Question 7: Looking back at your

preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in

progression from it to the full product?

PRELIMINARY MAIN TASK

Planning & PreparationDuring my planning and preparation of the preliminary task I concentrated mainly on the layout of cover lines, splashes and sells, and used sketches to do so and to help me to decide which looked best. Because of this, I felt I neglected to plan my choice of fonts and the photography, which are both very big aspects of the process of making a magazine. When it came to the main task, my focus was a lot less on this aspect of the magazine and more on models, locations, potential fonts and making sure that all of which matched the genre conventions of my chosen genre. When deciding on a model for the preliminary project, I just used a friend who was available at the time I needed to take the photo’s, whereas in the main task I took people’s appearances and whether or not they look as though they fit in to my genre into consideration. PRELIMINARY

MAIN TASK

I didn’t think about the connotations or effect of image location at all during the preliminary project, and I think in the final product this was obvious as it has no relevance to the conventions of the particular magazine genre. After noticing this, I made sure I put a lot of thought in to planning of locations for the main task. I used magazines from my chosen genre such as The Fly and Clash as reference and inspiration when choosing my locations for all of the photography. I also took into consideration the health and safety of the locations, as I originally had some ideas that worked in theory but would have been dangerous.

Organisation Of Time• I didn’t set myself any deadlines during the preliminary task and found myself rushing to get

parts finished on the day of the final deadline. • Because of this, I decided that I needed to set myself deadlines for each part of the main task,

and have a way of organising and keeping track of these deadlines.• I used a website called time toast

which allowed me to create a timeline where I could see at a glance what I had to do and when for.

• I found this really useful and I felt I hadprogressed a lot from the preliminaryproject in terms of time management due to this.

Technical Photography Skills• When it came to the technical photography of my main task images, I concentrated a lot of angles, and made the most of the slr camera by using settings such as the portrait setting. • In the preliminary task, all the photos were taken at the same angle and the same shot type, which was a medium close up at eye level, which I found looked really boring and repetitive. •Because I noticed this, I made a conscious effort to take different shot types and angles, such as an extreme close up, wide shot, and two shot. I also used some different angles including a high angle shot.

PRELIMINARY

MAIN TASK

Conventions Of Magazines• When working on my preliminary task, I didn’t pay much attention to how similar in

magazine looked in comparison to real magazines. I think this showed in the final product, as the cover didn’t look very much like that of magazines I looked at during research, which had brighter, clashing colours, and more splashes and cover lines than I used.

• Because of this, I made sure I looked a lot closer at conventions of pre-existing magazines. I made sure that I kept the front cover looking very minimal, as this seemed a big convention of real indie/electro magazines. I also made sure the double page spread and contents page were very image heavy, as this also seemed an important convention of the genre.

Image heavyMinimal and bare

Preliminary

Main Task

Consideration Of Target Audience• I did research my target audience fairly well during the preliminary task, and learnt

that this was a really big help, so I focussed a lot of my time on target audience research during the main task.

• It helped with everything from choosing font styles and models to colours and the layout.

• One way I improved my research from the preliminary task was I spoke to actual members of my target audience about what attracted and interested them. I set up a Facebook group where I posted my ideas to members of my target audience to get their feedback.

Preliminary

Main Task

Biggest Thing Learnt

• I think the biggest thing I learnt throughout the whole process of the coursework is the important of extensive audience research, and how much of an effect this can have on how successful your magazine is.

• I found considering the target audience’s opinions every time a decision had to be made was very helpful.

Targets From Preliminary Task

The targets I set myself from the preliminary task were:• Use more appropriate fonts and consider the

effects/connotations of fonts more.• Research the target audience’s needs more

thoroughly. • Take more visually interesting photo’s.

I think that in the main task I met these targets quite well, as I was conscious of the areas I wanted to improve throughout the task.