Media studies evaluation.

2. Preliminary Task- College Magazine Final Product- Music Magazine

3. Conventions and criticisms of my preliminary task:
Other feature stories included
in my college magazine are way
to detailed. To many different
stories that I have tried to
include and fit on to the front
page which makes it look to
crowded and unprofessional.
The Masthead is in very
messy font and is only really
small which the name of the
magazine then doesn’t stand
out to the readers because
the size isn’t much different
to the other stories on my
magazine so it makes it
appear not important to the
magazine.
The other feature stories
do not have a varied font
style, this becomes very
unattractive to the target
audience and the readers
as it is not eye catching at
all.
The main feature story
is very unclear and not
appealing at all. The
fonts are not clear and
the pull quote is very
small which doesn’t
attract audience
attention.
The skyline on my
college magazine is in a
very unclear font as the
colour is very similar to
the background colour
so it doesn’t stand out
and isn’t a sell point to
readers because it is
hard to read.
Font size is so small which
makes it barley impossible
to read. This would not
encourage readers to even
consider purchasing the
magazine because it is
hard to read the writing,
Main feature
image has been
poorly
Photoshopped
because it was
the first time I
had ever used
the program, so
the image is
blurred and not
large enough.

4. When we first got given the brief for the college magazine. The brief was to create a front cover for a college magazine and a mock contents
page just a computerised box contents page. The preliminary task allowed me to learn conventions and codes in which are typical of magazine
front covers, this then gave me a full insight in to what is needed for a successful front cover and let me explore some certain areas in which I
could gain skills before beginning to construct my music magazine. When creating my college magazine it let me explore some different areas
in which I could gain some skills ready for the product of my music magazine.
Layout of the magazine- When I started looking at existing college magazines I noticed the differences in the layouts of the magazines. It is important because where things are placed on the
magazine could increase or even decrease the amount of sales. In my college magazine I hadn’t had much experience in seeing what is effective from a front cover and the feature stories are just
placed everywhere and anywhere on the front cover and this made it look very messy and not attractive to the readers at all, also the barcode and price have been placed on the bottom left of
the magazine which is not usually typical, but with my music magazine it gave me so much time to research in to the layout out magazines and what is best way to set it out, as in my music
magazine the main feature image is very large in the middle of the magazine which gives it the centre part and is the most important part of the front cover because it is attractive, I have only
used a few feature stories instead of loads so they could be placed easily on the front cover at the sides and it makes it look more professional and systematic, as my college magazine does not
indicate the main story very well or clearly as m music magazine does as it is very large and placed at the bottom, but my college magazine was great in teaching me the codes and conventions to
creating and effective magazine and my music magazine is a perfect example of displaying how I learnt the conventions and layout of music magazine and what makes them look good.
Photography- I didn’t know anything about taking photos when I started my college magazine. When I started my college magazine I learnt all the different camera angles and all the shots you
could take photos at. The main feature image of my college magazine is a medium long shot and my music magazine is a medium close up image. I realised that learning how to use a camera
properly and that lighting was important when producing my magazine because depending on lighting and actually the mis-en-scene around the image itself. With my college magazine I used just
a little handheld camera and I didn’t know how to change the settings or that lighting would effect the way the picture looked but after taking the many photos I had for my college magazine I
realised that I needed to use the green screen room to actually take good photos and make sure the lighting was good for taking photos. With my music magazine my model has been placed in
the centre with a bright lighting and the model wore darker clothing so the feature stuck out and make it the most effective part of the front cover. The brightness was high as well which then
made the model more visible. By adjusting the settings on my camera and becoming more used to the photography part of it my music magazine looked so much more professional and makes
her stand out against the rest of the magazine.
Photoshop- Photoshop is the software in which I used to create my college magazine and also my final product of my music magazine. I had never used Photoshop before, so by constructing my
college magazine this gave me a little bit of time to get used to Photoshop and how it works, I didn’t know how to manipulate images and crop the backgrounds out and change hair colour, eye
colour, lipstick and anything like that, till I could when producing my main product. By doing the preliminary task it helped me develop my skills and actually learn how Photoshop worked which
was very useful. My techniques have dramatically improved from my college magazine to my final product, this is evident because in my college magazine front cover the cropping from the
background is very bad and not professional at all because it is really not smooth around the edges and I just left the photo with no editing to it. As with my music magazine I had so much more
time to work at it and my Photoshop skills kept improving and this is evident because my model in my music magazine has had her skin healed, hair changed, lips made to appear brighter and
lighting and contrast with the brightness have been changed to make the music magazine look so much more professional and I used the shapes on Photoshop and also added other images to
my music magazine which I would have struggled with before. So by creating my college magazine first let me explore Photoshop and what you could do on it before I actually constructed my
final product.

5. Conventions College Magazine Music Magazine
Masthead. The Masthead on my college magazine is very small and I used
a very unclear font which found it difficult to read and
understand. Which made it unattractive to the reader.
My music magazine Masthead was shorter and a lot larger. It
took up most of the top of the magazine which is appealing
and then stands out against the rest of the front cover.
Barcode/Price/Issue. My college magazine had a barcode and price but didn’t
actually the state the issue number which could be a put off to
the readers because they don’t know what issue the magazine
is up too.
I made sure my music magazine had all three because then
this follows typical conventions of a magazine. By including a
cheap price this then attracts my target audience and then by
adding the barcode is just what is needed on a magazine.
Main Feature image. With my college magazine I hadn’t used Photoshop before so
this image was blurry and not cropped very well. The image is
not really in proportion with the rest of the front cover so this
makes it look unprofessional.
I had, had more time on Photoshop with my music magazine
and then I could spend more time editing my image. It is much
more professional and the background had been completed
removed, I changed the colours and brightness.
Plug. The plug was very simple and I just used a yellow circle tool and
used a simple Photoshop font to add text to it. It was just very big at
the bottom of the magazine and actually took up so much more
space then I should have.
I had studied other music magazines by this time. I used the
Leeds Festival official logo to advertise for tickets on this plug,
I cropped the background from it and placed it on the plug
which is appealing and attractive to readers.
Main Feature Story. The main feature story was not clear to the other feature
stories because the font was unclear and not very large so this
made it hard to decide which was the main feature story.
Colours didn’t show up very well on the background as well.
The main feature story was very large and at the bottom of
the music magazine to be the thing that gets noticed first. The
font is very bold and the colour is a deep red which stands out
from the rest of the magazine.
Other Feature stories. There was way to many other stories on the front of my
college magazine, which made it messy and unprofessional. I
used a large variation of fonts which made it hard to read.
I used three other feature stories on my music magazine
which made it clearer and easier to understand. I put them in
boxes with large writing so they was understandable.
Overall layout. The layout was not professional at all for my college magazine,
the text was all over the place and the fonts were all different,
this didn’t look right on the front cover because it was hard to
read.
The layout is so much better for my music magazine because
everything is set out systematically and is better presented so
everything can be seen and read easily.
Colour scheme. I only used a couple of colours for my college magazine which
made it very boring and not attractive to the audience at all.
Made the fonts unclear.
I stuck to three colours of red, yellow and black. These colours
are typical of the Indie genre, and is a convention of
magazines sticking to about three colours. Looks bright and

6. Completing the college
magazine was great in
helping me understand
the codes and
conventions which are
linked to constructing a
successful magazine.
The college magazine
let me explore what
looks good and what
doesn’t look
effective on my
magazine.
The preliminary task really let me gain skills in Photoshop, without completing this I would have
struggled with using this software to complete my final product, but I got to try all the tools and how to
edit images professionally. This is was very useful in giving me an insight in to Photoshop because this is
what I needed to use to actually complete my magazine. So it taught me where things should be placed
on my magazine, what fonts I should use and colours. It really helped me improve my skills so my final
product looked as professional as it could.