AS media coursework

1. Question 7
Looking Back AtYour PreliminaryTask,What DoYou FeelYou
Have Learned FromThatToYour Final Product?

2. PreliminaryTask
On October 17th I was tasked to
create a front cover and contents
page for a magazine about
Sunderland College.We had two
hours for this task and had to take
all photographs and create flat
plans.

3. Front Cover
The first major difference between my preliminary task and my final product is
that the first was created on MicrosoftWord. I was unfamiliar with how to use
Adobe Photoshop and so I believed that Word would be the next best
alternative.
There are so many differences between my preliminary cover and my final
product, that it would be harder to spot the similarities. Firstly, I chose many
different and eye-catching fonts for the entirety of the preliminary, except the
masthead.This is practically the opposite in my final piece as I understand that
the most eye-catching fonts should be for the masthead and possibly a main
sell line. In my product, I chose ‘Orange Juice’ for the masthead and ‘Bombing’
for the main sell line, but chose the much simpler ‘Caviar Dreams’ for
everything else.
A second difference is, of course, the colour scheme. However, if you look past
the background colours you will see that it is not much of a difference at all. I
have continued to use the blue and white text that is shown in my preliminary
task, however I decided that it would look best against a darker background.

4. A third difference is in the image.The dominant image on the preliminary
task is a photograph of a college building, however it is partially covered by
two of the sub-images. In my final product, I hade the dominant image
much bigger so that it spanned the entirety of the page. I also only included
one sub-image, which is much smaller and in the bottom left corner. After
learning from my original mistakes, I have made sure that the sub-image
doesn’t cover anything important on the dominant image.
Lastly, the main sell line and sub-head. In my preliminary task, I decided to
continue the theme of blue for these, however the sell line partially covers
one of the sub-images and this makes it particularly difficult to read.To
combat this, in my final product, I made my main sell line the contrasting
colour of the background, which is white against black. I also understand
that, on the preliminary task, the sub-head was far too long and slightly too
small.This was not an issue in my final product.

5. Contents
The obvious difference is that the contents page of the preliminary task was
created on MicrosoftWord, whereas my final product was created on Adobe
Photoshop.This was because I had very little experience with Photoshop and
believed that it would be better to use a more familiar software since the time
frame was so small.
Visually, the most prominent change is the colour scheme. In the preliminary
task, I tried to match the colours to the dominant image and so I continued this
in my final product.The image was mostly black, with bright blue hair. Due to
this I chose a contrasting white text with some blue to attract attention to the
most important features.
The dominant image is another change. For the preliminary task I chose an
eye-level, full body shot. I chose this because it would be best to take up the
available space. However, in my final product I took inspiration from Mojo
magazine and attempted to curve the writing around the image, rather than
fitting the image into available space.Also, this image is still at eye-level, but is
a medium-close up.

6. Another difference is in the contents themselves. In the preliminary task, I
believed that a smaller font would be difficult to read, however I didn’t want to
change the colour scheme in order to make it easier. However, with the
contrasting colours in my final product it was possible to make the text much
smaller in order to fit more onto the page. I also decided not to box off my
contents as I wanted them to seem as though they curved around the models
face.
Lastly, I replaced the sub-image from my preliminary task, this time separating
the cover article so that it stands out and is easy to find. I feel like this is a good
alternative as many readers will have picked up the magazine because of the
article on the cover and so it should be made easier for them to find it.
However, having it at the bottom of the page makes it likely that they will look
at the other contents first and may find something else that they want to read
too.