3. Planning & Preparation
During my planning and preparation of the preliminary task I concentrated mainly
on the layout of cover lines, splashes and sells, and used sketches to do so and to
help me to decide which looked best. Because of this, I felt I neglected to plan my
choice of fonts and the photography, which are both very big aspects of the process
of making a magazine. When it came to the main task, my focus was a lot less on
this aspect of the magazine and more on models, locations, potential fonts and
making sure that all of which matched the genre conventions of my chosen genre.
When deciding on a model for the preliminary project, I just used a friend who was
available at the time I needed to take the photo’s, whereas in the main task I took
people’s appearances and whether or not they look as though they fit in to my
PRELIMINARY genre into consideration.
MAIN TASK
I didn’t think about the connotations or effect of image location at all during the
preliminary project, and I think in the final product this was obvious as it has no
relevance to the conventions of the particular magazine genre. After noticing this,
I made sure I put a lot of thought in to planning of locations for the main task. I
used magazines from my chosen genre such as The Fly and Clash as reference and
inspiration when choosing my locations for all of the photography. I also took into
consideration the health and safety of the locations, as I originally had some ideas
that worked in theory but would have been dangerous.
4. Organisation Of Time
• I didn’t set myself any deadlines during the preliminary task and found myself rushing to get
parts finished on the day of the final deadline.
• Because of this, I decided that I needed to set myself deadlines for each part of the main
task, and have a way of organising and keeping track of these deadlines.
• I used a website called time toast
which allowed me to create a
timeline where I could see at a glance
what I had to do and when for.
• I found this really useful and I felt I had
progressed a lot from the preliminary
project in terms of time management
due to this.
5. Technical Photography Skills
• When it came to the technical photography of
my main task images, I concentrated a lot of
angles, and made the most of the slr camera by
using settings such as the portrait setting.
• In the preliminary task, all the photos were
taken at the same angle and the same shot
type, which was a medium close up at eye
level, which I found looked really boring and
repetitive.
•Because I noticed this, I made a conscious
effort to take different shot types and
angles, such as an extreme close up, wide shot,
and two shot. I also used some different
angles including a high angle shot.
6. Conventions Of Magazines
• When working on my preliminary task, I didn’t pay much attention to how similar in
magazine looked in comparison to real magazines. I think this showed in the final
product, as the cover didn’t look very much like that of magazines I looked at during
research, which had brighter, clashing colours, and more splashes and cover lines than
I used.
• Because of this, I made sure I looked a lot closer at conventions of
pre-existing magazines. I made sure that I kept the front cover
looking very minimal, as this seemed a big convention of real
indie/electro magazines. I also made sure the double page spread
and contents page were very image heavy, as this
also seemed an important convention of the
genre.
Main Task
Preliminary
Minimal and bare
Image heavy
7. Consideration Of Target Audience
• I did research my target audience fairly well during the preliminary task, and learnt
that this was a really big help, so I focussed a lot of my time on target audience
research during the main task.
• It helped with everything from choosing font styles and models to colours and the
layout.
• One way I improved my research from the preliminary task was I spoke to actual
members of my target audience about what attracted and interested them. I set
up a Facebook group where I posted my ideas to members of my target audience
to get their feedback.
Preliminary
Main Task
8. Biggest Thing Learnt
• I think the biggest thing I learnt throughout
the whole process of the coursework is the
important of extensive audience research, and
how much of an effect this can have on how
successful your magazine is.
• I found considering the target audience’s
opinions every time a decision had to be made
was very helpful.
9. Targets From Preliminary Task
The targets I set myself from the preliminary task were:
• Use more appropriate fonts and consider the
effects/connotations of fonts more.
• Research the target audience’s needs more
thoroughly.
• Take more visually interesting photo’s.
I think that in the main task I met these targets quite
well, as I was conscious of the areas I wanted to
improve throughout the task.
