Evaluation Activity 7

7. Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Looking back at my preliminary task I can see that through the process of making my magazine I have developed many skills, which has made my final design much better. The quality of my images are not as good as I didn’t have much experience whereas for my final, I practiced a lot to make sure that I had the best photos for my product. Since completing the final magazine a have learnt how to use Photoshop and have a much greater knowledge. I needed a good knowledge of how to use Photoshop to create a professional looking magazine. The quality of my preliminary was very poor as the text was not aligned and their placing did not look like a high quality magazine. The amount I had written was very little which means that I have improved on my knowledge of what is included in a magazine. After my preliminary I was able to get some feedback from my teachers and peers which was very constructive and has helped me know what I can do to improve my magazine a large amount. When designing my preliminary I had a lack of knowledge of how to use Photoshop and how to lay out each page. When comparing my preliminary and final piece there is a clear difference as I have improved it a lot to make my product look of a high quality that my audience will want to read.

I can see massive improvements with my preliminary and final product with not only the layout but also with the camerawork and the quality of the lighting and angles in my photos. I first have notice a huge difference in the lighting of my photos. In my preliminary they are very dark which means I have not used the lighting properly and can create a gloomy effect on my magazine. My audience would not want to see pictures with no colour as this is not what you would expect in a pop magazine. The grey background was not good in my preliminary as although it brings out my pictures and is similar to some other pop magazine covers, it is the wrong colour or mise-en-scene for my magazine. The photos also were of bad quality as the model is not making any eye contact with the camera which doesn’t attract to my audience. The font I have used is quite childish and not professional. It is not what you would expect to see in a pop magazine as it has no relation to music whereas in my final, the ‘M’ in my cover is in italic and looks like a musical note so it is clear that my magazine is related to pop.

My cover has clearly changed due to the different font and colours I have used. M y final cover page looked much better than my preliminary. This could be because I have had more practice with Photoshop and have developed skills to make my images and pages better, I have however kept the minimalistic look to my cover. For my contents page, it has drastically changed compared to my preliminary. This is because I have included more text and aligned them in the correct way. I have used a variety of similar fonts instead of just using one. I have also changed the colour scheme in my pages to make them look more bright and look like a pop magazine. My preliminary just included block colours and didn’t look very creative, it wasn’t clear to my audience that it is a pop magazine.

One thing that I cannot compare is my double page spread as I didn’t complete on in my preliminary task. However, I have learnt a lot of skills form when I started my prelim task to when I finished my final product. I have improved on my creativity and the way I have laid out each page, my final product looks more like a pop magazine with the brighter colour scheme; I have included red in each page so that they link to each other and have the vibrant tones that conventional pop magazines have. I feel that my cover page will stand out more on the shelf than my prelim would as it is brighter and the model is making eye contact with the camera. Throughout this process I have learnt a lot of skills with the camera and lighting as the pictures in my cover page are much brighter and the angel of each image looks more sophisticated and professional than my preliminary task.  Overall, I believe the main progression I have made from my prelim task to my final product is I have developed an ability to use various software programmes and different technologies and with all my research, I have understood how a magazine is created and the features and conventions that make magazines appealing to an audience.