AS level Project Magazine: Final Touches.

I started this project on a rush in April, after I learned that my earlier project I was working on since September wasn’t suitable for submission for an exam project in media. I invested a lot of time and effort in my previous project which was an imaginary 19th century magazine piece centering around a fictional Sherlock Holmes story article. But when I learned that I must do a current piece in a nowadays magazine style I switched my attention to my other interest: ecology and sustainable lifestyle. I decided to focus my research on a very urgent subject: ‘What my local community is doing on a day-to-day basis to achieve a sustainable and ecofriendly lifestyle?’

I started my work by searching for any environmental focused organizations located in my hometown, Targu-Mures, Romania. I had previous experience and contact with an NGO called Milvus Ornithological Organization which helps injured birds and other wild animals in the area. (I used their help previously to nurse to health an injured pigeon which fell onto my house’s balcony.)

I also widened my horizons after surfing the net and other paper-based publications and I came across the name of another NGO which is deeply implicated in local sustainability and ecological subjects. They are the Focus Eco Centre. I found their work also significant and game/changing for my town, so I included them also in the loop.

I obtained an audience with both NGOs, and I explained my goals to them about creating a Magazine on ecology and sustainability theme for my Media AS level exam project. Both organizations were extremely helpful to assist me in my data-gathering work and, I was able to set down for a personal interview with a representative of each NGO. I took the opportunity and asked permission for taking pictures on locations and the interviewed persons also. I was contant that all the pictures in my Magazine are authentic and did by me, even if I’m not a skilled photographer. All the pictures appearing in my project are taken on the two headquarters of the presented NGOs or outside on the streets or on the riverside of my town.

I used my Google Earth application for picturing my town from a bird-eye view and I took a shot of my screen for the photo (It explains the pixels). I used that shot for my cover image introducing it in my design program on Wacom board. I made a unique image incorporating the picture by adding hand-made design elements to it representing the two NGOs headquarters and some nature elements. I took a lot of pictures during the project, so in my early version I had 11 pages for the Magazine. Practically, it wrote itself because I learned so much information during the project that I only had to put it on paper, and I just wanted to present a thorough image of my towns ecological activities. I wanted to show this work also, with the idea that my final Magazine can contain only a couple pages beside the cover and the content page, but I hope that whoever sees it, can obtain a good presentation of Targu Mures’s sustainability efforts.

So here are my final version pictures I included in my project:

1. Google Earth Shot

2. Content page photos

3. Focus Eco Centre pictures.

4. Milvus Group pictures.