1. Evaluation 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 full product?

2. By comparing my preliminary cover and final cover I have obviously improved at designing and producing a front cover. If we focus firstly on the preliminary cover there are many faults that would not get a very good grade if I had submitted that as my final piece. I have not addressed capitals and lower case, I have not aligned any of the text or thought about its position on the page. I have not cut out Beccaaccurately as I can still see a bit of the brick wall that was originally behind her. I also had taken roughly ten shots of Becca so there was no way I had enough choice to chose an appropriate front cover picture for my prelim. I had also not thought about the mise en scene and not chosen appropriate clothes for Becca to wear, also due to poor planning I had not chose a colour scheme so I just went with what matched with Becca's jumper on the day! Basically my overall thoughts looking back on my prelim are that it looks like it could have been done on paint. Preliminary Cover

3. Final Cover If we look at my current front cover it is evident a lot of thought has gone into the layout. As I have mimicked Billboards style of positioning their model, by putting them ¾ up the page in a central position. The colour scheme is a simple black and white which is statement colours of music magazines yet I have put a twist on it by using a raspberry pink, as I think it appeals to a female audience more. The Masthead was inspired by the font/style of Elle magazine, instantly appealing to the people who are interested in fashion. The miseon scene I tried to achieve was simple, as I didn't want to over complicate my magazine. By placing her in a classy black dress and not having Sara too overdressed will hopefully give the right message off to my target audience. The camera angle I used was a midshot, as it gave the right impression and the right ‘male gaze’ look off. Finally choosing Sara as my feature artist was a critical decision as I had to make sure I had the right looking artist to attract my target audience. I chose her through audience feedback in my research and planning. I have aligned the image and text of Sara directly to the middle to make it as aesthetically pleasing as possible. I also edited the picture to make it look as professional as possible. I also used fonts that aren't default on most computers so that it would look more original. Also indicating that this is a music magazine by writing famous pop stars names in the backgroundin a messy style.

4. Preliminary Contents Looking at my contents the first thing I notice is the lack of information. Due to a lack of time spent on my prelim I clearly didn’t take the conventions of real magazines into account, and therefore ended up with 10 pages in my magazine. I also didn’t consider mise en scene at all when choosing Becca’s clothes, as I previously hadn’t decided a colour scheme I chose the colours to match with Becca’s outfit. I had not aligned any of the text or made sure it was the same size, this looks messy and unprofessional. I also hadn’t put a page number in the corner, which is basic for any magazine. The fonts used are generic and often found on Microsoft word. The images aren’t edited and badly cut out on Photoshop and don’t obviously bare any resemblance to my magazine. Again, this contents page looks as if it could have been done on paint and I would say I have definitely improved.

5. Final Contents Looking at my final contents page it is an obvious improvement from my preliminary, as I have a realistic amount of page descriptions and sections that would appear in a real magazine. I have aligned all of my text and images to make it as aesthetically pleasing and professional as possible. In comparison to my preliminary contents I would say that this is a lot better, a lot more planning has gone into this than my preliminary. However the time limit for my preliminary was a lesson or two, when we had a lot more time to complete our contents page and a lot more research was done. I think I successfully created a contents page which could be produced in a magazine. It is evident that I have taken thought into the colour scheme, by using softer, lighter colours than the cover it doesn’t draw any attention away from the cover and emphasises it more, which is what I want as I would like people to remember the cover more than the contents.

6. Overall Overall I think the progress I have made is evident, as a lot more preparation, research and planning has gone into my final product in comparison to my preliminary. I have also learnt that feedback is key to a magazines success, as if I had settled with why I thought was right then my magazine wouldn’t be as appropriate for my target audience as it now is. Another thing I have learnt would be to keep working at your final pieces and not settle for ‘enough’ but to carry on until you are completely satisfied with your finished result, whereas in the preliminary I did not redo my contents or cover as I didn’t have an idea of the effort and preparation involved in making a contents/cover. A further improvement would be to ensure I keep a ‘house style’ running through my magazine, as I feel my contents doesn’t match my double page spreads and cover page. Otherwise I think I have definitely made progress since doing the preliminary exercise.