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1. Hannah McNeill
Production Diaries
Week 1
28/01/20 For my first week of my Final Major Project I created a short plan containing a bullet point
list of what I needed to successfully complete in the first week; I needed to complete my proposal and
pre-proposal, my aim was also to conduct research on at least 4 influencers that I can use as context
and background knowledge related to my project, to give me a wider understanding of the topics I am
including. I spent my first day of my Final Major Project by creating my pre-proposal. The first
proposal I began writing was just a draft proposal and a way for me to first properly engage with the
project, allowing me to put together my ideas and discover where I wanted to go with my project.
Writing and planning my pre-proposal brought me a lot of clarity because it gave me the opportunity
to see my ideas and to understand why I wanted to create my project and why it was important to me.
I began by briefly explaining my idea in less than 20 words to get a clear idea of what I wanted to do.
Then I explained why I decided to make it and what made the project important to me. There are
multiple different reasons why this project is important to me and by writing them down and seeing
them on paper it gave me the ability to really understand why I wanted to create a feminism/mental
wellbeing fanzine. I spent an hour completing my pre-proposal explaining the small details and the
thought process it took me to get to my final idea. I included a range of different details because I
knew that even if it was a first draft it was still important because I would use this through my project
to shape my final product. Through my project some of my potential ideas might change and therefore
in my evaluation I will be able to look back and compare my first ideas with my final project and be
able to explain why I changed my mind.
29/01/20 My second day of pre-production was spent researching different influencers to use as my
context/background research. I decided to use my time most efficiently I needed to plan what
influencers I was going to research and how it would help me further on in my project. I looked at my
idea for my end product and after evaluating what skills/topics I needed to learn about I chose four
different influencers. For my research,I planned on including more influencers but I thought I would
start with four. The first person I researched was a photographer whose work is very established and a
personal favourite of mine. I have always loved her work and found her photographs emotive and
moving. Photographer Annie Leibovitz. I thought it would be extremely useful to research a
photographer for my project because a massive part of the fanzine will feature photography and in
order to create effective photos and conduct efficient photoshoots I need to learn about photography. I
research Leibovitz in detail finding information about her past personal life and also her career. The
information I found was very insightful and has already inspired me with different ways I can conduct
my own photoshoots in the production stages. During researching Leibovitz I made sure that I created
a bibliography of all the websites I used, using Neil’s Toolbox. This means that if I need to quote my
research or I need to find the website I found information from I can go to the bibliography, saving
time.
I then decided that for my second influencer I needed to widen my knowledge on mental health
awareness in the media. So, I researched mentalhealth celebrity ambassadors and discovered the
charity Mind. I had already heard of the charity and was aware of the work that it does, however I
didn’t know that it had multiple celebrity ambassadors,such as George Ezra and Duke McKenzie. I
then further researched the charity and the two celebrities. Successfully furthering my knowledge on
mental health which is integral to my project because I want to include different articles/photoshoots
about mental wellbeing. I also kept a full bibliography addressing all the sources I used throughout
the research.
30/01/20 After having researched two main influencers for my project I decided to take a break from
background research and started conducting marketing research. I began by looking online at the
Issuu.com publishing website where I can find thousands of different magazines/fanzines all with
different topics. So, I visited the website and search ‘mentalhealth fanzines. I searched this because it
is associated with the style that I want to create my fanzine around. I found a fanzine created by the
Art’s Student Union about mental wellbeing, I flicked through the fanzine and saw that it contained
an array of different and interesting drawings and articles so decided it would be useful for me to

2. Hannah McNeill
analyse. I then planned different qualities of the fanzine that I would analyse in order to find out as
much as possible about the magazine. I chose to analyse the; colour scheme,main focus, headline,
typography, image, target audience, layout.
After I had analyzed the fanzine in detail I moved onto analyzing another fanzine. This time I decided
to analyze a photography fanzine/magazine. On the Issuu website I discovered a portfolio/fanzine
from a photographer called Imdad Barbhuyan containing a range of beautiful photography. After
looking through her portfolio I decided to analyze her work because I really admired her photography
and thought they I could learn from her photography skills. I analyzed the photos and then spoke
about the colour scheme she applies to her photos.
31/01/20 For the final day of my first pre-production week I finished off my background/influencers
work. I analyzed a feminist and actress ‘Jameela Jamil’. I researched Jameela because she is known
for her hosting and radio work but is also famous for being a feminist and activist. I personally find
her very inspirational and think she as a character is very interesting. I researched her through
different websites and articles and I also discovered a book called ‘All feminists wear pink … and
other lies’ where she has a short article published which was extremely interesting to read and useful
for my research. After I had completed my research for Jameela Jamil I started researching a
journalist/activist called Gloria Steinem. I researched her and her journalism career and then also
researched her feminism/activism career in detail in this helped me because researching and writing
about her work inspired me and gave me a wider knowledge about people’s different experiences and
perspectives of feminism.
Week 2
04/02/20 To start the week,I finished my context work by researching a journalist, Bob Woodward.
Although I wasn’t planning on researching a journalist because I won’t be including many written
articles as my magazine will be primarily based on photography and animation with short articles.
However,I thought it was important to explore at least one journalist in order to understand more
about magazines. And in case I did decide to write a long article I would know more about how to
structure/write it. I don’t have a wide knowledge of different journalists, so I used Google and looked
through a few different journalists and read information about them before deciding which was the
most interesting and useful to analyse. It was interesting to research Woodward as his work is
extremely impressive. After I had finished my research about Woodward I started making mood
boards, I thought this would be a good idea because so far, I have done a lot of written information,
reading articles and books, therefore looking at visual elements was refreshing and also let m link all
the theories and research with visual aid helping me solidify what I had learnt. Furthermore, mood
boards are a good way of inspiring ideas. Then as I finished my work from last week I could properly
start my second week of my project started, I began a new stage, I started conducting research,which
includes primary, secondary and market production. As it is only the first week out of four I have
conducted all of this research yet but I feel confident with the pace I am working at. The first aspect
of my research was market research,to analyze existing products so I can appreciate different features
of products that hopefully can inspire me and also shape my project. I looked through the website
ISSUU to find different fanzines to analyze, I thought it would be most useful to research a mental
wellbeing fanzine because in my context research it was more focused on feminism, therefore I
wanted to have an even knowledge of both topics, in order to make my fanzine as effective as
possible. after looking through a range of fanzines I decided to work with a fanzine called ‘Mental
Wellbeing Zine’ by the Arts Student Union – London. I applied different marketing aspects that I
decided would be useful to evaluate; Colour scheme, Main focus, Headline, Typography, Image,
Target audience, Layout. I found it easier to plan subheadings to explore before starting to write about
the fanzine aimlessly.
05/02/20 My second day into research was then spent finalizing my research about Mental Wellbeing
Zine. I chose two double page spreads from the fanzine to scrutinize in detail, this was very useful to
my idea development because it gave me the opportunity to look further into the aspects and qualities

3. Hannah McNeill
of the photos/animation and what they symbolized, which helped me understand the fanzine more.
Then, I finished the research by completing my bibliography. Then I conducted more research about
another fanzine. This time I stirred away from the topics of the fanzine – mental wellbeing and
feminism – and I decided to concentrate on another important element, photography. I searched for
photography portfolios/fanzines. I found a product from Imdad Barbhuyan, a publisher who wasn’t
famous or even known, but just published her work to ISSUU. It was interesting researching a product
that wasn’t famous or well-known compared to the celebrities I had spent the past week researching.
So, I analyzed her front cover and then one of her double page spreads. This was very important to
my project because it personally put me at a massive advantage looking at new, unseen photographs,
it allowed me to tear the photos apart explicitly.
06/02/20 After researching two fanzines earlier this week I decided to take a break from the fanzine
structure and started looking at other media products that I could look at that would help influence my
project. I searched ‘Feminist Theories’ into the search bar of Google, hoping to find a theory that I
could interpret and apply to my work, I discovered a research journal from a Robert Jensen called
‘Men’s Lives and Feminist Theory’ I could only read the opening page but it was very insightful. The
article was about how feminism impacts men’s lives about how feminism is an opportunity for men to
connect with their emotions. This was a very interesting article because it showed feminism from a
positive male perspective, which is sometimes rare. After taking a break from researching fanzines I
decided to analyze one last fanzine, I researched a fanzine about feminism because I thought it was of
my best interest for my product if I had a fanzine about the three main topics in my project in order to
have the most knowledge. I found a fanzine called Girl Crush and researched it in a lot of detail,
picking out the front cover and what the hidden meanings of the cover photo was,uncovering what it
represented,then talking about a poem in the fanzine and its relevance. After finishing the research on
the fanzine, I quickly wrote about feminism magazine front covers. I wasn’t planning on researching
front covers of feminism magazines however hen I searched for feminism magazines I noticed a
specific magazine that was named ‘feminist’ but was the opposite, publishing suggestive images of
women, which is not the meaning of feminism at all. I wanted to write about it in my research because
I felt like it was an important aspect of feminism that is often ignored.
07/02/20 I finished primary research for the moment, I think I will go back to primary research when I
have more time in the next three weeks but after doing a high amount of concentrated work for the
last two weeks I thought it would be more effective and to my advantage if I took a break from solid
research about fanzines, feminism and mental wellbeing. I thought it would be to my advantage
because I knew that soon I would start to get mental blocks and tired of the work, therefore making
me un motivated. So, I started conducting target audience research. Target audience research is a very
important aspect of research because the entire end product is dependent on how the audience
receives it. The key for the fanzine being successfulis dependent on whether the audience have a
preferred reading towards it. I began by researching the two main topics separately. I thought this was
the most efficient way because the two topics are so different so to apply the same basic target
audience to them both wouldn’t have been accurate or reliable for my project. So, I started analyzing
mental wellbeing, talking about the demographics, age,location, gender. I looked at different websites
in order to acquire a range of facts and figures so that I could compare the statistics to make sure they
were correct. I then completed the same research on feminism. After talking about the target audience
about a feminism audience I then decided to talk about the target age group of my target audience,
taking figures from different websites. I also researched advertising and what social media platforms
my target audience would be interested in. Developing my ideas and knowledge about my audience.
Week 3

4. Hannah McNeill
11/02/20 To start this week I created a survey to find more information about my target audience. I
have created surveys in past projects and they have been extremely useful to my project, giving me an
insight about my audience and what I can do through my final product to appeal to that audience.
Here are the questions I included in my survey:
I sent the link to the survey to three classes in college who are studying the same course as me so
hopefully people will take it seriously and not answer with jokes. However,the potential ages of the
people answering could be quite young so the answers could be immature. I also asked my friends and
family to complete the survey in order to introduce range in age and profession. I will check the
website again later this week in order to give the survey time to be answered.
12/02/20 On Tuesday I started doing some production research,I should still be conducting my target
audience research and learning about my target audience and how to approach them in different ways.
However,in the past two weeks I have done a lot of work about target audience and could feelmyself
working towards a mental block on having done the same subject so consistently, so I decided to start
some additional production research. Production research is very important when creating a new
product because it helps give you information of the characteristics of the product but focuses on the
production of how to make the product. I started by researching different apps that apply different
filters to a photo. I could’ve used the most popular filter apps on the app store but I thought this
wasn’t very in keeping with my product so I wanted to choose a type of photo editing that would be
compatible with my fanzine project. So, I decided to introduce a unique and more current would be to
use apps that apply a retro/polaroid/disposable camera effect. First, I researched different apps that I
could download and I also used an app I was already aware of. I started by researching the apps HUJI,
Disposable, and Dazz app. I wrote about background information about the apps and the producers
and its popularity in order to know as much about each app as possible.
14/02/20 Then,on Thursday after I had analyzed all the apps, looking at background information
about them all I thought the next appropriate and useful step would be to use the app and see how the
filters worked. So, I spent the beginning of Thursday conducting amateur photoshoots with my sister
in college. I needed to conduct three different shoots but they all needed to have the same picture so
the shoots had to be taken all together at the same time. I thought it would be useful to take a photo
outside and inside so that I could understand how the app worked with the lights and darks in the
photo. The photoshoot went well, however there was numerous aspect that were difficult because the
shoot had to be conducted on my phone. Firstly, on some apps to take the photo I could only see the
photo through a small disposable camera size camera lens, making it hard to make sure I had a good
shot. Also, taking a photo by hand meant that I couldn’t use a tripod and the photos could of came out
shaky, if I had been conducted a shoot that required multiple different shots at the same angle then my
hand wouldn’t’ve been able to remain in the same position like a tripod, ruining the quality. Through
using the apps, the majority of the outcome of the photos was effective and worked well, however
there was definite advantages and disadvantages to the apps. It was nice using the apps and seeing
how the different lights and colours looked on the photos but realistically the Dazz app and disposable
wouldn’t really work with my product because the development off the photos made the quality very
bad and for a photography magazine the quality is very important. Also, there were other aspects of
the apps that meant that it would be difficult, for example, the fact that you can’t control where the
light splodges go, and the fact that the photos don’t develop well unless it’s taken in a light setting is
quite problematic.
Then the second half of my day was spent analyzing the photos and talking about what went well and
what I liked about the filters. Although I only had time to evaluate one set of photos in detail.
15/02/20 Instead of carrying on with my evaluation of the photos that I had taken through my
photoshoot I decided to look at my survey and see if I had received any interesting responses. After 4
days I received 23 responses after sharing the survey through different classes across my year taking
media studies. At first, I was disappointed with the amount of results as I though among three classes
there should have been more, however, after I read the results and saw the detail that a lot of the
responders had gone into I was immediately happy with the amount I had received. A lot of people
had very interesting opinions and had taken the survey extremely seriously which really made a

5. Hannah McNeill
massive difference to my production and how I interpreted my audience. I think it would’ve been
better if I had had more of a range in gender answering, as I only had three girls who answered the
survey. So, later on in my research if I discover that it is important to my production then I will send
the survey around to more women I know in order to receive a wider range of results, making the
production of my product more efficient. After looking through all my results in detail I chose a few
answers that stood out most to me that I thought would be most important to my research and created
PowerPoint slides about them. After I had finished evaluating all my results from the survey I began
analyzing the photoshoot using the HUJI app but didn’t have enough time to finish.
Week 4
25-26/02/20 Week 4 started the problem-solving section of the project. The problem-solving part of
the project is where I address all the issues that could go wrong through my project and how it will
affect my project and then any solutions or alternatives I can put in place to eliminate any of these
problems. I decided to lay out my problem-solving research in a table, this is because I think it
portrays the information in a chronological order and an easy to read fashion, stating the information
clearly. I could have shown the information using a mind map however I often think that mind maps
only look affective if there is minimal information on them and if there are detailed paragraphs
surrounding a mind map then it makes the mind map too complicated to read and the page will seem
messy and unorganized. So, I created my table with simple questions that were self-explanatory and
simple so that it wasn’t over complicated; What’s the problem, how will it affect my production,
solutions or alternatives. I began with Practical/Technicalissues about the project and wrote about the
problems that could occur through the project. To my surprise I had a lot of problems that could
happen due to equipment and I wrote three pages with 9 different points that could interfere with my
production. Although it only looks like three pages of work this took a long time to write because I
first had to plan the points I wanted to include and then plan the solutions and effects it would have
for my project. The equipment problems took me all day Tuesday to complete. Then, on Wednesday I
completed extra work at home finishing of the practical/technical aspect of my problem solving. I
wrote in detail about the problems that could occur due to issues in the storage/power department,
explaining things like what would happen if I lost my memory stick, or if the computer stopped
working. Then I followed on to explain how techniques/ability affected my production and what I can
do to overcome my issues.
27/02/20 On Thursday morning to split up the week and start some different aspects of problem-
solving I decided to conduct a production experiment. Originally I wanted to conduct an experiment
using a boom mike and microphone so that I would know how to use it in case I wanted to conduct
any interviews in production. I think this is a good idea because it would make the interview a lot
more professional and also means that I would have a clear sound of everything the interviewee was
saying. However,after thinking about it I came to the decision that although it would be useful it
wasn’t one of my essential experiments, there were experiments and other aspects of my project that
would be much more useful for me to explore now. And, if necessary I can discover how to use a
boom mic but now my time is worthwhile finding new pieces of equipment that will improve the
quality of my end product. So, I explored the college media storeroom to find different
camera/photography items that I could use in my project. I found camera lenses that are put into the
camera to change the lens and give the photos weird effects. I got given three different lenses to use,
however one of them was missing so I was only left with two; pinhole/zone plate, and plastic optic.
My tutor showed me how to put the lenses on and then I went into the photography room and re-did it
myself so I knew how to do it. To change the lens, I needed to remove the entire lens on the camera,
this was easy as all I had to do was hold a black button and then rotate the lens clockwise, however I
had to make sure I was very careful as cameras are delicate and expensive. After I had taken the nose
of the camera of I had a piece of equipment the replaced the nose and put the lens into this piece of
equipment, then carefully lined both the pieces of equipment together until they slot in together. This
makes it sound more simple then it was however,it was actually incredibly difficult and time
consuming because all the pieces would only fit together in a specific order and position. But, once I

6. Hannah McNeill
had practiced it a few times it became easier and easier. After I had figured out how the equipment
worked I introduced a model into the experiment so I had a focus for the photos. I brought Jack from
my media class. I first tried the plastic optic lens, this lens was hard to get use to but after a while of
experimenting with the positioning and the angles I started to understand how to make it work
effectively. Then I began using the pinhole/zone plate lens, this lens was incredibly difficult and I
couldn’t make any sense of it. Every photo I took developed badly no matter what I was doing in
order to fix the exposure. So, overall the experiments were very useful because if I hadn’t conducted
the experiments in the planning stage and only in production then they defiantly wouldn’t be as
efficient.
28/02/20 Friday was then spent completing the same research as Tuesday and Wednesday however, I
began doing my theoretical research about weather location and finance.
Week 5
03/03/20 For the second week of problem solving finished my theoretical research which was really
detailed and took a lot of time but was worth it because all the information is relevant and important
to the production. I just concentrated on conducting production experiments so that I would know
how to use all the equipment that I needed to, and if any problems did occur then I would know how
to tackle them time efficiently. The first experiment I conducted was for my photography section of
my problem solving. I began portrait experiments, to conduct this all I needed was; a camera,a tripod,
and studio lights. To start the experiment, I first had to make sure all my camera settings were correct,
so I had figured out what would give me the best photo. I first changed the ISO settings to 400, then
the exposure levels to 50. Then after I had taken a few photos with these levels I then re-shot with
higher exposure levels to explore how they would develop differently. Here are the settings I had the
cameras at for the shoots:
I then set up the camera on the tripod so that the camera began at
eye level, the angle of the photo is very important because
different angles have different meanings. this mutual angle shot
represents that the viewers are equal to the subject of the photo,
this angle would be used to humanize the photo, it would give
the photo a more relatable perspective for the viewer, instead of
feeling either intimidated or in control. A lot of people would
interpret an eye level shot as a “normal” shot but if you are able
to understand the depth that the angle of the photo carries then
you will be able to have a deeper connection with the photo. For
most of my shoot I kept the angle with eye level but sometimes
for variety I changed the angle so I had a different perspective,
e.g. a bird’s eye view.

7. Hannah McNeill
My most successfulshoots were using the close-up angle because I feel like it is more likely to
convey a tone and emotion. I think a close-up shot is used because in a close-up photo the photo is
usually a lot more descriptive and detailed because there is just one subject in the photo for the viewer
to focus on.
Then after the shoot I spent some time analyzing my results.
05/03/20 After conducting my portrait photography I was finished my
photography portion of the production experiments. I then began on my
animation/illustration experiments, photography is the main aspect of my
fanzine but the animations that I plan on including in the fanzine are also
an important part. I started by conducting experiments using a graphics
tablet. This was quite time consuming because I decided to make the most
out of having the tablet and conducting three different experiments. I
started my work with the graphics tablet by creating a simple carton
interpretation of Jameela Jamil. At the beginning it was difficult to
measure how strong I needed to apply pressure to the pen in order to get
the correct response on the tablet, however once I started to understand it
was really simple and straight forward. The first cartoon didn’t take me
long to complete and isn’t the best but it was a good way to get into the swing of the graphics tablet
and understand how the brush strokes coordinated with the screen. I was pleased with the outcome of
my first experiment and can imagine places where I can include it in my fanzine. Once I had finished
the experiment I went to my Problem-Solving PowerPoint talked about my experience with the
graphics tablet and how I thought it would affect the outcome of my project. Then I began my second
experiment using the graphics tablet, I decided to incorporate some research with my experiment and
conduct experiments about Rupi Kaur and her illustrations. I have always admired her illustrations
and thought that often they go overlooked and underappreciated. So, I thought it would take this
opportunity to attempt creating my own illustrations. I think it was quite successfuland I would be
interested in including art like this in my own product. My final graphics tablet experiment was
adopting the same style as Ralph Steadman, Steadman has a unique and original style of art so I
thought it would be interesting to see if I could use the same skill in my own project.
06/03/20 My final day of problem solving was finishing
of my animation experiments. My second experiment
was transform warp, I used to do transform warp a lot
from in my final major project at the end of last year so
I was familiar with the technique. But I still thought it
would be worthwhile to experiment again with this
technique because it had been a year since I last
properly used the skill. For this technique I take a photo
to Photoshop and then create a separate layer,then add
the ‘Ellipse Tool’ shape and mirror a shape over an object of the photo, then go
to ‘Transform’ in ‘Edit’ and then to ‘Warp’ this allows me to move the shape
around so it is the same as the object underneath, then I do this with all the parts
of the photo and eventually the shapes together look like an animated version of the beginning photo.
I really like this technique and think it look really effective and professional, also after a lot of
practice I now find it quick and easy,so is a time efficient way of filling out the pages.

8. Hannah McNeill
After I finished this experiment I started my final experiment, this experiment
was messing around with the effects in Photoshop, this was a useful
experiment because throughout my course I have never used the editing tool
and it was really cool to see different ways I can contour the face but still have
the face appear naturaland unedited. This effect was really easy to use, all I
had to do was find the ‘Luquify’ option and changed the settings with a
picture of the photo on the left so I could see the changes I was making as I
made them. I like the edits, however, I don’t think it would be an effect that I
could use in my fanzine because editing photos, by changing lip shape is
contradicting the whole point of my fanzine, promoting feminism and mental
wellbeing and then changing and perfecting peoples faces would be sending
the wrong idea. After I had conducted both these experiments I evaluated
them and explained how I found the process.