Evaluation

In media I was ask to produce a school magazine, using at least 2 Original medium shot photographs and also using Adobe Photoshop CS4. We were asked to choose a target audience, a colour scheme, name of the magazine and a theme. Firstly I selected a target audience which were year 11’s , I came to this decision because I believed that I could relate with them directly as I had once been in year 11 before also because I felt that I had plenty of ideas to perform when creating my magazine. I straight away knew that it would be unfair to personally decide the options we were given to make, this is why I prepared a questionnaire, asking a range of questions which were then tallied and final. I handed out my questionnaire to 15 year 11 girls, all around Beaverwood School. Noticing that Beaverwood is a girl’s school, it allowed me to come to a decision that the gender of my target audience will be girls.

Before starting my magazine, I decided to do my own research on different types of magazines. I knew that my target audience were going to be girls so I based my research on Girl magazines. I looked at Girls Life, Justine, Fly and BackToSchool. This entire magazine research gave me a clear idea of how to lay out my magazine. In particular; I felt that the Justine magazine presented an outstanding representation of a magazine layout. I thought this was so superb I decided replicate it, except the fact that I made my magazine cover less busy, as it was a school magazine not a gossip magazine.

Similarly I also replicated some ideas I found in my research, such as the texts used. For example in my ‘Girls life research one of the titles were ‘Balance HW’ this was also used on my magazine front cover because it is effective and appealing. It gives my audience a sense of hope and an answer to balancing their homework.

All that was left for me to achieve was to, select a model which can be used for my front cover image. Unfortunately the year 11’s that I came in contact with did not have any interests in taking a photograph for me to use as my front cover. Approximately I asked 8 different girls to grant me their permission to take a photograph of them and they all said ‘no’. This made me come to a decision to use another girl in another year. My front cover model was selected by Funmi who spotted a girl in year 10 who enjoyed posing for the camera. She gave me permission to take several photographs of her. I was very pleased with her, personally because she was very photogenic.

I was contented with my photographs taken because they were edgy, fun yet also appropriate for a school magazine. I wasn’t very pleased with my camera quality because I used my Blackberry phone to capture the pictures. Next time I will be more equip for the task to ensure I obtain a good quality photograph.

Evidently in my magazine cover, my chosen colour scheme was pink. This wasn’t shocking, as it is a girl’s school, and the stereotypical colour for girls is the colour pink.  I believe that I have tried my hardest to illustrate pink as much I could throughout my entire magazine including the contents page; unfortunately what I found difficult was using the same shade of pink throughout my entire magazine. To an extent there were similar shades of pink in the front cover and the contents page. Differently, the colour used as my contents page background slightly clashed with the colour pink that was used in the front cover. This was the downside on the similarity of the colour pink that was used in my magazine. Unfortunately I had said that I was going to try and include gold and black as they were the second best voted colours, from the feedback from my questionnaire. I did not include gold and black because I felt that the colours clashed and it had no relation to my magazine sub titles either.

The theme that was chosen was exams, unfortunately I didn’t really portray the sense of exams in my photographs because I found it challenging, because my front cover had o be a medium shot. This was overcome by the text I used in the front cover for example ’10 exam tips’ I felt this will be a good way to represent my theme

The font of the title in my magazine was ‘Bush Script Std’ this was because it was quite a fancy writing, which appeals to the majority of girls, secondly it was pink which strongly related to girls.

The masthead of my magazine included ‘Year 11’,on the front cover I felt that this was a simple yet an effective feature, it enforced the message that my magazine was exclusively for them, and not for the rest of the school, giving the Year 11’s a sense of importance and ownership.

I also created a brand identity which connoted the school I was creating the magazine for. This meant that the Year 11’s could be familiar with the magazine and will be able to associate with it.

Lastly the price of my magazine was ‘1.50’ because it is affordable for most social classes, more importantly the working class, which is one of the common classes in the London; this is backed up by the official statistics.

Unfortunately, my contents page was created in Microsoft word, this was because I was heading for the deadline of my school magazine, and I had no choice but to create it on my home computer. I had no access to Adobe Photoshop CS4, which meant there was no way I could have created my contents page on Adobe. Next time I will ensure that I have full access to the chosen workshop that I am, supposed to be using in my media project.

Lastly I was asked to create a blog, where I could update my decisions and explain my decisions; I managed to create a blog online. Unfortunately I had problems with accessing the internet at home. If I had waited every single day to update my blog when by only using the school computers (because it had internet access) I would have been extremely behind to meet my deadlines. Fortunately Mrs James granted my whole class an extra week to make sure our whole assignment was in order. This gave me the chance to transfer all my work onto my blog. So now fortunately I am now on track and have fully updated my blog.

Previously, I did produce a power point which explained in detail each and every choice that was made in the process of producing my magazine cover. But luckily I now have all my data onto my blog. But If I had a chance to do this over again I will ensure that I have full internet access in my home which can enable me to update and share my daily plans and actions in chronological order

Overall I believe that my school magazine was a success, because I achieved successful medium shots which were present in my front cover and contents page. I productively used Adobe Photoshop CS4 to effectively create a school magazine cover, Differently, I used Microsoft Word, and this was because I was unable to access Adobe Photoshop on my home computer.

I am confident that my school magazine front cover is demonstrates my theme e.g. the texts used ’10 exam tips’ This connotes to my audience that it is specifically for students.

I have effectively followed my chosen colour scheme (from questionnaires) which was pink. Unfortunately I did not achieve my goal of using the same shade of pink throughout my entire project

Lastly, I question myself; does my magazine cover as a whole give the impression of a school magazine?

To an extent I believe it does because it sets out a well presented young girl who represents a school girl, which appeals to my target audience. On the other hand physically I do not believe I achieved a professional looking magazine, due to lack of arrangement of the texts and the similarities of colours in the background and the colours of texts chosen. This can all be improved by a well set out plan, which I can follow more effectively to produce a well structured magazine.