It also allows them
to reorganise the content and easily move it around. This is useful as it can easily be identified on
how long the articles need to be for e.g. 1 Page. It is easily identified on how many photos need to be
taken. Without this stage, it would negatively impact the next stage as it is not planned.

Production and Post-Production: Writing and Sub Editing

The sub editor checks the written magazine articles initially for spelling mistakes and grammatical
errors, the sub editors will also check the length of the articles. If the article is too short, the sub
editor will ask the writer to write more to fill the length of the article, If the writer has written too
much the sub editor will ask the writer to cut down the article or the sub editor will cut it. In this
stage, photoshoots are taken. The sub editors will also identify whether any articles need archive
images. The layout staff use a desktop publishing software like Quark to layout and format each
article which includes written content and images. The layout staff may use pre made templates
which are in line with the magazine's house style.

Post-Production: Checking Printer’s Proof

In this stage the magazine is sent to the printers and a single copy is printed so they can assemble
the magazine which is called a prototype. The editors will check the prototype for the final approval
to see if there are any mistakes.
 Post-Production: Completion and Distribution
Once the editors have approved the prototype, they will print all the copies of that issue. The copies
are then all sent to the distribution company.

Magazine Production Roles

Take a Break does not have a production role panel in their magazines, instead they credit the job roles
of each individual article at the bottom of page as see on the image below

This is how the job roles usually look in a magazine as seen in the image below.
Magazine Job Roles

Sub-editor
The Sub-editors main role is to go over and check magazines to make sure the written content of the
magazine for any mistakes or misinformation before publishing. The other responsibilities a Sub-editor
has is if the articles in the magazine are too big they will ask the writer to shorten it, if not they will do
it themselves, they also do the opposite as if it is too short the sub-editors will ask the writer to write
more.
Editor
The Editor is ultimately responsible for what is published. The Editors oversee the work of all the
magazine staff. Editors also decide which stories make it in the articles.
Photographers
The Photographer for a magazine makes sure to aim to capture the best, high quality images.
Photographers use their technical skill, creativity, and composition skills to produce and preserve
images that tell a story or record an event.