AS Phillipa Collier: Evaluation

7. Looking back on your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned from it in the progress from it to the full product?
· Creative skills
· Writing skills
· Photography
· Meeting deadlines
· Coming up with ideas

I feel that I have learnt a lot in the process of my media coursework because my skills have developed and I have learnt to widen my knowledge in certain areas. I have also learnt about desktop publishing and the roles of different people whilst creating a magazine. I have taken on the roles of 5 different jobs including being a journalist and a photographer.

My creative skills
I wanted to create a media product which contained lots of variety and provided an essential fun magazine that my audience will effective and interesting. to do this i had to work on my creative skills this includes the fonts i have used,images,colours,relevant coverlines and titles.
I had lots of different Ideas whilst deciding on my magazine including taking a variety of different photographs i.e. my first idea was to take a photograph of somebody sitting on the grass playing guitar surrounded by flowers. This was my original idea of a hippy music magazine. My second idea was of somebody sitting by the fire surrounded by candles playing guitar. This would have added to the effect of an acoustic magazine because the picture suggests calm and relaxing music. When I looked at other magazines I realized that the images they used where not so complicated and are of a close up of a certain person or band so I applied this to my own work of a close up of a male playing guitar which suggests the magazine genre to the audience. when creating my media product i tried a number of different fonts including IMPACT,BRITTANIC BOLD,WIDE LATIN AND FINALLY MYRIAD PRO. When i used some of these fonts they looked to complicated and did not suit the genre of my magazine.

My writing skills
I feel that my writing skills have improved as I had to think of my own cover lines, contents articles and double page spread. I looked at other magazine to get ideas but the work was my own including my double page spread which I had to use my own knowledge and research skills to create an effective article with instructions and give advice to my audience and make it sound professional. Within my double page spread I had to imagine I am a journalist and write to an audience and include myself and the audience in the article. i feel that i have learnt to gather information more easily and effectivly by creating questionnaires to ask my audience questions.
Firstly i created my double page spread text on mircosoft word where here i can spellcheck it etc here is some screenshots of my work in mircosoft word;

Here are some screen shots of the audience research for my double page spread;

I have learnt to write in the style of magazines producing lots of different articles for my contents page that involve music and guitars including my coverlines with intriging article insights.
Photography
When I started my preliminary task I was not sure how to use the camera properly but when it came to taking my images for my media product I was more aware of the camera and the things It could do therefore I have gained more knowledge as I had to take lots of different photos and learned by getting experience from my preliminary task. Here are some photographs of my preliminary exercise;

The types of photographs i was taking whilst working on my preliminary task to the quality of the evaluated work photographs have changed because when working on my evaluated media product i have learnt to take a variety of good quality relevant photos i.e. getting a clearer image and focusing better.

Here are some photos i used for my preliminary task and some i have used for my evaluated media product,

Here is an image that i used for my preliminary task as you can see the image not very good quality and slightly unclear.

Here is an image that i used for my contents page and you can see the difference in the quality.

Meeting deadlines
When I was doing my preliminary tasks I missed some deadlines as I did not organise my time properly but with this task I have meet most deadlines I have organised myself and used my time wisely including free periods, lunch times and at home.

Coming up with ideas
Whilst working on my media tasks I had lots of different ideas like front covers images and cover lines. My first idea was to create a hippy music magazine featuring old popular bands as a special edition but the photograph I wanted to take was really complicated and if the photo was not taken right the image would not look effective and professional. The second Image that I wanted to take was of somebody sitting by a fireplace surrounded by candles playing a guitar but again the image is quite complicated. At this point I was looking for some new ideas so I looked at a range of different music magazines to see what type of images they use and I found that mostly it is one main image of a band/singer looking straight at the camera. So I applied this to my work as the close up looking forward shot invites the audience into the magazine. Also when it came to taking the photo it could not go wrong as it is quite a simple photo then I just edited it on Photoshop without the background using different tools including the lasso tool and crop tool to create a smooth image for my final front cover.

Here is the photograph i have edited;

I looked at the background on other magazines and found that the background is mostly plain with some colour so I applied this to make work as it makes the image stand out to the audience as the image is the main thing to focus on.

I created a number of documents in Mircosoft Word to help me with ideas here are some screenshots,