Note to examiner

Dear Examiner

These past few months of working on this media project have been challenging but thoroughly enjoyable, they have helped show me how much careful thought and planning every aspect of media products consist of and I have learnt a lot of valuable information that I am thankful for and will take forward with me.

Many thanks, Davo.

Coursework review Q7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you think you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

After completing my final magazine I looked back at my first preliminary task which was the school magazine cover, after reviewing the two I have seen how much I have progressed and learnt about the design and production of a magazine cover. 

The main stand out thing is the backgrounds and how much more natural the photo looks in my final piece, this is mainly because I chose a backdrop that would suit my magazine where as in my preliminary task I had a background that did not suit the magazine and so I had to create one on photoshop, this in turn caused the magazine to look tacky, I am glad this was rectified in my final piece.

Secondly in my final piece I had a close up low shot of my artist on the cover where as in the preliminary I had only used a mid shot which shows my progression with experimenting shot types and framing the picture. A mid shot is the most common shot used as it is typically how photos are taken. The variety in shot adds a sense of power to the artist which is a general theme in the Grime genre.

Thirdly, I feel as though the fonts selected in my final piece worked well with each other whilst maintaining originality where as in my preliminary task the fonts look extremely generic and out of place.

Finally, the attention to detail was vastly improved as I added all the little extras to my final piece including the issue number and positioned everything correctly where as very little attention to detail was put into the first one which caused things such as the bad cut out of the photo to occur.

Coursework review Q6

What have you learnt about technologies from constructing this product?

As well as the equipment shown in the photo I have used various programs on my Macbook to achieve my finished product these are as follows:

- Photoshop: Through using photoshop I created my magazine, I used a variety of tools but the main tools I used that were vital in the creation of my magazine were the resizing tool as it allowed me to change the size of things to a perfect height and width whilst also keeping the proportions the same. Secondly, I used the text tool a lot to create headings and mastheads that make up the majority of my magazine. Thirdly, I used the eraser tool which allowed me to have the masthead appear to be in between the artist and the background which was an effective technique.

- Microsoft Word: I used Microsoft word to create my article in a program that would help check my spelling and grammar whilst I write, by doing this on word instead of in photoshop I was able to write a much better article than if I had used other programs.

- Google Drive: Google drive was used to upload and store photos I took across my many photo shoots, it was good as it could be uploaded too and accessed from multiple platforms allowing me to work from multiple places.

- Dafont: I used dafont to get more interesting fonts that better suit my magazine than were available on the photoshop app, by doing this I improved the overall aesthetic look of my magazine.

Magazine stages

Cover

Contents

Double page spread

Magazine mock up