Question 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

• I feel as if my Photoshop skills have improved from making my preliminary task to the full product, as I simply enhanced the brightness and levels of the image and the only image I had to cut round was the stationary on the contents page, whereas the other pictures of the students I used the background as it was in school but to no look like a school therefore adhered to the codes and conventions of the magazine. However, when I created my music magazine I had to think more about colour and what colours I was enhancing or dimming depending on the social representation, for example the image of ‘LISA’ I enhanced the colours around her to give her a majestic glow and represent power, to fit the classical music representation.
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• I also had to cut round the images as the backgrounds did not always fit the magazine as they were shot in school. Most of my cut images did not then go on a background, but straight on the magazine to make it look more professional and realistic.  I also did a lot more research into my full product, meaning that I created a product that fit both existing products as well as my audience’s needs. For my preliminary task I just looked at existing products and the codes and conventions they contained, as well as the ideologies of school, however, for my full product I analysed existing magazines, looking at codes and conventions as well as the social group representations, this is where I found out that existing magazines usually use of bland traditional colours to represent the slow, eroding genre of classical. Whereas other genres for example indie rock and rock usually use dark colours as well as black and white to represent the more serious topics and nature of their music.
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• I also researched into the target audience and demographic of these magazines and how these magazine appeal to these audiences. Most of the magazines I looked at appeal to teens and young adults so this is the type of audience I aimed for with my magazine (although my market is very niche). Whereas for my preliminary task I just aimed for secondary school students regardless of what target audience was more popular within the school magazine industry. From this I also researched into the institutions which distribute these magazines for example the Bauer and looked into other magazines or media platforms they distribute and how they aim to appeal to the right audience, this helped me have an idea of what my audience I would want.
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• From this I could create a draft magazine, which I did not create for my preliminary task that I believed would begin to fit my target audience. I then showed this draft to my audience along with a questionnaire, this allowed me to get feedback straight from my audience on what they wanted and whether this is the type of magazine they were expecting/wanting. For this I did a focus group to get further feedback directly from members of my focus group, allowing them to express themselves fully. Throughout the process of making my full product I used social media (Polldaddy) to gain feedback from my audience on the improvements I used making and how they wanted me to improve further, this meant I was becoming even further towards creating a product my audience wanted.
• This whole process allowed me to develop my understanding of representations; there was limited representation on the school magazine, as this allowed the codes and conventions of this genre of magazine. 
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• I feel as if my Photoshop skills have developed as I have been more able to create a professional looking, realistic full product than what my preliminary task was. As well as this I have communicated more with my audience while creating my full product, through a questionnaire, focus groups and social media, meaning that I can be sure my product fits their needs. Finally, I have learnt to use other methods of presenting (Prezi, Slideshare) to allow my presentation to be more interactive and engaging.
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• Thoughts; Personally I enjoyed creating the magazine itself as it allowed me to let my vision (through research and planning) become reality, I loved the cluster of tool at my disposal which I could edit and spark photos to life. I have found that the evaluation is the most difficult part of the journey as you have to really break down the components of the magazine.