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

have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Planning and preparation.

I found I improved instantly in my main task by taking care to plan and prepare everything I was going to do, something I failed to do so when creating my preliminary task.

I found that using blogger was a brilliant way to keep up to date with my work and see what had been completed and what was still outstanding.

The only preparation I did for my preliminary task was research in to existing student magazines, looking back now if I were to complete the task again I would spend more time researching the target audience as I found that was incredibly helpful and a brilliant starting base for my main task.

Time Organisation.I found that I didn’t organise my time well enough during my preliminary task as I spent to much time on my cover and not enough on my contents.

I knew that because I had more to complete in my main task I’d have to organise my time more successfully and using TimeToast was a brilliant way to do so. I was able to set achievable deadlines in a easy to understand format. I found that doing so helped my improve the quality of my work as I was able to check what had been done and what needed to be improved with ease.

I know that my lack of organisation was a huge downfall through out the creation of my preliminary task as I hadn’t realised it would be as time consuming as I thought. This has definitely helped me to create a much better magazine cover, contents and a new double page spread as I was aware of exactly how long each page would and should take.

Photography Skills.

The requirement for the preliminary task was to use a medium close up shot. I found taking photographs easy as I study photography and I am familiar with various shot types and angles. I also found Photoshop easy to use again due to being familiar with the programme. I used Photoshop to boost the lighting, whiten the teeth and blur the skin slightly to give the photograph the cover girl feel.I chose a female as the magazine is aimed at a female audience, I chose a white jumper as it stands out against the pink gradient background.

Photography Skills.

I used a long shot for my cover as I felt that it is more of a convention in the genre of music I wanted to use. I feel it also helps the cover look more interesting and reflects the genre more. I wanted to take the stereotypical idea that newspapers and that pose are deemed to suit the ‘indie’ genre and use it to suit the R&B/Rap/Hip Hop genre instead. I chose newspapers as they connote the idea of mainstream and being up to date. I also chose to use a higher angle to show the pose more and how laid back the model is, the angle is normally used to make a person look small/isolated however I wanted the angle to emphasise just how laid back the model is and to show a feeling of cockiness. I used a lamp to illuminate the photograph more and create a brighter setting.

Photography Skills.

I used a medium close up of the model from behind to challenge the convention that all woman are just there to be looked at, admired and seen as a sex object. Having my model face away from the camera suggests otherwise.I chose leopard print clothing as they connote fashion and the idea of a leopard is quite high status.

The smaller photos I used for the bottom of my contents were taken at eye level so the audience can react to them easier. I again positioned the female looking down, away from the camera with out seeing her body to create a more emerged idea of females.

Photography Skills.

I used a medium close up photo taken at eye level as the idea behind this photograph was to show the models softer side away from the cockiness seen on camera. I chose the tiger onesie as it suits the theme of showing off your stripes and introducing yourself to the genre. I used standard house lights as I didn’t want the photograph to have a ‘professional’ feel as that would ruin the feel of taking down his guard and letting the world in to his more personal life.

Conventions.I used..

- Masthead – ‘Identity’- Issue Number- Main Sell – ‘Stay Calm like the

professionals’- Cover Lines – ‘Miss Saigon’- Strap Lines ‘Auditions now in

progress’, ’Find out how, inside’ and ‘Previous student shares secrets and tips on how to survive the fame!’

- Bar Code- Cover Photo – Medium Close Up- Reversed Out Cover Line – ‘Exclusive

Secrets’- Price- Puff – ‘Act, Dance, Sing?’- Serif Font – ‘Identity’

Conventions.I used..- Masthead – ‘CA$H & MUS!C’- Barcode- Reversed out cover line – ‘YOUNG

RUSH’- Main Sell – ‘No One Would Sleep With

Me At High School’- Strap Lines – ‘Now not even Rihanna

can say no’- -Cover Lines – ‘Plus’ ‘20 Songs Of

2012’- Date – ‘December 2012’- Price – ‘£2.49’- Issue Number – ‘Issue No. 15’- ‘Cover Photo’ – Long Shot- Sans Serif Font – ‘CA$H & MUSIC’

Post Production SkillsI feel I have improved my Photoshop skills as I learnt how to whiten

teeth and eyes which is something I wasn’t sure how to do before I started production. I also improved my airbrushing skills and how to cover up blemishes. I watched various YouTube Videos on how to do these and I am pleased with the result.

InDesign was the programme I knew I would struggle with as I have never used the programme before and wasn’t familiar with how to do even the basic tasks. I struggled when it came to my preliminary task as I was unsure what I was doing.

I used various YouTube videos to teach myself how to use tools such as text warp, cutting out and placing text.

I feel that I have definitely improve my skills whilst using a desktop publishing programme such as InDesign and I feel a lot more comfortable using the software.

Target Audience

For my prelResearching iminary task I didn’t research the target audience at all, I used my own knowledge of what friends and myself were in to and went from there. That was mildly successful however I found that when I researched in to my target audience for my main task and placed my research on to blogger I was able to succeed more as I had the information in front of me.

I feel that researching your audience definitely helps as you can see what exactly people are listening to it, wearing, eating and doing. It’s much easier if you have the information in front of you when it comes to production as you can choose themes that will interest them more.

What Have I learnt?

- I learnt how to use the text wrap tool on InDesign which before the production side I had no clue how to achieve this.

- My photoshop skills have gone from basic to a more advanced level, I can now use the airbrushing tool, whiten teeth and eyes and warp images to make you look thinner.

- I have learnt the conventions of a music magazine focusing especially on rap/hiphop and R&B.

- I have been able to experiment with new programmes such as InDesign.- I have more experience using my slr and trying different aperture settings.- I’ve had more practice with using the cut out tool on photoshop.

How Have I improved?

This is a print screen from my blog, they are the targets I set myself when I completed my preliminary task..

I personally think that I have met all three targets, I ensured deadlines and stuck to them using timetoast, when I couldn’t meet these deadlines I made a blog post with a realistic deadline.

How Have I improved?

Setting deadlines helped me keep my work in order, I was able to see what was done and what was outstanding. It was important to set realistic deadlines in order to keep on top of everything.

How Have I improved?I used various tools whilst using photoshop that were more advanced than I was used to, this included airbrushing, whitening teeth and using the warp tool to make the models in the photographs appear skinnier/bigger when ‘necessary’.

I also spent a long time doing my target audience research and created various prezzi’s and blog posts. I found researching the audience helped me dramatically as I knew exactly what they liked and were in to.