Q7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Research

To start thinking about creating a magazine I needed to research the codes and conventions of real media products so I had a clear understanding of what was needed to make it successful. I chose the genre of my magazine to be indie alternative so started looking at media products such as Q and NME. These magazines don't focus on one particular genre of music but cover many instead which makes it appeal to a wider range of people. When using the internet for research I learnt that most magazine front covers use a medium close up for the main image with a direct mode of address to the audience.  

Planning

After handing out several questionnaires to my target audience I learnt what they wanted to see in a magazine, this made it easy to create what should be a successful product. I learnt about publication plans and how they are a good way of planning out the guidelines and structure to my magazine, this was helpful as when I came to creating the magazine in photoshop and quark I already knew exactly what was going to be in it. Before I took pictures of the artist and models used in my magazine I planned out which type of shots I was going to take so that I had a rough understanding of what to do in the shoot. I made sure that I took a lot of images so that I had a fair few to play around with and see which one fitted best.

Photography

As I took photography at A level I had quite a good understanding of how to use a camera and get good images. I needed to make sure I portrayed the genre of music through the image taken so I dressed my model in casual clothing with striking make-up. I used a Canon 500D to take the images for my music magazine, I learnt from my mistakes on the college magazine where I found it difficult to crop the main image as there was too much going on in the background, therefore I made sure that the model for my music magazine was standing against a plain background so that it was easier for me to cut out on photoshop or give me the option of sticking with the original background all together. I learnt about using props to represent the genre of magazine, for example headphones and microphones signifying music and talent. 

Journalism

After buying several NME and Q magazines I read many articles that helped me recognise the style and layout of real media products. I used friendly/modern language to create a relationship between myself and the artist, I also did this so that my target audience could relate to it. I used the structure that I found most common for music magazine double page spreads buy placing one large image of the artist on one of the pages then writing the interview on the other. I made the question and answers different colours to make them stand out. I used a purple colour scheme for my double page spread which I think worked well with linking it all together.

From making my college magazine at the start of this task to my final product you can see the clear progression made, my photoshop and quark skills developed a lot and I was able to create a magazine that I think looks real and genuine. I learnt about the layout and size of texts needed on a front cover. There is a lot of blank space on my college magazine where as on the final product it is mostly filled up with words and information about what is going to be in the magazine. 

There is a very clear difference in the quality of the content page from my prelim work to the final product work. You can see that after doing research I learnt about the use of columns on a content page, the offer of a subscription that will appeal to my target audience, the structure and layout of the whole page, the understanding of higher quality pictures to make the magazine look professional. I also learnt about the importance of having different features each week but also having regular content available to the reader.

It was the first time that I had ever used the quark editing programme so it was all new to me, therefore it took a while for it to become easy to use. You can see that my first attempt at creating a double page spread didn't work out too well, there are no colour schemes and the images don't really fit around the text. I feel that my skills on quark developed the more I worked with it, you can see the the final outcome of my magazine worked well, the structure and layout is like a common magazine and the colour scheme works really well with the headphones and text.