Evaluation
Looking back
at your preliminary task (the college magazine task), what do you feel you have
learnt in the progression from it to full product?
When I
compare my preliminary task and my final task, it is obvious to see that I have
gained a lot more knowledge about what makes an eye-catching and well set out
cover/contents page. It is also glaringly obvious that my editing skills have
improved vastly, as everything on my final products looks better quality and a
lot more professional.
When I was making
my preliminary task products, I didn't know very much about any Photoshop
techniques or how to use them effectively. A very useful tool of image manipulation was the filter tool
I used it to make the image of the model black and white to make sure that the
most important part on the magazine was the mast head, pulling all focus onto it;
this is exactly what I wanted as I needed my audience to look at the magazine and
be attracted to ii. The quick selection tool became very useful when creating
my cover it’s used to quickly select similar coloured areas so picking out my
model from his original became an easy task. The layout of my contents page was
difficult to create until I found Photoshop's ruler tool it made the design and
layout much easier to do. I have learnt a lot over the course of the project,
whilst creating my music magazine I had a more focused audience than my college
magazine and I learned how I needed to create my magazine specific for them
down to very small details. I learnt how everything from font to language to
the colour scheme can represent a different audience.
I used a
fairly conventional layout in the contents page and double page spread, so my
readers would know where to look for certain things and my mode of address was
current to most youth today. All of my text is relatively modern and has an
informal tone, so it's easy to relate to. For my feature article, I decided to
use a band album review, which intrigues my audience, as their curiosity makes
them want to know how it is different to other music genres. As a reader of
Kerrang! Magazine, I was familiar to their article types and the mode of
address they use. I read a few extra articles just to get a better picture of
how to write mine. I found that the majority of articles featured in Kerrang!
Were informal and spoke directly to the reader, which engages them, therefore
willing them to read on. Throughout my project, I felt I had to ask the opinion
of some of my friends who fitted in my target audience, to make sure I was taking
the right approach. I also compared and contrasted ideas with some friends who
were also doing the same project as me and we helped each other out E.g. by
advising each other which Photoshop technique would enhance an image and so on.
Before I published the final versions of
my magazine, I had to make sure everything was exactly how I wanted it to be. I
had to proof read my article each time I redrafted it, to make sure there
weren't any spelling errors and to make sure it fitted to my target audience.
By deconstructing media, for example analysing a music magazine, you
would look for conventions. Conventions are very important in media productions
because it notice's what structure has been used before. A convention can also
be described as a common denotation. Music magazines with different genre have
specific conventions. Some magazines have more conventions than other due to
genre and structure. Genre describes what audience is being targeted while
producing a magazine. Genre is similar to a stereotype- they both want to
express their lifestyle. My magazine has an Indie/Rock genre. This genre is conventional
for a magazine because it is basic in expressing its content. Take for instance
NME uses many conventions but is always differing between them, for example NME’s
cover with Carl Barat is very basic and has typical conventions like large
headlines that connote awareness which is good for target audiences. It does
its job in sucking viewers in and making them attached to the magazine. Also an
objective image of the person the main content is about and the iconic NME
title at the top.
