Evaluation

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

During my time creating the product I have learnt useful things about technologies such as Serif Drawplus, which I can now use in alot more depth and know how to make good practical work on it using tools like the cut out studio. This is useful for me becuase I would know how to use Serif Drawplus in the future.
I have learnt more about Microsoft Publisher and can use it more efficiently.

I now know how to scan a physical document to access it onto a computer.
I also know how to use different types of camera's and control the settings on them much more easier, and how to access pictures or films on cameras on a computer through using a USB port.

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

Back when I started my premliminary task, I did not have any knowledge on how to use Serif Drawplus properly and I was unsure about a lot of functions that the software has, however over time from creating my preliminary product (School magazine) to my main product (Music magazine) I have learnt the basics of the program and some of its more advanced features such as the cut out studio tool.

I know have more insight on different types of magazines and the conventions of the magazines. I analysed quite alot of different magazines to get an idea of what I was creating and some of the analysed magazines influenced my design of the music magazine.

I have had more experience in using cameras and all the different settings of them and getting photos onto the computer and back onto the camera. I also know how to use cut out studio which is very useful for editing pictures by allowing you to remove any part of the picture so if you have unnecessary parts on the picture you can remove them.

During this time I have learnt a lot about media language and more such as the names of certain camera shots, like a bird's eye view shot is a shot from above, I have also learnt alot more about the technological side of media.

Evaluation

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for my media product, becuase it is a music magazine focused on three genres that are quite similar, would be people who like music from indie artist's such as The Killers, Kings of Leon then into more heavier music such as Lostprophets and 30 Seconds to Mars. This would reach quite a wide audience due to the genres that are being represented so fans of each genre would be interested.
The age range of the audience is likely to be teenagers to young adults as I feel that more people around those particular age groups are more interested into this music than other age groups and these genres of music are much more vocal and speak their mind compared to other artist, however this magazine welcomes people of other age groups to read it.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted my audience by having a magaizne which appeals to people that lover the genres my magazine is based around e.g. Rock, Indie and Metal. I have made sure that the magazine looks like it is associated with these particular genres by using an appropriate colour scheme (Red, White and Black) that represent these music groups and I have used a font on my text that is quite a sharp and slang type of text that looks like it would have something to do with rock etc... Having these features makes my magazine look eye-catching to people interested in this type of music and would catch their attention if they were to glance over to the magazine stands or racks in a store or supermarket.

My magazine is priced at £1.50, this is quite cheap for a magazine as magazines like Kerrang tend to cost around £2.00 +, this would be appealing to the age group my magazine is aimed at becuase it would be well within their money range. Also taking into account that Kerrang magazine is out every week and a magazine like Rocksounds that costs £4 is out every month, so with my magazine being cheap I would bring it out around 1 magazine a week.

Evaluation

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My music magaizne represents people that are into the music genres of rock, indie and metal, and are stereotyped for liking this genre of music. I think my music magazine gets the point out to the public that becuase people like this genre of music does not mean they are different or bad people, they are just people that enjoy this genre of music much like how some people prefer rap or some prefer opera even tho they are completely different and people should be aloud to like what they want becuase everyone has their own opinion.
The colours of my magazine represent rock becuase the colours that are mostly associated with rock are black and red as they are the stereotypical rock and roll colours, such as people that where lack clothing etc. The white theme to my magazine makes the black and red stand out and is the opposite to black so isn't thought to be on the same thing as black, this makes my magazine quite unique.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Distributors such as MGL Group would be the distributors to sell my magazine to stores around the UK becuase my magazine focuses on a few different type of genres which would be different to other magazines becuase alot of music magazines normally focus on one particular genre such as Kerrang focuses on Rock, Q focus on Indie and Vibe who focus on Rap.
This is what makes my music magazine different from other magazines.

Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real meida products?

My music magazine uses all of the conventions of real magazines such as the masthead which is located near the top of the magazine's front cover, a main image which is in the center of the cover with the headline just underneath it, a sub-heading that is located in the bottom left corner of the page, the skyline which goes at the very top of the magazine front cover above the masthead, a strapline which is similar to a skyline but is found at the bottom of the magazine, plugs which are located at the side of the main image and under the masthead, and the price and barcode which are located at the bottom right of the page just above the strapline with pictures inbetween them and the sub-heading.
All of these conventions are in the positions where they would usually be located on magazines. To capture the readers attention I have used quite an opposite colour scheme, using black and white makes the magazine look good because they go well with each other but the red that I have used makes certain content stand out which would make a person notice the magazine instantly. This works with extra colours I have used such as the purple on the star shape on my front cover.

The issue of my magazine is a stand issue and is found just under the left of the masthead in black font. I have used black on it becuase it isnt as important as other things on the magazine but it still stands out to the white background. The colours of my magazine also show what type of magazine it is due to rock being quite heavy etc, the colours red and black are associated with anger which is commoly known in the genre of rock.
I have analysed many different magazines like Kerrang and Rolling Stones, I feel like the look of my magazine was inspired by these professional magazines.

This is the new design of my Volume music magazine double page spread.

 



For the new design of my double page spread I have kept the colour scheme the same as the front cover and contetnts page e.g. red, white and black. I have kept the name of the band in the same font style as the masthead and like the contents page I have put the masthead 'Volume' in the top right corner in a small box.

 

With my last layout of this page I had two images, one that was located underneath the main interview text and the other was horizontaly laid out on the other page. Now I have more up to date pictures and have decided to use one image that goes accross both pages but I have used the order aligment tool to send it to the back of every other content on the page so that is does not cover anything, this is an effective and useful technique becuase it will not cover any text but the image still stands out compared to anything else on the page.

 

The background is now a full white background and due to this I have kept the text about the interview on the left hand side of the double page spread as black, this makes the text stand out alot more on the white background, however becuase I have now put an image going straight accross both pages, it is hard to have the text to not overlap the image so I have used the transparent tool to make the image more faded.

 

On the right hand page I have had it so the band are answering questions rather than having the whole double page spread as information. This is useful becuase it would keep a customer entertained becuase it is different and not the same for the whole topic on 'The Makers'. This is also used in professional magazines becuase it makes the reader, who is likely to be a fan of the band, feel like they are connecting to the band more because they are seeing what the band have specifically said themselves, making my magazine seem very professional.

I have highlighted the questions in red and kept the bands answers in black becuase these are two of the colours from my colour scheme and it makes them match the magazine.

 



This is the new design for my Volume music magazine's contents page.

 

For the contents page I have changed its style alot by making it have three sections rather than it all being one big thing, these sections are:

• Features
• Reviews
• News

This is a technique that many professional music magazines tend to use quite often.

I have used the same font as the masthead for the Contents text and I have put a small image of the masthead in the top right corner.

Scott Wharton who is a member of my group in media is using the same sort of design so that our magazines look very similar to each other, this is good becuase they wont have the same masthead and look completely different, instead they will have the same layout but slightly different keeping it professional.

 

I have added two pictures to the contents page, one of the band The Makers in a comical pose and the other of bandmate Josh Davies posing with his hood up. These pictures have relevance to this magazine becuase it is a rock magazine and the two pictures look like pictures that would be in a real music magazine, they show comical value as well as a serious value which is what customers want, not just the same thing throughtout the whole magazine. Having pictures on a contents page is good also becuase it shows the viewer of the magazine a sneak peak of what they will inside the magazine.

 

I have listed numbers down the left hand side of each section with a band name next to the number, this shows what category a band are under and what page they are on. 

The number of pages go up to 50, this is becuase professional music magazines have alot of pages and becuase the magazine is £1.50 it would let customer know that they are getting their moneys worth when buying this magazine from a store.

 

The colour scheme of the contents page is the similar to the front cover with the black white and red but I have used a grey background to make the pictures and text stand out more. Scott is also using a similar colour scheme but instead of white he has used a slightly darker approach and is using red, black and yellow as his three colours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



After finishing our music magazines, we compared it to professional music magazines again and within our group, we have decided that our music magazine looked to plain and quite immature even in it's finished form compared to acctual professional music magazines. Becuase of this we have decided to re-vamp the whole magazine and have asked our teachers and classmates for advice on how we can make it look alot more professtional.

 

This is the new design for the front cover of my Volume magazine.



 

We have kept our magazines looking similar becuase they are the same magazine just different issues.

 

For my new design I have taken more up to date pictures for the magazine and changed it to a three man band.

I have changed the whole theme of the magazine and we are no longer doing different holidays as our issues, instead we have decided to keep it more simple and just have different issues of the magazine.

The colour scheme I have only altered a small amount, I have kept it as a White and Red color scheme. With the background being white, it makes the main image stand out more because of the clothing that the band members are wearing, and the masthead and plugs stand out well because with them being red they contrast well with the white background.

For the skyline and strapline, I have made them black and white but switched the colour around for each side of the page e.g. the skyline is a black background with white text and the other side is white with black text, the strapline is the opposite to the skyline.

 

To make it look more like an official music magazine I have done more analysis on a Kerrang music magazine, I have changed my layout of the front cover alot by doing things such as making the image larger and stand out more. This shows the importance of the band.

 

Because the main story is about the band I have created for my magazine, the headline is the bands name (The Makers) and is just infront of the image of the band. For the headline I have used quite a sharp type of font and have used a purple colour with a white outline around it.

 

 

This is my final draft of my music magazine's double page spread.

I have added the picture of the band into the blank side of the double page spread and i have also added more mistletoe to the same page becuase it would have looked poor having one side with it and the other without.
I have tried to make the text on the magazine seem like a very professional interview just like a real music magazine such as Kerrang. The interview talks about The Makers and what they have said they plan to do with there career and how long they want to last in the music industry.

Here is the first draft of m double page spread.
I have used the same christmas mistletoe again for the top of the magazine, again this is to show that its a chrisrmas theme and the same magazine. Becuase the colour scheme of my magaizne is based around two colours (Red and White) I have decided to make the double page spread look half and half e.g. one side of it is red and the other white.
With the name of the band I have used the same font as my magazine's name like I did with the Contents to show the importance of the band.
For the text I have used a title that tells the viewer it is an interview with the band and then underneath I have used a paragraph for all of the text for this page and just under it a picture of the band. As for the red side of the double page spread I will use the whole page for a band picture that will be horizontal and can be used as a poster for the buyer of the magazine.

Analysis of double page spread

Now I have finished my contents page I am going to analise a double page spread to help me with my music magazine's double page spread.
A double page spread is two pages that have something on them that makes them seem like one large page e.g an article about a person would be on a double page spread.

This magazine has used quite a dark colourscheme, the black background contrasts with the white, pink and red writing and makes the writing stand out alot stand out more, also the main healine is pink and red, these colours stand out quite alot which makes them eye-catching to the viewer of the magazine.
The main image of the double page spread is of the band and the image is the most noticeable becuase of how important they are.

The text of the magazine is very slang looking and fits well with the theme of the magazine which is a rock type magazine, this will be a good technique that I can use for my music magazine

This is my completed contents page for the music magazine and I have now added alot more information and pages to the right hand side of the magazine and I have also added a picture of sixth former Josh Davies who poses as a member of my band The Makers who are the main story for my music magazine.

My next task will be to create a double page spread for my music magazine.

This is the first draft for my music magazine's contents page, I have placed the title in the same position as the front cover and just underneath it I have added the word Contents but I have changed its font style to the same as the Volume name so it matches, this shows the importance of the contents page.
I have kept the colour scheme the same and have also added the image of christmas mistltoe at the top of the page. Also I have added a few page numbers and information that goes with the page just underneath it in a red box to match the from cover.

I plan on adding more pages and contents to my contents page and also a picture of Josh Davies from my band picutre.

I have now finished my design for the front cover of my music magazine.
I have added information on the skyline and more on the strapline, used plugs about other bands to make it look more like a real music magazine and I have also place the barcode in.

I have done the price of my magazine adn it will be sold for £2.50, this is abit more than some magazines but music magazines are some of the biggest selling magazines around and so they have larger prices than other magazine. I have also changed the price red to match the theme and placed a snowflake behind it to once again show that the magazine is a chirstmas issue, however the image of the snowflake stood out to much compare to the picture and the masthead so I have used the Opacity tool on Serif to make it more transparant and dull, this will make it contrast more with the magazine and not stand out.

I have taken another picture for my magazine and i have also started editing them.



I have used cutout studio on this image to remove the backgorund and i will have it on the front of my magazine, this will make it look alot more professional.

During my last media lesson I have taken some pictures of sixth form students, Josh Davies (right), Alex Jones ( left), Jack Williams ( middle-right) and Dean Dippnall (middle-left) all from my media group posing as the band I am going to have in my magazine.

I will use this picture on the front cover of my magazine and have the main story of my magazine about the band. I will take more pictures of the four posing as the band which I have decided to name The Makers, and use them throughout my music magazine. Also I will edit the pictures to remove the background etc using the tool on Serif Drawplus X3 known as Cutout Studio, this is a very useful tool for media work as it lets you remove any part of a picture you want to and with my work requiring alot of pictures I will be using this commonly.

Here I also have an individual picture of Josh Davies.

I have now added more text boxes for more plugs and information and also I have added a strapline which is like a skyline but is located at the bottom of the page. Straplines are very useful becuase rather then having to read information about what is in the magazine they can simply know what is in the magazine just by looking at the words located on the straplines such as a band name etc...

I have created my own band for my music magazine and will do the double page spread about them e.g. an interview with them. The band will be made up of sixth formers from my media group and i will have a picture of them on the front on my magazine. 

I have started creating my music magazine on a software called Serif Drawplus X3, this is a very useful software that is great for designing and editing. To begin with we have decided we will do different editions for our music magazines so I have decided I will do a Christmas issue.

I have copied the magazine name from Flamingtext.com from the file I saved it into.
I have added a skyline to the very top of my magazine, these are used to hold information or small plugs about the magazine. I have added a box at the bottom for plugs and will have more going up the left hand side of the magazine.
Becuase I am doing a christmas issue I have put a picture of some mistletoe going along the top of the magazine just underneath the skyline and at the bottom right of the magazine, a picture of a snowman with his hand out to make it look like he is showing the reader the magazine.

I am using a colour scheme of white and red to go with the Christmas theme becuase they are very popular Christmas colours.

In the creation of our music magazines we have been told that we are allowed to work in small groups, this involves sharing the same name for the magazine and making them look reletivly similar with the people in my group who will be Alex Jones and Scott Wharton.

To start we did some spider diagrams and mind mapping to get ideas for what we should call our and how to set them etc...
We thought of many ideas for our magazine and we have decided that it will be a rock magazine influenced by the Kerrang music magazine. Becuase Kerrang is a rock magazine it will be easy for us to relate to it becuase we like that genre of music.

The name we have decided to use for our project is Volume.
We have chose Volume becuase it links in with music and anyone that sees the name would instantly realise that it is a music magazine just by the name of it.
To design our magazine name we have used Flamingtext.com, this is a website that allows people to create their own text and do a huge amount of things to it. It lets us use a variety of different colours, text styles etc... For our title we have used a font style called Zipper back which is what gives our title a very sharp untidy text that it has, this is good because rock music is loud and sometimes quite unruly. We spent a while looking for a good effect to have on the name and we found that with it being called Volume it should be relevate to that so we ended up using sound waves that are pulsing off the word, this is cleverly used to becuase it is like the volume is loud. For our colour we have decided to go for a red scheme becuase red and black are associated with rock quite often. We have made the word Volume a dark tone of red and then had the sound waves a slightly lighter tone that fade and get more light as they get away from the word and we have kept a plain white background to make the title stand out more. Also i have saved my magazine name into a file on my computer ready to copy it onto my magazine.

Analysation of Kerrang music magazine

Now that I have finished the preliminary task of creating a school magazine I am now stating my main coursework which is to make a music magazine, however with this task I must create a front cover, contents page and now a double page spread.

This is a professtional music magazine known as Kerrang. Kerrang is based around heavier music such as rock and metal and becuase I am into this type of music I would like to create a rock music magazine.
I will be looking at this magazine and annotating it for ideas towards my music magazine.

The colour scheme that has been used here is mainly notcieable on the main headline and the skyline at the top, they have used two main colours that are black and yellow and have cleverly used them on the skyline as the text and have the background of the text the other colour. They likely used these to colours because they are very different so the contrast really well with each other whereas if they used a darker colour such as brown or grey instead of yellow then it wouldn't be as eye catching.
The main image is of Matt Tuck from the band Bullet for my valentine and Olly Sykes from Bring me the Horizon. The two of them are posing in a medium close up picture, they are known to be very important because they are both infront of the masthead which is one of the most important things on the front cover becuase it is the title of the magazine.

Like my front cover I have had a big change to my magazine's contents page to make it look alot more mature and sutible as a school magazine.

I have used the same colour scheme as my front cover again such as dulling the blue shaded boxes used for background images and using the frey, black and white colour as the overall background.

I have changed the pictures of my contents page to more suitable and relevant images, for the first four pages about the head teacher Mr southern talking about the new school building known as K block, I have now got an image of Mr southern off the school website.
The next image is of sixth former Scott Wharton reading his school books, this picture is to go with pages five to eight that has a topic of sixth formers talking about what is new and has changed in the new school year. And finally I have changed the last image to a picture of the front of the school that is about the school canteen having a remolding done to it. Then to finish i have had the last page, page 14, to be about the contest to win an iPad 4 and also have put in a small plug at the bottom that says to turn to the next page for more.

Final school magazine front cover.

I have talked to my teachers and classmates for advise about how I can mkae my magazine looke more professinal so I have decided to change most of my magazine. This is becuase my previous magazine design looked quite immature compared to a professional magazine therefore I have changed it to look more professional.

I have changed the background to a black, grey and white colour pattern to make it have more of a mature theme rather than having bright colours which are quite childish, however I have kept the blue colour pattern for background images for the strapline, the masthead and the price but I have used a tool on Serif that dulls transparancy of an object to keep good contrast with the background.

I have also changed the picture becuase the last image was irrelevant on the school magazine but my new picture is of Scott holding his school books so it is obvious that it has relevance.

This is the finished draft of my school magazine's contents page

I have added in all of the pictures I needed, these include a picture of my school Emrys ap iwan, Jack Williams who is a classmate posing as a sixth former and also a picture of an iPad for the contest that gives someone a chance to win an iPad. I have finished the page numbers and information of what contents will be on them.

This is my first draft of my school magazine's contents page.

I have used to same colour scheme as my front cover to make it look official and so its obvious it is the same magazine.

I have put in page numbers on the left of my contents page with the articles they will have under the page numbers and I have put boxes where it will have pictures running down the right hand side of the contents page.

I have decided to not have alot of pages in my magazine because it is only a school magazine and it is not widely based so it would only be purchased at the school or local stores by students etc... however this is picture shows my unfinished design so I will add two more pages going from 13 to 14 for the contest to win an ipad.
Also I have created boxes and input names of things that I will have inside my boxes, this is just a temporary thing so I know what I want to put where for next time I work on my project. I plan on adding another picture spot.

School magazine front cover 

This is now the final design of my magazine front cover, I have now created my main headline and I have now added plugs to the left under the main headline of the magazine. Also I have now added a speech bubble next to the students face saying “Read inside to see what I say” this is a technique I am using to make the viewers of the magazine more interested by the magazine and this will make them want to buy it to see what's inside more.

The next task I do will be starting the contents page of my school magazine, this is the second page of a magazine and tells the you what is inside the magazine on what page.

This is the countiuation of my school magazine and I have added more detail to it and also an image.

I have taken and added a picture of sixth former Scott Wharton from my media class, posing as a student in sixth form, this makes the magazine look more professional.

 I have added a star shape at to the top right and am using this shape for the price of the magazine, the colour scheme is the same as the magazine itself, this shows that the price is somthing that is always on the magazine and therfore will look the same as he magazine.

I have added some plugs to the sides of the magazine but where my headline will go and my sub heading I have just put them words down as a guide for when i put in the real ones. Also I have added information on the strapline.

This is the first draft of my sixth formers' school magazine.

In this draft I have created the colour scheme of my magazine and I have also designed the layout for where I will have my masthead and the price etc... i plan on adding plugs down the side of the magazine and I will put information into the straplines.

I will also be creating a contest in my magazine and advertising a chance for someone to win an iPad, this technique is promoted becuase it makes the magazine eye-catching and this is quite professtional as with real magazines.

Analysation of college magazine

College magazine

The large word at the top of the magazine is known as the masthead. This is the name of the magazine and one of the most important images on the page because it never changes whereas most things change each time there is a new issue however the picture of the student is in front of it becuase he is the most important thing and so he is infront of the masthead.

The Skyline is the very top of the magazine this is a normally a small strip of infomation that just has a sentence on or just some plugs about things that will be in the magazine such as what bands etc.

Plugs are on a magazine all of the time, they are normally on the sides of a magazine but can appear on places such as skylines or straplines.

The splat sign at the top right in pink is a form of plug, but it has been made into this splat shape becuase it is a unique image, this is done to make it eye-catching and is sometimes used to advertise competitions such as winning an ipod etc...

In today's lesson we carried out the same work as the last lesson, coming up with ideas for our magazines. I created a spider diagram with many ideas to go with my front page on the magazine and I have made more progress with my rough layout and will have it finished by the next lesson so I can start on my main copy. Today we were told more about our contents page and what we must do for this, which is to make a page with a list of things in the magazine and some pictures to go with it. For my next blog I plan to annotate a school or college magazine for research.

I decided that the magazine I am going to create will be a sixth form magazine. During our previous lesson we began to think of names for our magazines and create spider diagrams to mind map ideas. I first made a rough copy of what the front cover of the magazine was going to look like and what the layout was going to look like e.g. put a title in, headlines, pictures, and text about the magazine and information in it. I thought of a few names for my magazine and in the end I decided to go with 'Epication'. The word 'Epic' is a word for something amazing, cool or brilliant. I have taken 'Cation' from 'Education' from school life e.g. to learn etc... Using these I have merged them to make 'Epication'.

Introduction

In media we are allowed to do different task as our stating work which is the Preliminary task. Our teacher Mrs Bailey explained to us what task we would be doing this year and told us what the options are for our Preliminary task, these tasks are:

• Video
• Audio
• Print
• Website

For my task I decided to go with Print.With print i will be making a magazine front cover and contents page of a school or college magazine, i will be coming up with various ideas for a name of the magazine and the style i will have it and I will choose to design a college or a school magazine.