AS\ media

1. Question 7 Evaluation
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel that you have learnt in the progression from
it to the full product?
My magazine production took a few weeks to create, since I had 3 different pages to complete.
When creating and completing all 3 pages, I made numerous amount of mistakes leading to the final
product although it was costly it made my product aesthetics much better. Cropping was my main
issue when creating my magazine; sometimes the crop would be too rough causing the image to
look terrible. I only corrected this mistake by using the tools a lot more, and learning solutions to my
mistakes.
In my preliminary magazine, you can see the poor masthead
which is not cropped properly as you can see colour from the
preliminary image. This is a
sharp contrast from my
magazine, although you can
argue the crop on the front
image is not fantastic but it is
great for an Amateur who has
little knowledge in Photoshop.
If you gave me the same
image to crop when I had
started my preliminary cover,
the outcome would be very
different as my knowledge of
Photoshop won’t be as good
to the point where it is now.
One other point is the quality of the shot; the difference in quality is evident. If you asked a random
individual what is the main difference about the front image? More than likely the first thing they’ll
say is the quality of photo. Although this could be down to the camera used, I believe other factors
affected the outcome of my magazines. In my latest magazine, I understood the risks of taking a
photo outside as the lighting could affect the picture quality. In contrast to my current magazine,
where I took the photo indoors to not affect the picture quality meaning I wouldn’t have had to use
Photoshop tools to correct the lighting and this is always risky.
I never really followed the convention of a front image before, when taking a photo I wouldn’t think
of the impact the photo would have on connotations. Mise en Scene is a combination of many
features, NVC is part of Mise en Scene and this feature demands facial expressions. My magazine
inspiration was Hip Hop famous magazine XXL, and I conformed too many of their ideas and one was
NVC. This feature helps to signify what the magazine is focusing on, in my preliminary cover there
was little, to no NVC and this made the models look like they were just standing there; however in
my latest front cover, the NVC is strong, powerful which links to the genre of Hip Hop.
Continuity was the same in both covers. Although in my latest covers, the clothing changed as this is
a typical feature of a magazine. As there is only one page in my preliminary cover, there is not too

2. much continuity as there were no props just costume which was suits. I realised at both stages
continuity was important, and if there is no continuity the magazine can look very amateurish as the
reader will just have the view that the author just rushed his work without any consideration. In my
latest pages, such as in my double page spread
you can see the continuity of street wear which
is a typical convention of Hip Hop.
Health and Safety is an issue for all magazines of
all genres. The real worry of safety came when
we were taking photos as we didn’t want to fall
or slip. When taking a photo, I took the
precaution of only taking photos where I felt
comfortable and not where I feel I can get hurt.
Another worry was drinking near the
computers, if I spilt some fluids on the computer the computer could overrun and collapse causing
sparks to fly out and this may end in a fire or a burn. This means whenever I was drinking a fluid, I
made sure it wasn’t near a computer and it was out of harm’s way.
I only needed fellow students for photos for my magazine. My management of my fellow pupils
went alright; even though it could have gone better I still think it was a great learning experience.
When taking photos, I asked a fellow student to get dressed and then I’ll ask them to stand the way I
wanted and several photos will be taken this way so I have a variety of options to choose from. I
used YouTube as a resource, but this was mainly for Photoshop work in learning how to do certain
functions. I would use these told whenever possible, if I needed help with a tool I would search it up
on YouTube.
Before I started creating my magazine, I had a plan in my head of how things should turn out. The
people I wanted to feature in magazine were featured; I managed these people by asking them days
before the shoot so I had conformation that they were doing it. On the day, I just asked the people
before to get ready and the shoot happened like that. However I had to repeat the shoot many
times, due to the photos not looking like it should but the process of asking before hand was done
the same before every shoot. Costume was done a similar process like how I managed my models, I
asked my models if they had any Hip Hop pieces and as one did I told him to bring it in. I used three
different locations when creating my magazine. My first two locations never suited the genre;
however my final location was a music studio that links to my genre of Hip Hop. My final location
was the place where 90% of my images came from, and managed locations by carefully thinking the
connotation linked with each area.
I created a plan to help me when producing my magazine. I created 3
different plans, one for the front cover, a second for the double page
spread and a final for the contents page. An example of my plan, is located
on the right. I went into production with a plan, as I wanted my work to be
structured otherwise I will be making rash decisions. I followed my plan
mostly for all pages, however there were times were changes had to be

3. made because the plans were only made in theory of what we had in our heads and sometimes it
doesn’t always work like that. You can evidently see, I
never put a name on the front image on the double
page spread, although the change is minimal it still
counts that I never fully followed my plan. Sometimes I
had to make decisions on the spot, and most of the time
this would work for the better as it allowed my creative
side to come out and flourish.
My time management wasn’t entirely the best, if I knew how much longer a magazine would take
my work would have less rushed however I am still happy with the outcome. Since the front cover is
the most important, it is very important that its full of conventions and for that reason my time
management got messed up to the point I had re-calculate when my work will be finished. Although
my time management wasn’t the best, it still allowed me to have a reasonable amount of time to
complete each page. A success of my time management was it allowed me to go over the magazine
pages a final time to correct any final mistakes and this worked out since I changed some parts of my
magazine for the better.