Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have

learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

By Rosanna Todd

Preliminary task-front cover for a college magazine

Main task-front cover for a music magazine

1) I think that I have learnt a lot in terms of progression from my preliminary task to my main task. This is evident in my work in the main task through the following points:

•The picture in front of the masthead

•The effects on the text (shadowing and outlines)

•Creating a flasher

•The use of a header

•The editing on the main image

2) All these points show that I have learnt more about the technology I have used e.g. Photoshop and the photo editing program I used called “picnik”. It is also clear that I have learnt more about the codes and conventions of magazines e.g. the use of a header, the page layout, and creating specific coverlines that would appeal to my target audience.

Preliminary task-contents page for a college magazine

Main task-contents page for a music magazine

From looking back at the contents page I created for the preliminary task I can see that I have progressed a lot in my understanding of making a media product. This is shown through the following points:

•The layout of the page for the main task looks more realistic because of the way there is one main image and several smaller ones.

•There is an editorial in “Exclusive” but not in “Your college”

•The subtitles are more consistent and clearer to see (more noticeable) in “Exclusive”

•I have edited the page numbers more on the images by putting it in a star shape.

I think that my contents page for the main task looks more realistic and professional. This is because of what I have learnt in terms of what existing magazines include, and how these magazines are set out. I have learnt these code and conventions from the research that I conducted in the planning section for the main task. I have also learnt more and developed skills in using the program “InDesign” which I used to create the contents pages. This is evident in my work because there is a clear improvement from the preliminary task to the main task.

For my preliminary task I did not have to create a double page spread. However I feel that I have learnt a lot about the codes and conventions of magazines in general and

also magazine articles. I decided to do a question and answer styled article for my double page spread as this is what other magazines of this genre included. Therefore it attracts more to my target audience. Through making the double page spread, I now

have a deep and more knowledgeable understanding of how to create a music magazine, as it involves features which attract the audience I am targeting my music

magazine at.

How have you developed your skills and knowledge since you constructed your preliminary

task?

I feel that I have developed my skills and knowledge since I constructed my preliminary task because of:•A better understanding of how to use the software on the computer when constructing the magazine•Analysing existing media products and learning the codes and conventions of them so that I could apply this knowledge and use the features in my music magazine•Having more time to be able to construct the magazines-this means that I was able to spend longer on making sure that the different pages looked professional and realistic.