1) Having completed the preliminary task helped the student's skills for their final product, as they were able to apply what they learned about magazine conventions and layout. 2) Feedback from the preliminary task was incorporated into the final product, such as using varied fonts and bold text to draw attention. 3) Elements from the preliminary task cover, like advertising and plug placement, were carried over successfully to the final cover. Research and conventions analysis for the final product was also easier due to experience from the preliminary task.

1. PRELIMINARY TASK FINAL PRODUCT

2. When it came to creating my final media product, I realised just how useful the
preliminary task had been. The skills I had learnt and developed during the preliminary
task all came in very useful when creating my final product and I feel that having the
chance to ‘practise’ a front cover before doing the real thing enabled me to gain knowledge
in magazine front cover conventions because of the conventions analysis we did at the
very start of the Media Studies course, the layout of a magazine front cover after doing
digital drafts of our first front covers and how to experiment with the colour scheme of the
cover as result of making mood boards in the planning and research stage of the
preliminary task.
When I was in the process of constructing my final product, I carried over the feedback I
had been given from my teacher in the preliminary task and made sure that I applied it to
my final product. This was advice such as keeping the text on my front cover short and
catchy because it takes up a lot of room on the front cover and also because the audience
don’t want as lot of text to read on the front cover of a magazine. I was told to use a range
of font styles and experiment with the size of the text on my front cover. A large, bold text
is good to highlight any key words that you want to catch the audiences eye and draw
attention to because perhaps it might be the main feature story of the magazine and may
be the reason a lot of people buy that particular issue of the magazine.

3. Although it is clear that my skills have definitely developed and improved between the preliminary task and the
final product, this comes as a result of doing the preliminary task. During the making of my final front cover I
was able to transfer skills and elements of the cover I created in the preliminary task and incorporate them in
my final front cover. I chose to use the skyline, advertising the social media links on which the magazine can be
found as I thought it was relevant to my magazine because of the social group my magazine is targeting and
their hobbies and interests as social media is big part of millions of people’s lives nowadays.
I also chose to put the plug in the same place on my final product as I did on my preliminary task front cover
because I thought it filled the space well and also because it seemed quite conventional to have the plug in that
position on a magazine cover.
Another thing I used from preliminary task was the banner at the bottom of the page which, on both front
covers, is advertising something extra that would be of interest to the target market and is something extra that
may encourage or give people another reason to buy the magazine.
Finally, because of feedback I received about my preliminary task cover, I decided to to use a different range of
fonts and font sizes to make the cover of my magazine look much more creative and aesthetically pleasing. BY
using bolder fonts in a bigger size, it is a way of attracting the audiences eye straight to a certain area of the
front cover of the magazine.

4. Having done digital drafts of possible layouts for my preliminary task front cover, when it came to
doing mock-ups for our final front cover, I found that my existing knowledge of a layout of a
magazine front cover made this task much easier as I was able to use the templates I had created
and use them to create successful mock ups of a magazine for the genre of music I chose by using
artists well-known within that genre for my main cover image.
Although I have not positioned some of the conventions in exactly the place on the mock up as
they were on the template, I have still included them all on the google mock up in some way. It was
hard to layout the google mock up in exactly the same way as the digital draft because sometimes
one thing would take up more room than I had anticipated and sometimes things just looked
better in one place compared to another.
Preliminary Task Digital Draft Google Mock Up

5. Preliminary Task Conventions Analysis Final Product Conventions Analysis
Another thing I found much easier to do as a result of having done the preliminary task prior to
creating the final product was my research. When I came to the planning and research stage of the
project, I found that doing conventions analysis became much easier as I had an idea of what
conventions to pick up on and how links can be made between the magazine front cover and the
target audience or feature stories within the magazine, for example. I feel that having previous
knowledge of conventions analysis by the time it came to creating the final product allowed me to
re-do it, for my final product, in much more depth and detail. I think this is because I was much
more interested and had more knowledge of the genre of magazine for my final product than I did
for genre of the preliminary task magazine and I also think that it is because my knowledge of
magazine conventions and media terminology had expanded so much in the gap between the
preliminary task and the planning and research for my final product.

6. Overall, from doing the preliminary task to completing my final product I would say that a number of
things have improved. My magazine overall looks much more professional and this comes as a result
of being much more experienced in Photoshop and having more knowledge on the genre of the
magazine and a better understanding on my target audience by the time it came to creating my final
product because of the amount of planning and research we had done in comparison to when I created
the front cover of a college magazine for the preliminary task. As a result of my improved skills in
Photoshop my main cover image looks much better as I have inserted the coloured background much
better and the image in general has been edited to a much better standard which I think has a big
impact on the appearance of the cover.
My planning and research is also much more detailed and accurate which allowed me to create a much
better final product because I had a much better understanding of the audience I was targeting and the
market that would consume my magazine, as well as a bigger interest in the genre of magazine we
were asked to create for the final product as I am likely to buy a magazine however it would never
cross my mind to buy a college magazine.
By combining my own personal interests and
what I would like to find in a music magazine
with my thorough research and planning of my
target market I feel that I was able to create a
successful product that appeals to the market it
was intended for and also one that looks
professional and it is work that I am very proud of.