1. 7. Looking back at your preliminary
task (the school magazine), what
do you feel you have learnt in the
progression from it to full product?
2. Front Page
• In my opinion I have improved massively since the start of my
preliminary task to my music magazine. My school front cover was
minimalistic and simplistic, in my opinion it’s quite dull and doesn’t
sell very well. It doesn’t conform to enough of the conventions in
order to draw attention which I think my music magazine does. It
doesn’t include enough sell lines or anything interesting e.g. a puff
or skyline. Considering what I am able to achieve now in my opinion
it’s too simplistic. The only aspect I like is how I laid it out, although
if I were to re-do it I would pay more attention to the photos and how
these were shot as I could’ve done a lot more to make them more
interesting. In my opinion a lot more research went into my music
magazine and this is a contributing reason as to why it has come out
so successful. In addition when I created my school magazine I
wasn’t familiar with the programs e.g. Indesign and Photoshop and
have developed greater skills and knowledge on how to use them
whilst creating the magazines.
• As I have continued through these tasks I have learnt different terms
and conventions that need to be applied in order for the magazine to
be successful e.g. strapline, skyline, puff, masthead, sell line. Which
then need to apply to the rule of thirds and the Z theory.
5. Contents
• My preliminary task and my AS task contents pages differ
entirely. I can clearly see a major difference. My contents page
for my school magazine lacks a sense of individuality and isn’t
attractive or engaging to the eye. Something I did well with my
school magazine contents was my ability to include a variety
of photos which I then also did in my music magazine as it is a
typical convention of magazines.
• In my opinion after my preliminary task my skills have
developed entirely and has enabled me to create a realistic
looking music contents page. From the preliminary task I think
my typography skills have improved massively and my keen
eye to use different fonts and placement of fonts has got better.
I didn’t realise how important planning was in the first task
and threw my contents page together whereas with my music
magazine I had to think closely how a professional magazine
would look and how the layout will affect my audiences
perception. By doing this it lead me to create many different
contents pages.
8. Time Management
• Learning time management
• During the school magazine I panicked with timing and this
lead to me to not do as much research as I could have, I bared
that in mind when creating my music magazine and managed
my time well by creating a schedule to ensure I didn’t get
myself into a similar issue with this task.
Throughout my AS task I ensured I kept a tight schedule to
allow me to complete the work at a comfortable pace without
being overloaded with work. The schedule allowed me to
finish my magazine at an earlier date so I had the time to make
changes and improvements so it was at its best standard.
• My free periods were spent in the media suite as I wasn’t able
to download the necessary software to complete my production
at home. Though I had a schedule I didn’t think it pressured
me at all, I treated it as a piece of homework or a task that
needed attending to at a specific point and it helped me a lot in
the long run.
9. Improving with Programs
• InDesign was a difficulty for me during my preliminary task
and I wasn’t confident in using the software as the tools
confused me. As I progressed onto my AS work, I gained a
greater knowledge on the tools and what things did what and I
think by having an awareness of some of the tools from my
preliminary task it enabled me to broaden my range of skills in
the second task.
• Editing in my opinion was a major aspect in the success of my
magazine. Considering I didn’t have access to PhotoShop at
home I used a website called ‘BeFunky’ which allowed me to
edit my photos to a good standard with a variety of tools
available. I was comfortable using this editing site and knew
how to get the best result with my photos.
In my point of view I am a lot better at editing photos in this
task compared to my preliminary task as I am more
adventurous with my editing and know how to manipulate
pictures to get the best end result.
10. • Overall I think I have dramatically changed by
comparing the two tasks. I think personally I was more
interested in the second task and I had a greater control
over what I did by being able to choose what genre of
music I wanted and how I wanted it to look. I think it has
ultimately affected by quality of work.
• I think I took it more seriously and understood how each
convention impacts the quality of the final outcome, I
took my photography more seriously which overall
impacted my outcome making it seem a lot more
professional. I also took the opportunity to use different
programs to create texts and interesting versions of puffs
to ensure my magazine would stand out. This furthermore
ensured that the outcome of my music magazine was a lot
better than my school magazine.
