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ing the results allowed

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.

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-

A blank copy of my preliminary task ques-

tionnaire.

Approach to Audience Research

A/S MEDIA STUDIES EVALUATION QUESTION 8

Looking back at your preliminary task,

what do you feel you have learnt in the

progression from it to the full product?

The questions from my production question-

My analysis of the price question.

Magazines have many conven-

tions. I feel that these need to be

separated into the pages that they

are on.

I feel one area I improved with

from preliminary to production

was the masthead. I don‟t think

my masthead in the preliminary

task looked professional. I believe

this is due to size and weight of

the text. I think my masthead on

my production however is a ma-

jor improvement. This is because

the text is bigger, bolder with

more weight and I feel is a lot

more noticeable against the back-

ground. I also think that it‟s better

because of the slogan positioning

which is in the center and draws

attention into the masthead

where as I feel the preliminary

task masthead just looks clut-

tered. From my research I dis-

covered that the masthead needs

to be big and bold so that it

stands out and I feel my produc-

tion succeeds here where as my

preliminary task really doesn‟t.

I think my cover text is also more

conventional than my preliminary

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 different font

instantly making it a lot more

conventional. However, I feel the

placement on the text is neater

on the preliminary task than the

production because it is a lot

more spaced out than the actual

production.

I think another way how my text

on the production task is more

conventional is the use of effects

on the text. For example, the

“snap-board” style effect and

colour gradient are conventional

of magazines to making them

match more interesting. This is a

development from my prelimi-

nary task because my preliminary

task had no effects on the text

or anything like that which made

it less interesting, but it wasn‟t

unconventional because not all

magazines use it.

I think that both photos are con-

ventional at what their trying to

achieve. For example the prelimi-

nary task research mainly

showed people looking like stu-

dents looking happy. I achieved

this in my preliminary task by

actually taking a photo of a real

student who is genuinely happy.

In my production research. I

discovered that the photos were

a range of shot type, of the artist

looking intimidating, so I got my

model to do an intimidating pose

and took a range of shot types

during the photo shoot to try

and get a perfect focal length.

Therefore I feel both my produc-

tion and preliminary task match

the conventions of a magazine

well.

Both also contain a barcode, all

magazines have a bar code and

research for both tasks showed

that these were commonly on

the front cover so that is where I

placed them in both tasks.

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

it looks conventional.

Conventions of a Magazine– Front Cover

Preliminary task masthead Production Masthead

Preliminary Task Front

Cover

Production Front Cover

Preliminary Task cover text Production cover– text effects

Production cover

–buzz Production cover text

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 photo

and I feel this works a lot better

and looks a lot more like a pro-

fessional production.

Conventions of a magazine- Contents and Double Page Spread

Comparison of text in columns from DPS

(Top) and Preliminary task (Bottom).

Preliminary task contents.

Production Contents Page

Comparison of bold texts between Production

(Above) and preliminary (Below).

The softwares I used both in the

production and Preliminary tasks

were Photoshop, InDesign and

Google Chrome. In both tasks,

the role of Photoshop was to

manipulate and edit the photo‟s,

InDesign to add all the text and

fix the layout with the role of

Google Chrome to upload the

images to the internet.

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 perfectly

in the upload of files to the inter-

net.

My skills with Photoshop were

already good because I did media

studies as a GCSE and that in-

volved a lot of Photoshop. It‟s

also used heavily in my A-Level

Photography which meant I al-

ready knew how to correct the

photo‟s for the magazine. Howev-

er, one skill I needed to improve

from preliminary to production

was the use of applying an air-

brush tan.

My model for the front cover

was far too pale, and to make it

more like the genres I was aiming

my magazine at I needed to add a

fake tan to her. I had absolutely

no idea how to do this, which

meant I had to improve my un-

derstanding of Photoshop and

find out how to do it. Using the

internet I found out how too and

applied that technique to the

photo, again improving my un-

derstanding.

Before I began the Preliminary

task, I had absolutely no idea

what InDesign was or how to

work it. So I researched this and

learnt quite a lot, most of which I

didn‟t use and because of this

found out knowledge I knew

how to do everything I needed

to do and therefore between the

tasks no extra understanding was

required to make the production

appear more professional.

Logos of all the softwares used,

Google Chrome, , InDesign and

Photoshop

Understanding of Software

Photoshop Svreenshots

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.

I think the photo that best shows

consideration of costume is the

cover. Fur items are generic and

stereotypical of an „R‟n‟B‟ genre

and therefore my model‟s cos-

tume includes an item of fur. The

DPS photo shoot also took a lot

of consideration into costume.

Me and my model had a long

discussion over what kind of

thing we should aim for and we

both agreed for modern day pop

star look to get the mainstream

pop appeal into the magazine as

well.

Location was also considered a

lot. To keep the connotation of

stereotypical pretty pop girl go-

ing, I decided to use the photog-

raphy studio to further empha-

size this as it‟s quite a stereotypi-

cal girlie thing to do– have a

studio shoot.

The contents page however also

has strong reasoning of location.

It‟s taken outside a prison cell in

Oxford Castle because prison is

something that is common today

in the „R‟n‟B‟ and Pop music

world and therefore using out-

side a prison helps to show that

this is an audience we‟re aiming

for because we are using com-

mon scenes from the music

world. This also helps attract out

audience because our audience is

the people who listen to music

and therefore this will be familiar

to them.

Setting up Shots

It has been important for me tp

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 these 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

suggest 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 weaknesses 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 production

instead of evaluation then I

would be able to make a much

better production and would

then be able to get more marks.

Critical Evaluation Skills

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