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

From looking back at my preliminary task, the quality of it is much poorer than that of my final product, and I think the majority of this is down to the fact that I have learnt from the mistakes I made during it. From doing the preliminary task I was also able to learn more about the different features on all the programmes that I used and so was able to make the most of them.

Underneath is my preliminary task and then on the right is the front cover of my music magazine.

As you can see on the left there appears to be little organisation to it regarding articles, and there is a header and footer which are far to large. Then looking at my music magazine the articles are positioned in a professional way and there is no header or footer.

Additionally the image in my preliminary task is of a poor standard as I mentioned in my Voki, and also the surroundings of my model is far to busy. This is why in my music magazine I have only used white backgrounds in order to completely avoid this problem.

Also the names of articles are difficult to read on my school magazine and so when creating the front cover of my music magazine I made a conscious effort to ensure that the text was easy to read.

 Once underneath is the contents page for my preliminary task and then on the right is my final contents page for my music magazine.
Things in my preliminary task that I have progressed include:

The layout of my articles as in the school magazine they are not even in line, and so when making the contents page of my music magazine I made sure that everything was in line.

Furthermore there is a lot of space around the page (especially around the articles) which I tried to avoid in my music magazine. This space on the school magazine prevents the page from looking professional and so this is an area that I really had to prevent.

Overall from doing the preliminary task I learnt to look at the finer details a lot more in order to better the appearance of my music magazine as a whole.

Success Criteria of my School Magazine:
Text in red is how I changed this for my music magazine

1)  When I take my photographs I must ensure that there will be a simplistic background as when I made my school magazine the background was very detailed and this prevented the focus of the page going on the subject. I did this as I used a white background for all of my images, except the review.

2)  I must pay more attention to detail because in my school magazine the design was very 'blocky' and this did not fit with the image and so in my Music Magazine I will have a constant theme throughout. In order for me to do this I will create a mood board. I definitely paid more attention to the finer details see overlap of image of models arms on contents page.

3)  The images that I take must have the correct lighting in order to focus on the intended parts of the image and yet not take away any detail from the image. In order for me to do this I will use the white back drop and lights.I made a conscious effort to ensure that the lighting was correct and giving the image a positive vibe.

4)  The image that I take for the front cover must be portrait so that it fits the shape of a magazine, because when I made the school magazine the image did not fit all of the intended space which is why the whole page turned out looking 'blocky.'The image on my front cover filled up the whole of the page.

5)  The school magazine must have a strong colour theme as when I made the school magazine I felt that this was a successful point as it tied the page together.I used a colour theme throughout the whole of the magazine, which was red, black and white.

7)  The subject on the front cover must fill most of the page as this is the most important feature of the magazine and so would need to stand out. This is because this is the image that would persuade people to actually read the magazine and that is the idea of the magazine. In my school magazine I do not feel that I did this very successfully and so will pay more attention to this for the music magazine. In order for me to do this I will take the image with a lot of background and then crop it down on the computer so that I can get the ideal size for the magazine shape. The main article on my front cover is clear as it is in red, a contrast to the other articles which are in black.

8)  Before I begin making the music magazine I must have very conclusive hand drawn designs which allow to decide upon the layout of my magazine very easily, because in my school magazine I do not feel that my hand drawn designs were very strong and so this meant that I was unable to have a vivid picture in mind as to what my magazine will look like. I made several hand drawn designs in order to create my music magazine.

9)  The model in my Music Magazine must be dressed in clothing that goes with the theme of my magazine, I feel that in my school magazine this was successful as the student was dressed in formal sixth form clothing as you would expect. I have used appropriate clothing throughout my music magazine, which is expected of a singer.