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 your final production?

Improvements From My Prelim Task

I feel like from my preliminary task I have improved in many ways and have learnt various

skills. These skills have resulted in my final product being much

more successful than my prelim product. My final product was

also much more professional, this is because I have a much more detailed understanding of the forms and conventions of real

media products.

Prelim Product

Final Product

(Front Page)

LayoutI learnt about layout and the importance of it, in my audience research, one of the things that most attracted someone to a magazine was its layout so I took this on board. My layout from my prelim looked very unorganised and

unprofessional however in my final product I took inspiration from professional magazines to ensure my product reflected that of a professional

practice.

Too much dead space and

unorganisedimages

Better layout and good table of contents, no

dead space

Unorganised front page, no price or other things to

indicate it is professional

Well spaced out, good colour

scheme & bold, looks quite

professional

PhotographyI learnt how to compose a photograph sufficiently. This meant

using the professional cameras and studio lighting. I learnt how to use a light meter and set the aperture and shutter speed

setting on the camera in order to ensure that my photograph wasn't over or under exposed. This is clearly evident in my final

production as compared to my prelim task.

Lighting doesn’t look professional and

focus on the camera is not perfect. This compared to my

final product does not reflect a professional

practice. I did not use studio lighting in

this image.

The lighting in this photo is

professional, the focus is good as

is the layout, this

proves that I have learnt to

use a professional

camera as well as set up studio

lights well.

Prelim Final

Text to Image RatioIn my audience research I found that the majority of people preferred equal amounts of image and text, in my prelim product it is clear that I

didn’t think about this or take it into consideration. When looking at my contents page there is minimal amounts of text and this look

unprofessional whereas in my final product there is equal amounts, allowing my product to be appealing to my target audience

and reflect that of a professional practice.

There is not a equal amount of text to

images and are much more images. There is too much dead space on my contents too, this could possibly be

filled with more text.

Compared to my preliminary work I feel like I followed

my target audiences feedback well and

have an equal amount of text and

image, adding appeal for readers and looking a lot

more professional.

Prelim Final

FontsMy fonts in my final piece look much more professional and

stand out more compared to the ones used in my preliminary product. I downloaded the fonts from dafont.com whereas for

my preliminary I default fonts from Photoshop.

The fonts I used are extremely plain and boring, they are not appealing at all and look quite childish. There is no

variation in fonts (not even on the different pages) and this makes this

product quite dull and it will not appeal to the reader.

I used a variety of fonts in my final piece, this adds complexity to my product. I downloaded fonts from

websites and used these for headlines. I wrote my article in a plain font to

ensure it was easy to read, all professional magazines had a standard

font for articles.

Prelim Final

Use of ModelsFor my preliminary work I used college students because it was a

college magazine however there wasn’t a range of students, and the students weren’t properly represented. I also used some models more than once, some of their clothing doesn’t look professional either. In

my final product I aimed to use a variety of models so the product would be relatable for more people, I feel I have done this effectively.

I used a range of models in my magazine and used different posed adding variety to my product. I reused my models from the front page on my DPS to add continuity as

it was obvious that they were the main focus of my magazine. Overall I think I chose my models well and hope they

represent the indie genre well.

Prelim Final

With these models I feel that some of the images, the first for example, looks

uncomfortable and the second looks very set up and too playful. As I only used 3 models in 4 images I feel that this is quite repetitive and makes me

look unprepared.

Logo / MastheadIn my audience research I found that people were attracted to a

bold masthead. I took inspiration from the Kerrang! logo and used an eroded font as I thought this looked professional and

eye catching.

The logo for my preliminary product is very plain and looks

quite unprofessional, it isn’t appealing and looks relatively

boring.

Prelim Final

I made my logo using a font downloaded from dafont.comand tried to recreate Kerrang’s

logo, it looks bold and eye catching as well as fitting in with

the genre of my magazine.

Content

I used more appropriate content in my magazine, using existing indie bands in my final products and artists I thought my target audience would be

attracted to. I looked at existing indie magazines to find bands that my target audience would be interested in and featured

these in my magazine as well as bands/artists that I had created

for my images.