Whilst completing my FMP I found that it was one of the best projects I have done whilst here at Ravensbourne and I really enjoyed not only the production phase but both pre and post production.
I found it difficult to plan my FMP alongside the other projects, even though we had plenty of time to prepare for FMP (I started planning mine in October of 2014).
Location + Pre Production
The first thing I needed to figure out when I decided my FMP subject was to decide where I wanted to travel to complete it. My initial plan was to travel to Scotland because of the wild landscapes and rugged atmosphere there but I feared that it wouldn’t be far enough away to get the exotic feel that I wanted for my magazine.
My next option was Western America. The U.S. is my favourite destination in the entire world, and to be able to travel there to complete my final and most important project was definitely an honour.
I knew that I wanted to start in Los Angeles, because myself and Amber, who was travelling with me, had tickets to Coachella Music Festival, so it made sense to start with that.
Before I started, the plan that I had was to make the trip lengthy and to make sure that it was long enough to make it worth 30 credits. Of course, the issue that arose after this was cost. I was sure that the cost of my trip was going to be quite large, and having seen the costs of other people’s FMPs, I knew that it was going to cost a lot.
When looking at a map of the US, I tried to figure out a route. The itinerary for the trip changed often; I think in total it changed about 5 times before I actually went ahead and booked everything.
I knew that I wanted to go as far north as Canada. It seemed like quite a long journey, but I knew that to create the magazine and the project that I wanted, I knew that it would be worth the money and the time.
The trip worked out at 6000 miles and would take 3 weeks to complete, so I was definitely sure that it would be worth the 30 credits I needed alongside all the other work that needed doing.
I began writing my tumblr posts in February to make sure that I had a head start when it came to finalising FMP plans in April before I left for America in mid-April. I had written down all my planning as I was going along to make sure I had a record of everything that I had planned so that when it came to my tumblr, I was well ahead of everyone else. The only issue here was photocopying everything to make sure it was scanned into tumblr, which took time.
I think my pre-production went well, I was definitely more prepared than I had been for previous projects and I was definitely well prepared when I left for my trip in April.
Before I left, I had to make decision of what equipment to take with me. Of course, I was restricted by the amount of weight I could carry on the plane so I needed to be frugal with the amount of equipment I took. I decided to take with me:
It didn’t seem like a lot when I put it in my suitcase but I found that when I arrived and started shooting in America it was the perfect amount of kit and the 17-40 lens was a perfect lens for shooting landscapes. I didn't want to take too much that it was difficult to carry or became a liability if I left it in the car for too long (I didn’t want to get anything stolen while I was there), so making sure I had the essentials was ideal.
Other non-tactile items of kit that I needed to take with me were things like insurance for my kit and also travel insurance, without which I wouldn't have been able to claim should I have had an accident or had anything stolen. It was definitely well worth the £45 I paid, even if I didn’t make a claim on it.
I had a lot of people saying to me before I left that I wasn’t leaving enough time to get around the country and to make sure I got everything I needed, and right before I left it became a genuine worry that I hadn’t left enough time to see everything I wanted to see or get photos of everything to fill my magazine up.
There were other people who were saying that the trip was too long. I had some people saying that I had overstretched myself and that I was seeing too many
places, and that I needed to shorten the trip and see less but spend more time in each place. I agreed up to a point, in that I wanted to fill the magazine with as many articles about different unheard of places as I could in the time I had allocated.
One issue I found with my trip with regards to time was that the drives I had between each place were sometimes too long. The longest drive I had in terms of distance was the drive between Salt Lake City and Montana at a total of 483 miles; to drive that distance in one day was definitely a challenge and one that I will never forget, if only for the sights I saw, but it will definitely stick with me for the sheer length of the drive.
If I was to do the trip again, the changes I would make with regards to time and time management are that I would most definitely make it longer and spend more time in each place and also visit more places so that the drives in between each were shorter, meaning I wasn’t spending most of my time on the road. The amount of time I spent actually taking photos was quite minuscule in comparison to driving and travelling.
When I got back from travelling, the hard work began. I had started making my layout whilst over in the US to make sure I knew what I was shooting and to have an idea of what the magazine would look like. I had realised soon after starting that the magazine was going to be long, I wanted the images to be full bleeds mostly to make the most of the colour and beauty of the landscapes I had shot.
We had used InDesign before in other projects, but I’d not had a chance to make my own layout from scratch, especially not one as long as this. I hadn’t been the best of friends with InDesign in the past due to issues with exporting or other issues with text boxes, so when I worked out that I wanted to use InDesign to finish my project, I knew that I was going to have issues.
What followed however, was a new love affair with InDesign that I found myself in. It became such an easy program to use and I was almost like a professional by the end of it, knowing how to wrap text around images and being able to change the ratio size of paper, plus add margins.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to enhance my skills with Photoshop because I didn't have any portraits of people or any skin to edit, or any blemishes to remove from my pictures (this may have been because both my lens and camera are relatively new), so I wasn’t able to improve my skills with Photoshop, but regular shooting in studio allows me to do this.
Once the magazine was complete, I exported the pdf file and began finishing all the rest of my post- production. I wanted to get the magazine printed but I found that the website I had originally earmarked to use to print ended up being one of the most difficult websites to use. Blurb looked pretty simple from the outset, but once I tried uploading it for print, I found all sorts of issues arose with page size and margin errors etc.
My solution was to upload my magazine to Issuu, an online magazine hosting website, and then they had an option to print from there. At time of writing this report, I am still actually waiting for the magazine to arrive in the post, but I’m hoping that it will be an acceptable quality to present at my final exhibition in a few weeks time.
All in all, I seriously enjoyed this project and everything that came with it. I thoroughly enjoyed the planning, the production and the post production stage, which is unusual because I don’t normally enjoy every stage of a project.
My planning was well thought out. I am happy with the fact that I wrote down all my planning well before I left for my trip and well before I even started my tumblr for my project. It really helped to get the ball rolling and start my work in earnest before I left.
I thought that my trip was the perfect length on reflection and I really don't think that it should have been any shorter or longer. The places that I went to complimented each other well and they work well together in the magazine.
In post-production, I feel like I have really gotten to grips with InDesign and I have made myself able to use it so competently that I would be able to use this skill to get a job in the future. I made the magazine specifically so that if I wanted to, I could carry it on should I travel further in the future.
If I could do the trip again, I would take someone with me for the entire duration. I think that any issues I had with my trip were because I was alone for most of the duration, driving around by myself. Having Amber with me for the first week definitely helped me to get used to being in America, getting over the jet lag in particular, but it also helped to take the edge off my nerves about being by myself in a huge country.
This project was a success and I think the magazine that I produced was as professional a quality that I could make it.
