K A T I E B A N N E R

Question 7, Evaluation

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

The progression from my final outcomes in my preliminary task to my final outcomes in my main task are vast to say the least. I have gained the skills necessary to produce high quality, professional looking magazine pages; using a variety of tools and software's along the way.

I also had the chance to produce a double page spread in my main task which I did have the opportunity to do in the prelim exercise. This meant that I had the chance to use what I had learnt in the previous page productions, to use in the process of making a high quality DPS.

Using the audience

I have used contact with my target audience more in my main task than I did in my preliminary task because the lack of audience feedback and comments was reflected poorly on my prelim outcome. There was no consistency within my work and none of my features reflected what the audience wanted or who the audience was.

In my main task I chose to conduct a questionnaire for audience research and I also chose to create a questionnaire at the end of the project to get feedback from my audience to see if I had met their expectations.

This was reflected positively in my end media product because I had listened to my audience and included the things that theywanted to see.

Preliminary exercise Main Task

Front Cover

Cover

My front cover has significantly improved in looks, quality and overall professionalism since my preliminary product. I have gained a wider knowledge and understanding of the tools and software's necessary, to make my media product look as professional as possible.

When working on my preliminary cover, I only had a vague understanding about how Photoshop worked so therefore, there was minimalistic shapes and design features on my prelim cover. Whereas, in the lead up to my main task, I had the opportunity to sit down and get to know the tools of Photoshop and how to use specific elements to the software that would enable me to produce a Front Cover that would look professional and finished.

I chose not to include a puff on my main tasks front cover because I felt that it looked unnecessary on my prelim page and didn’t want this to happen again. I also thought carefully about my colour scheme because my prelim colour scheme seemed cheesy and didn’t look professional at all. By keeping with a monotone colour scheme for the fonts, it made them easy to read and then looked effective on almost any background.

Preliminary exercise Main task

Contents Page

Contents Page

The Contents Page that I had produced in my preliminary exercise, was far from finished, never mind professional. Therefore, I wanted to make the contents page for my main task the best I could be; making sure I completed everything that I didn’t do in the prelim task.

There was lots of empty space on my prelim contents page which made it look incomplete. I also didn’t stick to any particular colour scheme which didn’t help with the unfinished look. Overall, my prelim contents page looked unfinished, miss-matched and of a poor quality.

I wanted to show my progression of knowledge and skills though the new production of my main task media product. I used design features to structure my page accordingly and to make sure all of the necessary space was filled. Although have filled the space, this soon became an issue because in places it seems as if the page is too busy and the text becomes unreadable.

Double page spreadI didn’t produce a double page spread during my preliminary exercise, giving me the chance to do so in my main task; producing a high quality DPS using what I had learnt producing my cover and contents pages.

I was able to use Quark in the production of my DPS because I had enough sufficient knowledge on how to make it reflect my audiences needs.

I knew that things such as columns and design features were main things that I had done poorly in my prelim contents page so I chose to show my progression in my media project within my DPS. I ensured I had enough columns to make my page look full without having the need to fill unnecessary space with pointless things. Pull quotes were a new thing to me during the production of my main task but I liked the challenge of having to find a place for them without making them look out of place or needless.