Preliminary Task Evaluation

Preliminary Task Evaluation...

For my tasks I had to make a magazine with a front cover and contents page. For the video task I had to make a short sequence including someone walking through a door onto a chair and exchanging dialogue.

I preferred doing the magazine task, as it is something that I might like to do when I am older. As I had never done a video before, I found it quite hard to use a camera and the editing equipment, and software. I did find it a good experience though as otherwise I would have never used those things.

For the magazine task, I started off by using desk top publishing but I found it too hard to use for what I wanted to do. It was making simple tasks quite strenuous. I went on to use Photoshop which I had never properly used before. It was fun getting to grips with it and I would like to get more used to it to see what I am capable of. For the film side of the project, we used two different kinds of camera, as we thought we had finished filming when we hadn’t. To be able to edit the software we used iMovie and it allowed us to sort out the clips we had to how we wanted them. However the process was very confusing and time consuming at first.

For the first time I used a digital camera and the software to be able to edit it. I did my work in a group and I didn’t do much with the iMovie software however it was hard to get to grips with it. We almost lost all of our work at one point, but we managed to find it in the end and made sure we saved it all the time afterwards so that nothing would happen to it. Photoshop was another piece of software which I had not used before, but that I had to, to make the work that much better. Photoshop is new to me but it really does amaze me as to how much you can manipulate the images. I think that our work ended up quite well for our first project as media students.

For the magazine task I stuck to the brief quite well I think. However it is one bit where we didn’t stick as a group on it, we came up with the name of it together and the pictures but that was about it. I went on to use what I think is a medium close up image of two people for the front cover. Then I had the contents where I put in some more pictures to liven it up. All the pictures I manipulated some how. The pictures I had in the contents page I changed the filter of the image, and the on the image on the front cover I changed the contrast. Throughout I made it a blue theme, including the background of the paper and some of the titles. I used the same fonts, and colours to make sure that none of it looked out of place. With the video we made I’m not sure if we stuck to the rules of some of the things we were supposed to put in like the 180 degree line rule. Saying that we put in everything else, someone walking in through a door to sit on a chair and exchanging dialogue with another character. We did use the 180 degree rule however we are not sure if we used it correctly.

With the magazine, I was and am really pleased with it and how it turned out. I’m not sure that it looks really professional and how a real magazine would look like but I was pleased with the end results, considering I had never used Photoshop before. The video task I am also pleased with but I do think that it could have been better in places. As the software and equipment was new to me I didn’t completely understand what I was doing with it. If I choose to do a video task again I think that I would read more into it to be better informed with the software.

For my main task I am more likely to choose the print based one. This is because I would really like to learn further on how to use Photoshop. From doing this task it has made me think about maybe doing a job in something to do with graphic designs.

For this task when creating it, I didn’t particularly think of a target audience. If I was thinking of a target audience, it was mainly being aimed at me or my class and if they would like it. Using myself as the target audience isn’t right and I know this now as my opinion isn’t necessarily anyone else’s. Even though I was thinking of my class a target audience I never asked any of them their opinion, looking back I should have done.I did work in a group, and my contributions for the print when we were talking about it I feel was quite a bit as I was generally more interested in it. However we didn’t all do the same thing for our magazine which we should have, but this has made us think of working in different groups now to do it separately and get all our points across. All of our magazines however did end up good as they were all how we perceived them to look. When it came to the video task, I don’t think that I contributed as much as I could have which looking back probably annoyed my group. Even though I didn’t contribute as much I think that it ended especially well for a first time attempt. Overall I think we did work well as a group.

When I am approaching my own main task, I need to know and research it appropriately. I need to think of a target audience and keep them in mind of what would interest them and what they would like. I need to research influential music magazines of all different types of target audiences to see how they lay it all out. I will also need to research bands and read up on magazine articles and interviews they have been a part of to see how I should write.