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1. EVALUATION –
QUESTION 7
Looking back at your preliminary task what do you think
you have learnt in the progression of it to your full
product?

2. Looking back at your preliminary task what do
you think you have learnt in the progression of it
to your full product?

4. Image progression
■ From my preliminary I feel that my skills with a camera have improved, as I have evidently taken better
quality pictures than before. I did this by researching the camera I used in depth, so I could manually
adjust focus and ISO without having to use automatic settings or presets.
■ While I have been coherent in Photoshop since prior to the production, I only fully utilised the full extent
of the tools available in my final production due to the research I had done on existing media
productions.
■ To improve on many of the issues I had with my preliminary, I took a greater deal of consideration of
smaller things. For example, I used far higher quality lighting for my final production, and then
manipulated this lighting in Photoshop later. I also considered mise-en-scene a lot further than I did in
my preliminary, in terms of costume and props. Judging by the drastic increase in quality from my
preliminary to my final production, this was a large improvement.

5. Research
■ To give the impression that my magazine was an official legitimate publication, I did a lot more deeper
research into its production.This enabled me to understand the codes and conventions of real media
publications and to show these in a way that applies to my target audience. I was able to associate
relevant theories to my magazine; namely the reception theory, in which the images used in a piece of
media attempt to portray women and men in an equal light. I feel as if I have achieved this by using male
models on my cover instead of female models, helping to balance out the inequality of representation.
■ The research I did helped me in creating an effective final production that caters towards the needs and
interests shown by my audience.
Preliminary research
Final production
research

6. Masthead
■ I think that from my preliminary task my
masthead design has drastically improved. My
initial masthead, used in my preliminary, uses
Charlemagne, a default pre-installed font on
Photoshop. Due to this, it did not look like a
striking and recognisable masthead or logo, but
instead just a larger piece of text.There was no
extensive editing done, just resizing and
recolouring.
■ My final masthead uses Stilja, an externally
installed font. Instead of just recolouring the
text, I used a red-to-blue gradient, to follow the
secondary colour scheme I had. I think this was
an effective masthead as it was a unique font
and had a striking colour scheme.
■ The uniqueness of my masthead made it
recognisable as mine, serving as brand
awareness.The research I did into other
existing media products helped me achieve
this.
Preliminary
masthead
Final
production
masthead

7. Fonts
■ Advancing from my preliminary task I feel like I can
now more suitably use fonts in ways that look
effective and professional in terms of real media
publications. I managed to do this using the
research I had done of existing media products and
the ways they use fonts and text.
■ In my preliminary I used one very basic font
(Perpetua titling mt) throughout, including in my
masthead. I now realise that doing so makes the
entire publication look bland and unimaginative. In
my final production, I used two fonts. I used Stilja for
my masthead and titles, and Labtop for bodies of
text. I only used one font for the bodies, however I
used various different forms of it; giving the
magazine a clear theme without making it bland
and too repetitive.
Preliminary
Fonts used: Perpetua
titling mt
Final Production
Fonts used:
• Stijla
• Labtop
• Labtop Warp 2
• Labtop
Superwide
• Labtop
Underscore
• Labtop Thin

8. Layouts
■ I feel that my skills and judgment have
improved in terms of layout design from
my preliminary.The contents of said
preliminary used one large unrelated
image, had a lot of open unused space,
used only one font (the same font used
throughout), had an unreasonably large
feature for a competition, and lacked a
colour scheme.
■ I improved in my skills and judgment and
this shows in the higher quality of my final
product. In this, there is a colour scheme, a
picture that is related and fits in, an editor’s
note to give a personal feel to readers,
much less if not no unused space, and a
clear contents table with small yet clear
features.This appeals to my target
audience as being quite simple yet
including many features, my young target
audience will be able to focus with their
typically shorter attention span.

9. TEXT: I used the knowledge of text I gained from my research into previous
existing media publications to create a realistic interview between the band
and a would-be representative of my magazine. I did this by using a
masthead that poses a question, which would intrigue the reader, who
would be interested in the band on a personal level.The pull quote I’ve used
would also apply to the reader, as it gives a personal insight to the band; as
does the language used.This is because the majority of the interview is the
band giving long personal answers. I think this is an improvement on my
preliminary as I hadn’t considered the use of language when creating it.
LAYOUT: Using the research I had done
of existing media products, I created a
double-page spread with a simple yet
effective layout. I decided to devote one
page to the main part of the image, so
there was a clear point of focus and so
the light-heartedness of the interview
was obvious just from a surface level.
This meant that the text could have a
page to itself, thus giving a non-chaotic
and easy to process appearance;
something that would be beneficial to
my target audience.This was an
improvement on my preliminary as this
time I thought about my target
audience.
IMAGE: Having researched my camera and already being
proficient in Photoshop (but using some tutorials to
refresh some skills), I took the image of my two models
in flat-angle mid-shot. I made it more eye-catching by
altering the contrast, curves and brightness on
Photoshop. I chose this pose as it shows the closeness
and whimsicality of the band, applying my target
audience of young adults.
TRANSFERRINGANDAPPLYINGTHESESKILLS

10. Conclusion
In conclusion I feel that I have learnt a substantial amount about the conventions of genuine media
publications and how to use them in my own work. I feel I have progressed the most in these areas:
■ Codes and Conventions – After doing some crucial research on existing media publications and the
codes and conventions of their content, I understood what was needed when creating a music
magazine similar to the ones I had researched. Having done this, I was able to create a realistic looking
media production.
■ Images – I improved in taking high quality images in appropriate lighting, having already been
proficient in editing using Photoshop before. By reading tutorials online, I was able to set up lighting
equipment and use the camera with relative ease and little difficulty. I think this improvement in skill
is clear when comparing my preliminary task to my final production, which included images that had
next to no editing and very poor lighting given the context.
■ Target Audience – By having good, clear communications with my organised focus group I was able
to understand what it was the target audience for my publication wanted and needed from a music
magazine such as my own.This allowed me to create a media product that applies and appeals to my
young, uniqueness-seeking target audience.