Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression

from it to the full product?

My Preliminary Task

For my preliminary task, I had to produce a front cover and contents page for a sixth form magazine, therefore my target audience were students and my secondary audience were friends and family of students. The magazine genre contrasts greatly with my final product of a music magazine but the same aspects were to be thought about, therefore I found it extremely useful making a sixth form magazine as I understood basic codes and conventions which are present over all genres of magazines. Analysing the sixth form magazine [click here to see my annotations] which I had made also helped me to further understand how to represent genre and how to attract my target audience.

Front Cover

Front Cover

I think that I improved on my skills to develop a successful front page for a magazine, as my music magazine looks more professional and includes many more codes and conventions than my sixth form magazine. Firstly, I have included puffs on my final product which stand out and can be identified easily by the reader. Puffs boast about other content of the magazine therefore may attract a larger audience. Also, I have used both a tagline which is in the position of a skyline and also another runner across the bottom of my magazine which gives it an overall more professional look. The fonts stand out more on my final product, as the serif font used on my sixth form magazine is rather hard to read from a distance.

Front Cover

However, I have incorporated some codes and conventions from my preliminary task onto my music magazine (final product).Firstly, I like the used of superimposition of the model in front of the text on my sixth form magazine, therefore I used the same technique on my final magazine, since this suggests that the magazine can be easily identified through other aspects such as the house style. Also, I have used a similar layout, with the cover lines and various other text positioned around the model, with the most important anchorage text on the left hand side, since the reader will tend to read from left to right. Codes such as the date were important to include on both products also, because it is vital information for the reader buying the publication.

Contents Page

Contents Page

I think that my contents page has improved massively in comparison even with my front cover.I much prefer the layout that I have used on my music magazine, and think that it fits well with the genre, and also with placement of images and text.As well, the masthead is larger and stands out more, making it obvious that it is a contents page, where as in my preliminary task, the ‘contents’ title is rather small and barely noticeable. I have included a greater number of codes and conventions on my final magazine such as an editors letter and ‘subscribe now’ puff. In other words, I have addressed my target audience more efficiently on my music magazine contents page than on my preliminary task.

Overall, I think that carrying out the production of my preliminary task helped me a lot when thinking about my final product. I feel that my photography skills have improved greatly from my preliminary task, since the main image on my sixth form magazine is in an unconventional position, where as the artist is facing the front with direct mode of address on my music magazine.Furthermore, my knowledge and skills in Photoshop had improved when creating my final AS product as I used more effects and tools. For example, on all three pages of my final magazine product, I used transparent boxes and puffs, which I created with different shapes on Photoshop . My preliminary task looks very unprofessional in comparison therefore.Another aspect which I feel that I have portrayed better on my music magazine is the consistency of the house style, as there is a very dominant colour scheme made up of red, purple and black and white. The magazine logo ‘NG’ is also apparent throughout my magazine and shown in the corner on each page, establishing a identification.