Evaluation 7 - .

EVALUATION 7Looking back at your preliminary task (the school magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to your final production?

MY PRELIMINARY AND MY FINAL PRODUCT

FRONT COVER

MY PRELIMINARY AND MY FINAL PRODUCT

CONTENTS PAGE

PHOTOGRAPHY (SHOT TYPES) It is clear in my preliminary work my

knowledge about shot types, directing and rule of thirds was not as good as it was in my final product shown to the right below my preliminary. In my preliminary, my model blends in due to the fact the costume is the same colour as the background, consequently not standing out against it. In addition, the model was placed on the right of my magazine, which is the less dominant side of the page, representing her as almost quite weak which is not what I wanted. Also the models facial expression is smiling and the photo has no meaning to any story in the magazine. I learned from my preliminary and as my knowledge widened I was able to make a much more professional shot, and using the live gig shot gives a sense of atmosphere to my magazine and the long angle of the camera looking up on the artist, allowing the audience to look up to them almost a inspiration.

RESEARCH AND PLANNING Through research and planning, it enabled me to create a much

more professional looking magazine compared to my preliminary task. It gave me the ability to understand the typical conventions of an indie genre music magazine in which I was creating and widened my knowledge to many aspects that I took on board through the construction process of my media product. One example of this is my understanding of spacial awareness was broadened and I learnt that dead space was to be prevented enabling me to fill it with more productive information creating a more professional looking magazine. The research that I had done prior to the production process enabled me to create my magazine swiftly but to a professional extent as my construction process was all based on this and I had planned on how I wanted it to look and due to the fact I had researched about colour, layout, shot and font types etc. I was able to just transfer all my knowledge on to my own magazine which was a more productive and professional process compared to my preliminary in which I had not carried out any research and had not planned it at all therefore unsure on what to do and what I was creating.

SKYLINE AND FOOTERS Looking back at my preliminary, it is

obvious I was uncertain of the common conventions linking to skylines and footer used in magazines. I developed my knowledge throughout the construction process and this enabled me to use skyline and footers that resembled those of a professional magazine. The bold, edgy font of the skyline and footer linked in with the genre of my magazine (indie) and created consistency on the page. Again, the use of colours allowed me to highlight information that would interest the audience and allow it to standout on the page. This differs from the preliminary task, in which I only used a skyline, not a footer. It doesn’t stand out from the page and isn’t very interesting for the audience.

MASTHEADS The use of mastheads on a magazine is a key aspect when

creating a magazine, as it is the one thing designed to stand out from the page attracting the audience and is made to be normally short allowing it to be memorable for the reader. I did not really know much about mastheads when creating my preliminary, and this is clear as it is not bold, it doesn’t stand out and the font and colour are to blame for this as the purple is quite dull and doesn’t really stand out on the grey background and the font is too thin however in my final product my masthead used is much what I explained before for it to be bold, eye-catching and to stand off the page. The use of the stroke on the masthead allows it to stand out from the magazine therefore, not clashing with anything else on the page allowing the audience to see this first. In addition on my final magazine, the masthead is much shorter oppose to my prelim which is much more effective when wanting to catch the attention of the audience. In contrast my preliminary task the masthead is shown to be highly unprofessional on the page due to the fact it doesn’t stand out, but more blends in as the colour are all dull, however I have learnt from this as you can to in my final product due to the I learnt that I was to use a more bold colour and font in order to create a profession al looking magazine and to appeal to my audience therefore influencing my decisions when designing it.

COLOUR SCHEME As you can see in the

preliminary, it really only has a one colour palette throughout, which can be seen as boring and dull where as in my final product you can see I have widened the colour palette, including the common convention known as the 3 colour palette (red, white, black) that associates with the indie genre and I also used the yellow to co-ordinate with the models outfit and to give a sense of something fresh and something new therefore attracting the audience much more than the preliminary ever would have. My final product looks more like a professional magazine because of this.

USE OF TITLES AND HEADINGS

You can clearly see the dramatic change in headings and titles from the preliminary task to my final product. Titles and heading are presented at a higher level through the use of different graphic effects, fonts etc. Consequently leaving my final product resembling a professional music magazine. I developed skills through the skills development challenge learning more about graphic effects which help the main headings stand out on the page attracting the audience, and giving them an insight to what is inside. The use of the paint behind the main title on my final product co-ordinates with the models costume consequently leaving a sense of consistency on the page and enables the title to stand out and the stroke effect on the font creates contrast between the black and white again allowing it to stand out. The alternate colour scheme of the heading down the left hand-side of the page allows me to highlight different stories individually, leaving it clear for the audience to read whereas on my preliminary, you can see the colour doesn’t stand out against the background, it is boring to look at and wouldn’t appeal to an audience because of this.

PUFFS The use of a puff on my final product is done in

a much more effective way, in which was to avoid the front cover being left with dead space. In addition, due to the fact it is black with the red and yellow and red text inside, it stands out from the lighter background therefore, appealing to the audience. Furthermore, it is advertising a competition which will also attract the audience and is much more appealing that the puff used on my preliminary as it is a more appealing shape and place in a better place than it is on the preliminary. On the preliminary puff, it looks very unprofessional, and this comes from aspects such as the shape (which almost looks childlike), the text not standing out from the background because of the font and colour, content of text and the fact the purple puff almost blends in with the grey background creating a dull page which does not appeal to the audience at all.

USE OF IMAGES In my preliminary magazine, the use of images are very

unprofessional. One reason for this is that I have used the same model for all the image which is very unappealing and in addition, the images have no real link to any of the stories mentioned on the pages which makes it confusing. Also, the images are too large on the contents page and they overpower the content of text which I wanted to avoid therefore, working on this the of images has much more variation in models, size and I have placed them in a way which isn’t too overpowering and in a way that they give personality to them and the magazine as a whole. On my final product and on the contents pages, the layout of images splits the page into clear sections which resembles a professional magazine which is similar to my preliminary however isn’t too over because of the higher content on the page.

JOURNALISM SKILLS

The journalism skills from my preliminary to my final product has clearly improved with it having much more content and using vocabulary along side visual effects to stand out and appeal to the audience. My final product resembles a professional magazine because of this and does not have any dead space on it which differs from the preliminary task, which I something that I focused on in the construction process of my magazine to make sure I used my journalism skill in a much more effective way to prevent it looking unprofessional.

COMPOSITION AND MANIPULATION OF IMAGES As my knowledge widened about the software I used to

manipulate images, it enabled me to create a much more professional looking image from those that were used in the preliminary magazine that I created. Using the DSLR cameras it enabled me to create a high resolution image and setting the camera into manual focus, created a clear image of a high quality that resembled those used in a professional magazine. In addition, light boxes that were used on my front cover image, allowed me to created a much lighter photo that focused its main light on the main model, then upon loading these onto editing software (Photoshop), I enhanced the brightness changing levels of the image to create a more professional looking imaged to be used on the front cover. This differs from my preliminary which I learnt greatly from because I didn’t really have any meaning behind the images and this show in them as they are dull, boring and don’t appeal to the audience in the slightest making them unprofessional and because I was unaware of how to use the editing software, the images were not of a high quality which I wanted to avoid when creating my final product.

LOCATION OF IMAGES As you can see there is a much better

variation image locations in my final product than there was in my preliminary task. In my preliminary, all the images were took in the studio which makes the pages look quite boring and doesn’t appeal to the audience. However, I learnt from this task and in my final product, you can see more variety in locations adding personality to the images and adds to the atmosphere of the indie genre that I wanted to create throughout the magazine. I wanted to reflect the indie genre in the images that I took and used in my magazine, there this lead me to take images in front of brick walls, graffiti and down back alleys.