Evaluation

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the

progression from it to the full?

Preliminary Front Cover Final Front Cover

• Page is not a proper A4 sized product therefore incorrect size for the magazine•Bold text used for title but not eye catching or large enough•No price on the front cover, fails to meet usual conventions of a magazine•Featuring articles but minimal and not eye catching or obvious to reader. Small text and similar colour theme makes text hard to read•Front cover image but leaves a lot of blank space, not eye catching image and no relevance to featuring articles

•Correctly sized page for magazine•Includes all usual conventions; price date barcode etc•Large main image of featuring artist – relevance to the featuring article•Large eye catching title/logo•Variety of featuring articles, variety of sixe to signify importance to reader.•Contrasting colours used to make text and images obvious and eye catching to reader.•Threshold technique used on main image

Preliminary Contents Page Final Contents Page

•Incorrect size of page•Limited articles•Colours not effective against background•Basic techniques used to create•Doesn’t show synergy from front cover to contents page

•Correct size of page•Includes a lot of articles and added information for reader•Effective colour scheme chosen to allow text to be easily read by reader•Includes usual conventions of a contents page – blurb, page numbers, relating image etc•Shows synergy from front cover to contents page

What have learnt?

The main thing that I have learned is increased skills to create a successful media product. The skills shown in my preliminary task are extremely minimal. As highlighted on the previous page I was unable to create en eye catching magazine front cover that followed the usual conventions of a magazine as the page was the incorrect size and there was no price included. There was no editing techniques used on the main image and there was simple skills applied such as adding text and importing images off of Google. There is vast empty spaces due to lack of text/ articles and the size and format of it. The text is extremely small and there is no variation in size or font and overall the front cover looks extremely unprofessional and unsuccessful as it is not eye catching to the reader therefore would not appeal to them on a shop shelf. Another reason for this is the dull colour scheme chosen. The blue chosen for the text is similar to the blue in the background image. To make this magazine more eye catching and appealing to the reader contrasting colours would of been more effective e.g. Orange would contrast the blue in the background image. A lot of these mistakes was due to the lack of research into existing media products therefore I had not researched what I techniques I would use to allow my product to be successful, therefore I have also learnt that research is an important aspect to creating a successful and effective media product, not only research into existing products but research into target audience.

As you can tell from the dramatic difference between my preliminary task and final product I have learnt to develop my skills on Photoshop in relation to editing. This was done through practicing creating and editing images and gaining more experience in using the programme. From carrying out a lot more research into existing media products I learnt the importance of choosing an effective colour scheme for my media product. I learnt that contrasting colours appeal more to not only readers in general but to my target audience through market research therefore I ensured I chose contrasting colours for the articles on my front cover to highlight them and make them obvious to the reader but it also helps the main image chosen to stand out to the reader also. What I also learnt from my research is that variations in the size of text signifies the importance of the article to the reader. As you can see on my final product the interview with an artist is in the largest text as this is a major feature of the magazine. I have also learnt that included free things or a chance to win something will entice a reader to purchase the magazine as they will feel they are gaining something in return for buying the magazine. All of these factors have increased my knowledge of successful layout.

Continued ...From research into existing media products helped me to choose the layout of my contents page. From choosing to follow the layout from Kerrang I have learnt how to create a professional looking media product that would be successful in appealing to readers. I have learnt that a contents page includes more text than I thought it did, also from carrying out research.

From carrying out research I have increased my awareness and knowledge of existing music magazines. As this is not an area I am particularly interested in my self, my knowledge of it was limited therefore allowing my knowledge of what music magazines are out there to increase. As I wasn’t experienced in the field of music magazines and these magazines in general I was not aware of the existence of the distribution institutes I researched and included in my evaluation. Therefore I have learnt to expand my knowledge with the media world and I feel this helped me understand the whole process of a media product such as a magazine.

The final media product I have been comparing my preliminary task to is actually my second final product. As you can see from the images above, there is still a vast difference between each of these products. Due to the unsuccessful creation of my first final edition of my media product I decided to re-submit my coursework allowing me to create a media product that was effective and truly followed the conventions of an existing media product and truly appealed to my target audience. The reason for this is that I did not use the things I learnt through the process of making a preliminary task to the full product effectively. Due to my ignorance of the importance of the skills I learnt resulted in me creating an unprofessional looking media product which would definitely be unsuccessful in appealing to my target audience.

From deciding to recreate my final product has highlighted to me the importance of time keeping, understanding the task given and using things learnt to result in the best creation of coursework possible.