Evaluation - Question 7

Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

SWOT Analysis
These are a few bullet points of what I feel I have learnt from my preliminary task to improve my music magazine (full product).

Strengths

• I have improved my knowledge of using the Macs. When creating my Preliminary Student Magazine task I had never used a Mac before. So hence using them for my Preliminary Task meant that I developed my skills dramatically, and with feeling more confident using the Macs, I feel my full product benefited from this.
• A second strength again is with Photoshop. Although I had previously used to software using it 3 or 4 times a week really pushed my skills and I even felt comfortable using new tools that I had not used in my Preliminary task for my Full Product. An example of this is the magnetic lasso. 
• A third strength is that I learnt from my Preliminary Task that I needed to leave and give myself more time to get more photos for my magazine as well as plan what I was going to photography and how. And that is what I did for my Music Magazine, I planned in advance my shoots and took more photos to gain choices from.

Weaknesses

• One of my biggest weaknesses was that I had to use a program that I personally have never used before. It was called InDesign. Although made by the same company as Photoshop, I found InDesign hard to use and time consuming.
• Another weakness was my model. After photographing them for my Front Cover they decided that they didn't want their photos taken and used on my Double Page Spread. This caused a problem and at one stage made me behind on my work. However I managed to convince my model to allow me to photograph them again.
• I didn't have a third weakness.

Opportunity

•  One opportunity was that i had previous experience with using Photoshop. Therefore I found it easy to edit my photos and images that I was going to use. An example of a tool I knew how to use was the brightness/darkness and curves tool. Under the 'Image' header.
• Another opportunity was I found it easy to set up a composition and the correct composition for the front covers for both the Preliminary and Full Product. I found this easy to do because I had previously studied Photography GCSE and I currently study A Level Photography. This also meant that I knew how to set up the correct settings on the camera.
• A third opportunity was that I had the Internet at all times which meant I could easily find and compare my Preliminary Magazine with a real magazine. I used this to my advantage and this helped me plan my layout with the correct forms and conventions of real media products. This prevented me spending more time with sorting out my layout and meant I could spent more time with improving my graphical skills.

Threats

• One threat was that the Mac's kept crashing which was something that wasn't in my control.
• A second threat was that doing my Preliminary Task didn't help me with how to create a conventional Music Magazine as the layout is completely different and the ingredients are also different and not similar.
• A third threat was I have never made a double page spread before and therefore I had no past experience of how to do this. 

Evaluation - Question 6

Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Technology and the magazine industry
I believe that technology is going to over run and essentially control the magazine industry. I think we will slowly but surely lose the whole point of a magazine - this being a paper format that we can carry round, read and enjoy. Instead I think technology will take over the paper based magazine and magazines will soon turn into things you need to subscribe to online and view online. This may not be in everyone's interest though, although yes you could still read on the go by using, for example, an Itouch to view the magazines on. However this is not too everybody's taste, some will not enjoy reading off a small screen and even having to carry something around they cannot dispose of.
The magazine industry has already taken advance on the new technologies available such as, Facebook and Twitter to freely advertise their magazine without any costs.However they still use the original technologies, for example, high end laser printers and computer software.  As well as smart phones to easily keep in touch with publishers and exchange data.

Technologies I have used in my work
I have a used a variety of different technologies throughout my work to create my preliminary college magazine and my music magazine.

The college Mac's. I had never used a Mac before and it took me a while to become used to all the shortcuts and how software I had used before was different and slightly more complex on a Mac, but I soon adjusted to this and now find them simple and easy to use.

My Samsung R720 laptop I used regularly to keep up to date with my work at home.

USB memory stick. I used one of these to carry work I had done from college back home and vise versa. It is a small and compact way to carry information rather then emailing your work back home.

 

I have used a variety of different software's, programmes and websites, for example:

Blogger. This is the website which I used to create my blog to upload all of my posts too. This includes research, the preliminary task, my music magazine and evaluation etc. 

 

Flickr. I created a Flickr account to upload all of my music magazine images too. I enjoyed using Flickr because it was a simple and high quality programme.

 Slideshare. I used Slideshare to upload my PowerPoint's I made.

YouTube. I used this to upload and embed videos to my blog, to show different music genres.

Photoshop. I used this piece of software the most. I used it for my preliminary task as well as for my front cover and contents page for my music magazine. I knew how to use the software before so I had some knowledge of the programme. However I have learnt more from using it. I learnt how to use the text tool and change the effects using FX. I also knew how to use the brightness and contrast as well as the magnetic lasso.

InDesign. Much like Photoshop as it is made by the same company. However it is more of a publisher. I found it hard to adapt to using this programme, but once I became used to the software and where all the buttons where I found it easy to navigate around. I used InDesign to create my double page spread. I has never used the programme before so it was a new experience and I had to learn everything from scratch which I think I did successfully by looking at my final outcome.

Evaluation - Question 5

Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?
This question has been answered below joint with Question 1 on my prezi. However here is the link again... http://prezi.com/rfxcqhvevmjz/question-1-question-5/

Evaluation - Question 4

Here are two portfolios of a typical person who would buy my magazine. This answers Question 4 : Who would be the audience for your media product? of the evaluation questions.

Evaluation - Question 3

Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Here is a link that answers this question. I used a website called 'xtranormal' to create a mini cartoon movie to answer this question.
http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/11671234/question-3

Evaluation - Question 2:

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Question 2:

View more presentations from amyscarlettasmedia.

Evaluation - Question 1 & Question 5

Here is a link to my Prezi which answer Question 1: In what ways does your product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? and Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience? of the evaluation questions.
 http://prezi.com/rfxcqhvevmjz/question-1-question-5/