I treated my preliminary task very differently to how I treated my music magazine as I was naïve towards the length of time needed for the production process and also the skills needed to use the programmes sufficiently. However, these were things I learned while doing my preliminary task therefore this helped improve my confidence with the programmes and gave me experience with the tools I needed for my music magazine.
I was extremely unsure and indecisive towards what to do for my school magazine which made it quite challenging as I wasn’t taking the correct steps towards progression. These steps ensure the research helps the planning, the planning helps the development, and the development helps the production. With my school magazine I didn’t follow the steps as closely as I should have; this meant the production was delayed. I underestimate my timing which made my final product become rushed. I was unsure of my layout and main image which are the main factors of the magazine therefore proving my work wasn’t following my research close enough and the planning wasn’t extensive enough. Taking all of this into account I feel my preliminary task isn’t as good as it potentially could be as I didn’t follow the process correctly and I didn’t use my time efficiently.
However, I made sure I improved upon my preliminary task by learning from my mistakes and taking a higher interest in the topic; this was easy as I was extremely positive towards the music topic as I knew I had the knowledge and interest to create a successful magazine.
I was determined to improve on my school magazine as I wanted it to look professional. To ensure this happened I used my time effectively by researching a large amount of front pages to ensure my knowledge would benefit my own design. This research helped me determine a plan for my front page which enabled me to contact my model and plan my shoot around his upcoming concert. This planning helped as it produced a solid photo shoot that fitted with my time scale, therefore proving that planning ahead and contacting your resources early allows successful plans to be made.
This was something I learnt from my preliminary task as it was an improvement as I didn’t plan my photo shoot sufficiently which meant my images weren’t of the highest quality. I used the most convenient place which was my school field, this lack of planning reflected in the quality of the images.
I personally feel I have largely improved between my preliminary task and my final product in terms of the development, construction and the understanding of media in terms of the technology and features used. By looking at my previous work and research done to produce it I feel I have made progress as I improved upon my mistakes for my final piece. By using the programmes I would use throughout the media course for my preliminary task I was able to understand InDesign, Photoshop and Blogger better due to the extensive practice.
This is my preliminary front cover of my school magazine next to my final front cover of my rock music magazine. There is a visual transition that shows a significant difference between the two tasks. As you can see the preliminary task was extremely beneficial as it gave me a working knowledge of the programmes and tools which I later improved upon for my final piece.
As you can see they are very different in terms of the layout, colour scheme, features and choice of model. However, my preliminary task has some similarities to my music magazine in terms of the colour scheme of the text and where it is positioned on the page. They both also have similar boxes at the bottom of the page. However, I improved the similar features by altering the colours to make them stand out more to make it a better quality than my preliminary task.
I took a different approach towards the main image of the music magazine as the school magazine benefited from a group of people as it shows the unity of schools and the gender was chosen due to the school I focused on. For my music magazine the image benefited from a completely different approach due to the research I studied and the genre I chose. Using my preliminary task I was able to learn how to refine an image to suit the genre.
I decided to edit my image more than I did on the preliminary task as it needed to be striking as it presents an atmosphere. I feel it makes the image stand out more which makes the magazine look more professional as you can see by comparing the two front pages.
I used a similar colour scheme and location for the main text as these colours stood out well against each other and the other colours on the page. On both the preliminary task and final piece I knew to only use small pieces of text on the main page as it should only consist of headings and minor detail. I improved the text on my final piece as I made the main piece of writing larger and bolder to stand out more, the rest of the sentences then decreased in size each time. This was done to make each line stand out more as the sentences are too similar on the preliminary task.
I made a huge mistake on my preliminary task by using an image that wasn’t mine; therefore I corrected this in my final piece by using only my own images. This was an improvement as it meant I didn’t lose any marks. My preliminary task taught me how to fill the necessary space on the page without overcrowding it; therefore I used a similar layout
I created boxes of information on my preliminary task to hold small pieces of text in an interesting way. I took this forward on my music magazine as I knew it worked well and created useful features to add text without overcrowding the page. However, I altered the design slightly as I had developed new skills which enabled me to make changes to the conventional box and make it look more interesting. This highlights the progression from my preliminary task to my final product.
The title is an important part of the magazine as it is a constant feature that aims to attract the audience and make them remember it by the design. My preliminary tasks title was very unprofessional as the choice of colour didn’t stand out very well on some of the background. The design was poor and looked very false as it blends into the background which is very unsuccessful. I improved my final product by creating a better title. I made it larger and bolder which made it stand out. I used a contrasting colour to the background and used a simplistic font with a slight italic effect to make it more striking.
This is the transition from my preliminary school magazines contents page to my rock music magazines contents page. The progression is clear as you can see my increasing skills put to use in terms of the layout, image and colour scheme. There is a clear difference in terms of the layout as my music magazine follows the generic forms and conventions of real media products. However, my preliminary task follows the generic forms and conventions of other magazines in the same genre as it therefore the difference is due to the different topic.
For my contents page in my preliminary task I used 3 images to illustrate different aspects of the school. This filled the empty space on the page and gave the page interesting features to balance the large section of writing. This wasn’t what I wanted on my final piece as music magazines benefit from large, single images that stand out without being crowded by other images. I made sure my single image was of high quality and edited to include the same professional aspects of my researched images. The comparison shows the success of my music magazines single image compared to the three of my school magazine as the music image has been edited better and used in a successful way.
My preliminary task has too much writing as it labels every page however this is a generic form of a school magazine. I changed this on my final product as my research indicated the contents page highlights features not labels of every page. Therefore I improved on my design by making the smaller amount of text more interesting to read, it stands out more due to the colour scheme and different sized fonts. This is clearly better than my preliminary task which appears very basic compared to my final product.
The titles are quite similar as they are the exact same font, both use capital letters, they both use lines to frame them and they both use contrasting colours. My preliminary task has a successful title as it stand out and includes the colour scheme successfully. My final task is very simplistic as it uses a colour to contrast the background colour, it uses capital letters to stand out and a very simple font.
I used the same font as it was successful on my preliminary task and fitted well with my music genre as the flicks off the letters were commonly used on rock magazines. This highlights something I took forward from my preliminary task as I learnt what fonts work well for the headings.
This is my music magazines double page spread which was not required to produce in the preliminary task.
Overall I feel there has been a positive progression from my preliminary task to my final product which can be seen when comparing the two. This was achieved through my growing knowledge and understanding of how to use the programmes and software to ensure successful construction of the professional product I aimed for. I feel due to my preliminary task I was more aware of my time therefore managed it better in the final product as you can identify by the success of it.
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