From their preliminary college magazine task to their final music magazine product, the student learned skills in research, planning, and production. For research, they conducted an online audience survey and market research using Google Images and PowerPoint. For planning, they created layouts/flat plans in Publisher and a style sheet and pitch in PowerPoint. In production, they progressed in use of fonts, color schemes, layout, photography, and writing style by learning new software like Photoshop and conducting research on their target audience.

1. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? From the progression between the preliminary college magazine task and my final product I feel I have learnt skills and lessons from the technology I have used. There are three main areas in which I feel I have progressed and this is in research, planning and production.

2. Research For the preliminary task, the research we carried out was not specifically for college magazines however just magazines in general. This meant I did not gather information that was relevant to the genre of magazine we had to create for the task. This effected my preliminary product as it meant I was not aware of what was need to appeal specifically to my target audience. Progression to my main task: Audience Survey- the technologies I used for this part of my research was a software website www.surveymonkey.com. The skills I encountered for this research was being able to create my own survey using the internet, ordering questions and using communication skills.The lessons I learnt from this include: to use straight to the point questions to get the answers needed, to make the survey is accessible and relevant in order to make sure people complete it, to use the internet as an easier less time consuming way of collecting the information needed. From not completing any audience research in my preliminary task I realised that it was difficult to create features of a magazine without knowing what appeals to my target audience. Therefore in progression to my final task I have carried out a large amount of audience research. By using an online survey in particularly I have learnt that hen it is published publicly less concentration is need and therefore I received some inappropriate and irrelevant answers. In progression to this I therefore videoed a personal one to one answer to my survey which proved to be a lot more reliable. Market research, Analysing existing products- For completing my market research I sued Google images and Microsoft PowerPoint. The skills I encountered for this task were textual analysis, presentational skills and how to use a PowerPoint. By doing this I learnt how to identify features of existing products and what features I need to recognise and create in my own product. I also learnt about how presenting ideas is effective. Creating a survey and ordering straight to the point questions.

3. Planning For the Preliminary task, I d no planning for my pages. I had thoughts in my head however never presented these therefore I either forgot them or they were not relevant. This therefore meant I created layout, writing style, photography and colour scheme on the spot therefore I was constantly making changes to my product. Progression to my main task: Layout/flat plans – the technology I used for this part of my planning was the software Microsoft Publisher. The skills I encountered for this were recognising important features of magazines to include and layouts of existing magazines which I found in my analysis of existing products. Style sheet and pitch – the technology I used for this part of my planning was Microsoft PowerPoint. The skills I encountered for this I needed my research to use. I had to identify features of existing rock magazines including colour, font and images. I then used skills to develop these into my own ideas for my own product. I then used a pitch to plan my target audience and identify and average reader. From planning I learnt that I can create a more successful final product using plans by experimenting with research then developing these idea to my own magazine. This makes my product accurate and relevant with the use of my existing product and audience research.

4. Progression Areas- Production Fonts: College magazine- I used fonts which I found on Microsoft Publisher. These were plain, simple and the only editing I used was the fill tool. Music magazine- I downloaded fonts from a website www.dafont.com where I could search through the choice of themes in order to find rock style writing for my pages. This shows progression from my preliminary task as after researching existing magazines and my target audience I have identified font as a feature in which should represent the target audience social groups. I have also progressed from using font in my college magazine I have then used effects on my writing in which i have attempted to make appealing to my audience and fit the music rock genre. These tools include drop shadow, stroke, free transform, colour pick and I used a wide variety of fonts.

5. Progression Areas Colour Scheme: College magazine- because Icarried out no audience research, I used colours that appealed to myself and therefore not to the target audience of my magazine. I used a lot of white which was not done purposely however it is due to the unused space on my pages. I then used just black and one other colour which was red fading into green. I used Publisher for this and the only tool i used was fill colours. Music magazine- when researching existing products and my target audience I learnt about colour connotations and what colours are associated with the rock genre and what colours would appeal to my audience. I therefore used three colours which had connotation of rock which are associated with the stereotypes of my target audience. I planned these colours in my style sheet which shows experiment and then I developed one of the colour schemes onto my final product. In progression I used a more advanced software Photoshop and learnt to use tools such as free transform, drop shadow, colour picker and stroke. Red, white and black. Connotations of assurance, rebellion, confidence

6. Progression Areas Layout: College magazine- I have a very basic simple layout for my preliminary task. There is a lot of unused space due to my lack of planning however it does have some features of a magazines due to my existing knowledge of general products. I used Microsoft Publisher to do this and the tools I used were the shape tool, text and image inserter. Music magazine- after researching existing rock magazines and my target audience I found a busy layout was what I need to create to appeal to my audience and be relevant for my genre. To do this I planned different layouts and features of a magazine I found in analysing existing products with flat plans and developed one of these onto my final pages. In progression from my preliminary task I used a more advanced software Adobe Photoshop and edited my layout through tools such as rulers, text, image inserter, free transform, layers etc.

7. Progression Areas Photography: College magazine- I took my photographs without any choice of setting and mise en scene. However because my magazine was a college genre, the location being York college worked well. I made no plans for my images meaning a lacked photographs for my contents page and smaller images for my front page. To edit them I used crop in Microsoft Publisher. Music magazine – I made photography plans including location, shots, models and mise en scene and therefore used these to take the right amount of images and the kind I need to fit the layout of my product. After researching my audience I used these too represent the social groups of my audience through their stereotypes including eye contact shots to represent confidence and assurance. I edited my images in Adobe Photoshop where I used crop, free transform, brightness/contrast, rulers, levels, rotation, lasso tool and eraser.

8. Progression Areas Writing style: College magazine - My preliminary task has no main story, however it does include a list of contents and headlines in which I made up whilst putting the pages together. Music magazine – I did a lot of planning into my main article for my final product. I researched existing magazines in order to identify terminology , social dialect and specialist lexis in order to appeal to my audience and have relevance to my genre. I planned the content of my main article and certain words and phrases. http://rachelahudson.blogspot.com/2010/12/writing-my-article.html My writing style therefore has terminology relevant to my audience and genre and it is a lengthy well written article due to my planning. http://rachelahudson.blogspot.com/2011/02/my-finished-article.html