The student learned about the importance of audience research and improving their approach between tasks. For the preliminary task, little audience research was done. For the production, more appropriate questions were asked to understand what the audience wanted. The student also learned about magazine conventions like mastheads, covers, and photo setups. Their skills with Photoshop improved as they learned how to apply effects like drop shadows. Overall, their evaluation skills strengthened as they better identified strengths and weaknesses in their work.

1. BUSINESS NAME
Looking back at your preliminary task,
what do you feel you have learnt in the
progression from it to the full product?
Approach to Audience Research
When I did the pre- details such as price My method of audi-
liminary task I didn‟t of the magazine and ence research didn‟t
think audience re- what specific features really change between
search was an im- they would want out the tasks. For the
portant part of pro- of a magazine. This preliminary task it was
ducing a magazine. I helped me get a bet- questionnaires, for
originally thought that ter view out of what the production it was
as long as I made it my readers would be also questionnaires. I
look like a real maga- interested in reading feel that question-
zine it would be okay. allowing me to pro- naires are a good way
Because of this I de- duce a better maga- of getting audience
cided not to spend zine more aimed at feedback and finding
much time on my them, which is what out what they want
audience research the institutions do to though because their
which I feel was a big make money, there- answering a set of
mistake because I fore meaning my mag- questions which is
understand now, azine could make asked by you because
thanks to my research more money. that is what you want
into magazine institu- to know.
When it came to
tions, that making a
analyzing the results, I Overall I feel my ap-
magazine that suits
didn‟t exactly do that proach to research
your audience is im-
for the preliminary improved from the
portant because a
task. I didn‟t see it as preliminary task to
magazine wants as
important or relevant the production as
many sales as possible
to what I was doing. audience research has
so therefore it does
But for my produc- evidently influenced
need to be appropri-
tion, I had already my production (price
ate to the audience
came to the conclu- and content).
because they‟re the
sion that analyzing the
ones who buy it. results was an im-
For my preliminary portant factor. It
task I didn‟t exactly would allow me to
ask much, just basic understand what the
questions such as majority of people
“What would you like would want and this
in a magazine?, What allowed me to better
wouldn‟t you like suit my production to
etc.” Then the real what the majority of
task began. I realized people wanted. For
the institutions were example, for the ques-
interested in making tion on cost there
money and to make was an equal majority
the money they want- on £2 and £3. Analys-
ed to make their mag-
ing the results al-
azines appropriate to
lowed me to see this
their audience. This
and chose a suitable
meant my methods of
price of £2.50, suiting
audience research had
both majorities. It also
to improve. made an impact on
I think I asked more what the magazine
appropriate questions contained, for exam-
than I did for the ple interviews were
preliminary task. For wanted by a lot so my
example this one double page spread
dwelled further into was an interview.

2. Production Masthead Preliminary Task Masthead
Conventions of a Magazine– Front Cover
Magazine front covers have cer- ent font instantly making it a lot sional looking photo. The cover
tain codes and conventions that more conventional. I also feel the needed to show some pop-rock
need to be followed. These in- placement on my cover is more style girl as this is a genre of
clude image conventions, mast- professional looking than my music that was trying to be con-
head conventions, layout conven- preliminary task because it is veyed on the cover. This is real-
tions and typography conven- more well-spaced around the istic because she is wearing some
tions. face of the model and therefore rock-chick costume with a smile
looks a lot more professional as on her face, which is not only
I think that one area that has it draws the audience into the warm and welcoming to the
improved from preliminary task artist on the front cover. audience but is also showing the
to production task is the mast- pop element. It is therefore con-
head of the image. Whilst the Another way I feel my text looks ventional of what it needs to do.
masthead in the preliminary task more professional and conven-
was good for a preliminary task, tional than my preliminary task is Both the preliminary task and
Production cover it isn‟t exactly professional. I through the use of a drop- production task contain a bar-
believe this is due to size and shadow on the text. This makes code. This institutional reference
weight of the masthead. I think the cover look 3-D, eye grabbing is conventional of real magazine
my production masthead is a big and this attracts the audience, covers. I think the placement is
improvement. Heavily based on drawing them into the magazine more effective on my production
„NME‟s‟ masthead (the use of and making them more likely to cover because it doesn‟t stand
having it in a box) I believe it buy the magazine. My preliminary out too much and therefore isn‟t
looks more conventional of a cover didn‟t have these effects distracting attention from the
real magazine cover. The posi- on it, which not only makes it photo that has pulled the audi-
tioning on the left, the size, and look more basic and easy to ence in. On the preliminary task
how it stands out against the replicate but also isn‟t eye grab- it is on top of the photo and
background is a lot more con- bing and therefore doesn‟t hold pulls attention away and is there-
ventional as a real magazine, the audience‟s attention for as fore a weaker placement.
NME, is using this feature on it‟s long as it should be.
front cover. I also think it‟s bet- One convention that I had no
ter because of the positioning of When it comes to the idea of experience with in the produc-
the slogan. Centre aligned above main-photo I feel that both are tion was the use of a pull. Con-
the magazine‟s name is a lot conventional. They are both sidering I had no experience this
more effective than underneath conventional shot distances of was a convention I really did
it in my opinion. It also draws magazine covers, they both have learn, and I feel it‟s placement
attention into the masthead, the model staring straight into and text could be improved but
where as the preliminary one the camera which draws the
just looks cluttered. My research audience in and creates a rela-
showed me mastheads should be tionship with the audience. They
big and bold so that it stands out are also conventional at what
and for those reasons I based my they are trying to achieve. The
masthead on NME‟s masthead to preliminary task cover is aimed
make it appear more convention- at students and therefore shows
al, realistic and professional. a student looking happy in a ste-
Preliminary Barcode
Preliminary Cover reotypical student costume. This
I think my cover text is also appeals the student audience into
more conventional than my pre- the magazine (uses and gratifica-
liminary task is. I feel this is due tions theory) as they have some- Produc-
to font. In my research I found thing in common and something tion Bar
that front covers use multiple that links the two together. I
Code
font types. My preliminary task achieved this by taking a photo of
only has one, where as my front a real student who genuinely was
cover has more than one differ- happy. It has created a profes-

3. Page 3
Conventions of a Magazine-Contents
It's difficult to compare the con-
ventions between the two tasks
because their completely differ-
ent from each other, both trying
different interpretations of what
<—— Preliminary
a contents page should look like.
However, when preliminary is Contents Page
compared with Double page
spread there are some clear
similarities.
My preliminary task contents
page uses text in columns, some-
thing my double page spread
(DPS) uses. It is used stronger in
the DPS because in the DPS the
columns are of an equal width
where as in the contents page it
is clear that some columns are
bigger than another, which is
unconventional of the conven-
tion.
All contents page have the article
headings in bold with some infor-
mation underneath. Both con-
tents pages use this. This isn‟t
really a convention that can be
used well and I haven‟t exactly
learnt anything from it because it
Production Con-
is such a simple technique.
tents Page ——>
I think photo‟s are used better in
my contents production than in
the preliminary. In the prelimi-
nary they seem awkwardly posi-
tioned and look quite amateur
looking in my opinion, In my
production I realized this was
due to too many photo‟s so I
based min heavily on „The
Source‟‟ and used only one pho-
to and I feel this works a lot
better and looks a lot more like a
professional production.

4. Page 4
Software’s I used in
the making of both
tasks.
Understanding of Software
There were two main pieces of There were other options, some
software used in both the pro- of which I had already used to
duction task and the preliminary correct and manipulate the pho-
task. These were Adobe Pho- to on the cover, but not what I
toshop and Google Chrome. needed.
Adobe Photoshop was used for
making the pages, whilst Google I didn‟t want to search for how
Chrome was used for blog up- to do it. It felt like cheating and
dates and hosting the created made me feel extremely inexpe-
pages. rienced with the software. But I
had no choice, so I used Google
In both tasks, little understanding Chrome again. I found it quite
of Google Chrome was required, quickly that I need to apply it in
All I needed to do was follow on the layer tabs on the right of the
screen instructions on a website screen and not the layer options
to publish my work online. I did- at the top of the screen.
n‟t need to understand the soft-
ware and I don‟t feel as if my Using this I applied a drop shad-
understanding increased during ow to everywhere it was needed
the task because both times I and where it was required. This
was doing the same thing. This is the key skill I have developed
was because it met it‟s role per- since the preliminary task. Using
fectly in the upload of files to the the drop-shadow filter features
inter-net. on Photoshop. I already knew
everything else I needed to know
And after already completing thanks to my previous experi-
GCSE media studies and photo- ence with Photoshop and soft-
manipulation and A/S photog- ware did not present a problem
raphy lessons, I already had ad- again.
vanced skills in Photoshop before
starting this project. However, I
had never had to apply text ef-
fects to anything before, not like
that.
The first problem on this was
deciding which effect to apply. I
soon reached the conclusion of a
“drop shadow” to make the
cover stand-out, be eye grabbing
and look like a three dimensional
piece of work. So first of all I
went to the filters section of
Photoshop, and I couldn‟t see
drop shadow there or anything
to do with shadows.
I then decided to look in the
layer tab and once again nothing
about shadows or use of shad-
ows or applying shadows ap- Applying a drop shadow
peared in the list of options.

5. Page 5
Setting up Shots
In the production of the prelimi- I used a medium close-up shot
nary task, not much considera- length because I had designed my
tion went into shot location or cover to not require any shots
mise-en-scene as I felt as long as longer than this. I wanted my
the photo represented the article artist to take up most of the
it would appear professional. pages so the bigger the shot the
Through my research though, I better as there would be more
learnt that these elements help attention on her. I also knew that
create a representation and ap- I could crop it in if it was too
peal to audience. long.
For example, during the prelimi- My contents photo was taken at
nary task I just chose random a plain location that she would
locations that I thought would stand out against. This was again
work, like a brick wall or blank with the consideration of
wall. These don‟t help to create “Photoshop if necessary” in mind
representations because they and also to make her stand out
were chosen randomly and to keep, hold and attract the
therefore only have a limited audience‟s attention. I used a
appeal to the audience. The mise wider-focal length for this be-
-en-scene wasn't considered cause the contents photo needs
either. I just took photo's of to take up less room so that the
whatever they were wearing. I page information can be read and
took a better approach to this in doesn‟t distract or interact with
the production. the photo in a bad or unneces-
sary way.
Because of all of these elements
The cover and DPS photo‟s were
thoroughly considered and delib-
both taken on the same day.
erated over, my setting up of
They were taken in a bright,
shots has improved over the two
vibrant location– the river. (I
tasks. I don‟t doubt or deny that
knew I could use my Photoshop
there is further room with im-
skills to make the cover appear
provement, perhaps too much
like a studio photo). I manipulat-
confidence in Photoshop is a
ed both photo‟s in Photoshop to
weakness in case I got it wrong
be more appealing and interest-
or miscalculated, overestimated
ing to the audience. I selected
what I could do or over-
this location because of the
expected what the software was
knowledge of the above. If I
capable of. If I was to re-take
knew I couldn‟t have done the
these photo‟s I would use the
filters required on Photoshop I
real locations so that I didn‟t run
wouldn‟t have done them, but I
the risk of any mis-haps on Pho-
did and I have and I think they
toshop. It was a risk, thankfully in
have worked. The cover looks
this case it has paid off. But it
like a real studio shot, whilst the
may not have done which is why
contents looks interesting and
in future this will not be done.
draws the reader in because they
would be wondering where the
photo was taken.

6. Critical Evaluation Skills
It has been important for own work. I
me to develop evaluation am very good at identifying
skills through-out this task my strengths and weak-
for two reasons. The first nesses quickly during an
is to allow me to see evaluation process and am
where I went wrong and able to point these out
make improvements and quite quickly. I think I
the second being how the- could improve this skill
se can help me in future though, if I was able to
projects. identify these during pro-
duction instead of evalua-
One of the evaluation skills
tion then I would be able
I think improved during
to make a much better
this task was me helping
production and would then
others. By this I mean a
be able to get more marks.
peer evaluation thing
where we were asked
what we think of
someone's work and sug-
gest improvements. I have
always found it difficult to
be harsh, mean or critical
about other people‟s work
but for this I had to so that
I could help them get
marks. The skill I found
was a way to do it without
being mean. I suggested
improvements and tweaks
instead of criticizing which
not only allowed me to
evaluate their work and
help them get more marks
but also allowed me to
develop a new evaluation
skill which could help me
in later life.
One skill I already had
though was evaluating my