The student learned several key skills for improving their magazine project from their preliminary task. They gained experience in using more advanced camera techniques like lighting and angles to produce higher quality images. They learned how to more effectively communicate genre through styling models with props and costumes. The student also improved their masthead design by choosing bolder, genre-appropriate fonts. Overall, their final magazine challenged conventions to appeal to their niche audience by including hand-drawn elements and unconventional content choices.

1. Evaluation 7: Looking back at your
preliminary task (the continuity editing
task), what do you feel you have learnt
in the progression?from it to full
product?

2. CAMERA WORK• I feel as though I have improved greatly in my use of camera
work since completing my preliminary activity as I have now had
more experience since the preliminary activity, therefore my final
photos I used were of a higher quality and were more effective as
images for a magazine.
• I have improved in the sense that I can now use camera
angles/shots more effectively as well as image placement, for
example the image I used on my preliminary activity wasn’t quite
central and therefore doesn’t look right. However, on my final
product my image is not only of a better quality, it is also central
with the artist having a direct address to the audience.
• The mid/long shot I used in my final product looks more
professional and shows the mise en scene of my artists costume
and body positioning to communicate tone as an artist.
• When I took my initial images for the preliminary activity I didn’t
think about lighting and shadows which means that the images
had some unwanted lines and wasn’t lit properly which then
made it so that the images didn’t look very professional. In my
final product I decided however to keep some shadows to
highlight things such as the hollows of my artists eyes to make
them look slightly darker and less clean as an artist which was
conventional to my genre. I did this by going outside and using
natural light instead of studio lighting.
• Whilst taking the new photos for my final magazine , I learnt how
to direct more productively by helping my model to choose
what he wore and I then styled his hair. We then collectively
decided how he would be positioned as I had to make sure what
he was doing was comfortable for him and what looked natural
in front of the camera.

3. MISE EN SCENE• The mise en scene I used in my final product communicated genre more
effectively as I learnt how to style my model to fit the genre of my
magazine using props and costume. For example, in my preliminary
activity there wasn’t really ay elements of props or costume that
communicated that my model was in a ‘school’ magazine specifically
apart from the fact that they were holding an Apple IPhone which is
typically associated with the younger (student) generation.
• In my final product, I had my model styled with a checked shirt, a plain t-
shirt and skinny jeans which communicates the kind of artist he is in
terms of genre: Grunge. The idea of the checked shirt and general
‘messy’ look is conventional within the genre which was effective as it
makes the genre both obvious and it is what my target audience would
expect to see.
• My artist doesn’t wear any obviously branded clothing as they stand as
an independent artist within a niche genre therefore he has no need to
promote any other ‘big’ artists as the genre itself runs as a kind of
subculture therefore it tends to be more low profile. Also, because my
artists don’t wear branded clothing, it then makes it easier for the
audience to follow the trend as it is unusual and gives identity to the
genre which is what my target audience want (a different identity to the
mainstream crowd), however it isn’t unaffordable.
• I had my artist on the double page spread holding an electric guitar
across his knees as if he were playing it in the middle of a performance.
The electric guitar has connotations of alternative music which therefore
aided in communicating the genre.
• In comparison to my preliminary activity, my final product communicates
genre a lot more through the mise en scene used as opposed to the lack
of mise en scene in my preliminary activity.

4. TEXT ARRANGEMENT AND
EDITING• Since creating my preliminary activity I have learned both what fonts and
what kind of wording is acceptable in terms of what suits the genre of the
magazine and how professional it looks and sounds.
• In my preliminary activity I used a font that wasn’t very professional or bold
which wasn’t very effective as the masthead of a magazine (along with the
images) are supposed to draw the audience attention. I order to resolve this
in my final product I chose a font that was bolder and more relevant to the
genre which used colours that contrasted so that it stood out more.
• I didn’t research any other school magazines in order to get an idea as to
what was conventional, therefore what I ended up with didn’t look
professional and wasn’t eye catching at all as a masthead. However, the
fonts I used in my final product were inspired by the magazines I then
researched such as NME and Kerrang! As they were bold and used
contrasting colours (black and white) to highlight the boldness of the letters
even more.
• In terms of editing, my final product turned out very differently to my
preliminary activity as I chose to fill the cover page with icons that were
representative of the genre rather than with words as I felt that it would
clutter the page. In my preliminary activity I chose to have minimal words on
the cover but I felt as though the page looked to boring and that a lot of
words might have put my audience off it.
• I chose to have a more simple design on my cover that showcased the artist
more than anything else. Whilst I knew it was a bold risk as it is quite unique,
I thought that as my magazine was aimed at a niche audience who look for
things that challenge convention it would be more eye-catching. I did
adhere to the conventions of a typical magazine layout on my double page
spread but I also tried a different style on the contents page that linked in
with the double page spread to create synergy and continuity through my
magazine.
Preliminary
Research
Final product

5. OVERALL EVALUATION
• Since creating the preliminary activity I have learned how to
use Photoshop in a more complex way as I managed to put
images that I had hand drawn into my work instead of
attempting to create shapes in Photoshop.
• I have also learnt to consider the parts of the magazine that
I wasn’t physically making such as the articles on the
contents. In my preliminary activity and first draft of my
music magazine, I didn’t really think through what the
articles were about and how they represented the genre.
However, after looking more into the genre as a whole I
found more appropriate content to put into my contents as
the articles along with more page number to make my
magazine look bigger and more informative. As it is a niche
magazine, I settled for around 60 pages as it was big
enough to be a full magazine but not too big as to be
unrealistic.
• Overall I think that my magazine challenges convention in a
way that is unique but also communicates the grunge
genre to my target audience. For example I used my own
drawings on the front cover which makes the magazine look
more relatable as it implies that it could have been made by
a fan. Because it doesn’t have the studio finished look, it is
therefore not classed as mainstream as such. This is
effective as my target audience don’t want to be associated
with things that are mainstream and they want something
that challenges what they are used to seeing and I believe
my magazine does this.