Evaluation - Looking back at your preliminary task (the school magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Preliminary

 

I found that when I was doing my Preliminary task, I was just kinda playing around with the effects. Now that I look at it, the front of the page has too many effects on it. As I had never used photosop before, I was kinda of lost on what to do, so I played around on it for a few hours and gradually I found my way and realised how to do the effects and do the basic cut outs and understanding the layering steps.

Comparing the magazines that I have created, I really think that I have improved in camerawork. In my prelim magazine, the photos were all kinda the same. They had the same expressions on the models unlike my final magazine. The first thing that came into my mind about what the pictures were going to look like for my final magazine at the start was that I wanted it to be fun, I wanted the model laughing and having a good time because when you see a real laughing photo, it makes you smile. So that was what I wanted to achieve when I was taking the pictures for my real magazine. I had the model try and few different expressions, and the first time I saw the photo that is now on the cover, I knew that it had to be used as the cover photo.

When using photoshop, I found that I had better experience at editing and cutting out the photos this time, like using the lasso tool to cut out the images. For example with the front cover, I had to cut down from the neck down of the model to be able to get the layering effect of the M behind her, I found that because I had already had some experience with using this particlar tool, I found it much easier to get accurate and neat cuttings. I also understood the layers are you have to use to create the overall image more the second time in photoshop.

I felt that my contents page and my cover are a lot better than my prelimniary, this is because of the colours I had used for them, I thought that it was quite bland compared to my final one. I really think that if these two magazines were to be on sale, my final one would be the best selling one because of the colours that have been used and the layout which gives a much more professional and cleaner appearance. When looking at other magazines, I defiinitley think that my cover doesn't have that music magazine look to it, I think I have leaned more into the fashion magazine look like V Magazine and W. But I think by making it look fashion related, this would be attracting more readers than you typical music magazine which just focuses on music when mine focuses on mainly music, but incoporates fashion and art aswell.

By looking at my final magazine, there are definitley some changes that I would make to it. For example with the front page, i feel as though there needs to be more writing, it looks kind of plain and if I hadn't use the bright colours, I really think that it wouldn't be an attractive cover. In the double page spread, I woud definitely change the layout of the text, maybe have more pictures in the columns of the artist and also use more fonts to bring out the importantr quotes from the article to make is stand out to the readers which would also make it more appealing as an overall page.

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

In pairs, take a picture of each other holding the kit you have used. This might just be the camera and tripod, and your Macbook but there may be other things you want in the shot.
Drop the image onto your blog and annotate it, adding all the programs and other technology you have used as screengrabs and what you learnt about it/from using it. Your written text need only be minimal. You could include reference to all the online and computer programs you have used such as flickr, blogger, facebook, photoshop, vimeo, scribd, slideshare etc.

School PC's
While at school, I used the school computers which did a very good job of just doing the basics. It was easy to do all my blogs and just use the internet for research etc. But when it came to using photoshop on these computers, I found that at times they can be quite slow and on more than one occasion the program would just freeze and I would end up losing some of the work I had done.

My PC
At home, I have a Dell M501R. I found that working from home was the best way of acheiving the best finish on my magazine. I could download whichever font I had wanted unlike if I were to use photoshop at school, I also found that it never one froze on me and made me lose my work. I made sure that I saved every few minutes to make sure that if anything were to happen I didn't lose the work that I had done.

Camera

The camera that I had used to take my pictures with was a Panasonic Lumix TZ10, I found that this camera was very good for just taking still pictures with my model. Although I did try to take motion shots with my model either jumping or moving to get a varierty of different shots, the pictures turned out not as clear as I thought it would be.

Photoshop

The photoshop that I have at home is CS5, I found that this particular version of the software gave me more freedom and effects to play with. By looking at the end result, I think that I couldn't have acheived the final finish of the magazine with using the basic version the school had on their computers which was Photoshop Elements. Although you could do the basics, I thought that by using CS5 it allowed me to go into more detail and do more with the pictures and texts.

Blogger

I have used Blogger as a diary to reocrd what steps I took while creating my magazine, the very first thing I did before making the magazine was make a blog explaining my initial idea about what my magazine was going to be like. I would say that blogger is now easy to use for me, first I didn't understand it but now I find it very easy and useful to use.

Scribd

I had used Scribd to upload my word docuements to the internet and then I embedded it into my blog. This let me use Microsoft Word to put my work into. I thought that it would be a good idea to use other technologies instead of just blogging to show a variety of way in which you could do your work.

Animoto

For my magazine pitch, I created a slide show of pictures and texts to show my class what my magazine was going to be like. Animoto allowed me to create a professional looking video with added sound effects and I found it really easy to actually make the video as all you had to do was just get pictures and put them together and then Animotot would put everything together for you.

Evaluation - How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation - Who would be the audience for your media product?

In my head, I can see the target audience of my magazine. I think that the magazine would be appealing to a range of people to both sexes, boys and girls. Depending on who is on the front cover, this would attract different audiences. For example if I were to put someone like Justin Bieber on the cover, this would mainly attract girls but if I were to put someone like Katy Perry or Jessie J in a sexy tasteful outfit which would attract to girls because they woluld buy the magazine because of her music, and for the boys because of an atractive female on the front but they could also just buy the magazine to see what it is about.
I would say that my target audience would have to have a specific taste to be able to buy my magazine, they would have to have an interest in fashion as the artist's sense of style is very important to their image to their fans. I would say that my stereotypical audience would shop somewhere like TOPSHOP, TOPMAN, River Island, All Saints. All the young high street shops that sell young and modern clothes.
 
They would probably have like POP music to really enjoy my magazine and like to listen to pop artists like Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Nicki Minaj etc. I have chosen this particular genre to base my magazine on because of how versatile it is, you can get artists like Britney who is just your classic pop, then there are people like Nicki Minaj who bring a R n B element to their music incoporating rap which could grab new audiences from the R n B group who normally wouldn't losten to pop music.
 
I would say that my tagret audience would be influenced a lot of what they see on tv, they would probably watch shows like Gossip Girl, 90210, Glee. Anything that is current and popular they would watch.
 

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

A publishing company is a company which is the occupation, business, or activity of preparing and issuing books, journals, and other material for sale so they are available for the public.

The publishing company who I think would publish my magazine would be someone like Conde Nast, I have chosen this particular company because they currently do not publish a music magazine so I think that my magazine would be a perfect addition to the collection. Conde Nast are globally known for publishing some of the major magazines, from VOGUE, GQ, Vanity Fair, LOVE and many more. Most of their magazines are mainly fashion based, but I think that because my magazine is incorporating music, fashion and art. I really think that it would appeal to some of the usual readers from the other magazines. For example I could get some of the young readers of VOGUE to read my magazine because of the fashion, then I could get some of the readers from GQ for the art and culture so I think that by binding different elements besides from just having a music magazine, it would really be a good addition to the company as they already have a family of major well known magazines so it would be easier to get readers to come and buy the magazine.

Evaluation - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I think that my magazine represents a particular group of people who like fashion, art, culture and music. I can see people from the ages of 16 to 25 maybe, I have created quite a young and modern magazine which represents a young group of people who care about fashion, celebrity culture and of course pop music. The artists that I could see being in my magazine that are current right now are people like Katy Perry, Rihanna, Britney Spears, Lady Gaga and Madonna even though this is a young and modern magazine, I think that Madonna represents the evolution of POP re-creating her music and re-inventing herself so many times to keep people interested.

Another artist who is simliar to mine is someone like Katy Perry. They are both Pop artists and have re-created themselves and their sounds to be current.

Katy Perry's style is very fun and colourful, ever since her recent second album 'Teenage Dream' she has totally changed her appearance from her debut album 'One of the Boys' which was a very classic girl next door look. Listening to both albums, you can clearly see the differences, at the very start of her first single 'I Kissed A Girl' people thought she was a one hit wonder. but she then continued to released top 10 hits like 'Hot N Cold' and 'Waking Up In Vegas' to show that she really does have talent. Then coming back to the phenominal second album and single release 'California Gurls' featuring Snoop Dog which went straight to numbr one.

Unlike Katy Perry, the artist featured in my magazine Chanel Smith started working in the music industry from a very young tender age and now she has come back by re-inventing herself and her sound to start the next stage of her life. They are both at the same age, race and styles and have the same target audience.

So I think these two artists represent a particular group of people who follow fashion trends, like to listen to pop music, they also have an appealing personlity and conifendence which will make it eaiser for the audience to like them.

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

Firstly, I am going to be talking about the name of my magazine which is 'M' which stands for Music. I thought that this would be pretty obvious as it is a Music magazine, so I think that by using a acronym it plays on the reader's mind and makes them think about what it stands for. But when they take a read of what is on the cover, they will release that it is a Music magazine. Other music magazines which have either just one letter or a couple of letters are magazines like Q and NME, I think that the reason for just using letters as the name for it is because it is easy to read and remember. I also think that by just using one letter, it makes the cover of the magazine stand out more, as I have got my model in the middle of the page and the 'M' kind of hugging and surrounding her, it closes her into the middle and forces the audiences to eyes to look at her so in my opinion I think that my magazine uses the convention of a Music magazine.

In my magazine, I have kept the layout pretty simple. For the cover I kept to the conventional 3 colour palette with blue, pink and white, this kept my cover looking professional and simple. I wanted the model to be the attraction of the page. So to do this, I decided to do a surrounding effect around her with the 'M' and her name written on both sides and the other featured articles and artists in the middle. I think that this layout it very simple and it doesn't draw too much attention away from the featured model and creates a sort of symmetrical appearance to the eye. For my contents page, I have kept it simple again by just using columns, this again keeps the overall appearance of the page appealing to the reader's eyes. It's easy to read, you just scan down the columns to see what is inside this particular issue of the magazine and there is also a picture of the artist from the cover on there aswell. Lastly, my double page spread, I have followed the generic convention of using laid out columns for my article, I have done this because I wanted it to be easy for the reader to read and not get distracted by having words all over the place. I have kept it simple and clean so it has an overall appealing appearance for the reader. I have also used on of the pages for the double page spread as a full photo of the artist, I have done this because I didn't want the double page spread just to have words on it. I wanted it to be interesting, so by using pictures in my double page spread I am following a convention of any magazine overall because usually when I pick up a magazine either if its fashion or music, the artist/ celebrity that they are featuring will normally have a couple of photos for the double page spread article. 

For the front cover, my model is wearing a embroidered anchored polo shirt and high waisted black skinny jeans, I reason I chose the blue anchored top was because it was a navy blue, and I thought that this would be easy to edit and enhance the colours to get my pop art effect. I wanted the artist featured on my front page to not be too fashion forward because it is supposed to be a Music magazine. So I kept the outfit that she was wearing quite casual and young conveying to the audience what kind and person she is and what kind of music she produces. The shot of her is a frontal mid shot showing her upper body and some of her legs, I used this particular shot because I really liked the expression on her face, it's sort of cheeky in a way and it makes the people looking at the cover think that there is something on there. 

I have chosen to use a couple of fonts for my magazine, for the 'M' on the cover I chose the font 'TALLEREVOLUTION' to get the slim figure of the M to give it a professional look. Then artist's name, I chose to use 'Lane D' which had more width to it to make the artist's name stand out to the reader. In my double page spread, I chose to use 'Calibri' for the font of the article, this was clear and easy to read for the reader and kept it looking nice and professional. 

I would definitely think that the overall appearance of the magazine tells the audience what genre of Music it belongs to, by using bright bold colours and colour blocking I definitely think that it conveys to the readers that this is a POP magazine. In the front cover, I have used Andy Warhol's pop art style editing on my model and the classic green background like Warhol used for his canvas of Marilyn Monroe and I really think that this helps lift the cover and make it more noticeable to the audience and I have done this throughout my pages.

The colour scheme I have went with is Andy Warhol's pop art, for my front cover I have used the 3 colour palette for my texts and also in the contents page unlike my double page spread where I have only used one colour for the font which is black to make it easier for the reader to read. I really thought that by taking inspiration from Andy Warhol it would really appeal to my target audience.