My method of audi-

ence research didn‟t really change between

the tasks. For the

preliminary task it was

questionnaires, for

the production it was

also questionnaires. I

feel that question-

naires are a good way of getting audience

feedback and finding

out what they want

though because their

answering a set of

questions which is

asked by you because

that is what you want

to know.

Overall I feel my ap-

proach to research

improved from the

preliminary task to

the production as

audience research has

evidently influenced

my production (price

and content).

When I did the pre-

liminary task I didn‟t think audience re-

search was an im-

portant part of pro-

ducing a magazine. I

originally thought that

as long as I made it

look like a real maga-

zine it would be okay. Because of this I de-

cided not to spend

much time on my

audience research

which I feel was a big

mistake because I

understand now,

thanks to my research

into magazine institu-

tions, that making a

magazine that suits

your audience is im-

portant because a

magazine wants as

many sales as possible

so therefore it does

need to be appropri-

ate to the audience

because they‟re the

ones who buy it.

For my preliminary

task I didn‟t exactly

ask much, just basic

questions such as

“What would you like

in a magazine?, What

wouldn‟t you like

etc.” Then the real

task began. I realized

the institutions were

interested in making

money and to make

the money they want-

ed to make their mag-

azines appropriate to

their audience. This

meant my methods of

audience research had

to improve.

I think I asked more appropriate questions

than I did for the

preliminary task. For

example this one

dwelled further into

details such as price

of the magazine and

what specific features

they would want out

of a magazine. This

helped me get a bet-

ter view out of what

my readers would be

interested in reading allowing me to pro-

duce a better maga-

zine more aimed at

them, which is what

the institutions do to

make money, there-

fore meaning my mag-

azine could make

more money.

When it came to

analyzing the results, I

didn‟t exactly do that

for the preliminary

task. I didn‟t see it as

important or relevant

to what I was doing.

But for my produc-

tion, I had already

came to the conclu-

sion that analyzing the

results was an im-

portant factor. It

would allow me to

understand what the

majority of people

would want and this

allowed me to better

suit my production to

what the majority of

people wanted. For

example, for the ques-

tion on cost there

was an equal majority

on £2 and £3. Analys-

ing the results al-

lowed me to see this

and chose a suitable

price of £2.50, suiting

both majorities. It also

made an impact on what the magazine

contained, for exam-

ple interviews were

wanted by a lot so my

double page spread

was an interview.

Approach to Audience Research

BUSINESS NAME

Looking back at your preliminary task,

what do you feel you have learnt in the

progression from it to the full product?

Magazine front covers have cer-

tain codes and conventions that

need to be followed. These in-

clude image conventions, mast-

head conventions, layout conven-

tions and typography conven-

tions.

I think that one area that has

improved from preliminary task

to production task is the mast-

head of the image. Whilst the

masthead in the preliminary task

was good for a preliminary task,

it isn‟t exactly professional. I

believe this is due to size and

weight of the masthead. I think

my production masthead is a big

improvement. Heavily based on

„NME‟s‟ masthead (the use of

having it in a box) I believe it

looks more conventional of a

real magazine cover. The posi-

tioning on the left, the size, and

how it stands out against the

background is a lot more con-

ventional as a real magazine,

NME, is using this feature on it‟s

front cover. I also think it‟s bet-

ter because of the positioning of

the slogan. Centre aligned above

the magazine‟s name is a lot

more effective than underneath

it in my opinion. It also draws

attention into the masthead,

where as the preliminary one

just looks cluttered. My research

showed me mastheads should be

big and bold so that it stands out

and for those reasons I based my

masthead on NME‟s masthead to

make it appear more convention-

al, realistic and professional.

I think my cover text is also

more conventional than my pre-

liminary task is. I feel this is due

to font. In my research I found

that front covers use multiple

font types. My preliminary task

only has one, where as my front

cover has more than one differ-

ent font instantly making it a lot

more conventional. I also feel the

placement on my cover is more

professional looking than my

preliminary task because it is

more well-spaced around the

face of the model and therefore

looks a lot more professional as

it draws the audience into the

artist on the front cover.

Another way I feel my text looks

more professional and conven-

tional than my preliminary task is

through the use of a drop-

shadow on the text. This makes

the cover look 3-D, eye grabbing

and this attracts the audience,

drawing them into the magazine

and making them more likely to

buy the magazine. My preliminary

cover didn‟t have these effects

on it, which not only makes it

look more basic and easy to

replicate but also isn‟t eye grab-

bing and therefore doesn‟t hold

the audience‟s attention for as

long as it should be.

When it comes to the idea of

main-photo I feel that both are

conventional. They are both

conventional shot distances of

magazine covers, they both have

the model staring straight into

the camera which draws the

audience in and creates a rela-

tionship with the audience. They

are also conventional at what

they are trying to achieve. The

preliminary task cover is aimed

at students and therefore shows

a student looking happy in a ste-

reotypical student costume. This

appeals the student audience into

the magazine (uses and gratifica-

tions theory) as they have some-

thing in common and something

that links the two together. I

achieved this by taking a photo of

a real student who genuinely was

happy. It has created a profes-

sional looking photo. The cover

needed to show some pop-rock

style girl as this is a genre of

music that was trying to be con-

veyed on the cover. This is real-

istic because she is wearing some

rock-chick costume with a smile

on her face, which is not only

warm and welcoming to the

audience but is also showing the

pop element. It is therefore con-

ventional of what it needs to do.

Both the preliminary task and

production task contain a bar-

code. This institutional reference

is conventional of real magazine

covers. I think the placement is

more effective on my production

cover because it doesn‟t stand

out too much and therefore isn‟t

distracting attention from the

photo that has pulled the audi-

ence in. On the preliminary task

it is on top of the photo and

pulls attention away and is there-

fore a weaker placement.

One convention that I had no

experience with in the produc-

tion was the use of a pull. Con-

sidering I had no experience this

was a convention I really did

learn, and I feel it‟s placement

and text could be improved but

Conventions of a Magazine– Front Cover

Production Masthead Preliminary Task Masthead

Production cover

Preliminary Cover Preliminary Barcode

Produc-

tion Bar

Code

It's difficult to compare the con-

ventions between the two tasks

because their completely differ-

ent from each other, both trying

different interpretations of what

a contents page should look like.

However, when preliminary is

compared with Double page

spread there are some clear

similarities.

My preliminary task contents

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-

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

my contents production than in

the preliminary. In the prelimi-

nary they seem awkwardly posi-

tioned and look quite amateur

looking in my opinion, In my

production I realized this was

due to too many photo‟s so I

based min heavily on „The

Source‟‟ and used only one pho-

to and I feel this works a lot

better and looks a lot more like a

professional production.

Conventions of a Magazine-Contents

Page 3

<—— Preliminary

Contents Page

Production Con-

tents Page ——>

There were two main pieces of

software used in both the pro-

duction task and the preliminary

task. These were Adobe Pho-

toshop and Google Chrome.

Adobe Photoshop was used for

making the pages, whilst Google

Chrome was used for blog up-

dates and hosting the created

pages.

In both tasks, little understanding

of Google Chrome was required,

All I needed to do was follow on

screen instructions on a website

to publish my work online. I did-

n‟t need to understand the soft-

ware and I don‟t feel as if my

understanding increased during

the task because both times I

was doing the same thing. This

was because it met it‟s role per-

fectly in the upload of files to the

inter-net.

And after already completing

GCSE media studies and photo-

manipulation and A/S photog-

raphy lessons, I already had ad-

vanced skills in Photoshop before

starting this project. However, I

had never had to apply text ef-

fects to anything before, not like

that.

The first problem on this was

deciding which effect to apply. I

soon reached the conclusion of a

“drop shadow” to make the

cover stand-out, be eye grabbing

and look like a three dimensional

piece of work. So first of all I

went to the filters section of

Photoshop, and I couldn‟t see

drop shadow there or anything

to do with shadows.

I then decided to look in the

layer tab and once again nothing

about shadows or use of shad-

ows or applying shadows ap-

peared in the list of options.

There were other options, some

of which I had already used to

correct and manipulate the pho-

to on the cover, but not what I

needed.

I didn‟t want to search for how

to do it. It felt like cheating and

made me feel extremely inexpe-

rienced with the software. But I

had no choice, so I used Google

Chrome again. I found it quite

quickly that I need to apply it in

the layer tabs on the right of the

screen and not the layer options

at the top of the screen.

Using this I applied a drop shad-

ow to everywhere it was needed

and where it was required. This

is the key skill I have developed

since the preliminary task. Using

the drop-shadow filter features

on Photoshop. I already knew

everything else I needed to know

thanks to my previous experi-

ence with Photoshop and soft-

ware did not present a problem

again.

Understanding of Software

Page 4

Applying a drop shadow

Software’s I used in

the making of both

tasks.

In the production of the prelimi-

nary task, not much considera-

tion went into shot location or

mise-en-scene as I felt as long as

the photo represented the article

it would appear professional.

Through my research though, I

learnt that these elements help

create a representation and ap-

peal to audience.

For example, during the prelimi-

nary task I just chose random

locations that I thought would

work, like a brick wall or blank

wall. These don‟t help to create

representations because they

were chosen randomly and

therefore only have a limited

appeal to the audience. The mise

-en-scene wasn't considered

either. I just took photo's of

whatever they were wearing. I

took a better approach to this in

the production.

The cover and DPS photo‟s were

both taken on the same day.

They were taken in a bright,

vibrant location– the river. (I

knew I could use my Photoshop

skills to make the cover appear

like a studio photo). I manipulat-

ed both photo‟s in Photoshop to

be more appealing and interest-

ing to the audience. I selected

this location because of the

knowledge of the above. If I

knew I couldn‟t have done the

filters required on Photoshop I

wouldn‟t have done them, but I

did and I have and I think they

have worked. The cover looks

like a real studio shot, whilst the

contents looks interesting and

draws the reader in because they

would be wondering where the

photo was taken.

I used a medium close-up shot

length because I had designed my

cover to not require any shots

longer than this. I wanted my

artist to take up most of the

pages so the bigger the shot the

better as there would be more

attention on her. I also knew that

I could crop it in if it was too

long.

My contents photo was taken at

a plain location that she would

stand out against. This was again

with the consideration of

“Photoshop if necessary” in mind

and also to make her stand out

to keep, hold and attract the

audience‟s attention. I used a

wider-focal length for this be-

cause the contents photo needs

to take up less room so that the

page information can be read and

doesn‟t distract or interact with

the photo in a bad or unneces-

sary way.

Because of all of these elements

thoroughly considered and delib-

erated over, my setting up of

shots has improved over the two

tasks. I don‟t doubt or deny that

there is further room with im-

provement, perhaps too much

confidence in Photoshop is a

weakness in case I got it wrong

or miscalculated, overestimated

what I could do or over-

expected what the software was

capable of. If I was to re-take

these photo‟s I would use the

real locations so that I didn‟t run

the risk of any mis-haps on Pho-

toshop. It was a risk, thankfully in

this case it has paid off. But it

may not have done which is why

in future this will not be done.

Setting up Shots

Page 5

Critical Evaluation Skills

It has been important for

me to develop evaluation

skills through-out this task

for two reasons. The first

is to allow me to see

where I went wrong and

make improvements and

the second being how the-

se can help me in future

projects.

One of the evaluation skills

I think improved during

this task was me helping

others. By this I mean a

peer evaluation thing

where we were asked

what we think of

someone's work and sug-

gest 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

am very good at identifying

my strengths and weak-

nesses quickly during an

evaluation process and am

able to point these out

quite quickly. I think I

could improve this skill

though, if I was able to

identify these during pro-

duction instead of evalua-

tion then I would be able

to make a much better

production and would then

be able to get more marks.