Media Evaluation

Question 7; looking back at the preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to a full product?

During my two tasks, the preliminary and main task, I held some hesitations towards the project. I thought the lack of experience and understanding would hold me back from the class, making my work much harder to complete and a struggle to finish up to dead lines. 

At the start of the preliminary task, we were told the tools we would be using, cameras and Photo shop mainly. Although I knew a little about camera, its appearance was different from a normal digital camera and I held some concerns towards it, the format of Photo shop was daunting but my teacher explained the way we would use the cameras; showing it wasn’t as complicated as I once thought and then explained Photo shop, parts were more detailed than others but the program which I once thought as long, difficult, daunting and worrying became very simple, and easy to use.

The preliminary task helped me with my magazine. We was asked to do a front cover and contents page; this came in use as we was asked to do that for the main task. Features such as photos as backgrounds, mastheads, cover lines, the order of words, using text etc all came through out the two projects. So when it came to do my main task I had a clearer understanding on how to make a front cover and contents page, although research was still needed to make my magazine as good as possible, it was less than would have been needed if the preliminary task was not performed.

The task allowed me to use some conventions, on a trail and error form. Once looking back and comparing the preliminary task and main task it was clear that my understanding grow in between both task as some of the conventions were poorly used and could have been used better.

Organising people to get involved was pretty easy. Although none were models or had experience, they were friends which I knew were not shy, had taken photos and felt comfortable with them on social networking sites and was I the same line of genre as the main task; the magazine although the models were more diverse when it came to music, not just liking indie but grime, hip pop, rock, heavy mental etc, making sure they were wearing the right clothes were important. I put the cover model it more simple clothes such as a white blouse, white hat, normal shade colour for jeans and chestnut ugg boots. I did this on purpose as I wanted her face and the text to be the most important things on booth front cover and double page spread and knew that if I put her in big wild patterns the audience would be very distracting and this wasn’t just a fashion magazine. For the models on the contents page; their clothes were different compared to the first model, this was because their photos would be smaller, which wouldn’t drag so much attention to them but also allowed the fashion side of the magazine to be shown. The white model, was given a peacock pattern play suit with boots and a wolly hat, shoes and cardigan was purposely black to sync with the play suit which had the peacock pattern on a black background; the wolly hat however was orange, the whole ‘not sticking to the rules’ was shown as indie style and fashion is often about expressing what the person wants to instead of going along with everyone else. The third model was the funniest to style. Although my magazine was indie through out you can see bits and bobs of other genres and cultures, I wanted to make this magazine diverse without declining the target audience.

Managing my time was a struggle which I first thought would affect my magazine extremely but i finished pretty quickly with weeks to spare. Once I had my images; which were quiet easy because it was on location so booking space wouldn’t be a problem, the camera was borrowed from a friend and the location was unknown to most and never busy. This allowed me to get the type of photos I wanted in an environment which wasn’t as stressful for me as working in a studio because I knew it would have been limited, concerning people, photos, time, and place.

As my preliminary task consisted of a front cover and contents page my full project once included the double page, allowed me to gain a brief understanding on how to on and use A3 canvases.

From both preliminary and main task I learnt how to use a Cannon EOS 600D, effectively to produce a good quality of images. As with my preliminary task when I first used a camera I didn’t really have a good full understanding on how I could take images effectively.

The creative decision from location, props, costume etc was all because during the planning of my main task; the magazine. I decided to make a spider diagram of different genres I would like to base my magazine on. Once I decided that, the location was the next decision to be made, as I had a done a table on pros and cons of locations inside the studio and outside, I found that location would be better for me as I didn’t want the background to be boring, dull or normal. I wanted my target audience to feel as though that is where they would hang at, o the magazine connected with them on different levels. A spider diagram was then drawn out; different locations would be coming out first, with costumes coming out of location, I wanted to have as many choices as possible and wanted every costume to be relevant and related to every location chosen instead of choosing mind numbing costumes which wasn’t relevant to the magazine in the slightest.

Due to the process of the preliminary task to the main product I learnt how to fully attract my target audience and fully include them in my magazine. This was also something I felt that I did not do to the best of my ability because of my lack of understanding and experience. I learnt how to focus my magazine on one particular social group instead of trying to stick 5 genres into one magazine; resulting in confusion. My music magazine as a target audience so I was able to research them allowing my magazine to be more suited and focused on the group its self. Whereas compared to my target audience for the preliminary task which was much bigger and not as specific; allowing my research to help me plan a better ways of presenting them in the magazine; instead of focusing on the negotiate bring the positive to the people.

A way in knowing more about my magazine was posting it on social networking sites as facebook and twitter for feed back from people who were in my target audience. I had a selective few which were “the colour scheme works together well, to save yourself hassle why not try a more simple background allowing you to have less barriers with colour choices” another said “I like the quality and style of the images, although following one genre you try to be a diverse as possible when it comes to the style of letting them” a third said “I like the way you allowed the contents to mix with the models, although indie music is independent, you mixed some mainstream in with it which also works for you putting in up and coming artists as well as already established artists” Although most good feed back, a person commented saying “the colours often ended up hurting my eyes, I don’t know if this is due to colour scheme, as my eyes are quiet sensitive which often puts me off some magazines” another person commented “compared to the double page article and front cover, the contents back looks a bit boring, I like the fact that you kept it simple but maybe putting three small images and one big one would of shock the boring feeling” I thought it was important for me to do this as it helps me improve, and lets me know which is good and which is bad, as my opinion might be different  from others and although I want to make a product which I very much like, I still want the audience to feel comfortable and happy reading the magazine themselves and to want to continue reading instead of just commenting on the colour scheme and images as it’s a magazine with articles so that’s an important factor.