Preliminary Task: Evaluation of preliminary product

Evaluation of Preliminary

1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of a school magazine?

My magazine cover and contents page use forms and conventions in different ways, it follows a similar pattern to many other magazines. For example the mast head. I have included a medium shot of a person on the front, this medium close up shows the uniform of the person and it shows the action that the person doing in my covers case it is reading a text book.The mast head is there to show off the title of the magazine, to stand out. This is done by the title being bold and large lettered, this can resemble authority/power. Also my product uses a pug. The pug is there to catch the audience’s eye, to stand out amongst all other details. This has been used on the logo of the school: it allows the reader to understand what school it is and how the logo can link in with the meaning of the magazine. The form of the magazine is similar to existing products, for example the layout of the magazine can be recognised as most magazines follow the same pattern of layout.

My media product develops the forms and conventions by starting with the basic job of the certain convention but then developing into a more effective convention. For example the masthead’s job is to make the company and/or magazine stand out, but that can be developed further by making it bold and having it in bold vibrant colours. On my preliminary cover I have developed the pug further. I have added a pug so that it shows the logo; I also added a back-glow to it so that it looks like it glows and so that it stands out amongst everything else. The pug is a common form within magazines and its function/job is the same in all media products, however I have developed it so that it isn’t the same as other products.

My media product challenges forms and conventions by not following the usual pattern of alignment of the page. I have changed it so it doesn’t look like a basic magazine; this is a good aspect because if the alignment of the page was the same as other existing magazine covers and contents pages it would just it another follow the crowd kind of layout, it would be no different from other existing products. If all magazines did follow the same layout and alignment they would be boring and there would be no variety.

2) How effective is the front page of your magazine in focusing on the ethos of the school? 

The ethos of a magazine is the core belief of what a magazine should show or represent.  
I think my front page focuses on the main idea of a front cover: to inform and show off what will be contained inside. The information and contents of both the cover and the contents page are all relevant and follow the ethos. The picture on the front of the cover links to the school; this is good as the magazine is a school magazine so it needs to have things that relate to schools and the school in general rather than having things that have nothing to do with education at all. Another effective aspect to my cover is the colour of the writing. The writing is a bright colour; this is good as it stands out from my background which is black. Another effective point about my cover is that the information on the front links to the school. For example it says ‘Exam Results’ this would be a common thing to feature In a high school magazine because in high school a lot of exams take place and teenagers in the school are always determined to find out what they’ve achieved and progressed in.

3) What have you learnt from your audience feedback? 

From asking the first peer I asked, there feedback shows what aspects are good and what aspects are bad.  One peer said that some good aspects of the cover are that is was not cluttered, that there is a clear image and that it has a font that is easy to read. The peer also commented on the bad aspects of the cover: a lot of dead space, which could be used for other things such as smaller picture or little blocks of texts that could relate to the contents inside the magazine and the text could also give the audience a more detailed but breif expanation of the contents.  

From the second peer I asked they also said what aspects are good and what aspect are bad. The second peer commented on the fact that the title of the contents page was bright and bold and that it's good as it sticks out, this causes the eye to look at it due to its eye catching appearence. The peer also commented on how the background is too dark and how it need to have a more exciting feel to it in order to make it more appealing to the audience. These comments from both peer one and peer two will take effect by me evaluating the results and applying it in the creation of my final product.

4) How did you use new media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

I have used one software in which allowed me to construct my preliminary product. In the construction and research, planning and evaluation of my preliminary cover and contents page. For my cover I mainly used fireworks due to the fact I knew how to use it and I knew my way around the software. However I didn’t use Adobe Photoshop due to the fact that I felt like I didn’t need to use it as Fireworks provided all that I needed. I also used the internet to research existing covers and I had a look into covers that had been done schools, these provided some ideas in which I could have applied to my own preliminary cover and contents. From these I’ve learnt about how to construct an effective cover and content: this will be very useful for when I construct a music magazine cover, contents and double page spread.