- Name- the magazine name 'Jmag' was very boring and uninteresting, compared to 'Acapella', which is music sung without instrumental accompaniment. It is an irregular and slightly unfamiliar variation of pop music, often referred to in the film 'pitch perfect' (watched mainly by my target audience). The name has obvious connotations ton music, and strong connotations to pop music, known to those who are fans of the genre.
- Photograph quality- this is something I have improved off in my real magazine. I used a good quality camera which enabled me to have clear, focussed photographs. I also learnt from my mistake in the preliminary task of standing below the subject, so for the real magazine I stood at the correct angle.
- Absent information- as far as I can see, I have included all relevant and important information in my real magazine
- The contents page is full of photographs and doesn't waste any space. It is also more colourful and fun compared to the bleak, plain preliminary one.
There is a clear comparison between the real front cover and the preliminary one. Firstly, slogan is boring and dull, compared to the pun in the real magazine, which adds comedy and humour. Secondly, the main image of the prelim has such a low opacity that it looks more like a background than a main image. It doesn't address the audience effectively- the two girls aren't making eye contact, and the image is too busy, compared to the real magazine, where the main image is minimal and focused. It is also a medium shot rather than a close up which is less intense. A magazine front cover usually focuses on one person only, because it is more effective. The layers of the prelim front over are also ineffective; the Christmas tree is the top layer which doesn't make sense because it is the least relevant thing on the page. The real magazine sticks to a consistent colour scheme of black, red, pink and white, compared to the prelim front cover which uses random colours. This is much harder for the reader to follow, ad if they are not drawn in by the front cover they will not buy/read the rest of the magazine. Furthermore, the real magazine uses a transparent barcode. When I made the prelim, I was not aware of how too use the magic wand tool, which would have made the barcode transparent. The fact that the white still surrounds it makes it too emphasised and noticeable. Lastly, the prelim front cover has too much wasted space, compared to the real front cover which is full up with features.
Again, a clear comparison can be distinguished between both front covers, real and preliminary. Firstly, the white background of the prelim is bleak, plain and dull, compared to the pink of the real magazine. Secondly, I didn't use any of my own images, so I had to find one from the internet which wasn't very good quality. The features are too big, making them seem childlike and unsophisticated, which means they are targeting the wrong audience because the magazine was supposed to appeal to high school students. In the prelim contents page, the text is not aligned correctly, because where it says 'what it's like to be part of the autism...' the 'a' and the 'u' of 'autism' are not next to each other and they should be. There also isn't a page number, which would make it hard for the reader to locate their way around the magazine. A page number would help make the magazine accessible.
Conclusion
Generally, I have made big improvements, and l have definitely learnt from my mistakes in the preliminary task. However, doing the preliminary task gave me good practice using Photoshop, editing and taking photographs. If it hadn't been done, I would have been a bit confused as to how I should lay out my work and what information I should include.
