2. Comparing my two products
Looking at my preliminary task and comparing to my final foundation product, I can see
similarities and differences in skill and quality. I can see how I carried through the skills which I
learnt from my preliminary task and still included aspects such as a unique eye catching
masthead, a top bar, a gradient background etc which I learnt were important in my school based
magazine production. I also carried forward techniques which I had learnt such as adding a
personal, hand made touch to my magazine to make it seem unique and special (I did this with
pins on my contents page of my preliminary task and with hand drawn arrows and lollipops in
my contents, and paint splashes in my double page spread).
However, I can also tell that I have improved a lot in my skill of creating a magazine throughout
this process as my foundation task product looks much more professional and realistic than my
preliminary product. I believe a lot of this is because I have learnt much more about the forms
and conventions of real life magazines which I think is obvious in the differences between pages.

3. Planning
• One of the major differences between the process of creating my preliminary task and
the process of creating my foundation task was that I spent much more time and
effort in planning every aspect of my foundation task, from the masthead design, to
the photo shoot ideas, to articles and even to the magazine‟s name whereas a lot of
my school based magazine was done on the spot with only a small amount of general
planning done in my initial ideas stage.
• I learnt that planning is a critical and essential stage of the process when creating a
professional looking product as you can‟t just rely on luck for your creation to go well-
you must plan each thing to assure that you are choosing the best idea for your
magazine.
• I did many more drafts when creating my music magazine as I learnt from my
preliminary task that tweaking certain small aspects of a cover page can create a huge
difference to the way it looks overall. I also did much more mind mapping and
research to make sure that my magazine would sell.
• I discovered that having a unique and slightly controversial idea for a magazine can
either be a failure or become a key selling point which I chose to adopt by having an
„all girls‟ magazine. This risk paid off as I did research into my target audience and
found that there would be a good sized market for that kind of magazine. The
planning of this was crucial as if I had just dived in and chosen another theme for my
magazine without researching it, it might have been unsuccessful.

4. Skills on Adobe Photoshop
• As the process went on, I continued to add to my post “How to use Adobe
Photoshop”. I created a list of tools which I recognised and used and it began to grow
along with my confidence and knowledge in using them which assisted me in
improving my final product.
• In my preliminary task, I was much more unaware of the different effects which
Photoshop has to offer and also how to use different variations of one tool such as the
different Lassoo tools (magnetic, polygonal etc) which limited my creativity.
• I also learnt the effects which manipulating or using the tools differently had, for
example I changed the direction of the gradient to create different moods for my
cover and contents pages aswell as my double page spread.
• E.g. On my double page spread I used a clipping mask to create the Union Jack flag
text title.
Colour Themes
I knew that my colour theme was important in my preliminary task which is why I carried it
through from my cover to my contents on both my preliminary and foundation tasks. The
difference in doing this was that I put more consideration into the colours chosen for my
foundation task as they would appeal to my audience and I also had a three coloured theme
rather than one colour and black and white which made my music magazine more interesting
and colourful to look at which appeals to my audience. I learnt that having a theme is important
but if I were to do my school magazine again, I would introduce more colours that just
purple, black and white.

5. Taking and choosing photographs
• I have learnt a lot more about taking a successful photograph to be included
in my magazine; this is shown through the fact that my foundation task
cover photograph is much more striking, eye catching and professional
looking than my preliminary task cover photo.
• Although, in my opinion, in both my preliminary and foundation task I used
suitable models throughout the pages created, I think that I put much more
thought and consideration into the connotation and denotation of certain
aspects of the models such as their overall appearance but also things like
facial expression, mise en scene etc. in my foundation task. For
example, my school magazine cover photo reflects the magazine‟s all female
theme and promotes „girl power‟ and strong females through the strong
facial expression and positioning of my model.
• For example, my preliminary task‟s cover photograph was three students
which are suitable but I didn‟t consider their outfits or body posture as
much as I did with my foundation task when I bought and created an outfit
and styled my model in a certain way to appeal to my audience and to create
a theme. I have learnt that this is a main part of a magazine which I think I
have created much better in my foundation task.

6. • I created a variation of photographs on my foundation task with the secondary
leads which required much more time and consideration as to the mise en
scene of the images and what connotations they had. I wanted to include
photographs which would grab my reader‟s attention and I believe that they
work well to do so.
• The photograph taken for my foundation task front cover looked much more
professional as I used a better quality camera and took many more images so
that I had a vast choice. I learnt that it is important to put the time and effort
into a photo shoot, especially for the cover, as if I had rushed it, elements such
as for example the wig, the make up, the shoes taken from a video of the
artist, the pose, the outfit would have suffered and the image wouldn‟t have
been as effective.
• The positioning also makes the cover photo of my music magazine more
striking as it is a mid shot rather than a long shot which means there is much
more focus on the face than there is in the school magazine cover photograph
which is appealing to the audience which I learnt is important as the cover
photo is the first thing to catch the audience‟s eye.

7. Composition and layout
• I learnt more about how to lay out a page in order to create space but not
make it too cluttered which I think is an important skill and something
which is evident from my music magazine cover page. It is important to
be able to create the right amount of space and fit enough text and images
onto a page of a magazine as you want to have as much on the cover page
to attract your audience but you don‟t want to over face them so it has to
be readable but busy enough to catch the eye.
• I created a variation of photographs on my foundation task with the
secondary leads I chose to use to create an interesting composition. This
is different from my preliminary task as I only used one article on my
front cover which made it rather boring, simple and un-realistic as
magazines have many photographs for articles on their front covers
usually yet mine only had the one. I have learnt that having a busier front
cover attracts the attention of the reader more and is therefore more
successful in capturing it‟s target audience.
• I only included three articles on my school magazine but managed to fit
six onto my music magazine which shows how I improved in being able to
move items around and fit them together.
• I also managed to use the rule of thirds successfully which I didn‟t follow
for the production of my school based magazine which shows my
progression in learning the typical composition rules of magazines.

8. Mise en scene
• I believe that I have developed my knowledge and progressed when it comes
to the mise en scene of my chosen images. The mise en scene of my school
based magazine photograph is that it is taken in a school library surrounded
by a books- there is a bookcase and each model has a book. I think this
mise en scene is suitable and appropriate as it reflects on the main article
about book day and also on the article regarding the rising figures of sixth
form students taking A level English Literature.
• The mise en scene of my music magazine‟s cover image is much more
obvious due to certain aspects which weren‟t considered in the school
magazine‟s production such as facial expression, posture etc. The clothing
suggests a girly femininity to the model which contrasts with her
strong, dominant pose and facial expression. This completely reflects the
magazine‟s „girl power‟ theme and gives off a strong image which is exactly
what I intended for my front cover.