Question 7: Looking back at the preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to a full product?

 

By doing my preliminary task I have learnt many skills to help me produce my full final product. The main thing being learning the different conventions of a magazine and what the names of different parts of the magazine are called such as 'mastheads', 'cover lines', 'selling lines' and others. These have all helped my magazine reach a higher quality standard as I now understand where to place cover lines, what shot I should use for my front colour, how important the font I use is to the way my audience sees it. Having looked at my preliminary task I feel that I have improved a bit because the layout of my cover was a bit messy and rushed and the image could have been resized better. The end result of my preliminary task looked more like an incomplete product.

I also learnt how to create a double page spread which was not present in my preliminary task and this also helped me learn how to challenge myself more using the photoshop software. My preliminary task only needed me to use the text and resize tools to complete the two pages. I didn't have to edit my pictures for my preliminary task and this might have reduced the quality of my images. I felt more challenged to do so with my final project.

I put in more research and time after my preliminary task and I feel that this has helped me bring my final project to the standard that it is now. I feel that because I done my audience research I was able to understand what readers want to see in the media that they read, this helped me narrow my target audience and focus more at looking at magazines that have a similar audience to the product I had in mind. I learnt how to ensure that my audience wasn't a broad one which would confuse everyone unlike my preliminary task which has a specific audience and will be found only in colleges. By having a magazine that would be circulating I found that it is important to make your magazine attract a certain type of social group.

I still do think that if I could make another magazine having done both my preliminary task and the final product I would be able to make it more professional.