Front Cover

Contents Page

Double Page Spread

Prelim Contents Page

Prelim Front Cover

Evaluation 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I feel that i have learnt a great deal since my preliminary task and from the images below in comparison to them both it is clear to see.

  

Firstly, looking at the two mastheads of the magazines you can see on my preliminary task that it is fairly straight forward, bold text whereas on my music magazine cover i have challenged the conventions by placing it behind the head of the models, also using some blending options and changing font to match my genre. As the magazines are completely different genres they are also different styles. On my music magazine i have followed style models to try and make my magazine look as professional as possible, this included having a lot more content of the front cover to draw in the audience and catch peoples eye. However, on my prelim work it is plain, ordinary text and seems boring to look at. 

Looking at the actors that model in the two magazines you can see the different attitudes they have. This was done purposely to suit the genre of the magazine. In my preliminary task the model seems joyful but has no connection with the reader and is closed off to the audience. As you can see in my music magazine it is the opposite and all three models have direct eye contact with the reader. This is to show their confident, feisty attitude which i wanted so that it matched the genre i chose and drawn in any rock fans that are interested in the magazine. 

Overall, the two magazines are completely different and you can clearly see my progression from the preliminary task to the full product. My music magazine shows a lot more on the front page which is needed to draw in an audience and also it is clear that i have challenged a lot more conventions as the prelim work is very plain and boring.

I feel this also shows my progression as a media student and it has also taught me a great deal about many technologies and programs i was not familiar with before. Throughout this process i have developed many new techniques using cameras, editing and designing programs such as photoshop and in design which all contributed to my final piece. 

      

Comparing these two contents pages you can see many differences. My music magazine contents page has a lot more going on and includes lots more information which would be beneficial to the reader if they wanted to skip to any pages. This is opposite to my prelim work as it is plain instructions and does not excite the reader or make them want to read on. I have learnt that using headings makes my magazine more organised and directs the readers to what they want to read. Using the Facebook and Twitter names at the bottom of music magazine allows the audience to find out any extra information they want to know and excites the audience whereas, on the other contents page it doesn't contain anything interesting. I feel looking at these two contents pages and comparing them that it really shows the progression i have made.

As a double page spread was not part of the prelim task, i was clueless on how to do one. Therefore, i built my knowledge by doing lots of research and like the front cover and contents pages, i followed the style models i viewed. Throughout the process of learning about a double page spread it has been difficult and challenging as i learnt more each day about the fonts and techniques used to get the correct layout. 

Evaluation 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your product?

In the process of constructing my media product i have learnt how to operate many new technologies. This has helped me to get my magazine to the standard it is at and helped me make it look as professional as possible.

First of all i familiarised myself with a cannon camera which has many different, confusing settings i had to figure out to get my pictures up to a good standard. The more i used the camera, i learnt new camera techniques and also shot from different angles.

Using a Mac computer was different from what i am usually used to. I mostly worked at first on a computer or laptop which was windows oriented and it is very different in many ways than the Mac computer. For the whole time i have done media i have used a Mac computer which has made me familiar with different programs and the way that they navigate. I have learnt a lot about these computers over the year and it played a big part in helping construct my media product.

Before doing media i had no idea how to operate photoshop or in design and i had to practise different techniques within the programs to become familiar with them. I originally created my drafts of my front cover, contents page and double page spread on indesign so i could mess around with different ways to set them. After i decided on my final layout i imported it to photoshop. This helped me take backgrounds out of my images, use different shapes also using different blending options and inserting different texts and images to ensure my magazine looked professional.