Production Reflection Factual EFT

1. Production Reflection
Daniel Morland

2. Pre-Production - initial drawbacks
My pre-production was filled with idea generation and resource
gathering. This stage of production was quick, plainly because I found it
easy to gather screenshots and clips of gameplay to use in
my magazine. My initial idea of using clips in my magazine was a
possible shot in the dark, but after my testing and first day of
production, I concluded that the animated part would not be feasible
with just 1 person. This wasn’t because I couldn’t make it, but it was to
do with the hosting. I wanted to find a way to have videos immediately
play upon opening. However, the only sites I could use to host this
video feature were locked behind a paywall. I could have sought the
help from my brother who is currently taking up a course in computing,
but I didn’t want to put that pressure on him to make it for my project.

3. production
In the end, I got to produce 7 pages in total. I would have liked to
produce 12 pages, but I ran out time. Overall, I'm happy with my
production, I tried new techniques I learned in testing, stretching my
comfort zone from page to page.
Page 1
Page 1 was a good opening page. I wanted to display to the reader a
brief look into EFT, and I did that but displaying the main location as
well as a playable character from Tarkov. All to draw attention to the
subject I want to talk about. In conclusion, I'm happy with this page's
ideas and techniques used to create the final product.

4. Production
Page 2
Page 2 for me dipped in idea generation and that impacted the overall look.
This was the page which got most effected by my cancellation of the video
idea. I had planned to use a video on this page, and it would be my first
example of the video idea I had. However, I had to draw back that idea and
create a static version, but the image still stuck to the plan, . This took extra
time and wasted the time I spent on creating the videos for my fanzine. This
was the primary loss of time, and reflecting on this, I should have tested
earlier if it was possible to even host a video on a digital magazine. If I had
found out earlier that it wouldn’t be possible to go down this path earlier,
then I wouldn’t have wasted a large portion of time on the videos. But the
past is the past and I moved onto the next page.

5. Production
Page 3
With page 3 came back my idea generation. I wanted to link 2
commonly seen features in the game: guns and locations. To bring
these 2 things together, I had the idea to silhouette the guns and use
them to create a continuous shape between the top of the skylines. I
did this using the guns as a clipping mask. Once I did this I saw my
vision on the page. The rest of the techniques were just as creative and
demanding. The main use of my time was the amount of time it took to
gather images of all the different guns and skylines. The page didn’t
take as long as page 2, but I wasn’t 100% happy because I didn’t fully
stick to my planning on this page.

6. production
Pages 4&5
With each page, I wanted to use a different style. Pages 4 and 5 were meant
to bring a darker, yet philosophical light to the game. Looking into the theory
I and many others have crafted. Why Tarkov is different was the key point I
wanted to get across to the reader. I did this by first only using images taken
within game. I wanted limited input from images found on the internet and
made by myself. So, the only image that wasn’t found in game was the
background image. When looking back, I again didn’t stick to my plan of
using 2 separate pages. But I found I could include more text if I used double
page spreads. Pages will continue thix till the end of production.
From this point on, I only had 1 day left of production, so I knew I could only
put out 1 more page.

7. production
Pages 6&7
Pages 6 and 7 were my best. I found that I put all my knowedge into
these last pages and it turned out fantastic. It included techneqies
which I havent seen before and really made me think out of the box. In
total I was most happy with all the lines created by the top image,
drawing focus to the text box. It's easy to look at, while also including
images from ingame. I again didn’t stick to my initial planning, but I
think the page looks better than the rest of my planned pages combind.
This page took me the least amount of time, only taking me 1 day to
create.

8. conclusion
I want to say im happy with my pages, but I know I could have done
better. But with covid and other issues, I only was able to bash out 7
pages.
The main thing to note, will be the fact that I didn’t 100% stick to my
planning. But as ideas change, this is to be expected.