Final Improved Products

Improvements for Double Page Spread

For my improved version of my double page spread I have included a lot more improvements to my first product. One of my first improvements was that I moved the text from the right hand side to the left hand side. I have kept both the main image and all the text that is used from the first double page spread i did. I have added a background colour which is the same as the front cover and the contents pages so that I keep the continuity of the house style through my work. I have added the design which i had used on the front cover which is the line pointing upwards and across in the corner of the page. On the text for the newly improved one I have included bigger writing and red font for the captions for the customers to get a quick glimpse of this text when they are flicking through the magazine so that they might stop and read this page. I have added text over the top of the right hand side of the page where the picture is and this says "Relentless Spotlight Exclusive," the spotlight font is used on this page too say that the viewers know that this is their magazine. Below these big headings I have included " We speak to lead singer jay jay Mraz about why relentless are going to top the charts next year." This is a little brief so that the viewers can get a quick brief on what this page is about. One of the main things i have changed on this page is the i have used a brush tool on photoshop to edit the text and page from the main image this makes the image look like it has been torn off in the corners.

Improvements for Contents Page

For my contents page I have also added a lot of new features to it. Firstly i have changed the layout to a grey background the same as the front cover. I have done this so i can keep the same colour scheme throughout the 3 products. For this contents page i do not have a main image any more, i have 1 fairly big pictures and 2 medium sized pictures. This is also an addition from before as I only used 1 main picture last time and two small pictures which were not as important to the pictures which i have added for my improved image. I have changed the layout which now has one main picture on the left hand side, and two medium sized pictures at the bottom. Down the right hand side i have added more text which previously there was not as many bits of text on my first contents page. To add a bit of style to this contents page I have added a border around all the pictures and text which is a red border. Also I have added a black box around all the titles so that this will look a lot more professional. I feel this is an improvement from the previous contents page i have done as I have added a more professional look to this.

Improvements for Front Page

For my front cover I have improved a few things to make this better. I have added a new background with a grey effect with the border around the edges of the main image and the whole of the front cover. I have done this to make this look a little better than previously when there was only the main image. I have made the title bigger and wider so that the customers can see a lot more easier what the title of the magazine is. At the top of the screen I have added a big banner which takes and a big bit at the top, this says in black "Festival Guide 2010,special preview issue + full listings UK."In the corner I have added a little effect which is two red lines going up the page a bit and across the page a little bit. The pug compared to last time is a vast improvement, this is because last time the pug was out of shape the colour did not fit in well with this and the size of the writing did not fit the pug. This time I have created a brand new pug and this has a zig zag pattern around the edge. This also matches well with the colour scheme and also fits perfectly inside the pug. My improved version at the bottom of the page is much better although there is no banner which there was last time. It is much better because I have only added the website which was not there before and the little red line design makes this look better. Also before the banner was at the bottom of the page and there was nothing at the top, this made my first final product look empty at the top and this was not good. So now I have put a banner at the top and filled in the bottom part of the magazine cover with a website and a little design. Finally another final little thing I have added was a much better bar code as last time this was placed in not such a good place, this needed to be improved and I have stuck this where most barcodes go on any magazine and that is right in the bottom hand corner.

Step by Step On My Front Cover

Step by Step for my Front Cover

Step 1- For my first step this is the main image for my front cover. This is the picture of JayJay Mraz. This has been edited by it being called "colour pop." This is where the saturation is put to -100 and then you rub the part of the picture you want in colour. Here i have colour popped the red guitar.

Step 2- For step two i have added the masthead of the magazine. This is one of the most important parts of the magazine the title of the brand of magazine otherwise if there is not a masthead, the public would not know what the magazine is called. Here i have put the masthead behind the head of the relentless band member JayJay Mraz. Also there is a red corner to my magazine which has been added to make a stylish front cover. This would be continued throughout the magazine.

Step 3- For step three i have added a tool bar at the bottom to make this look more stylish. The banner says "The Essential Music Magazine." Most magazines i have researched for my tasks, i have found out that they mainly do banners either at the top or bottom of the magazine, i feel this suits the bottom of the magazine more than the top of the magazine.

Step 4- For step four this is another main feature to the magazine and this is the writing of this. On the front cover it says a few different bands and these are "The Fratelis", "Crossfade", "You Me At Six", "Jamie T." Also another main feature included in this step in adding the speech text from JayJay Mraz and this is "I honestly though my career was over."

Step 5-For step five this is what is in every magazine and is very key for the company to have one. These are a Barcode which is needed for people to scan it to buy the magazine and also the date, and price is also another key factor which has been added. This is because the public would want to know what date the magazine has been issued because they want to read a magazine which is in a more recent day.

Step 6- For my final step the final step i did i have done a Pug this is in the corner of my magazine and this is a little advertisment sticker in my magazine.

Evaluation Question 7

what have you learnt in the progression from the preliminary task to the finished publication?
Looking back at the preliminary task which I did back at the beginning of the year, there is no comparison to the standard my work is at compared to the work I have just produced for my final products. However the preliminary tasks are done by straight forward conventions of a basic magazine, however this isn’t professional enough for a magazine. When I was making this preliminary task my Photoshop skills were at a very basic as I had never used Photoshop before. One of the problems I had were struggling with the magnetic lassoo tool as this is hard to concur as you have to keep a steady arm to do this. This took me a while to get used to also. The colours on the page a dull and boring and the page is set out in a very boring way. The sizes of text on the page vary while text along the front and contents pages. Showing both of my preliminary products you can clearly see that the professionalism of the two products is not there.

Looking at my three final products for my magazine you can see that I have learnt a lot more from Photoshop as I feel my products look a lot more better standard. To do this I had to expand and develop ideas I thought were ok to make sure they were at a professional standard. Through doing this piece of work i have learnt a lot of Photoshop and understood a lot of new skills on the software such as how to use the magnetic lasso tool much better than previous tasks and taking pictures which are of good quality and suitable for manipulation for my work. Also carrying out extensive research before carrying out my final product, this allowed me to rethink ideas to make these good and to make sure they look professional quality and learn from the lack of professionalism in my preliminary task. Comparing my preliminary and final product together, the final product is alot less spacey than my preliminary task, this gives it a look which looks professional. The colours used in my final production are more eye-catching and appealing to my target audience, between the making of my preliminary task and my final products, I have learnt that the colours I used in my preliminary were not as good and professional looking and they needed to be improved and they were In my final pieces and these colour I used were very professional.

Difference of Preliminary to Final Product

The Comparison/Difference between my preliminary and main final front cover are:

-My Final has a lot more headings of bands and headline stories.

-There is no barcode on my preliminary.

-On my final i have stuck to three colours of Red,White and Black, whereas there is black,white, red, purple.

-A comparison is there are pugs on both magazines.

-Both pictures have medium close ups and close ups.

-There is no price,date or website on my preliminary.

The Comparison/Difference of my Preliminary and my contents page:

-there are a lot more information writing on my final contents page.

-There are 3 pictures on my main contents page and 2 pictures on my preliminary.

-There are no pugs in my preliminary.

-House style not stuck to three colours on my preliminary.

-No date,time,website on the contents for my preliminary.

Evaluation Question 6

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

Overall I have learnt well from a lot of technologies when making my final products. I used various different amounts of technologies and these are:

-Photoshop.

-Canon 500d Camera.

-Laptop/Mac computer.

-Blogger.

-Internet.

-Memory Sticks.

-Memory Cards.

I have learnt a lot about using Photoshop and I am now very confident in using it. Throughout constructing my final products I feel I had an advantage from others as I have used Photoshop a lot more on previous occasions for other coursework such as photography and ICT. I feel I have improved a lot more other the time of making my products as I know now how to work each button etc. At first I found the magnetic lassoo tool hard to use but in the end I found this easy to use as the practicing from doing it at school and at home helped. I also learnt well with the layers have images above and below certain layers this I feel was very key and hard at first and in the end I finished well. In my product on my front cover I had to cut out the persons head with the lasoo tool and layer it between the main image and the masthead this took a lot of time and care and overall I managed to do this well. Another Photoshop technique I found good was and which I did with all my main images in the end and this was colour pop. This is where you make the saturation to -100 and you then rub out the bit you want colour in or use the magnetic lassoo tool. The outcome is where all the picture is dark with a little hint of colour I feel this worked very well with my 3 pages for my media product.

For taking pictures, I found this was a easy and hard task to do. I found it easier because I already have a camera and it is a camera which photographers use around the world this is good because the resolution of the picture making it smaller and bigger is very good to use. I found it hard to find the right place to take pictures and I ended up having three different locations to take these pictures these were hard to sort the timing the place where the images was going to be taken, the background. These all had to be taken into case where they were going to go. In the end I feel that the place background and the image are very good and I am proud of the finishing product.

When doing my blog and finishing off my final products I used my laptop or the Mac computers at the school. On my laptop and the computers at school these had all the technologies needed for doing my blogger which was the internet and constructing and editing the final products on Photoshop. Having Photoshop on my laptop at home was a big boost because this meant that I could do this at home in my spare time.

For blogger I found this hard to use at first because I have never used this before but I have recently came to grips with it and I now find it easier to use. This was a key factor to my media work as this is where all of my coursework goes. Also this would allow customers to view the website www.rhys-whitehead.blogspot.com to see the questionnaires.

The internet was another technology which was important to my work. This is where the blogger was and if I didn’t have the internet this would mean that customers wouldn’t be allowed to see my blog and either will I. Also I used the internet to search for my research on the front covers, contents pages, and double page spreads on google, also to research the target audience, audience demographics and Maslows hierarchy theory all where searched on google. I also used www.dafont.com to find fonts to use for my media products.

Another important factor was my memory stick and memory card. Without these I wouldn’t be allowed to of transferred my work from my home work to my school work. These are very useful and it’s an easy way of transferring work. Also memory cards without these I would not be allowed to upload pictures on my computer to use for my magazine.

Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?tallk about questionnaires what you did to advertise it- post in on facebook

To attract my audience I had to make sure to follow the conventions which are to have the right layout, images, colour scheme house style appeal to the customers. I have to make sure that this is successful as this is proven to be a key factor for current top selling magazines. For my magazine I have to take into case the mise-en-scene is also another important factor in magazines is to attract my target audience. An example is on my double page spread, Jay Jay mraz there is a lot more colour in this picture to the other two pictures, as the red guitar and the blue shoes are coloured. This attracts my target audience because in my target audience Leon likes to wear leather jackets and likes to play the guitar. Also as well on my double page spread there is two smaller images where the text is there is two images which Leon would like as he likes cheque shirts and also leather jackets this would mean that my target audience would like this and this would attract him to get the magazine. From my poll 55% requested that they wanted a blue, red and white colour scheme. 22% chose red, black and white. I feel that I have done wrong here for my target audience because I haven’t listened to them and I should of done this. The reason I chose red, black and white is because the pictures I took was with a red guitar and I thought that for my editing of the pictures I was going to colour pop the picture and leave the red guitar in colour this would then look better with it being red, black and white because there would be a dark background representing well with the black. Other ways to grab the audiences attention i was offering a lot of chances to win tickets and competitions. On the front cover the was a pug which says "win tickets to Jamie" and on my contents page there was the chance to win tickets to new york. This would grab the audiences attention a lot as they will then want to buy the magazine to win chances of a life time courtesy of Spotlight magazine.

To advertise my media product I had to get feedback from customers to see what they want in a magazine, to do this I got fellow media students to do my questionnaire also to advertise my blog I posted the link on Facebook to get people around my age to do my questionnaire the results ended up well with quite a few people answering my questionnaire.

Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The Audience for my media product will be from my research who was my target audience. This was who was described on my blog further back. My target audience's name was leon and he was what id like to call a stereotypical late teen boy. This is who likes fashionable clothes, loves parties etc. I feel i have represented my magazine well to target audience and i feel this is a key factor to represent to get a good amount of customers. This is because on my front cover and my double page i have listed bands which Leon(target audience).

Evaluation Question 3

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

For all of my media products i feel that this can be advertised in many ways. There are companies which own many media industry products. From research i have been doing for advertising i have found three media companies which do this and these are:

-http://www.ipcmedia.com/

-http://www.warnersgroup.co.uk/

-http://www.chpltd.com/

Ipc media is one of the biggest magazine manufacturers and it has up to 85 different magazines ranging from sport to house furniture to music magazines. It has famous brands such as NME, Nuts, Now, Guitar and Bass. This I feel is a good brand for my media product.

Warners group is also another big magazine manufacturer. They own 33 magazines but these are magazines which are irrelevant to my research. This is because they sell magazines such as Lakeland, taxi globe, magazines about trains. If i was to choose this manufacturer for my media product spotlight magazine I would not choose this because this is not a manufacturer which will be good as there are no music type genres which they promote.

Chp is the final media manufacturer I have researched and this is a much more smaller company this only has six magazines which they provide. I feel this is very bad because all of the magazines on the website are all cars such as 911 and porsche world, auto italia etc.

overall i would choose Ipc because i feel that this is a very good media company and this will sell alot more as it is well known more than the other media companies. Also i feel that they can then sell them to newsagents and super markets this is a place where most if not all customers buy there magazines. Also there is the option of subscription for 12 months for example and they would then save a lot more money.

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I feel that my media product represents well to some particular groups. These I feel are for teenagers and early adults. This I feel is people of both genders ranged from the ages 15- 27 I feel the music genre I have done for the magazine represents a indie rock/light R&b. This is the type of music which teenagers and early adults like to listen to. Also I feel I will be grabbing their attention with the picture as this shows a fairly young man holding a guitar posing. My magazine is made to replicate my target audience of a teen who is studying in university and enjoys partying. To make this appeal to my target audience i had to choose colour schemes, artists, locations where to take pictures. This all had to been taken into case for my final ideas to match my social group. Also I have included bands in which was from a genre people wanted in my magazine from my questionnaire.

This is the main image from my contents page. When you want to choose a social group i have picked the group based on my genre of music and the target audience. In this picture i feel this represents a rocker/indie group. This is because to base it on a rocker there is a guitar in the picture. Also to represent the rocker theme the main protagonist of the picture and magazine is wearing a leather jacket which i feel represents well with the rocker theme. also long hair is another attribute to add to the rocker theme. To show this rocker theme i have based pictures like this around my front cover, double page spread and contents page to relate a lot to the rock/indie theme

Evaluation Question 1

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

my final products I did for my magazines, I used most of the same conventions of what you use in a magazine. The following things i have done are as follows:

The Bar code- this is because every magazine you see have a bar code. Its important because when you buy the product you scan it the price comes up on the cashier. For my magazine to look as professional as it can be i would need a bar code and i have that on my front cover magazine.

The issue Number- This is also another key part to the magazine as customers who are buying this need to know what date it is the magazine they are buying. In music magazines they all have the date and issue number on the magazine to show customers that how close the date is to the date it is. Customers want a magazine which is up to date and if there isn't a date customers may not buy the magazine.

Main image-for main images this is perhaps the main part to a magazine. This is because its important to show an image which strikes a strong factor for which customers would be attracted to. Its important for a strong image on the front cover to catch a customers eye. I feel my image a strong image for a front cover as i feel it sticks out with the red guitar in the picture.

Pugs- Pugs are very important factor to show the conventions for real life media products because these show little advertisements around the magazine. In my magazine i have included a pug which says "Win tickets to Jamie T" in real life magazines they say similar writing to what mine says and they also say " which is shown in my other magazine I have show in this post which is "CDs are dead- The 30 hottest spots for hip hop and R& B."

Colour scheme- The colour scheme is also vital to the magazine to keep the house style the same throughout the magazine. This is important as this will keep the magazine looking professional and this is important. Through my analysis I have found out that magazines such as NME and Kerrang and Q magazines they all keep the same colour scheme throughout the magazine and this is mainly Red, Black and White. This is the same colour scheme of what i have done throughout my magazine.

Bold fonts- This is similar to colour scheme and this is keeping the same fonts throughout the magazine. Through my analysis of real life magazines i realised that all magazine tend to keep the same fonts throughout the whole magazine. In my magazine i haven't done this in my magazine. The reason this is because i wanted to change my fonts for the speech on my front cover compared to my double page spread writing.

Pictures-This is also another important factor to see how many pictures you have on each page. On magazines i have analysed i have found out that in magazines they have more than one photo in on each page. This is different to what i have done this is because I have done one picture on each page i have done. I feel this doesn't matter how many pictures you have on the cover. I feel i have covered the space well by putting a lot more text there.

Double Page Spread

Contents Page

Front Page

My Preliminary Coursework

Media Photos

I have taken a few pictures for my music magazine and i have selected 7 photos which i could use for my music magazine in the future.Also these photos have not been edited yet and will be edited for my magazine if they do get put onto my magazine.

Picture 1

For one on my photos I have taken is of my friend in a tree holding a guitar. I like this picture because one of the main focus’s is Sam and the fact he has a guitar and it represents well with the colour scheme I am using and this is of red, black and white and there is a red guitar. I will be hoping to put this on one of my pages as I feel this will look good. I will edit it and develop it to make the picture look good and I think that I will be making the picture all black and white but I will perhaps leave all of Sam in colour or just leave the guitar in colour and everything else black and white this is called colour pop.

Picture 2

For my second photo I feel this isn’t as good as the previous one as I feel the whole of the bottom half of the body is cut off and this is more of a medium shot. I don’t really want to have this in my magazine as I feel there would be no need as I want a whole body shot of Sam my main focus of my magazine. If I was to use this I could use it in a smaller picture in my contents and this will be edited to a darker image or higher saturated picture.

Picture 3

For my third picture this is one of my favourite style pictures I took but there are some negatives to the photo. The two problems there are, are that the picture is a little bit blurry and both people on the left and right are cut out. I feel if this is the downside and this is the disappointment of the picture and this would have been one of my main reasons why I wont be choosing the picture for my magazine.

picture 4

For my fourth photo I like this picture as its in a forest with a guitar. This is similar to the first photo I analysed and I would like to use this photo in my magazine. If I would use this photo I will edit it and I would leave the red guitar which represents with my colour scheme and the blue trainers also would make the picture look a little bit brighter.

picture 5

For this photo I feel this an ok picture and this can be improved in many ways. I feel that the background isn’t the right background I would need for my front cover or contents or double page spread as I feel it isn’t indie enough because its just showing a country lane and a sign post. Also another negative factor to my picture is that I feel it is a slight bit blurry. I feel this picture isn’t good enough for my front cover or contents or double page spread.

Picture 6

For this photo I really like the style its used. I think it is a very good idea and looks like a picture you would see in a music magazine. I feel if I was to use this in the future I would perhaps cut out the main image and perhaps I would stick it on my double page spread where the writing will go to make it look professional.

Picture 7

For my final photo I am analysing I feel this is also another really good picture I took. I feel this one like the previous photo I took are pictures you will see in a music magazine. Also like the previous picture I think that I will cut out the main image and stick it on the double page spread in a small photo next to the previous photo I analysed.

Fonts for media

Colour Scheme Ideas

-Red, White, Black- This is a very common colour used for music magazines as magazies like NME and Q. I feel this is a very good colour to choose and could be a possible choice for my final design.

-Blue, Red, White- This is also a common colour used for magazine covers house scheme and i like this because these colours are the colours of great britain. This could be a possible choice for my final colour scheme.

-Green, Black, White- I like this colour scheme because the colours used are very simple yet effective and i feel this will look good if i was to use this.

-Yellow, Black, White- This is another common colour scheme used for music magazines, i like this house colour scheme and this would be a good choice to use for the final colour.

-Blue, Black, White- This is my favourite colour scheme and this is also a very commonly used colour scheme and this could be a possible final colour scheme.

Font Ideas

below i have a few font ideas i have chosen from microsoft word which i can use for my magazine final ideas.

Apple Chancery- i like this font because it looks very old but very stylish.

Arial- This is a very simple font but i think this is a easy font which will be able to read as i feel this looks very clear/

Helvetica- This is very similar to Arial and i feel this is the same where as it looks very simple but effective by it being easier to read.

Stone Sans ICT TT-Semi- For this font this is similar to times new roman font but i feel this looks good, with it being very simple but very effective and professional looking if i was to choose it.

Ayuthaya- This is a very nice font as it looks rounded. But the problem for this font is that it is to spaced out. 

Chalkboard-This is also another font I like as this looks rounded edges and I like the style used her. This could be a possible decision for my final idea.

Audience Demographics

For audience demographics this is the beginning for most magazines as this is one of the most important factors to start with. This is the audience.  Its important for the audience to find out about them. You want to find out information like: how old they are, what music they like, what they want in the magazine, where they live, what gender they are, this is like information that is relevant for me finding out what people want in the magazine. The failure or success on the magazine would depend on how well i find out what information from the audience. To find out this information of the audience i will be doing questionnaires or polls on my blogs to get the audience to answer them. I will be posting links of my blog for people to answer my questionnaires on social networking sites such as facebook or twitter.    

Target Audience

This is Leon he is 19 years old and lives in North London. He is currently studying Law at London Metropolitan University. He dresses in a modern indie style fashion as he likes to wear skinny jeans and cheque shirts. He enjoys to wear brands such as Hollister, Abercrombie and fitch, and superdry. Also he likes to wear leather jackets as this is a favourite of his On the weekend he likes to socialize with old school friends from Hertfordshire by going to parties and clubs. In his spare time he loves to play the guitar He rarely watches Tv but when he does he watches programs like skins and shameless. Also he sometimes switches to the music channels on Tv to watch channels like viva,kerrang and NME Tv. His favourite bands and artists for music are such as Jamie T, the Prodigy, The Frateli's, Linkin Park, and King of Leon. This is because he enjoys listening to light rock, indie music, he also enjoys listening to club music like house music as well.He and some old school friends who he likes to meet up are setting up there own band.I have chosen Leon as my target audience because this is the type of reader i want to read my magazine. I feel that this is the main stereotype for too read the magazine.

Uses and Gratifications Theory

Uses and Gratifications Theory is a way to show an approach to communication. This theory places more focus on the consumer or audience. It assumes members of the audience are not reactive but take an active role in interpreting and integrating media into their own lives. The theory also holds audiences responsible for choosing media to meet its needs. The approach suggests that people use the media to fulfill specific gratifications. This theory would then imply that the media compete against other information sources for the viewer’s gratification. This theory would help me to make my magazine and design it. This is because the theory is for the audience to choose what they want in the magazine. For example what font they want, what title they want, the colour scheme used throughout the whole magazine. Also things like the layout this would all be helped by the audience deciding what they want. I have done a questionnaire to see what the audience want for my magazine. I will be using the audiences idea for my magazine as i feel this is the best way to get the audiences attention.

For my third and final contents page I am going to analyze a kerrang magazine contents page. Kerrang magazine is a very popular rock magazine in the UK. In this contents which im going to analyze there is a lot of information n this contents compared to what there is from the other two contents pages. There are a lot of pictures on the page also there is writing with it saying all what is inside the page.

 The colour scheme for this magazine represents well to the house style which Kerrang use for all of there magazines. The colours they use is black, white and yellow this is i feel good colours to use as they are not childish colours and i feel them three are a good combo to use and they look professional.

The layout of the contents page is a lot different to what i have analyzed before in the other two contents page. The difference is that there is a lot more writing on here is such a little space. At the top right hand corner there is a big title saying 'contents' and all down the right hand side is the main pages in the magazine the audience want to read. There are 8 different pictures of bands and artists throughout the contents page which is dotted around the page. There is a pug on this contents page which isnt on the other two contents pages this shows competition which is available. Also at the top of the page there is a paragraph and picture of the author of the magazine explaining what this is.

The font of this contents is the same which is used throughout the whole magazine. This is important that the audience don't get side tracked thinking its another magazine. The colours used in the magazine show different styles in the magazine they use colours like yellow writing and black background, white writing and black background. I feel the fonts have look very professional.