Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progressions from it to the full product?

Looking back at the preliminary task I have learnt so much in the progression of the full product, particularly the key conventions of a music magazine. My preliminary task, a school magazine, was highly basic and I only used the simple Photoshop tools such as inserting text and simply cropping images. Also the images I used were of a much lower quality and didn’t follow the simple conventions of even mid close up. I have learnt about what is needed, specific conventions, to make a magazine stand out to a certain audience. My school magazine was not consistent, I now know that consistency in colour schemes, font, text, topics etc is vital in making the magazine look professional.

Also I have learnt a lot more about how important audience is and how certain media institutions actually manipulate their products to attract certain audiences rather than just make it and hope. I now understand different genres and styles and how differently they are portrayed. When making a magazine you need to consider the audience, the text, what institutions you would attract, the conventions you need to follow etc. It is not as simple as just adding texts and images to a page. All magazines need certain conventions; masthead, storylines, tagline, puff, in house trademark, main image etc.

GenderMale 9 60%Female 6 40 %^ This told me that the males and females that would listen to my music is reasonably equal and therefore I wasn’t going to make it a gender specific magazine. I learnt this also from the preliminary task, I made the colour scheme and task a little too basic and therefore I needed to make it elaborate yet still not gender specific.

Audience Research results: (For my preliminary task I did no audience researchwhich for the full product I realised was necessary)

How do you consume music?Phone11 73%Radio 2 13%IPod (ITunes) 8 53%You tube 8 53%Other Music sites 4 27%

CDs 3 20%Other 2 13%

^ From my audience research I also learnt a lot of ways in which people actually consume music. This helped me when thinking about advertisement I could use for my full product, for example advertising apple I pods. Also the fact I needed to consider multiple consumer preferences, for my preliminary task the content was focused too much on a certain style and therefore did not meet audiences needs.

What do you think should be on the front cover of a music magazine?Music Artists 14 93%

Upcoming Music Concerts/ Festivals6 40%New Albums 5 33%Main Stories 9 60%ITunes/ Downloads 1 7%

Different Music Gadgets 17%

Offers/competitions 5 33%

Other 0 0%

I also took into consideration what people would want on the front cover of the music magazine, before for the preliminary task I did no audience research and therefore wasn’t sure what was best for my front cover. My results show that artists were most popular and needed, also upcoming concerts and festivals which I used in media product. I also included Main stories and Competitions in my piece.

What colour schemes would you like to see in a music magazine?Black, White and Red 13

87%Black and Neon 5 33%

Green and Blue 1 7%

Yellow and Purple 0 0%

Pink and White 1 7%

Neon 0 0%Reds and Browns 0 0%

Other 1 7%

Again I took into consideration audience research when making my music magazine. Black and white I have used consistently throughout my magazine with the occasional blue and red, and neon colours which as the results show were the most popular of choices. For my preliminary task I did not use a colour scheme and therefore when seeing the finished product I realised that it was needed.

I now have developed my knowledge and understanding on many

conventions and aspects through out the process of making my media

product…• The advantages of using a digital SLR camera over a phone camera

• A developed understanding of photoshop• Expanded knowledge on certain programs: blogger,

slide share, imovie, soundcloud etc.• Learnt how to use a blog- update post, embedded

slide share pots, creating pages etc.• Learnt the typical conventions needed in a music

magazine and any magazine• The need for clarity and consistency• Considering audiences and institutions (distributers)

when making the product