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

Final music magazine front cover.

College magazine front cover.

• From looking at my preliminary task compared with my final front cover, I can clearly see the improvement I have made to my skills since the beginning of the course. Compared with my preliminary task my final front cover looks more like a professional magazine due to my increasing understanding of  conventions of a magazine product.

•Throughout my coursework I have learnt and gained an understanding of the conventions of a music magazine. This has helped me to produce a media product which looks and is recognisably a magazine due to the use of simple conventions such as the main image, mast head, headline and cover lines. Therefore, this has helped me create a media product which looks professional and unique because it is not the same as any other existing magazines.

•I have learnt how to properly use tools that I was already aware of on Photoshop and gained knowledge of tools and functions which I didn't know were available. These new and improved skills on Photoshop have helped me create a media product which matches the conventions of a magazine successfully. The image on the front cover of the college magazine is cluttered and not well composed. Whereas, with the main image on my final media product it is clear, in focus and is clearly a mid shot (which is the more common type of shot seen on the front cover of existing magazines).  The cover lines and headline on my final media product are clear and easy to read, whereas the cover lines and headline on my preliminary task don’t stand out and are lost within the image. I think this is down to my initial choice of colour scheme as the colours were not opaque enough to stand out from the page.

•If I was able to change my final product,  I may try to increase the presence of the heavier-rock genre as it is pretty stuck on the indie-rock genre. However, this can be seen as a good thing since it will devote more attention to artists of this genre. Therefore, more people who are interested in that type of music will read the magazine. I would also include more pictures on the contents page of other acts to show the variety of rock music so the product caters for a wider spectrum of readers.

•It was useful carrying out a preliminary task as it helped me understand what skills and techniques I would need to learn in order to produce my own music magazine. It increased my awareness of what types of shots, layout and articles feature in a magazine which create interest for the target audiences and in turn would lead to the creation of a successful media product.