Preliminary task, school magazine compared to music magazine

What do I feel I have learnt in the progression from it to the full

product?

This is my preliminary task front cover and my music magazine front cover

Photography

• I think one of the main things I have improved while making my magazine is the photography. In the school magazine we didn't really have much to work with, we had school cameras, not a lot of time and not a good environment or background to create a good image from. As it was for a school audience we couldn't exactly make the models look pretty with makeup on, or nice outfits or a bright white background as it wouldn't of suited the magazine. Whereas with the music magazine you could create whatever look you wanted too and you had more time to get the perfect image.

Angle and size

• In my school magazine the image is a medium shot. But it doesn't take up the whole page. This makes it look less conventional and takes a way from the image as its not the main thing on the page. But on my music magazine I have a medium close up picture, this makes the celebrity look a lot more powerful and influential as its the main focus of the page.

• The angle of both shots were both eye level which grabbed the audiences attention and made the picture more personal. Although the eye level shot works a lot better in my music magazine because its close up and more appealing.

Cropping and edits

• On the front cover of the preliminary task there is a lot of background taking away from the actual photo whereas with my music magazine I cropped it so there wasn't a lot of background and she was the main feature on the page.

• With the preliminary task, as well as busy background it isn't the brightest and most striking of photos. But with my music magazine photo I edited it quite a lot to add the professional look. Here’s a before and after:

Layout

• The layout on my preliminary task was very poster like, the picture only took up a bit of the page, and the line down the side separated itself from the magazine. Everything just seemed to look dumped and not placed properly. The editing and pasting wasn't done well and most things looked pixelated. Whereas with my music magazine it has a very new fresh look, with just one picture on the front and everything surronding around it.

Typology

• On my preliminary task I just thought it would love good to just get as many different fonts and font sizes on my front page as possible. But looking back it really doesn't look good so on my music magazine I learned from that. To make it more professional I kept with the same typography throughout and changed the size throughout. I also used the same font on the contents page and the double page spread. This is to keep the same look throughout as that's what famous magazines do. I also tried to keep with the same colouring throughout. I kept with the red and pink look throughout. I liked the colours of red because I think it symbolises passion, and my magazine gets across peoples passion of music and their obsessions.

Mast head

• My preliminary task mast head was very childish with the bubble text writing, but I did this because it was for a different audience than what my music magazine is for. I chose to call it choices as the students had a lot of choices to make over the next few months. Whereas because its so young it doesn't look very professional, more like a poster than a magazine. I got it from a don't website to have purple as the background I had to spend a lot of time colouring it which makes it look pixelated. My music magazine mast head is clear and readable. I think it stands out quite well and grabs the readers attention as its bright red. I think on a shelf it could be very recognisable.

Conventions

• On my preliminary task I have seen other things since then I have had to work on, they include the fact my magazine front cover had no website, no date, no issue number and no price.

Layout

• With ‘contents’ sprawled across the page it makes it look quite messy and more like a poster. So I worked from this in my music magazine as it was neatly placed in the corner, with the date and a play on the colours that run all the way through my magazine. I also added a play on words with a title not just contents, also obsessions of the week, which works with what my magazine is about.

• In my contents page on the preliminary task the pictures are collaged and placed everywhere possible which made it look less real as its so messy. The pictures don’t have page numbers on so you don’t know what anything is for, or how to get the article. So in my music magazine contents page I made sure I put the numbers on the pictures as well as on the words.

Layout

• On my preliminary task there are no conventions like page numbers so in my music magazine I put page numbers along with the name of the magazine in the corner to keep it going through out the whole of it. The features of what is on every page was in boxes and randomly split round the page in my preliminary task. But in my music magazine the features are in columns, keeping it conventional. I also put titles onto things like exclusive to make it more professional. Once again all the writing is the same font.