Looking back at my preliminary task, what do I feel I have learnt in the

progression from it to the full product?

•Looking at the front page of my preliminary task and my music magazine task I feel that I have made huge developments in terms of layout and composition of text, images, titles and sell lines that are used in my music magazine.•Through research of other music magazines such as Vibe and NME I learnt how to format my music magazine so that the images, texts, titles and sell lines were positioned in a way that looked clear and concise so that the page did not look overcrowded and audiences are able to find certain things without difficulty as to where they are. This was aided by the editing programme Photoshop.•Looking at the preliminary task you can see that there is only two colours used in the copy. By researching other music magazines I found that most music magazines use three predominant colours thus I incorporated this colour feature into my music magazine.•I also found from my research that all music magazines should have a main image of the music artist it features in one of the articles on the front cover. In most cases however music magazines have only one image on the front cover of a artist. I chose to differ from this typical convention as I felt that having a girl group as my main image makes it equally stand out. As you can see in my preliminary task I used one main image.•In my preliminary task I used lots of images as I thought that each sell line has its own image. I later found this was not the case and for that reason I chose only to have the main image on my front cover as it looks classy as well as only a few sell lines.

*The background I chose for my preliminary task was black. This did not complement my main image as the artists costume was also black and white. This made it look like the artist was faded in with the background giving it an unprofessional look. Therefore for my music magazine I decided to use a whole image of the girl group in greyscale, this made the image stand out as the colours of the font contrasted the image.•In my preliminary task I did not use a masthead as I did not know what is was hence the reason the overall front cover looked unprofessional. In my music magazine however I used a masthead which allowed me to display additional information about the magazine and added to the typical music magazine realism.Futhermore certain words such as ‘Plus’ and ‘2011’in the mast head I used a different colour for the font to make it stand out from the rest of the page therefore more likely to grab the audiences attention.•In both the preliminary task and the music magazine task I used the colours white and yellow in my copy. This is because firstly the colours are neutral colours therefore have no reference to the male or female gender and secondly both the colours stand out on the black background.•The poses in both magazines differ completely. The pose of my main image used in the preliminary task is a shoulder length shot whereas the shot used in my music magazine is a long shot. I personally think that the shot used in my preliminary task was sufficient enough to use as part of a magazine. This is because it is a typical feature that all magazines use a shoulder length shot. However for my music magazine I chose to use a long shot as it enhanced the overall look of a kind of ruthless but down to earth girl band. I believe both the poses used in the preliminary task and my actual music magazine were used in a way that portrayed the genre of the magazine. However again as my Photoshop skills developed greatly from my preliminary task to my music magazine I think that the image used in the music magazine endeared a professional element.

•Reflecting back from my preliminary task and now looking back at the front cover of my music magazine I can see that I have made a large number of improvements on how to sufficiently lay out a magazine. For example where a masthead goes, where a title goes and where to put things like images and sell lines. Ways in which I made these improvements was done through research of other similar magazines. Also with a better understanding of magazine layouts I was able to carefully select certain features of other magazine front cover layouts that stood out to me and picked out elements that I liked from them to create a layout that was unique and my own which I used in my music magazine front cover.•Another improvement I made along the way was how to manipulate images in order for them to look professional and fit into the layout of the front cover as well as fitting in with the genre I had chosen which is R&B. For example the sizing of images, the colours of images, positioning and lighting effects I learnt how to adjust and manipulate these things with the aid of the editing programme Photoshop. Although I used Photoshop for my preliminary task I felt that I still was not familiar with how to properly edit and how to use some of the tools in order to create the ‘perfect image’. By the time however I came to doing my music magazine I felt that I attained a great amount of skills that allowed me to successfully produce a music magazine which I feel looks quite professional.•Although I attained a number of skills doing my front cover page of my music magazine I still faced a few difficulties, for example the initial music magazine front cover I produced was crowed with lots of text and images. From feedback and opinions I was told that I should use less text and images so that the audience can see exactly what the magazine is about thus the information is straight forward and clear. I did use less images and text for my preliminary task however again based on feedback and opinions I found that I used to little images and text. From this I have learnt that it is vital that I try and get the right amount of text and images so that the audience can clearly see what is where and no information is mislead. I also learnt that the amount of text and images used of a front cover is vital as it is one of the key components in drawing and catches the audiences eye when they look at commercial magazines like my music magazine.

•Looking at the contents page of my preliminary task and the contents page of my music magazine I feel that I have again made huge developments in terms of layout and composition of text, images, sell lines and colour that is used in the background and the copy.•Again through research of other magazines such as NME,Vibe and Rap Up, I learnt how to format the contents page so that the text,titles,images,sell lines and page numbers were positioned in a place that looked clear and concise so that the page did not look overcrowded and the audiences know where exactly everything in the magazine is. The composition of the layout was aided by the use of the editing programme called Photoshop.•Looking at the preliminary task you can see that only two colours were used which was red for the title and white for the actual contents and page numbers. These colours were against a black background. In hindsight this looked effective although the overall content looked simplistic for a number of different reasons. The first reason being the black background took up majority of the page which gave the contents page a dull look therefore the actual contents did not stand out. Through research I learnt how to contrast backgrounds with the copy. For example in my music magazine I used a black background as it tied in with the whole R&B genre this was easily distinguished as I used a predominant white and red colour scheme which reflected against the black background thus making the content stand out . This was something I did in order to catch the audiences attention.•From my research I also learnt that contents pages should have a number of images which relate to the actual content of the magazine for example in my music magazine I had a sell line saying ‘Free Poster’ alongside this sell line I had a image which represented the actual larger version of the poster. This was not illustrated in the contents page of my preliminary task I had two randomly positioned pictures. This was because my knowledge of composition was limited. I also learnt that most music magazine contents page have a main image alongside the smaller ones. This was not displayed in my preliminary task again due to my lack of knowledge. Comparing my music magazine contents page and the preliminary task contents I can say that the contents page of the preliminary task was extremely basic and simplistic as it had minimal images, no actual main image and limited sell lines and no subheadings. Looking at my music magazine you can see that it contains each of the conventions mentioned above that i did include in the magazine.

•The background colour of both my preliminary task and actual music magazine is black. In my preliminary task the background made the two images that were present stand out however it looked unprofessional. This was again due to the lack of Photoshop skills and lack of layout and composition knowledge. However the black background for my music magazine complemented the contents page as it fitted in with the genre as well as fitting in with the yellow and white colour scheme as the images. All in all the background made the text and images stand out.•In both the preliminary task and the music magazine task I used the colours white and yellow in my copy. This is because firstly the colours are neutral colours therefore have no reference to the male or female gender and secondly both the colours stand out on the black background. It also works well with the images which ties in with the genre of the music magazine.•In my music magazine I used a range of models which displayed different shots. This made my magazine look like an actual music magazine as each of the music had props which had musical connotations. The image I used for my contents page for my preliminary task as no resemblance to my front cover therefore made it look really unprofessional as it has no connotations that related to the theme of the magazine.

•All in all looking at my contents page of my preliminary task and my music magazine it is evident that I have made large improvements in terms of layout,text,images,subheadings and sell lines.Without the research I think that I wouldn’t have excelled in learning the skills that I have now attained to create a professional looking contents page. With the help of Photoshop and other tangible music magazines I was able to find out exactly how contents pages are laid out and what typical conventions they use so that I incoporated then into my music magazines contents page.