evaluation question 7
TRANSCRIPT
QUESTION 7: LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK, WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION
FROM IT TO THE FULL PRODUCT?
HOW TO USE CONVENTIONS
LAYOUT OF A FRONT COVER
TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE
COMPOSITION OF A PHOTO
PHOTOGRAPHY TERMINOLOGY
PLANNING AND RESEARCH
PHOTOSHOP
PUBLISHER
For my preliminary task, I had to do a college magazine front cover to prepare myself for the creation of my final product. I have made this figure, showing what I learned from the preliminary task.
Ideology
Close up
Medium close upMedium shot
Long shotComposition
Medium long shot
Terminology
Mast head
Skyline
Pull quote
Feature storyFooter
Main feature story
Plug
Magic eraser tool
Photoshop
and other
technology
Quick selection tool
Layers
PublisherDafont.com
Horizontal type tool
Paintbucket tool
Photography terminology
Planning and
researchMood board
Existing products
LIIAR analysis Spider diagram
Conventions analysis
When looking at these two front covers, I think I have improved a lot. When doing my college magazine, I had little understanding of conventions and how to use them, whereas on my music magazine, conventions are used much better, and I think I have much better understanding of how to use them now.
The feature stories go across the main image, and it is also hard to tell which one of them, is the main feature story.
On this one, the main image has been framed by the feature stories, so they go around the sides of the image. It is easy to tell which one is the main feature story, as it is much bigger and takes up much more focus than the feature stories do.
In both of these front covers, I think I have shown a good understanding of how to use colours and how to make a nice colour scheme. However, the colour scheme on my college magazine are all a bit pale, and not attention seeking at all, whereas the colour scheme on my music magazine gets much more focus from an audience.
The plug on my college magazine is not used effectively; the text goes slightly out over the edge, and it does not catch much attention.
The plug on this front cover looks much better, I think, since all the text is inside the plug, the placing of the plug is more conventional, and also, the plug gets more attention.
Whilst there is a lot of wasted space on the college magazine, especially in the upper right corner, no space has been wasted on my music magazine.
IF I WAS DOING MY COLLEGE MAGAZINE AGAIN, I WOULD…
Spend more time on doing research, and look at existing products; and not just college magazines, but magazines in general, which would have given me a better understanding of how to use conventions in general, as well as it would have inspired me.
Take a better image that would allow me to frame the feature stories around the main image, as well as put the model more in focus.
Use a skyline and a footer, which would make the framing of my magazine look much better.
I would avoid leaving empty, unused spaces, as this makes the front cover look very unprofessional.
The colour scheme could have been with more strong colours, and not two shades of the same colour, which gives a really boring look to the front cover.
I wouldn’t let the feature stories go across the main image as much as they do on that front cover.
IT WAS USEFUL TO DO THE COLLEGE MAGAZINE BECAUSE…
It introduced me to Photoshop and how to use the basic tools. The tools I learned to use was: move tool, quick selection tool, eyedropper tool, magic eraser tool, paint bucket tool, horizontal type tool, rectangle tool and custom shape tool. It also taught me how to work in layers and what settings to use as the main settings when opening a new Photoshop document.
It showed me how much hard work I need to put into producing a front cover. It gave me an initial understanding of how to use conventions, and I could from then
on develop my understanding further. My research gave me an understanding of what to include in a college magazine and
also what not to include; it gave me an understanding of what type of pictures I should be using as my main image; what type of props what appropriate to use in a college magazine, and it also gave me a brief understanding on how to frame my main image, so that the feature stories could fit around it.
It introduced me to useful webpages when producing a magazine, e.g. dafont.com which I have used for my mast head, page numbers, page titles and the pull quote on my double page spread.