Draft Evaluation 7

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

Mise-en-scene

From my preliminary task, I learnt to become more creative with producing my final magazine in terms with the mise-en-scene that I used. When taking the images for my preliminary task I took them outside around the school as the style for the preliminary magazine was a school magazine so the images suited the style of the magazine. However, this meant I would need to be more creative with my images for the main task as I would need to portray a music magazine which background ideas for images are less obvious. I decided to take an artistic approach to my magazine by playing around with different colours, patterns and textures within the images to create a stylised and art influenced design to ‘AURA.’ I achieved this by taking some images externally for my final magazine double page spread by using the woods near my house as a backdrop and I carefully thought about using the natural sunlight and the different visual textures of the leaves and trees to my advantage which successfully added a design aesthetic to the images. This appealed to my audience as my audience would also appreciate design elements and enjoy the visual textures of the leaves and bark from the tress and the contrast it creates against the musician in the photo. I also took images using the studio so I could achieve a very bright and clear image and then edited a background onto it or used a black-and-white effect on the image like the images I used on my contents page which created a contrast within the image with the black and the white which added a different design aesthetic to the image. The styling has also improved from the preliminary magazine to my final one as I didn’t think about styling my model for my preliminary magazine but for ‘AURA’ I had to think carefully about the styling as my genera for the music is indie rock/pop which correlates to the ‘indie’ style of clothing and stereotypically people who listen to indie rock/pop wear and are fond of the ‘indie’ style of clothing and way of dress. This meant the artists in the magazine very importantly must have looked like they dress in the ‘indie’ style of clothing to look like indie pop/rock musicians, which I think I achieved in the outfit choices I picked for the images. 

Camerawork

The process of making my preliminary magazine taught me to focus more on the camera angles and shot distances when taking my images for my final magazine and to be more creative and adventurous with them as I wasn’t very bold in terms of shot types and angles with taking the images for the preliminary. This has improved my photography skills and editing images as I played around more with the different styles of shots and angles when I was taking the images for ‘AURA’ and learnt what photos would look the best and suit the magazine the best over other photos which and to edit the images by changing the lighting and colour schemes of the images ultimately makes my magazine look interesting and at a more professional standard. I learnt how a photo can impact the audience more by having diverse and bold photos that I used for my final magazine which will improve the sales ‘AURA’ as more audience members would be attracted and drawn to the magazine. I did this by taking a greater variety of shot types and angles which includes, median shot, medium close up, long shot, very long shot, big close-up with a tilted angle, two-shot and a median side-angle long shot. I also drastically increased the amount of the photos I took from when I took the photos for my preliminary to then taking the images for my final magazine task with different outfit choices to make sure I had more of a verity to pick for my final magazine. This was successful as I had more of a chance to find the images that would complement the style of ‘AURA’ the best.

Text arrangement

My preliminary task taught me to lay my text for my final magazine in a more professional and minimalistic way as for my preliminary magazine I wanted the cover to look more colourful as the background Image lacked a verity of colours so I put the tag lines in ‘clouds’ with a colourful outline to add pops of colour to the cover which it needed to look less boring and plain. However, for ‘AURA’ I wanted the text layout look more modern and simplistic as I know I was going to have colourful ‘busy’ backgrounds to the pages that I didn’t want the text layout to appear busy too as it would just clash with the background be too straining and confusing the eye. Simplistic text arrangement on my final magazine looks more professional and modern which I want ‘AURA’ to be, I achieved this by choosing a simple but modern font for my text and by having the cover lines, text on my contents page and the articles on my double page spread in columns. I also included a single ‘bubble’ on my final cover which includes a cover line in it which is effective and impactful on the audience as it highlights the persuasive text so it catches their attention to read the text which could result into the audience becoming convinced to buy the magazine. I also had a text bock around the anchorage text under ‘Blair Spencer’ which also highlights to the audience why she is being featured on the cover of the magazine and draws in their attention to the persuasive text of the anchorage text which would make them have a higher chance of buying the magazine due to having the want to find out more about her feature in the magazine. I thought the text arrangement for my preliminary magazine contests page was quite basic and boring so this motivated me to present the text for the contents page of ‘AURA’ in a more creative way. So, I came up with a design of a grid layout for when I would place the images for the contents page which I then incorporated the text for the page between the images. This was successful as it gives the text arrangement an interesting and fresh modernistic approach to presenting music in the form of a magazine with I want ‘AURA’ to have as its style throughout the magazine. The columns on the double page spread are very impactful as they are very neat and bold which creates a nice contrast against the textured background and images, this doesn’t make the page look disordered and untidy as it makes the page look more professional and contemporary but also artistic at the same time which was my desired goal for the page and for the style of the layout of ‘AURA’ as a whole.