EVALUATION ACTIVITY 7Looking back at your preliminary task (the school magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

In the progression from my school magazine to my music magazine, I feel I have learnt a lot, particularly about my genre and the technologies I used to create my product.  

On my preliminary task (the school magazine), I did not consider a lot of vital elements that a successful magazine requires. I did not research a particular genre and try to recreate it, nor did I consider how to make my magazine appeal to a particular target audience.I focused on what all magazines had in common, not a particular sub-genre, such as 'indie'. 

I have learnt how important research and planning is for producing a product such as this.My final magazine has used a great deal of research and planning in order to become a realistic representation of an indie music magazine.I researched what my artist should wear to appear to be an artist of my genre and styled them accordingly. This is something I did not do for my preliminary task.I researched what photographs of indie artists had in common. This allowed me to recreate the style for my own photographs, using what I had leant about backgrounds, poses, shot types (medium close up to close up), filters and flash to make my photographs look more professional and representative of my genre. By doing this, I improved the quality and mood of my photographs too.

My contents page of my preliminary task was very basic and the types of images or text featured on the page was not considered at all. On my final contents page, the layout, images, text to appeal to my target audience, and branding have all been thought about carefully. It looks like a real magazine while avoiding not just the typical conventions, but clichés, so my magazine is clearly a product of its genre. 

My music magazine title is more sophisticated than my school magazine title; it is subtle but still relevant. I capitalised the masthead, removing any ascenders/descenders, wasting less space and making my cover appeal neater. I would not have thought about this before as I had not covered magazine terms and what they mean.

My music magazine looks far more appealing than my prelim in terms of design and layout, so it would likely be popular with my target audience. I have learnt a lot about how magazine companies work, distribute, raise finance etc. and what they must include in order to be successful, which I believe my magazine would be if it were a real publication, unlike my preliminary school magazine task.