Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

My Preliminary Task: College Magazine My Final Product: Music Magazine

What have I learnt from carrying out the preliminary task?

From carrying out the preliminary task, I feel like I have learnt a lot of different things about how to make a magazine which lead me to producing my own final music magazine. Firstly, I learnt about the conventions of a magazine, for example, masthead, sell line, pull quotes, plugs. As you can see from my preliminary task, I knew very little on how to make my magazine look conventional as it looks unappealing and sometimes the text is difficult to read. On my final music magazine front cover, you can see how I have progressed in learning skills on how to make it look conventional, for example, I have made the text visible to the reader, I have used a range of different fonts and I have included more conventional features like skyline and footer. This made me learn that the layout is a key thing when making it look realistic and like a professional magazine. Furthermore, from doing the preliminary task, I had to research into language, institution, ideology, audience and representation of an existing product. This benefited me when it came to making my own product as I had the knowledge on how to do certain things and what to include. I think throughout this task, I learnt different skills in Photoshop which allowed me to make a better final product of my music magazine and also I learnt what to include in my magazine to meet my target audiences needs and it is important and conventional to have the model looking directly at the camera as it gives direct mode of address to the reader which is conventional and attracts them to buy the product.

Progression from my preliminary task to my music magazine front cover When I looked back at my preliminary task front cover, I realised how much I had improved when

comparing it to my final front cover. The skills I have used in Photoshop have been improved from the preliminary task which is obvious as a lot more things are on my final front cover and I have learnt how to use layers. With developing my skills on Photoshop it has helped me to produce a professional and conventional front cover. In my preliminary task, I didn’t really know how to use Photoshop so I left the photo as it was and didn’t edit the background or cut my model out. This is an example of developing my skills as in my final front cover, I have used the quick selection tool to erase the background to add a different coloured background. With the genre of the magazine being rock, I researched the rock genre to see what they wear and purposely asked my model to wear these clothes so my magazine look conventional. Whereas beforehand, if I had no experience or research in making a magazine, I wouldn’t really know what to do, which is shown in my preliminary task as it looks very basic compared to my final front cover. In my preliminary task, I have used the same font for every feature which is not very conventional. In my final front cover, I have used a range of fonts and also made them different colours. Although my preliminary task follows the conventions of a 3 coloured scheme, it doesn’t really follow codes and conventions of a magazine and it looks unprofessional but on the other hand, my final product follows the conventions of a magazine therefore it makes it look more professional and realistic. I think doing the preliminary task allowed me to get to grips with how to use Photoshop which then made the process of my final front cover easier to do.

Photography

In my preliminary task, I used a bridge camera which didn’t really give the photo a good quality. I also didn’t use the studio with lighting to take the photo and I didn’t edit it in Photoshop so it looked unprofessional. In my final music magazine front cover, I used my Canon EOS 1000D to take the photo, so therefore it is better quality. I also edited it a bit in in Photoshop which made it look more professional on my front cover. I knew when doing my preliminary task that a mid shot was conventional for a magazine but the photo I used in my preliminary had too much negative space which looked dull. I used the same knowledge when taking the picture for my final front cover but I took the photo as a closer medium shot so therefore the image had less negative space. I realised that if I have negative space, it takes away the focus of the model as there is too much blank space which creates a distraction.

Comparison of products

The plug is a conventional feature but it takes up to much space on the page.

The barcode is big which distracts the reader, it should be smaller.

The text is quite hard to read which is not conventional

The photo has a lot of negative space which is distracting

The text of the masthead is the same as the rest of the features which doesn’t follow conventions

The barcode is smaller which is less distracting and also I have included the date and price and issue number which is more conventional

I included a plug but I made it smaller and put it at the top as it still attracts the reader but doesn’t take up to much space

I have used a range of different fonts and colours as this makes the magazine look more appealing and conventional

I have used a skyline and also a footer which is conventional and also allows me to add more features and text to my magazine to make it more appealing.

I used dafont to create the font for my masthead, which makes it more interesting and fitting to my genre

I have included photos to the cover to add a range of different features. This makes it look conventional and more filled.

Conclusion

Overall, I think the preliminary task was useful and it made me confident when making my final product. It enabled me to create a better outcome. If I hadn’t completed the preliminary task I think I would have found it more difficult to make the music magazine as I wouldn’t have learnt about the conventions and my music magazine would have looked unconventional. The preliminary task abled me to practice using the necessary technologies and I was able to look at my preliminary task and take the mistakes and learn from them, improving my skills for the producing of my music magazine.