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Preliminary Task Evaluation

Shahajahan Rana Karim

Hello and welcome to my Preliminary task evaluation. Our preliminary task was to create a magazine cover/front page and a contents page for a school/Sixth form magazine. I began my preliminary task by quickly analyzing some examples of magazines that my teacher (Mr Nunn) showed us, then shortly after I created a very brief plan including my ideas for the front and contents page. After that I started taking pictures of myself and my peers in or outside the RR6 building while also looking for the best lighting spots. The pictures I took were mainly medium to close up shots, as said in the brief. Then I chose the images with the best lighting that I wanted to use for my front page and my contents page from the file with all images taken from the school shared area. Naturally I started with the front page. I wanted my front page to be similar to the examples show with a crisp, clear white background to make it look professional and modern; luckily my image I had chosen for the front page already had those properties so there was no need to remove the background using Photoshop. To make the front page I used Microsoft word because I find it easier to use. When I was making my front page i first inserted my photo, cropped it and positioned it in my desired area. Then I added the title at the top THE ONE and at the bottom united in excellence. After that I added the smaller text such as student of the year, the blue text box and the text around the picture. At first I had circles and lines labelling the image with the text, however I removed them after my teacher suggested it would better without them. Lastly I added the RR6 logo at the bottom. After completing the front page I moved on to the contents page however the image I had for the contents page had a background and I wanted to keep my work consistent so I decided to first put the image though Photoshop, and remove the background and replace it with a white background. I did this using a variety of Photoshop tools such as the magic wond tool, magnetic and normal laso tool and the eraser tool. Like my front page I also made the contents page in Microsoft word, first I inserted the image cropped it and positioned it. Secondly I added all 10 of the blue boxes, following that in every box I inserted numbers. Thirdly I added the contents title at the top. Then after I added the small piece of text at the bottom right hand corner. This was probably the hardest and most time consuming task, I first thought of possible magazine articles, typed them out, highlighted the main article shown on the front page and then placed them in the most convenient place.

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Preliminary Task Evaluation

Shahajahan Rana Karim

I believe that the picture produced has good framing in this picture because the head and side of the face is not cut off, and everything that I want is there. Skin texture on the face is too shiny, to improve I would manipulate it on Photoshop.

A good strong pose for effect.

The camera shot I used for this image was a medium shot (knees up). I decided to uses this type of shot because it looks good positioned on my front page a mostly because it fits the brief.

An unknown sort of outline or glare coming of the image Maybe because I was slightly moving when the picture was taken

However the composition of the photo, I believe could be better. I say this because if you look closely the image is too bright on most of the image, I would improve it by retaking the picture to get richer colours.

I believe that the picture produced has good framing in this picture because I was able to fit his elbow and the award in perfectly as well as his head and torso area.

Good view of award in hand.

The camera shot I used for this image was a medium shot (knees up). I decided to do this because I wanted to focus on his torso and the award unlike the previous image

Face and head too dark in the shade (bad lighting) to improve i would change the contrast using photoshop.

Good hand position and gesture, pointing at award creating a focus point

I believe the composition of this photo is not that good because the photo is dull and too dark towards the top.

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Preliminary Task Evaluation

Shahajahan Rana Karim

As you can see for both my front page and my contents page I used a white and blue colour scheme, I done this because: It goes well with the plain white background It gives the pages a modern look and finish Blue is one on the RR6 (Rutlish) colours The colour scheme suits the target audience (parents)

In terms if brand recognition i could go back to my third point and say that the blue is a Rutlish/RR6 colour and when readers see the colour on the magazine they could think it is an RR6 magazine. I believe the good aspects of the colour scheme are: Continuity between both pages because both the front page and the contents page match and look good with the shared colour scheme. Sensible colours to fit and attract parents because if the colour scheme was luminous bright colours you would think it was for a younger age group.

I think I could improve the colour scheme by: Adding a third colour of adding different tones of the existing colours because as it is at the moment its pretty basic and by adding extra tones or colours I could add more detail and make the pages more lively

I called the magazine The One because its different something creative and innovative instead of just calling it RR6 newsletter ect. Moreover I believe this was a good masthead because it indicates to the reader that this is the one place that you want to send your children which will fulfil the magazines purpose of not only informing but also promoting. The genre of the magazine is educational and informative to parents I used the mast head the one to anchor the point that RR6 is the only place they want to send their children to study. The featured article is linked to the audience because it informs people that someone has done very well and are successful In RR6, which will attract the audience (Parents) because they want their children to do well and be successful as well. Therefore again this is promoting.

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Both images are place in a way to make the image direct because both images are looking forward.

Preliminary Task Evaluation

Shahajahan Rana Karim

I set the layout of the front page like this because it looks gives it a modern look especially how the small phrases or attributes such as determination are a part of the aura of the image. I also set the layout of the page like this because I believe it looks professional considering it has similar looks and properties of the real published magazines shown to me earlier in the task.

I set the layout of the contents page like this because its clear, bold, crisp, easy to uses and special techniques are used to let the reader find the exact information they are looking for. For example big, bold numbers are used so you can clearly to see the page number with ease for the content you are looking for. Moreover the featured article is highlighted in blue which enhances the text which indicates to the reader that this part is different to the rest and important.

Both images are positioned on the right hand side.

Furthermore I set the layout like this for both pages because it is somewhat sensible and is suitable for the target audience, the parents for example instead of headings positioned diagonally, going through the images their neatly placed on top. These are some of the other features I used on my front page and contents page. I used united in excellence to inform the readers that Rutlish and Ricards are a collaborated sixth form. I also used it because the word excellence gives a very positive feeling about the sixth form. Secondly I used the slogan RR6 always number one because I wanted similar properties to the Examples shown to me (stuff magazine). I also used the slogan to promote RR6 to the parents and reassure them also that their children are at a good sixth form, the slogan Is also complimented and justified by the picture of my peer (Jay) wielding the award. All the text I used apart form the word art is in an Arial font. I chose this font because it seems suitable and consistent with the rest of the page. It looks slightly modern because of its thin, slim letters and mostly because its clear and easy to read. Most of my text is size 18 however other text that I have used to annotate or use as a sub heading are sizes 16,28 and 30.the reason why some texts are in larger sizes is because I wanted them to stand out more than the rest, and some are smaller because I wanted to keep the page looking in proportion.

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Preliminary Task Evaluation

Shahajahan Rana Karim

My magazine falls into an informative and educational genre because of its properties such as: School/sixth form content (logos, slogans and images) Clear, easy to read sensible layout and text Appropriate headings Highlighted subjects such as featured articles

Through the preliminary task I learnt how to use given cameras, lighting skills and some key terminology definitions such as framing and composition.

In this task I enjoyed going round the buildings and using the new cameras to take pictures for my front and contents page.

Overall I think the process of making both the front and contents page was easy; however i did use word I think if I used Photoshop to make the pages fully instead of manipulating only images I would have found the task more difficult.

If I were to do something differently in this task I would go back and retake the picture for better results including better composition and lighting.