The student learned several important lessons from their preliminary task that they applied to their main task: 1) They did not read the preliminary brief carefully enough and did not meet all requirements, so for their main task they read the brief extremely carefully. 2) Their skills in Photoshop and InDesign improved dramatically between tasks as they applied new techniques for the main task. 3) They conducted much more research for the main task, learning about conventions and expectations of the target market. 4) Time management was a challenge for the preliminary but they allowed enough time for the higher quality main task.

1. Question 7 – Looking back at your
preliminary task what do you feel
you have learnt from it to the full
product?
Dylan Oakes

2. The Brief
For my preliminary task I had to: using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the first
page of a new school/college magazine. Featuring a photograph of a student on medium close up plus
some appropriately laid out text and a masthead. Additionally the candidates must produce a DTP
mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of the program.
 I believe that my school magazine front cover matched the brief quite well. However, my
photograph was of more than one student and it was in long shot not medium shot. Therefore I
didn’t read the brief properly and didn’t produce exactly what was wanted.
For my main task I had to: produce the front page, contents and DPS of a new music magazine.
 I met this brief exactly. I read this brief extremely carefully after I didn’t follow my preliminary task
brief exactly. I believe that I have learnt to read the brief exactly and I will carry this skill on into the
future

3. Skills in Photoshop and InDesign
When starting on my preliminary I only had basic skills in both InDesign and Photoshop. I used these
basic skills to create my preliminary task front cover and I didn’t use any other skills or learn any new
skills for my school magazine front cover. My preliminary task didn’t exactly have any image
manipulation and I just used the exact picture that I took on the camera. I also used basic InDesign
skills. Whereas my main task I heavily used Photoshop for example on my main artist on my front
cover. I also use different skills on InDesign that I didn’t on my preliminary task for example text warp.
Therefore, I believe that my skills in these two programmes have developed dramatically since my
preliminary task and this is present in my main task products.

4. Research
During my preliminary task I was asked to create a school magazine. Therefore at this point I had
extremely limited knowledge how music magazines were laid out and their conventions. Since doing
my research and especially my textual analysis’ I have gained a lot of knowledge of how music
magazines are supposed to be laid out as well as their conventions. In this case my knowledge has
grown dramatically since my preliminary task. In comparison to this I did hardly any research into my
preliminary task brief so I had very limited knowledge on school magazines. I learnt from this and did a
lot of research into music magazines which led me to create my products.

5. Target Markets
For my preliminary task I had no idea about the expectations of my target market for a school
magazine. This stopped my preliminary task from being a lot better than it was. However, for my main
task I did a lot of research into my target market. I learnt from my preliminary task and this helped me
a lot. By knowing exactly what my target market wanted, it allowed me to create the products tailored
to the target market. In this case I learnt that market research is a key element to creating a media
product. Also target audience was a lot harder for my music magazine which meant that I had to do a
lot of work into it compared to my preliminary. This paid off as I believe that my products fit my target
markets extremely well.

6. Time Management
Time management was a huge problem during my preliminary task as I basically rushed it to reach the
deadline which was around a week before I started it. Obviously, I learnt from this and realised that
time management was key with this course. So, once I finished my preliminary task I got through all of
my research and reached the deadline on time. Then I had a lot of time for production which allowed
me to make quality products rather than a rushed product. This is a huge learning curve for me and
shows large progression from my preliminary task.

7. Postmodernism
For both my preliminary task and my main task I have applied the postmodernism theory. This is
because I have use existing magazines to use a similar layout to use in my music magazine. This,
however, is an important aspect as I wanted my magazine to be constructed with the conventions of a
music magazine. Therefore, I have learnt that the postmodernism theory does apply when creating a
music magazine and it does also highlight the importance of using this theory in order to create a
music magazine which follows conventions.

8. Preliminary Task Compared to Main Task