Evaluation - Question 7

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

Preliminary

Firstly my task was to produce a front cover and mock up contents page for a school magazine. I wanted to use this task to get myself used to the software programmes and to practise create a media product. As soon as this task was set I knew that I wanted to base it on just the sixth form. As all of this was new to me, I had no real plan or layout for my preliminary. I simply just took some photos and chose which ones I thought would appeal to the target audience of the magazine (sixth formers). It took me a while to think of a suitable name which had to attract many people. The name plays a big part in drawing in readers with the size, colour, and catchy phrases.

Main Task

Looking back and comparing my final product with my preliminary, I can see a massive difference in my ability to use Photoshop and InDesign. I hand drafted out what I wanted each of my products to look like so that I had a rough guidance to follow. My main problem when designing my products was knowing what to write within the double page spread and also creating realistic headlines. When it came to taking my photographs, I knew that I wanter a teenage girl to model as it reflects my target audience. I wanted her to look fashionable, fresh and someone that other people would aspire to be. When it came to the preliminary task, I know that I didn't take a lot of care and thought over who and what will be in the image, and this shows in the difference between the two front covers. I can see that the preliminary front page is very basic, the image has a busy environment and the cover lines. My main task has an image with nothing in the background, and excellent lighting so that it easily stands out. When I was deciding the location of my photographs, I wanted a plain background for my front cover and a patterned background for my contents and double page spread to give it some detail. I was able to use a plain bed sheet to cover a wall so that it gave me a nice, clear background. For my contents page, I simply placed my model near a wall in my house that had a floral wallpaper. I decided not to have any props in my images as I wanted the reader to focus simply on the artist rather than looking at anything unnecessary object within the picture. This will ensure that the image is the main USP of the product. I thought it was most important to hand design the front cover more than anything else as there are many different objects that need to be placed on it and it avoids messyness and confusion.

I found the image editing easy to do in Photoshop as it allows you to personalise your images so they are exactly how you want them to be. This was easier on the main task as I was not used to the software during the preliminary and I did not edit the images as much as the main. There were many decisions I had to make when creating my media product as I had to know myself whether or not an image had enough or too much lighting. InDesign was also a challenge to use at first as it was slightly different to photoshop especially when it came down to inserting the image.

I managed my time well as I always stuck to the deadlines and made sure that I had uploaded my finished products in the correct time. I was doing new posts whenever I had something to upload so that I kept up-to-date and ensured that I did not leave anything out.