Evaluation question 7 for my media studies coursework

2. My prelim work compared to my
final product

3. Research and Planning
I feel that my final product was greatly enhanced by the
utilisation of research and planning of the work. This is a
large contrast to the preliminary work, in which I only looked
at one existing magazine and copied the basic layout, rather
than doing more in depth research into the target audience of
the magazine and other key factors that magazine editors
take into designing and making a magazine. Also, through
the research and planning topic, my work was far better
planned out, with each stage having a designated amount of
time I would spend on each section as a maximum. This way I
would make sure that I was motivated to finish each section
within a reasonable time limit. The research and planning
tasks also gave me a much better understanding of the forms
and conventions of magazine creation, which in turn allowed
me to create a much more professional looking magazine for
my final product than my preliminary work.

4. Creation of the magazines
The skills I learned form the
preliminary work greatly improved
my ability to create effective
looking photographs. With the
preliminary work, I was not really
aware of how lighting can effect a
shot however afterwards, I had a
much greater consideration for the
lighting of shots for my final
magazine. As you can see in the
preliminary work, the lighting is
very harsh, where as in the final
product, I used lighting situated
very carefully to create a much
more mellow lighting effect.

5. Using software to create my
product
My abilities using the software to
create my magazine greatly
improved after the work I did in
the preliminary stages. For
example, in the prelim work I left
the original background to the
images because I didn’t know
how to remove them using
Photoshop. However, after
looking at some online tutorials, I
was able to remove the
backgrounds of images (where
appropriate) in order to make the
magazine I had created look
more professional for the reader.
As you can see
the original
background of
the image
remains. This is a
contrast to my
final product.

6. Furthermore, my skills with image and text
alignment have improved since making the
preliminary work. We can see this by the
way that in the preliminary work, although
the text itself is inline with the other text
on the page, it is not spaced out in a
professional looking manor, with different
sized spaces in between the coverlines,
making then look disjointed on the page.
This is a large contrast to my final magazine
cover in which, I made sure that the
coverlines remained in line with the other
features on the cover, so that everything
looked to a more professional look to the
magazine.
Skills learned from the preliminary continued

7. From the preliminary I also learned
about how to utilise misc-en-scene
in photos. For example, in the
preliminary work, I did not use any
props or any imagery that would
make the reader the assume that the
magazine cover was for a college
magazine. However, in the final
product, it is evident that I have
thought about the misc-en-scene of
the images, as I have added
additional costume and props in
order to create the look of a rock
magazine.
Skills learned from the preliminary continued
As you can see, I used
props and costume in
order to show the
misc-en-scene of the
magazine.

8. Page Layout
Since performing the preliminary task, I have learned
about laying out the page of a magazine, both to give a
professional image but also to make the most of the
space in the page. We can see that in the contents page
and the double page spread, the majority of the page is
filled, thus giving a professional look to the magazine.