stuff

1. Evaluation
Adam Lepard

2. Research
• For my research into my magazine my main focus was to look at similar magazines to
the one I wanted to create and see how they are presented and what they do to draw in
the attention of readers. The main magazine I looked at was the Empire magazine as it
was a similar concept to the film magazine that I wanted to make and it is a successful
magazine so I wanted to look at why it was successful in appealing to a large audience.
The main appeal of the magazines front cover was it’s bold title that is often covered by
the image which showed that the magazine is an established product while showing
that it’s main focus is o the films that it’s reviewing. The front covers would also include
an image of the main film that the magazine would talk about this would draw in
readers as it would interest them in how the magazine would focus on a big release. I
wanted to include elements of this in my magazine as the combination of a bold title
and an image from a new release that appeals to a large audience seemed like a good
way to draw in a large audience while keeping a design that looked appealing.
• I feel that my main weakness of my research was how I looked into the horror theme of
the magazine. I found it difficult to find magazine that mainly focused of horror films as
there would only be film magazines like Empire that would occasionally focus on horror
so I just looked at how the genre was presented in those magazines.
• When I was researching my double page spread I researched more into the layout of a
double page spread rather than how writing was used in it, this meant that I had a good
understanding of how popular magazines and film magazines would present a double
page spread but when it came to writing I struggled with what to talk about. I decided
to do a comparison between a classic horror film and a newer horror film even though I
liked this Idea I felt like if I had done more research in to the writing in a double page
spread I could’ve improved my magazine or change what I would talk about.

3. Planning
• When I was planning the design for may magazine I wanted to create a plan of how I’d
use a colour scheme and fonts to plan an eye catching front cover that would appeal to
an audience interested in horror films. I chose to use a colour scheme of yellow, red and
black on my style sheet as when I was looking at front covers of horror films on my
mood board red and black were the two most common colours on the front covers so I
felt that yellow was a bright colour I could choose that contrasted the red colour that I’d
chosen while fitting the theme of horror. During pre-production on my style sheet I
chose horror themed fonts from DaFont which I ended up using in my front cover
design as it clearly presented the magazine with a horror theme.
• The problem I had when planning my magazine was when I was making my mind maps,
I was finding it difficult to think of ideas I could use in my magazine as I already had a
strong idea of reviews I wanted to write but this made it difficult to think of any other
articles or films I wanted to include in the magazine. I could've improved this aspect of
my magazine by thinking of a horror film and making a list of things to say about it then
adding the list to the mind map to give myself a clearer understanding of what to say in
my magazine. This would make my magazine a lot more informative and help me cover
the films in more detail.

4. Time Management
• I’ve improved with my time management quite a bit since the last topic I
worked on as in the last project I did I hadn’t set myself any time restraints and
fell behind because of this which affected the quality of my audio project as I
only left myself a short time to edit. In this project I wanted to get all of my
power points and designs completed within a time limit that I set myself, I
wanted to spend less than a week on each power point and then I would
spend two weeks on the production of the magazine and because I’d set
myself this time restraint I found it a lot easier finish my work on time. The
time restraints I set myself were useful in keeping me satisfied with the work I
was producing as I felt that I had enough time to put detail into my production
and I felt like I didn't need to rush my work.
• If I had additional time I would’ve worked on my double page spread to make
it a more typical layout for a double page spread by experimenting with the
design to make a more simplistic and appealing layout. I could've done this by
having my writing only on one page and the image on the other which
would’ve made the double page spread seem a lot less cluttered and more
professional.

5. Technical Qualities
• The front cover for the magazine I‘d made is very different to the the magazines
I’d researched. The Empire magazine and Total Film tend to use images from
films that are profile shots of one or more of the main characters from the film
for the front cover but I used an image from hereditary that was a close up of
the main character screaming as I felt that this image best suited the theme of
horror in the magazine. Mainstream film magazines use bold titles in bright
colours which I also used in my magazine to draw in the readers attention.
Bold title
Heading/
subheading
Close up
Profile shot
barcode
contents

6. Technical Qualities
The double page spread that I produced was similar to an existing
product as the both products include a large image taken from the
film that’s being discussed. In the Empire magazine the large image
fills one of the pages leaving room for text on the other page where
as my image was in the center of the two pages which meant I could
have text on both sides of the page and although I thought this
looked good I could've I improved my double page spread by trying
different layouts such as having my image on one a single page. If I
had more time to work on the double page spread I would
experiment with the layout to find a design that I found appealing to
both me and a larger audience by doing surveys for which design
looked the best and suited the magazines theme of horror films.
Bold title
subheading
Large main
image
information

7. Technical Qualities
Large title
Highlighted text
A rating in stars
Sub headings
My finished review page is very different to normal review pages in film magazines as I decided to make my review seem a lot less professional
and more suited to my personal interests as I knew that I wouldn’t be able to give a professional review so I used a more personal review
instead as I decided it would be more effective. I did this using an image of myself to tell the reader that it was a more personal review as it
showed me holding the film. My review page is different to a regular review page which is seen as a weakness as there are no headings or bold
sections of text that explain the technical aspects of the film like there is in the professional reviews however this is something that I would
definitely include if I had more time to work on the review. My review differs from normal film reviews, this its main weakness as it seems
unprofessional and less informative however this is also a strength as the review has a more personal appeal.

8. Aesthetic QualitiesI knew as soon as I began production on the magazines
front cover that I wanted to use an image that stood out
and drew in the attention of the reader I think that I was
successful in doing this when making this design for the
magazine, as I’ve had feedback from my piers. I used
various effects to change the original image from
Hereditary to make a stand out front cover with a style
similar to a 80’s horror film poster however instead of using
dark colours I increased the brightness of the image and
used the colour balance to give the image a red colour
scheme that contrasted with the yellow font I used, I felt
like this creative choice to add a poster aesthetic to the
image was a great way to add some personality to the
image and show my creativity in the image. If I had more
time working on the front cover I would’ve added contents
in a way that looks appealing and doesn’t distract the
reader from the focus of the magazine the font that I’d use
for the contents would be similar to the horror themed text
that I used for the title and headings.
I think the main strength of the front cover it’s style that
stands out and catches the readers attention however I
think that the weakness of the cover is the image that I’d
chosen, because I used a close up in this design instead of a
profile shot taken from another part of the film it meant I
had less space to add in a contents section that looked
appealing and suited the design, if I used a profile shot
instead I would have room for these additions as I practiced
this with other experimental front covers however I’m still
happy with final design.
Title: large, bright
font that’s horror
themed
Image: stands
out, horror
poster style
(screaming
woman)
Headings: bold
and the same
colour as the
title
Barcode: sells the
believability of the
magazine

9. Aesthetic Qualities
When I was designing the layout of my double page spread I
wanted the main focus of the two pages to be the image that I used
which turned out great, I know this by asking for feedback from
others. The reason the image looked successful was because I had
incorporated it into the entire design of the double page spread,
the two images from The Shining and Hereditary were overlaid on
top of each other in different colours ( The Shining in black and
white and hereditary in a yellow colour) you can see the two
separate images yet they also merge together which was difficult to
make by using blending options and the colour balance tool to
create the effect. As the images were presented this way it showed
that the two films were being compared, the title was bold and
coloured yellow to match the yellow in the image that I’d chosen
but it also matched the yellow from the front cover and the
heading of the double page spread was black and white which was
also a way to match the image I made so throughout the process of
making the double page spread I was making conscious decisions
about how I could get the image to relate to the text around it. If I
were to improve on the double page spread I would work on the
layout of the page as I didn’t try having the image on one page
which could've improved the design. If I had more time I would've
improved the writing as I didn’t write the text on a word document
before I put it in Photoshop it meant I didn’t know whether there
were any spelling mistakes in the writing so I would have definitely
rewrote the text.
I think my main strength of the double page spread is the design of
the image and how I incorporated it into the rest of the image
however I believe that my main weakness in the layout of the
pages as I didn’t try moving the text and image to different places I
didn’t see how a different layout would be able to improve the
appeal and aesthetic in the design.
Large title: yellow,
attention grabbing
and matches the
image
Text boxes:
both sides of
the page,
white text on a
black
background
Heading: large, all
capitals and the black
and white reflects the
image
Image: black & white
for The Shining, yellow
for Hereditary. image
has a face on either
side of the pages

10. Audience AppealThe main audience I wanted my magazine to appeal to was an audience interested in film and horror cinema that
would want to know reviews about recent releases. I tried to appeal to this audience of film goers clearly from
my front cover by giving it a poster style and I wanted my title ( The Final Cut) to also appeal to an audience
interested in horror films as the title references the final edit of a film which clearly shows that the the magazine
is appealing to film goers. The main reason that the magazine may not attract it’s target audience is that I didn’t
understand which age or gender category I targeted my magazine towards as I mainly focused of appealing to
fans of film and the theme of horror so I had my magazine may have appealed to less readers as it had no clear
gender that it appealed to however I did want my magazine to appeal to older teens and older as this is the
common age for people that go to watch horror films.
My double page spread showed clear
appeal to a film going audience as it
compares a classic horror film with
anew release which I had confidence in
as it would attract an older generation
and a younger generation.
The film reel behind the title
shows that the title is an icon
for films and clearly shows the
theme of films

11. Audience Appeal
The title references the final
edit of a film which appeals to a
film going audience
The poster design of the image
Appeals to a reader interested in film
The mention of Hereditary would clearly
show that the magazine is targeted for film goers