1. A/S MEDIA STUDIES EVALUATION QUESTION 8
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- I think I asked more
liminary task I didn‟t ing the results allowed
appropriate questions me to see this and
think audience re- than I did for the
search was an im- chose a suitable price
preliminary task. For of £2.50, suiting both
portant part of pro- example this one
ducing a magazine. I majorities. It also
dwelled further into made an impact on
originally thought that details such as price
as long as I made it what the magazine
of the magazine and contained, for exam-
look like a real maga- what specific features
zine it would be okay. ple interviews were
they would want out wanted by a lot so my
Because of this I de- of a magazine. This A blank copy of my preliminary task ques-
double page spread
cided not to spend helped me get a bet- tionnaire.
much time on my was an interview.
ter view out of what
audience research my readers would be My method of audi-
which I feel was a big interested in reading ence research didn‟t
mistake because I allowing me to pro- really change between
understand now, duce a better maga- the tasks. For the
thanks to my research zine more aimed at preliminary task it was
into magazine institu- them, which is what questionnaires, for
tions, that making a the institutions do to the production it was
magazine that suits make money, there- also questionnaires. I
your audience is im- fore meaning my mag- feel that question-
portant because a azine could make naires are a good way
magazine wants as more money. of getting audience
many sales as possible
feedback and finding
so therefore it does When it came to out what they want
need to be appropri- analyzing the results, I though because their
ate to the audience didn‟t exactly do that answering a set of
because they‟re the for the preliminary questions which is
ones who buy it. task. I didn‟t see it as asked by you because
important or relevant that is what you want
For my preliminary to what I was doing.
task I didn‟t exactly to know. The questions from my production question-
But for my produc-
ask much, just basic tion, I had already Overall I feel my ap-
questions such as came to the conclu- proach to research
“What would you like sion that analyzing the improved from the
in a magazine?, What results was an im- preliminary task to
wouldn‟t you like portant factor. It the production as
etc.” Then the real would allow me to audience research has
task began. I realized understand what the evidently influenced
the institutions were majority of people my production (price
interested in making would want and this and content).
money and to make allowed me to better
the money they want- suit my production to
ed to make their mag- what the majority of
azines appropriate to people wanted. For
their audience. This example, for the ques-
meant my methods of My analysis of the price question.
tion on cost there
audience research had was an equal majority
to improve. on £2 and £3. Analys-

2. A / S M E D I A S T UD I E S E V A L UA T I O N QUE S T I O N 8
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- I think I asked more
liminary task I didn‟t ing the results allowed
appropriate questions me to see this and
think audience re- than I did for the
search was an im- chose a suitable price
preliminary task. For of £2.50, suiting both
portant part of pro- example this one
ducing a magazine. I majorities. It also
dwelled further into made an impact on
originally thought that details such as price
as long as I made it what the magazine
of the magazine and contained, for exam-
look like a real maga- what specific features
zine it would be okay. ple interviews were
they would want out wanted by a lot so my
Because of this I de- of a magazine. This A blank copy of my preliminary task ques-
double page spread
cided not to spend helped me get a bet- tionnaire.
much time on my was an interview.
ter view out of what
audience research my readers would be My method of audi-
which I feel was a big interested in reading ence research didn‟t
mistake because I allowing me to pro- really change between
understand now, duce a better maga- the tasks. For the
thanks to my research zine more aimed at preliminary task it was
into magazine institu- them, which is what questionnaires, for
tions, that making a the institutions do to the production it was
magazine that suits make money, there- also questionnaires. I
your audience is im- fore meaning my mag- feel that question-
portant because a azine could make naires are a good way
magazine wants as more money. of getting audience
many sales as possible
feedback and finding
so therefore it does When it came to out what they want
need to be appropri- analyzing the results, I though because their
ate to the audience didn‟t exactly do that answering a set of
because they‟re the for the preliminary questions which is
ones who buy it. task. I didn‟t see it as asked by you because
important or relevant that is what you want
For my preliminary to what I was doing.
task I didn‟t exactly to know. The questions from my production question-
But for my produc-
ask much, just basic tion, I had already Overall I feel my ap-
questions such as came to the conclu- proach to research
“What would you like sion that analyzing the improved from the
in a magazine?, What results was an im- preliminary task to
wouldn‟t you like portant factor. It the production as
etc.” Then the real would allow me to audience research has
task began. I realized understand what the evidently influenced
the institutions were majority of people my production (price
interested in making would want and this and content).
money and to make allowed me to better
the money they want- suit my production to
ed to make their mag- what the majority of
azines appropriate to people wanted. For
their audience. This example, for the ques-
meant my methods of My analysis of the price question.
tion on cost there
audience research had was an equal majority
to improve. on £2 and £3. Analys-

3. Page 3
Preliminary task masthead Production Masthead
Conventions of a Magazine– Front Cover
Magazines have many conven- my research I found that front showed people looking like stu-
tions. I feel that these need to be covers use multiple font types. dents looking happy. I achieved
separated into the pages that they My preliminary task only has one, this in my preliminary task by
are on. where as my front cover has actually taking a photo of a real
more than one different font student who is genuinely happy.
I feel one area I improved with instantly making it a lot more In my production research. I
from preliminary to production conventional. However, I feel the discovered that the photos were
was the masthead. I don‟t think placement on the text is neater a range of shot type, of the artist
my masthead in the preliminary on the preliminary task than the looking intimidating, so I got my
task looked professional. I believe production because it is a lot model to do an intimidating pose
this is due to size and weight of more spaced out than the actual and took a range of shot types
the text. I think my masthead on production. during the photo shoot to try
my production however is a ma- and get a perfect focal length.
jor improvement. This is because I think another way how my text Therefore I feel both my produc-
the text is bigger, bolder with on the production task is more tion and preliminary task match
Preliminary Task Front more weight and I feel is a lot conventional is the use of effects the conventions of a magazine
Cover more noticeable against the back- on the text. For example, the well.
ground. I also think that it‟s better “snap-board” style effect and
because of the slogan positioning colour gradient are conventional Both also contain a barcode, all
which is in the center and draws of magazines to making them magazines have a bar code and
attention into the masthead match more interesting. This is a research for both tasks showed
where as I feel the preliminary development from my prelimi- that these were commonly on
task masthead just looks clut- nary task because my preliminary the front cover so that is where I
tered. From my research I dis- task had no effects on the text placed them in both tasks.
covered that the masthead needs or anything like that which made
to be big and bold so that it it less interesting, but it wasn‟t One convention that I had no
stands out and I feel my produc- unconventional because not all experience with in the produc-
tion succeeds here where as my magazines use it. tion was the use of a pull. Con-
preliminary task really doesn‟t. sidering I had no experience this
I think that both photos are con- was a convention I really did
I think my cover text is also more ventional at what their trying to learn, and I feel it‟s placement
conventional than my preliminary achieve. For example the prelimi- and text could be improved but
Production Front Cover task is. I feel this is due to font. In nary task research mainly it looks conventional.
Production cover
Production cover text
–buzz
Production cover– text effects
Preliminary Task cover text

4. Page 4
Conventions of a magazine- Contents and Double Page Spread
It‟s difficult to compare the con- my contents production than in
ventions between the two tasks the preliminary. In the prelimi-
because their completely differ- nary they seem awkwardly posi-
ent from each other, both trying tioned and look quite amateur
different interpretations of what looking in my opinion, In my
a contents page should look like. production I realized this was
However, when preliminary is due to too many photo‟s so I
compared with Double page based min heavily on „The
spread there are some clear Source‟‟ and used only one photo
similarities. and I feel this works a lot better
and looks a lot more like a pro-
My preliminary task contents fessional production.
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- Preliminary task contents.
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
is such a simple technique.
I think photo‟s are used better in
Comparison of text in columns from DPS
(Top) and Preliminary task (Bottom).
Production Contents Page
Comparison of bold texts between Production
(Above) and preliminary (Below).

5. Page 5
Logos of all the softwares used,
Google Chrome, , InDesign and
Photoshop
Understanding of Software
The softwares I used both in the er, one skill I needed to improve
production and Preliminary tasks from preliminary to production
were Photoshop, InDesign and was the use of applying an air-
Google Chrome. In both tasks, brush tan.
the role of Photoshop was to
manipulate and edit the photo‟s, My model for the front cover
InDesign to add all the text and was far too pale, and to make it
fix the layout with the role of more like the genres I was aiming
Google Chrome to upload the my magazine at I needed to add a
images to the internet. fake tan to her. I had absolutely
no idea how to do this, which
In both tasks, little understanding meant I had to improve my un-
of Google Chrome was required, derstanding of Photoshop and
All I needed to do was follow on find out how to do it. Using the
screen instructions on a website internet I found out how too and
to publish my work online. I did- applied that technique to the
n‟t need to understand the soft- photo, again improving my un-
ware and I don‟t feel as if my derstanding.
understanding increased during
the task because both times I was Before I began the Preliminary
doing the same thing. This was task, I had absolutely no idea
because it met it‟s role perfectly what InDesign was or how to
in the upload of files to the inter- work it. So I researched this and
net. learnt quite a lot, most of which I
didn‟t use and because of this
My skills with Photoshop were found out knowledge I knew
already good because I did media how to do everything I needed
studies as a GCSE and that in- to do and therefore between the
volved a lot of Photoshop. It‟s tasks no extra understanding was
also used heavily in my A-Level required to make the production
Photography which meant I al- appear more professional.
ready knew how to correct the
photo‟s for the magazine. Howev-
Photoshop Svreenshots

6. Page 6
Setting up Shots
In the production of the prelimi- of consideration into costume. to them.
nary task, not much considera- Me and my model had a long
tion went into shot location or discussion over what kind of
mise-en-scene as I felt as long as thing we should aim for and we
the photo represented the article both agreed for modern day pop
it would appear professional. star look to get the mainstream
Through my research though, I pop appeal into the magazine as
learnt that these elements help well.
create a representation and ap-
peal to audience. Location was also considered a
lot. To keep the connotation of
For example, during the prelimi- stereotypical pretty pop girl go-
nary task I just chose random ing, I decided to use the photog-
locations that I thought would raphy studio to further empha-
work, like a brick wall or blank size this as it‟s quite a stereotypi-
wall. These don‟t help to create cal girlie thing to do– have a
representations because they studio shoot.
were chosen randomly and
therefore only have a limited The contents page however also
appeal to the audience. The mise has strong reasoning of location.
-en-scene wasn‟t considered It‟s taken outside a prison cell in
either. I just took photo‟s of Oxford Castle because prison is
whatever they were wearing. I something that is common today
took a better approach to this in in the „R‟n‟B‟ and Pop music
the production. world and therefore using out-
side a prison helps to show that
I think the photo that best shows this is an audience we‟re aiming
consideration of costume is the for because we are using com-
cover. Fur items are generic and mon scenes from the music
stereotypical of an „R‟n‟B‟ genre world. This also helps attract out
and therefore my model‟s cos- audience because our audience is
tume includes an item of fur. The the people who listen to music
DPS photo shoot also took a lot and therefore this will be familiar

7. Page 7
Critical Evaluation Skills
It has been important for me tp am very good at identifying my
develop evaluation skills through- strengths and weaknesses quickly
out this task for two reasons. during an evaluation process and
The first is to allow me to see am able to point these out quite
where I went wrong and make quickly. I think I could improve
improvements and the second this skill though, if I was able to
being how these can help me in identify these during production
future projects. instead of evaluation then I
would be able to make a much
One of the evaluation skills I better production and would
think improved during this task then be able to get more marks.
was me helping others. By this I
mean a peer evaluation thing
where we were asked what we
think of someone‟s work and
suggest 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 own work. I