Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task, What do you Feel You Have Learnt In The Progression From It To The Full Product?

Comparing my preliminary task to my main task, I think my work has improved and developed dramatically.

I feel that I have improved my approach to audience research in my main task as I have been very thorough and reflected on my results more than in my preliminary. I have made sure that all my findings impacted my product, which I didn't do as well in my preliminary.

By doing lots of detailed research and planning, I feel I have gained more of an insight in to magazine codes and conventions and understand them well. I found things from my research that showed me how I could make my magazine look more professional which I didn't include in my preliminary task. For example, I put the price in pounds and euros on my bar code, which I didn't put on my preliminary cover. I also used more interesting type faces thanks to DaFont, where as in my preliminary I used Times New Roman, Arial Black and Lucinda Calighraphy which are all quite boring. I think I also improved my language that I used in my sell lines and cover lines to make my magazine appear more professional. By looking at lots of magazine layouts in my main task, I feel I really improved my contents page because the design is much more interesting and looks much more professional than in my preliminary.

I was already familiar with paint shop pro so I don't think I have developed my skills, but by editing my photos and creating my masthead in here rather than just putting everything straight in to InDesign like in my preliminary, I think my magazine looked far more professional. I feel after improving my skills, InDesign allowed me to create a more interesting layout than in my preliminary and place text easily. I didn't know how to use InDesign when I started, so my skills have definatley developed on this programme from when I started.

I feel that my shots taken for my preliminary and main task are equally good. I don't think I have particularly developed my skills on setting up a shoot such as location, mise en scene and camera angles because I think my images work equally well for what they are aimed at. However, I did find that the Canon 60D SLR was much better for taking photos and allowed me gain the exact shots I wanted due to being able to chage so many settings. However, I did get different effects in my shots from the preliminary task such as the photo of the chain I had taken for my photography project and the image of the book which both used narrow depth of fields. In my shoots for my main task I also thought more about lighting than I did in my preliminary, therefore inporving the photos in this context.

I think I have also developed my critical evaluation skills my doing a more detailed evaluation of my own main task product. In my preliminary task I didn't go in to as much detail and simply typed it up on a word document, but for my main task I did my evaluation in thorough sections using images to explain my points. I think by doing this I have definatley developed my evaluation skills when looking at my own work or someone elses.