Q7 LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK (THE SCHOOL MAGAZINE TASK), WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO FULL PRODUCT?

Looking back at my preliminary task, I have used basic skill in terms of typography, photography and QuarkXPress as well as Photoshop Adobe CS6 however my skills have improved throughout the process of achieving my final outcome.

 First of all, for my preliminary task I have created a magazine cover and contents page with a simple white background. At this point as I had never come across Photoshop or Quark therefore my preliminary task turned out to be awful in my opinion however it did provide me valuable practice and an introduction as it provided me the freedom to experiment with tools, font and style of my typography as well as the layout, I found the software program very difficult to use at first as you can most likely acknowledged though the image of my friend on my preliminary task cover page presented with rough edges and lighting which could have been improved by adjusting the contrast and brightness on Photoshop. In regards to Quark, during my preliminary task I did not find it as difficult to use as Photoshop, however I have also improved my skills on this software program as well in terms of importing images, layout, text font sizes and style which have defiantly improved my project……

Looking back at my preliminary task, I feel that I have become increasingly aware of the codes and conventions of my magazine which is incredibly useful for building and construction a convincing magazine. Due to the R&B music magazines such as XXL and Vibe i have analysed for my research as well as though questionnaires, I now understand the codes and conventions such as clothing attire and how gender if represented, language used and what the audiences are genially interested and what draws them in to purchase magazine. Another example of this is the skyline on the magazine. Skylines usually provide factual information or persuasive language to draw the audiences in, however I have used artists names such as Tinashe and Chris Brown instead which i believe is more powerful in terms of attracting the magazines audience as it has some mystery behind it. I believe that just by addressing the names of the artists themselves, it triggers curiously within the audiences as they would want to know how the artists are featured in the magazine specifically; it provides the reader a slight information which can be important later on in the magazine. I have learned a considerable amount of featured from my preliminary task to my final outcome through analysing other magazines as well as R&B videos that have helped me to achieve a somewhat professional look which appeals go the eye of the viewer/audience.

Nevertheless, I have also improved my skills in terms of photography. I think that my main photo shoot progressed much better then in my preliminary task. The reason for this could be due to the fact that I had planned my Photoshop and have researched into poses to give my models an idea of how they should look like. Here are the photos I have given to my models to inspire them:

The reason I have planned my photo shoot is because it allowed me to use a variety of poses which i then had to pick and choose from my photographs therefore I could visually see what kind of an impression I want to give to my audience though my magazine in contrast to my preliminary task where I did not researched or used poses in order to inspire my model for my school magazine. More-ever due to my misguidance and organised photo shoot of my preliminary task, I have learned that I have to organize my photo shoot properly in regards to clothing attire, lighting and cameras in order to meet the conventions of R&B magazines. However I have chosen smart clothing for my artist Young-Z, instead of him being topless as I wanted my magazine to be different as the usual poses attract the audience while still addressing some codes and conventions of the R&B genre.