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

As I don't read music magazine it was quite obvious that I wasn't going to know some of the conventions that they use. I believe that one of the main things I have picked up between the preliminary task and the final task is the conventions. I feel there are a lot more in my work now.

The main thing that sets the covers apart is the main photo. As you can see I learnt that the photo is the most important element, I noticed that the quality of my preliminary one wasn't very good. This emphasised to me the importance of getting all the elements of the photo right. I learnt that I had to take more time when taking the photos to ensure it was not blurry, another way to tackle this would be to take a couple of shots so I could pick the best one. I also learnt that the mise en scene should fit the context. On my preliminary I am talking about a sports star but he is wearing a suit, it would make a lot more sense if he was in some kind of sports kit. Another point with the photo is the lighting, I think that in my preliminary the issue of lighting is largely ignored, the photo is taking place indoors which straightaway gives the picture a dim look and the little light that there is, is in the top left corner where there is just a wall. I feel that the light should be on the main model as they are the main focus of the magazine. This is an idea and convention I knew that I should show in my final work, I knew to take the shot outside as it allowed me to manipulate the amount of light that was reflecting on to my models and the positioning of the light i.e faces.

I also have realised the importance of a consistent house style and the rule of thirds. My preliminary doesn't have a real colour scheme. The text is black and white but I don't feel that this very successful as the background is largely black and white, this means that the text doesn't really stand out. I also think that it looks strange that 7 colours are included in the title but in the rest of the page their and only black and white. This is the place in which my preliminary goes against the common convention of the rule of thirds, which is not having more than 3 main colours on the front cover. You can see this has been adhered to in  my real cover as I felt that my preliminary was a bit too busy to attract the attention of the audience.  

You also get the feeling that the preliminary was slightly rushed. This had to be the way as I needed to finish the actual product on time but i think this shows. It shows in the fact that no real effect has been made to make the text stand out or stop it from becoming lost in the background. It does adhere to the convention of putting words around the main model it doesn't do this anywhere near well enough. This all told me that it is important to not rush the final pieces as it will end up showing.

The production of the preliminary task only went to show me just how important it was to get audience feedback, audience feedback has helped me to be in the position I am now. When I created the preliminary I didn't ask for any feedback because I felt that it looked quite good. This also left me clueless on how to change it to make it look better. It is only when you put it next to my final cover which has been massively guided by audience feedback do you see the glaring problems with the preliminary.