Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task (The School Magazine Task), What Do You Feel You Have Learnt In The Progression From It To Your Final Production?

Front 1

Research and planning- how have your skills developed and what benefit has this had on your work?

Back 1

My skills have developed drastically since the preliminary task. Such as, I have learnt that the right lighting is key when taking a photograph, costume and props are important as they signify different meanings, specific colour schemes are often used on magazines, how to use Photoshop in a useful way and much more. This is clearly evident in my final production as compared to my prelim task.

These skills that I have gained have benefited on my work because without all the research I have done, I wouldn't of achieved my successful final magazine and it would have most likely looked like the preliminary task which I had done in a short amount of time.

Front 2

Did you produce work more in line with professional practice as you have a more detailed understanding of the forms and conventions of real media products?

Back 2

I did produce work more in line with professional practice as I now have a more detailed understanding of the forms and conventions of media products. This is because, from a lot of research I have discovered that the genre of magazine I created they have a lot of similarities, such as a strict colour scheme, one person on the front cover, a lot of reference to rappers, connects with money, gangs, expensive jewelry, branded clothing and much more. If I didn't have the detailed understanding of the forms and conventions that I do now I wouldn't of been able to achieve the magazine which I created because I believe you need a lot of practice and research to make something successful.

Front 3

Did you manage time better?

Back 3

I definitely managed my time better on the actual magazine I created compared to my preliminary task. This is because firstly I done a lot of research for my magazine then I made a plan of which element of my magazine I would do each day. This worked out a brilliant idea as I finished my final magazine just on time, whilst in the preliminary task I rushed huge amounts.

Front 4

Was your work well planned?

Back 4

My preliminary task wasn't planned at all, as I drew one sketch of the magazine and then completed it on Photoshop, this was also very rushed. Whilst in my final production my magazine was very well planned due to the amount of time I had to complete this and the amount of research I completed to make my magazine give off a 'professional look'.

Front 5

Construction- comparing the images:

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Front 8

How did your skills develop using software and hardware and how has this improvement evident in your work?

Back 8

As you can see, there has been significant improvements comparing my primarily task and my final production. With camera skills, I learnt from researching that camera angles are very important when creating a specific genre of magazine, for example rap magazines usually have low angled shots to show the models dominance and importance.

I also learnt about layout and the importance of it. In my primarily task I just placed the content anywhere, not caring where it when but through research I have discovered that layout is key. Usually in rap magazines cover there would be a big title but the model would be in front of the title and this is showing their importance, also the cover lines would be all around the model except from in some occasions that the main cover line would go over the model but this is usually because the main cover line is about them. In the DPS usually the whole left hand side of the page would just be one main image of who the article is about with a quote in the corner as this is also showing their importance.

The text to image ratio in my final production I thought about a lot. I found out that the images were much bigger than text on most magazines and this is what I achieved on my own final production, yet in my preliminary task I didn't even know about it.

My prelim evidences that I didn't pay attention to the use of models for the specific genre of magazine at all however my main task uses the forms and conventions of professional texts more. For instance I had to search for models that would fit the typical rap magazine look which I believe I achieved successfully.

The use of fonts in both magazines I chose to keep the same font running throughout. However, in my prelim it was a lot more simple and unprofessional fonts whilst in my final production after research my font was still simple, yet had a much more professional look to it.