The End

So this is the end of me blogging about my media product (magazine).  Thank you for following me through the process of my magazine.  Here is a reminder of all three pages that I created for my magazine.

Evaluation Question 7

Evaluation Question 7:  Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression of it to the full product.

For question 7 I showed the development of my magazine compared to the preliminary task so i went from showing the preliminary task to the rough cut and to the final cut.  For the first slide I showed an image of the preliminary task and said the good and bad things about the task.  I then went on to show the rough task and show how it has improved compared to the preliminary task.  Finally i showed the final cut and said how i improved it compared to the rough cut.  For the second slide i compared my double page spreads.  For the preliminary task i did not make a double page spread so i compared the rough of my double page spread and the final cut of my double page spread and stated how i improved it.  For the final slide I done the same thing as analysing the front covers but compared all of the contents pages and describe how I improved them to make the final cut.

Evaluation Question 6

Evaluation Question 6:  What have your learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your product?

For question 6 I made a slide for each of the following technologies I used; Photoshop, In Design, Blogger and the Cannon camera I used to take photos.  The first slide was on Photoshop.  I stated how I used Photoshop on a certain part of my magazine.  I also took screen shots of the tools that i used to edit my magazine.  The second slide was on In Design and for this slide I also followed the same technique and added in screen shots of tools I used for the creation of my magazine.  When presenting the presentation I will go in to further detail on how I used these techniques.  For the third slide I focused on how I used blogger.  I inserted a relevant image of previous blogs i created and explained what I done when creating blogs.  For the final slide on this question I focused on how I used the Canon camera.  For this slide I showed an image of the camera and surrounded the image with factors that I used to take my photos e.g, shutter speed, aperture, zoom and focus.  I also showed example of how I used aperture on my double page spread.

Evaluation Question 5

Evaluation Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

This is the video that I made to show how I attracted my audience.  In the video I interviewed two people and got them to answer certain questions I asked them.

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

For question 4 on my evaluation I made a mind map and described the type of audience that would read or buy my music magazine.  I looked at aspects such as the age, gender, class, types of clothes they would wear etc.  The main target audience for my design was aimed at both genders of ages between 15-40.  The reason for the wide age range is because the young people listen to new music (already in their youth stages) and the adults e.g aged 30-40 listen to the new music to reflect on their youths.

Evaluation Question 3

Evaluation Question 3:  What type of media institution might distribute your product and why?

For the third question i had to do research to see which insititution distributed magazines that i used as style models for example Q and the NME.  For the first slide i researched in to Time Inc which is the institution that distrbutes magazines such as the NME and Uncut.  On the first slide i added in the companies logo and exmpained why i thought this institution might distribute my product.  One reason that i said was that Time Inc distributes NME which is an indie magazine and my magazine is based on an indie theme.  For the second slide i researched into the Q magazine and discovered that Bauer distributed Q magazine.  I included the Bauer logo in the slide and also explained why i thought that Bauer might distribute my media product.  The main reason i used was that i used a lot of codes and conventions from Q's magazine so my magzine is similar to Q' s in many different ways.

Evalutation Question 2

Evalutation Question 2:  How does your media product represent particular social groups?

For this question i particular looked at the images used and the tone used by the artist in the magazine as this was the easiest way to represent the social groups.  For the first slide on this question i looked in to the attitude that was preserved through the artists facial expressions in the images, for example the sun glasses even though that it is dark outside showign his swagger.  For the second slide on this question i looked in to the tone that the artist used in the arcticle in the double page spread.  For example i looked at the use of swearing used by the artist which preserves he is youthful and doesnt really care what anyone thinks about him, he can say what he wants. For the third and final slide on this question i looked in to the backgrounds of the images that i used on the magazine.  A lot of the backgrounds had graffiti in the background preserving that he has come out of a inner city working class family and music is the only way out of the city and the lifestyle that he used to have.

Evaluation Question 1

Question 1:  In what ways does your media prouct use, devleop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The aim for me on this question was to show at least 3 uses, at least 2 developments and at least 1 challenge that i used.  For question one I firstly focused on how i used forms and conventions.  The first slide i created was showing how i used forms and conventions for my front cover design. In the slide I added in an image of my front cover and compared it with a style model in which i took influence from.  I also added in text stating the techniques I used from this style model.  For the second slide i done the exact same thing however i focused on the double page spread for my magazine.  For the third slide i done the same thing also put focused on my contents page.  In the next slide I focused on how i developed techniques in my front cover and also showed a style model exaple and explained the techniques i developed.  For the thrid slide i done the sae thing however focusing on the double page spread.  I did not show any developments i made on the contents page because I thought that there wasnt nough develoments to talk about in a whole slide.  I moved on to the challenges next.  For the next slide i showed how i challenged certain features in my double page spread by using text and images.  For the final slide on this question i done the same thing but focused on how i challenged techniques on my contents page.

First Slide

First Slide

This is my first slide for the evaluation. I decided to go for the blue background because the blue symbolizes the theme colour of my magazine.  I also decided to use the font that I dowloaded and used a lot throghout my design to show the relevance of the evaluation.  Finally I also added in the three pages that I created for my magazine so that the audience see the pages straight away becase they are the most important part.

Start of Evalutation

Evaluation

Now I am going to start my evaluation.  For my evaluation I am being aked 7 different questions about my final magazines.  There was a number of different ways in which i could have presented my evalutation put I have decided to create my evaluation on Powerpoint.  On my powerpoint document I have to add in video or audio clips as well as text and images to display my evaluation.  The three questions that I have to answer are as follows:

1. In what ways does your media prouct use, devleop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How does your media products represent particular social groups?
3. What type of media institution might distribute your product and why?
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have your learnt about technologies from the process of constructing your product?
7. Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression of it to the full product.

I will answer these questions using a series of images and texts.

End of Posting About My Magazine

 This is the last post I am going to make about the creation and development  of my magazine.  From now on the posts will be on the evaluation for my magazine.  Here are the three pages that make up my final magazine.  Enjoy!

Improvements Made Based On Style Models (Contents Page Final)

Improvements Made Based On Style Models (Contents Page Final)

 The top image shows my final contents page of my magazine and the bottom image shows a NME contents page style model.  I took influene from the NME contents page by having the most important news at the top of the page so that the audience view this part first, hence an audience read from top to bottom.  I also used a band index which is also used by the NME contents page, a band index is useful for the audience because they can see every band that features in the magazine.  To make the band index my own i added blue and grey fonts so that the band index would match my colour theme.  I alsohad the band index at the bottom right hand side of the page instead of the left hand side of the page which is used by the NME.  I also used Black backgrounds to highlight story headings (right hand side of my contents page), this is also used on the NME contents page.  Having a background to headings made the headings look more professional and also makes the headings stand out further.

Improvements Made Based On Style Models (Double Page Spread Final)

Improvements Made Based On Style Models (Double Page Spread Final)

The top image is my final double page spread and the bottom picture is the style model I took influence from for my double page spread.  I am going to show you influences I used.  The main influence is the image which I have already talked about in previous blogs.  The positioning of the double page spread with the article to the right hand side of the page and the artist to the left hand side of the page makes the double page spread look organised so I used this technique.  I also had the name of my artist in large text like the Q style model, I used this technique because it shows the dominancy of the artist.  Another technique I used was having the article text in black font so that it stands out from the blue background, this technique was also used on the Q style model.

Improvements I Made Based On Style Models (Front Cover Final)

Style Model Improvements (Front Cover)

Here is my final front cover along side a style model that I took influences from for my final design.  First of all i took influence from the NME's Cirlce with the quote 'Jack whites shock new album' this is used to inform the audience of important features that are in the magazine as well as standing out.  I decided to use this circle in my design however I used the colour blue for the cirlce so that it matched my blue theme colour for my magazine.  Another technique that i used was having the artists head over the top of the magazine title, this shows the confidence of the magazine because it shows that even if the title is covered the audience still can understand it so I used this technique to also show the confidence of my design.  I also used the technique of having the artists name positioned over the artist in the image, this is so that the audience clearl know that the aritsts name is about the person in the image.

Contents Page Final

Contents Page Final Design

This is my final contents page for my magazine.  It is much different to my rough cut as i have added in lots of different features to make my contents page more professional.  I also added in features that had been used on the contents pages of style models i researched.

Features I used from style models:

• Formatting - I used lots of lines to underline certain text and outline certain areas of the page.  This type of feature was used on Q contents pages a lot thoughout a number of different magazines.
• I put the band index at the bottom of the page and the important news at the top of the page.  This is because the audience read from top to bottom and so the more important news will be read first.
• Added in 3 images instead of 2, this is to show variation and also to show other artsts as well as the main artist (front cover artist).
• 'New' logos down the right hand side of the page are used on Q contents page when brand new news comes in and i decided to also use a logo similar to Q's.  However my logos are covered in a blue background to keep my blue colour theme consistent.
• Aligned the text to the left hand side of the page so that the text looks professional instead of all over the place like it was on my rough cut.
• Added in a date at the top of the page to notify the audience, this is also used on Q contents pages.

One thing that I thought of my self for a change was having the page numbers on the band index column in a record background.  I used this as it suited my indie theme.

Overall I like how I have improved the contents page by adding in relevant features, however I spent less time on the contents page compared to the other pages and if I spent more time I could have improved the contents page a lot more.

Double Page Spread Final

Double Page Spread Final

This is my final double page spread for my magazine.  As you can tell the page is completely different to my rough cut design.  To make this double page spread better i added in a number of features that had been on style models i researched.  I previously said in a blog that i wasn't going to add in any features on the left hand side of the page because the style model i looked at didn't use any, however i decided to add features because i thought that the page looked boring with just the image of the artist, so i decided to challenge this idea and add features.

Points I used to make this design better for the final cut:

• Added in a breakout box between the article.  This feature was used in every single double page spread article that i looked in to.  I added this in for the audience who don't want to read the full article so they get a small idea of the article by reading the breakout box.
• Added in a different colour font to symbolize the interviewer asking a question, this is so that the audience could tell easily that this was a interviewers question.
• Added in the writers and photographers names, this was used on every double page spread i looked at so it is conventional.
• Made the page numbers in triangles half way up the page.  This challenges normal page numbers in the bottom corners of pages, this makes my magazine more personal by having different conventions.

Overall i think that my final cut is way better than my rough cut mainly because this image that i used makes it easy for the audience to read the font.  Also after looking at certain style models this is the sort of image (studio image) that is used by these models.

Front Cover Final Cut

Front Cover Final

This is my final front cover for my magazine.  I made a lot of improvements from my rough cut to make the front cover more conventional.  I done this by adding in certain features from other magazine style models.

Features I added in after rough cut:

• Circle 'Kasabian tour pictures' banner in the top left hand side of the page.  This was conventional because a similar technique was also used in the NME magazine.  However I made this feature my own by making it blue adding to my theme colour.
• Slanted the Jamie Turner font and also made one name bigger than the other.  Making it slanted made the fonts look different which made it stand out to the audience more as well as it being larger in font size.
• Large number 5 down the left hand side of the page is conventional because it is promoting features that are contained in the magazine which is used in many other magazine such as Q and the NME.
• + 'Number of bands' down the left hand side was added in for the rough cut, however all of the band names were positioned all over the page and made it look un-neat.  I changed this by putting all the band names in a line so they looked in order and made the design look professional.
• Used a number of lines to outline certain fonts, making the fonts stand out more to the audience.  I used lines often throughout the magazine so it acted as a personal theme for my magazine.

Overall I am pleased with my overall magazine front cover, however if I was to improve my front cover i would have removed the wall background as this doesn't occur in any style models that i researched.