Abigail Gumery - MediaEvaluation Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? The preliminary task I completed helped me greatly in understanding all the codes and conventions, and everything else I needed to know about magazines. This task made sure I was fully prepared for the making of my actual music magazine by me using various different technologies that I never had before. The design and layout of the magazine is what I found the hardest part, which I believe I had chance to improve on from the preliminary task as I was able to find out what worked best. The front cover of my magazine, I found was difficult when making my pop magazine. The preliminary task really helped me in the layout on where to place things to look more professional and to engage the reader. For my preliminary task, my masthead was big and went across the top of the page, but when making my pop magazine I felt that it would work better if I had the masthead in one corner to draw more attention to my main image which will be more enticing for my target audience. As well as this, the background of my preliminary task was an image filling the page. However, comparing to my pop magazine I feel that that seemed too cluttered whereas with the white background it means the full focus is on the artist I am trying to show. Without my preliminary task, I wouldnt have known that the background may draw attention away from what I am trying to show.The part I found most difficult on the contents page was the layout. For my preliminary task I followed the rule of third rule, but I found it didnt look very professional in the end. The preliminary task helped me greatly in making my pop magazine look much more professional. In my pop magazine, I opted for only two columns, which is breaking the usual codes and conventions of the magazine, but I believe it makes it easier to read and navigate around without it being too crowded like my preliminary task. As well as this, I chose to add boarders around each section of the contents as it helped break it up a bit making it easier on the eye and more aesthetically pleasing - unlike my preliminary magazine. I believe that if you compare my preliminary magazine to my actual one, there is a definite improvement as the college magazine doesnt look as professional as the music magazine. Overall, in the progression to the final product, I have learnt how to make my magazine look more professional by conforming, or even challenging the codes and conventions of magazines to fit with my target audience. The preliminary task definitely helped me improve when it came to my music magazine, as I wouldnt have known what worked or not.