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

Front Cover

Looking at my preliminary front cover straight away you can see lots of space and lots of flat generic colour when you compare it to my music magazine. In the preliminary piece there are large areas of purple and green that don't have anything on top and it leaves a huge space where as on my music magazine I have a lot of black background but it's got details on top of it wether it be a list of articles, the social media plugs or the masthead. The music magazine has more conventions of a real media product such as the barcode and the price tag however my preliminary piece does have the issue number but it doesn't give a date like my music magazine does. The typography is better chosen on the music magazine, especially the construction of the masthead; it's detailed and visually more impressive than plain text underlined like that of the preliminary. The badge on the music magazine is a good detail that just adds more professionalism and a clear difference between the two is the amount of effort and care taken in the layout and piecing together all the components of the front cover. It's easier to see a house style on the music magazine; you have the masthead section cut off by a red bar and the bottom section cut off by the vinyl and red bar whereas on the preliminary it doesn't look like you could replicate the style and yet change the contents.

Contents

Looking back at my preliminary contents page, it was very flat and lacked depth. It also lacked detail where as I believe my music contents page is a more realistic design. The music magazine I believe is more in line with the brief where as the preliminary doesn't seem to portray the correct theme. The music contents page has more thought behind the design as it resembles a music festival lineup where as the preliminary just seems thrown together with minimal editing. My music magazine looks much more like a real magazine with the subscription offer however my contents page from my preliminary could be in a leaflet, a book any real media product, it doesn't have a sense of belonging.

Photos

My preliminary task photos were taken using my smartphone; HTC One V whereas for my main task I used a Canon 7D DSLR Camera for much higher quality photos and the DSLR also allowed me to shoot different photos and gave me more flexibility. Also I only took 5 photos for my preliminary and didn't think much about the location, props or gestures the model was making however for the main task I took over 50 photos in a planned location (the subway) with specific clothing on the model and doing specific poses to tie in with the target audience. The actual editing of the photo was a process which took more time on the music magazine as I had more of an idea of what I was doing and what I wanted to produce where as for the preliminary I cut out the background and then changed the saturation slightly, I certainly learnt more about photo manipulation.

Conclusion

Overall I feel that what I produced for the music magazine was leagues above over what I produced for the preliminary, with a clearer theme and a better replication of real media products the music magazine shows more skill, time and precision in production and is more complex and developed as a result. Some of the feedback I got here http://jackgirvinasmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/preliminary-task-peer-evaluation.html on my preliminary task is that it didn't really do the purpose that it required whereas I feel my music magazine is much more reflective of a real music magazine.