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

From looking back at my preliminary task I felt I have learnt a lot in the process of basic as well as advanced skills in order to produce a successful media product. There were many key conventions which I was not aware of when completing my preliminary task however I have learnt them a long the way when producing my final media product.

The Front Cover As you can see from the preliminary task to the final piece there is a massive change. One of the main convention which I learnt was that the main image is the selling point of the magazine therefore needs to be big and stand out, you can clearly see this change in my final product as the image is the main focus to the readers whereas the image on my preliminary task was fairly small and not as eye-catching as it could have been. This is because there is two images presented on the front cover which are both similar sizes so it does not show the level of importance of the images.

The Front Cover

I also learnt the importance of filling space as if you have loads of gaps on the magazine which is shown on my school magazine then the magazine does not look appealing and you would not want to read it. With my final media product you can clearly see all text and there is not many gaps this is because I made sure there was enough text to fill the page.

The Front Cover Another key convention which I learnt in the process of making my media product is including sell line and a strap line. these two conventions help to draw the attention of the readers and should be quirky and fun so the audience would like to read, as you can see for my preliminary task my strap line for my magazine was ‘Sporting Success’ which sounds boring and not attention grabbing and I did not present a sell line for my school magazine. However for my music magazine I decided to have the strap line of “Who said dance music is dead?” this makes the readers read on to find out what the quote actually means which can be done by reading the article and I also included a strap line which was ‘Read, Rave, Repeat’ this is very catchy and memorable which makes the magazine more exciting.

The Front Cover

A key concept which I learnt was to make sure that the main story was noticeable this was by enlarging the image but also the main stories title, this was important as it was the selling point of the magazine however I had not shown this on the school magazine therefore developed and presented this on the music magazine.

The Contents PageOne main feature which I learnt when producing my magazine is the idea of continuity throughout the magazine. I have shown this for my music magazine however failed to do so for my school magazine this is because the colour scheme of the background is no longer the same whereas for my music magazine there is the same background as well as the same main story is presented on the contents page which is clear as it’s the largest image on the page making it the most focused on whereas on the school magazine it is not entirely clear what the main story is and the same model for the front cover is not shown on the contents page.

The Contents PageTwo important factors which should be included on the contents page for a magazine is a section for ‘Features’ as well as ‘Regulars’. I have learnt that this is important to be presented on the contents page of the magazine as when looking for inspiration every magazine included both therefore making it a key element for the contents page. I believe that they are important to be included because it gives the readers an idea of how the magazine works and whether it is best suited to them.