Prelim Task Evaluation

What did you find difficult about producing your school magazine? What did you find easy?
I found it difficult to make to make the cover look like an actual magazine, putting it all together so that it all tied in proved much harder than I thought it would. The production took a lot longer than I thought it would as every little part of magazine has to be thought through, chosen and altered accordingly and this took a long time to do. The easiest part, for me, was choosing individual factors such as background colours and the masthead font as there were only a few options to choose from that would actually work.

How would your task have been easier if you had researched into school magazines?
If I had done some research into school magazines then I would know more about how/where to take the photos for the cover/contents page. I also would've known a lot more about how to structure my magazine which would've made the task easier as without knowing I had to do a lot of guessing 

What tactics did you use to attract your audience? 
Due to it being a school magazine, of course my target audience was school pupils. Being a pupil myself I knew that most people tend to find school magazines boring and don't have any interest in reading it and so I tried to make it so that it would actually interest 16-18 year olds. I chose to make my magazine specific to the sixth form at my own school, and because of being a student there I had some idea of what a pupil might want. I made it bright and colourful so that it wasn't boring. I also didn't put too much writing on the front as I knew it would put people off. Using pictures of people from my sixth form also would've appealed to the audience as if it is someone they know on the cover they are more likely to want to read. Also I made sure that the stories on the front were ones the students could relate to, as this would lead them to wanting to know more and read further. 

What have you learnt about photoshop/other software used in the production of your preliminary task?
In terms of Photoshop and fireworks I have much more confidence and ability when it comes to using them than I did when I started, I had to spend a lot of time on both of the software and it lead to me gaining a lot of knowledge about both. I hadn't used either of them a lot beforehand and I was mostly clueless, now however I have a much better understanding of both. 

What lessons have you learnt here that will enable you to excel in the production of your main task-the music magazine?
I have learnt a lot time management wise. I didn't manage my time well at all for this task so I think this has taught me that for the main task I need to keep to a time plan. I also have learnt a lot when it comes to photographs, for example that the picture needs to be good quality, well thought out and the front cover will fit around the photo rather than the other way around. I learnt that making a magazine is a lot harder than I thought and I will need to think everything through thoroughly.