Preliminary Production - Written Production

Our first production was to create a new magazine cover, the cover had to include a Medium close-up (MCU) of a single person. We then had to upload the picture onto photoshop adapt and change the picture to make it better. From there on we used Adobe photoshop to creat and finalise our front covers. We then had to create a mock-up of our contents page. I used ther publisher programme to create this and I got a positive outcome.

My primary audience was he school in general. It was not aimed at a specific year or age group. I just aimed it at those who were at the school and those who were connected to the schhol. I.e parents/guardians. My plan was for the magazine to contain information and upcoming events of the school I wanted to keep it unique to the people of Sheldon school and the people linked to it. I tried to keep the front cover exciting, but quite formal as well. I kept the main heading font black and attempted to keep it concise and crisp. My main problem was trying hard not to make it fall either side of the formal and informal line, so to speak.


For our front cover we had to draw sketches of what we were going to attempt to create. I used 'thirds rule'. I didn't want to overcrowd my front cover so I tried to keep it filled with enough information for the consumer to want to read on, but i didn't want to take the focus away from the main picture by overcrowding the cover. My sketch was, I would say, a fair outline of how my cover went. I kept my picture in the same place, but moved some things around. I kept the sixth from block as my background because the main article read 'Sheldon's sixth form named England's Best!'. So I wanted to keep the relation. Personally I didn't think that my sketches were useful seeing as I changed my cover completely from what I was planning to do. Although it did help me to realise how I wanted my cover to look, and what I wanted show.

I personally found the pictures very hard to get right. Wather it made it very hard to get the right lighting and background colour. I found it very difficult to get the right amount of background in, because I had the 'Sheldon Sixth Form' writing on the wall of the building, I had to think about how much I was going to have to crop and if I was going to get all of the writing in. I managed to get nearly all of the writing in. Although some of it was cut out. Adapting the photo on Adobe photoshop I found particularly challenging because I hadn't used it before so I wasn't sure what tools did what. For my photo I had to use a tripod to keep the camera straight. It would have been disaster if it was wonky at all.

When I used photshop I had to manipulate the colour of my models skin because it was particularly pale and I wanted him to look bright and good looking. I also tried to exclude some blemishes to make my model seem more attractive. It took me a long time to finish manipulating and adapting my picture due to my naivety of photoshop and my lack of experience of photshop.

I tried to make the cover attractive, not only for pupils of the school, but also adults. I did this by trying to make the main heading fairly formal, using a smart font and keeping it in the original colour of black. I made it fairly big so that it would stand out. I also included on my front cover, competition boxes that stood out because it was a different shape. This was aimed at the younger generation to try and make them read into the magazine.

Overall I think that the frint cover went well. For my forst time using photshop and other programmes I feel that it was a fair attempt. If I could have done something better, I would have tried to think about my draft more so that it helped me more when I went onto photoshop and bgean making it. Also if my knowledge of Adobe photoshop was broader and I new mor it would have helped also. I thihnk that my preliminary production was a success and will help me as I begin my main production.