Media Evaluation Q7...

Q7 - Look back to the school magazine you created and dictate what I have learnt in the progression from that to your final product, the music magazine.

When I looked back to the preliminary task which was set in the early stages of 2012, creating a school magazine cover and contents page. I have found that I have developed my skills very well and in so many different ways to create a better magazine than the one I created last year. After asking a small amount of people and myself I found that overall people feel that my music magazine was more professional and more creative than my school magazine had been.

(Image to the left is the cover to the school magazine)

(Image to the right is the cover to the music magazine)

As you can see from the two images above there is a big difference to how my magazine covers ended up and how my music magazine is more professional than my school magazine. While for my school magazine I really only looked at magazines which the school had done themselves and which was going to be sent out to parents when I should have been looking at magazine created my students for students. Because of this error I feel that overall my magazine may have been mixed on who I was targeting rather than being totally certain on whom I was trying to target.

However in my music magazine I did endless about of research and searched for many other types of magazines with the same genre as mine so that I could understand what type of information was going to be in the magazine.

The other large difference between the makings of the magazine covers was that when I created my school magazine cover it was the first time I had ever used InDesign properly. This meant that I didn't really understand what extra tools there were and how I could make my magazine the best it could be on this new programme. However by the time I created my music magazine I was more aware of what I had to do and how I could make my magazine look more professional though the programme.

As you can see I have arranged my magazine cover better on my music magazine than my music magazine making the magazine more readable for the audience. For example on the school magazine I find it hard to read what some of the sell lines on the cover say as they are just placed on top of the image which takes up the whole page. This was because I picked my images with a better eye in my music magazine while before I liked the photo when I picked it and so used that image no matter what.

Sticking with the images, when I was creating my music magazine I learnt more about how the mise en scene of the images were important because of how they were going to affect the audience picking up the magazine and also how it represented the magazine as a whole as people make their choice if they want the magazine or not even before they have read what’s inside by just looking at the image on the cover.







(Image to the left is of the contents page for the school magazine)

(Image to the right is of the contents page for the music magazine)

When I was making my school magazine I felt that I didn't plan my photo-shoots to the best I could and felt that I ignored all of the help I was given by teachers and other students and decided to proceed to do what I wanted to do with my magazine. The articles which I placed in my school magazine I placed them in there when I was doing the contents page and didn't plan where everything was going to go. However in my music magazine I created a ‘flat plan’ before I even started to make the cover of my magazine, the reason for this was so that I could include relevant sell lines on the cover and know where everything was going to be placed on my contents page. I feel that by doing this is makes my magazine seem more professional as well because the sell lines on my cover would then be correct and I could add more information about features and other articles inside to attract the audience.

While the planning of the magazine and how it was going to look and be presented was much harder it helped by looking at other magazines of that genre, such as Country Weekly, and looked at the type of articles which were included in the magazine and what they advertised on the cover and also the type of images they placed in the contents page.

I personally feel that my contents page for my school magazine was not professional at all and make the whole magazine look like it would never be published. As you can see on the contents page the border lines are still placed on the page and this makes the page seem untidy and not finished as a whole. As you can also see there are only 17 pages worth of articles to read and then the magazine is over, however for the music magazine there are 57 pages labelled on the contents page. This makes the music magazine seem as if the audience would be getting their money’s worth rather than purchasing a magazine they would be finished reading in less than 5 minutes

(Image to the left is an image I used on the contents page for my school magazine)








(Image to the left is an image i edited for a poster to be placed on my front cover for my music magazine)

As you can see from the images above the way I take photos and edit them has developed largely since creating the school magazine to the makings of the music magazine. I feel that my editing the images I make them seem more professional and it attracts the audience’s eyes more than they would if they were just photos taken from the camera straight onto the magazine. The photos which I took for the school magazine were not planned and I found it hard to figure out what I wanted my models to do when I was taking the images as I hadn't planned what type of images I wanted. However I did plan what type of images I wanted for my music magazine, I also added a prop to make the magazine show off the type of music genre that it was presenting for the audience.

For my school magazine I only did one photo-shoot and didn't look at the images until the following day, this meant that I couldn't change the images and couldn't get the models together again to take another photo-shoot. However for my music magazine I took two photo-shoots at two separate locations, both with a white background, and looked at the images I was taking while I took them so that I could see if I needed to take more or that there were enough.

Overall I have enjoyed making my music magazine and feel that with the changes I have made throughout and the development of my skills in the creating, planning and taking photos for the magazine. I have made my magazine seem more professional and would attract a large audience to my magazine.

Media Evaluation Q6...

Follow this LINK to find the answer to Q6 in my media evaluation :)

Media evaluation Q5...

Here is my answer to Q5 to get the answer please click on LINK :)

Media Evaluation Q4...

The two images above are of Catherine Neal the image to the right was taken last year on Halloween  even then she wore a check shirt, and the other was this year just at home.

The image above shows of Catherine Neal who is a 17, recently turned year old girl who lives in Orpington, Kent, England. Her normal style consists of a check shirt, with either light or dark jeans and then either boots or some type of converse, like sneakers. The reason for this easy outfit is because “it lets me move around more and I don’t feel like I'm to on show while still being able to be comfortable”. Under the check shirt she would normally wear some sort of short sleeved top if it is cold out. These tops are normally in contrasting colours with the shirts which she would be wearing. As check shirts are the favorite there are many of them in her located in her wardrobe, some of the colours being blue and white, red and black, grey and black and many more.  Nearly all of her types of clothing comes from places such as New Look, Republic, Primark, Topshop and a few more.

Her style of make-up is none, Catherine, and many like her, like to keep to the natural side of the make-up as she thinks that the dark colour of either the mascara or eye liner will make her eyes seem strange to even herself. 

She has no pricings at all and so her skin is not tainted keeping to the natural side of her figure which she likes to keep a hold of her. She has no real need for accessories apart from a few necklaces which she wears all of the time and a few rings which she also always wears as well. These are nothing special and don’t hold any special reason. However like many country signers they always have signature accessory which they would wear every day, hers being a necklace with a dream catcher on the end.

A hobby of Catherine’s is that she is very fond of collecting all sorts of badges such as some from films, small motes, funny ones or some of bands which she likes, for example she has one of Scotty McCreery on one of her side shoulder bags. She enjoys reading about celebrities and getting the latest gossip on people .She also enjoys photograph and loves to make her photos different from other peoples in the best ways she can. For example she would do this by making the model wear very different than they would normally, this shows that she is outgoing and is not afraid to get or ask for what she wants. She enjoys spending her time either taking photos, listening to music, watching TV or hanging out with her friends and family.

While she does like to watch TV shows she has no real type of show which she would always stick to and only watch others like that. For example while she watches Vampire Dairies, a supernatural TV show aimed at teenagers, she also watches Nashville which is aimed at an older generation. For the films which she watches they are also very different for example she loves to watch Nightmare before Christmas, as that is her favourite film, and then she also loves Sweet Home Alabama and also Back to the Future.

Catherine enjoys many different types of music not all just country music, for example some of the bands and artists which she loves to listen to are; Green day, Scotty McCreery, Olly Murs, Toby Keith, Fall out Boy and Every Avenue just to name a few of them.

I personally feel that this is the type of person which my magazine would appeal to as a person like Catherine enjoys country music and other interesting features which would appear in the magazine such as other stories about artists in the magazine and give always such as tickets and merchandise.

Media Evaluation Q3...

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Media evaluation Q2....

Please click on LINK to go to this questions answer, thank-you :)

Evaluation Q1...

This is Q1 to my media music magazine cover, contents page and also double page spread.
Q1- In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?



(Mise en scene of images-Written content-Layout-Title of magazine-Title font and style-Costumes and props-People-Music genre and how magazine shows it-Contents page)


The Mise en Scene

The mise en scene is shown through these images by the type of clothing which they wear, the positions they are in along with the make-up and the lighting. As you can see I have portrayed the theme of country music by having the artists wear clothing which would normally be seen on people who sing country music. For example sticking with the stereotype image of the check shirts and the jean shorts, as this is the traditional, iconic look for people who either sing or listen to country music. I have placed a guitar in one of the images to highlight the fact that the whole image must link back to country music and the people must be seen as being ‘wild and free’. I have also shown this though the type of shots I have taken, for example in the image of the band holding the guitar shows that they are relaxed and in an atmosphere where they can just be normal and at peace as they are just looking into the camera. As I have made sure that in all of the images I have taken show the people either smiling or looking into the camera as if they are about to sing. As you can see from the image showing the poster of Rose I have only taken the main images to be either showing the people smiling or posing for some reason, this highlights the fact that I want to show happy and 'free' almost they are even when they are performing or posing for a photo. The image showing the two band members posing next to each other back-to-back shows that they are all about sisterhood and though their smiles and light make-up shows the carefree country look which I was trying to show though the images. The clothing that they are wearing contrasts with each other because of the dark reds and blacks which are on Rose and then the light blues and grays which Mia is supporting shows a contrast in their personality's  The reason I have done this is because I wanted to show the audience that there is a contrast in their looks and how they dress with their personality and how they act towards others and each other.

Written Content



I have chosen to place, on my 2 page spread, the most writing in the magazine because it offers the most space to do so. This is common in all magazines as the main articular is one of the main reasons for the audience purchasing the magazine as they saw the main band or artist on the front of the cover meaning that they would have been the main reason for them purchasing the magazine. However in many other 2 page spreads while the 2 page spread is normally just one large image on one of the pages and then a collection of text on the second I have chosen to only place smaller images which range over both of the pages so that I had more room to write. This would also make my work stand out from others. As you can see in the 2 page spread below of Taylor Swift taken from Country Weekly the image is shown to take up most of the page and then the articular is in small print and not even taken up the second page. However while I have chosen to ignore this is have stuck with the small image of the album cover which is placed in the middle of the text on the second page to show some other information and also promote the album itself for the band. However I did stick with the columns on the second page but not on the first to show some alteration between the two to make the audience look at everything rather than just seeing a lot of text and not thinking about anything else apart from the text and the pictures which split the text up for some amount.



Layout

In the picture I have shown a small snap shot of each of the pieces of work I have created so that I could show the colour theme which appeared throughout them.

As you can see I have kept the the colors of a dark red swapped contrasting with black for the writing along with some colors to add some extra detail to my work. For example I have added a '+' sign in a bold black on my front cover to add some extra BAM on the front cover. By adding this sign and having the word 'PLUS' next to it they link every well together as the + sign is the plus sign and it makes the offer of having something extra even more interesting. It links in well with the colors which appear on the magazine as the + is in a bold black while the word 'PLUS' is in red to create a contrast between them. The overall created on my front cover is aimed slightly on country weekly magazine covers because of the large image which is located in the middle of the page and the text which is located to one side of the page. However many of the covers have a colored background which would either be an added background cover or a background to the picture such as a field or a background made up to show off the band in a more effective way. However I feel that by adding the extra colors to the side of the page to split up the articles which are going to be in the magazine, this also makes the magazine cover seem more 'together' than it would if they were not there. By placing easy to read text and font on the cover it makes the magazine achievable to lots of ages making the target audience much larger than it would have been before.

My contents page is not aimed at being similar to any type of magazine at all, the reason for this was because most the contents pages which appear in magazines sometimes range over two pages or I just simply don't like them that much. So because of this reason I have chosen to create my contents page with only my ideas as a background. However I have kept to the same colour theme as the other pages as I have kept with the red and black colored text to show off the text while being on a red background. However I felt by placing the images to the side of the contents page and having the text on the other side it makes the whole page seem more together and look as if the whole page needs to work together to see more full. By having the 'random' pink color on some of the articles in the magazine it shows off that its good to be a constant reader of the magazine because readers of the magazine every time it comes out would know that those articles which are in a different are ones which have appeared on the front cover as well as they are the most important.

Lastly My double page spread has also been a collection of my own ideas and slightly based on another Country Weekly Magazine two page spread. There was an article which showed the artists first letter of her first name as the background of the magazine, this is what I copied as I felt that the initials of the band would become their logo which would appear on some type of merchandise so that the words 'new dawn' don't have to appear every time.

However as many magazine articles either stick to having a whole page of text or columns while I have chosen to use them both. The reason for this is because I felt that my mixing the two I would be able to get more text onto the page rather than only having half of the article on the page. By having this amount of text in this way it also gave me a correct amount of space for me to place my images in and give them a small caption which would appear on the image itself.

Title of the magazine

The title of the magazine is very important to the magazine and it's overall brand. The reason for this is that it lets the readers have something to be familiar with as that would be the only thing on the front cover which wouldn't change no matter what the issue is and who is on the front cover. The title of the magazine is also something which must be easy to read, if the font type was hard to read then only a certain number of people would know what magazine they were picking up and this may put off a large amount of people purchasing the magazine. The title itself is black on a red background, showing the two main colors of this issue to the audience even before they have opened the magazine to see what is inside. The title on the cover is larger than anything else on the page and draws the audience to it before anything else making the text seem to be the most important thing which will be on the cover. I feel that my country music genre links very well with the title of the magazine as the font seems to fit in well with the title as it seems like a font which would be either on another type of country magazine or on some type of country CD for the name of the band or songs.

Title, font and style

I used the same type of font for my cover and contents page to show that the magazine is bung together though not just the colors but also the type of font which is used throughout. However I used other types of fonts for other sections of the rest of the magazine but all of them show off the country music theme. However I have used a very unique font type for 'New Dawn' when ever their name is mentioned out of context because that is the font which they for all for their CD's, posters and any other type of merchandise as it is another type of their promotion which they use to promote themselves. All font types are either in the colors red or black or both because that is the overall color theme of the magazine for this issue.

Costumes and props

  

As the overall genre for the type of magazine I created is country music all of the clothing and props which were featured in the magazine had to relate directly country music. After researching the type of clothing which country artists wear I have chosen to dress all three of my main models in check shirts and also light blue jean shorts as they are all girls. The main reason for these types of clothing is because that is the iconic clothing which country and western people wear all the time. The only other props which I used along with the clothing was a guitar which was featured in a few photos of New Dawn to show that they are not just singers but they do also play the guitar in some of their songs like many other country artists. The light colors which are shown on the check shirts show the bight and colorful theme which comes with country music as a whole and reflects also on the type of music they perform. By displaying some of the types of shirts in the image I have shown some examples of the colours which I am trying to bring together as a whole.

People

In my magazine I photographed three different people to make my magazine photo shoots complete. I used my cousins for the main band (New Dawn) who appeared as the main articular in the magazine and on the front cover, with their images i also created a poster for both of the band members as well to give the magazine something to advertise. I also used my friend Richa to appear as another artist called April, I used her images on the front cover and also an image in the contents page to advertise her article in the magazine. The image on the front cover I edited to make it look like a poster as something else to advertise which would come free with the magazine, I felt that with the posters located at the bottom it would make the magazine come together more along. All images, apart from the ones on the two page spread have been edited to either make the images brighter or just add some extra on to them. 

I did have my worry's when i chose to place two young teenagers as the main band members of the magazine but feel that i made the correct decision as while they are young I made their image out of this fact and based their article and album cover around this as well.

Music genre and how magazine shows it

My magazines main music genre which I have chosen to base my magazine on is 'Country Music', the reason for this is because lately that is all I have been listening to and I have also started to read 'Country Weekly' the most popular and well-known country magazine in the UK and USA.

I placed all images which I felt from this magazine made me think of country music and how country music is viewed by others. First by placing the album cover from New Dawn at the back of the box it shows that America is the main theme of country music as that is where it started and most of the most popular and well-known county artists are from there. With the bright image being placed in the magazine it also represents the type of music that I am advertising because they seem to either be 'looking into the distance' which is something which many country singers do as that is another stereotypical thing as well for them.

I wanted my magazine to relate to the way that country music makes me feel, I want the images in the magazine to look as if the people in them are free and are there for fun along with them being part of the music and not just singing the songs because they were told to. This is how other country magazines make me feel and so I wanted to show this though mine.

Contents Page

My contents page again shows the same title as the front cover to show that the magazine is altogether and not just separate pages with the only thing which are the same are the people in the images on the pages.I have placed a 'modern' style at the back of the page as a half circle so that I didn't have to add a whole new background to the page but so that the page didn't have a section of text one of images and then just a white background which doesn't bring it together. However with the bright background I feel that the images look as if they have a place on the page. The two bottom images which are placed on the page are slightly slanted to the side to add some extra twist to the page as I felt that they would look boring if the images were all in a line down the other side of the page. The text on the other side is in a readable font style and size so that the audience can read it but they can still see the images on the other side of the page and not be overwhelmed by the amount of text or the amount of images.

Here are the final images of my cover page, contents page and my 2 page spread...

The making of my 2 page spread....

Below is a selection of print screens showing the construction of my magazine's 2 pages spread all the way from the start when i placed the background onto the page to the end where I had to move the text around so that my entire interview fitted onto the page.

1- As you can see from the image below I have made a background for the text from the article to be placed on. The letters N D (from New Dawn) are a light red colour so that they don't make it hard to read the text which is placed on the page. I have used the same font as the title to show some theme as the magazine progresses with the story of the band. I have also kept with the colour from the title, being black and red, by creating a line to place under the title of black and red lines so that it divides the title from the text so that the reader knows where to start reading from. Lastly I have placed a page number on each of the pages, same as the numbers in the contents page, on the black border to save on room and so also show the fact that while the number of the pages is important the article is more important but they still need to be seen by some degree. They are in a bright yellow to make them stand out against the rest of the page to show that they are nothing to do with the article which is on the page but only there because of the magazine and what it needs to show on each of its pages.



















2- The image below shows the images which i am going to be placing in the article and where I would like them to be placed while on the page. As you can see I have a mix between close ups to mid-shoots showing either one person to two people. By having a range of photo's it shows the point that I am trying to make by showing that the images were taken by a professional photographer like a magazine would have done. All images are of different sizes to give an even enough room for all of the text in which I am going to place on the page. The reason for this amount of images, and these images, is because I feel that by having an image on the two girls on their own shows that they can stand on their own and still be famous and sing and play guitar as much as they want. To be with the other sister is a privilege and also something which they love to do. This is shown though the top right image and the bottom right image as the two girls are posing for a nice 'sisterhood' picture together showing that they are sisters and best friends no matter what happens. The last image at the bottom to the left shows the girls fighting over the guitar playfully, this represents the sisters as still being young but not young enough to just walk away with a strop of some kind or to start a big argument. No it shows that these girls are mature and also love each other and just want to play around sometimes. Linking with the name of the article (shown on the front cover and the contents page) 'We're still kids'.



















 

3- As you can see I have added text into the 2 page spread to identify what the images on the pages are showing. The reason for this is because without the captions the audience wouldn’t be able to know what the pictures were showing. I also added the borders on all of the pictures to give it some extra affect which I think makes the pictures stand out more; the colour also links with the colours on the title to make the whole page come together more. By having the rugged look on the borders of the pictures it links with the rugged look of the title and the background, I feel that by doing this have linked all of the pictures together showing that they are all part of the same design. Linking in with the deign I have created I also added the bands 'logo' of ND onto every picture which has been placed on the page to make the pictures feel more together as they were. This design feature also links in with the ND which is located at the back of the pages for the text to be placed on. Lastly I have placed two quotes onto the page in the middle of the spine under the picture of Mia and above the picture of Rose. The reason that they are placed there is because they split up the text well and show some of the main points in the text to make it more like a real magazine article. The two quotes are in different colours to show the difference between them and to show that they are spoken by two different people and this would then be shown though the article as the girl’s names would be in one of these colours to show the link between the quotes and the text.

4- After looking at other magazine articles and examining how the pages would look in a real magazine I have chosen to take away one of the images and to move the two smaller images around so that they are on the second page next to each other overlapping. The reason for my change in design is because when the magazine is folded then the two images of the girls would be in half making the images crease and also they may rip when the magazine is used many times to read and look at. this also goes for the two quotes in that section of the page, the quotes could, after a while, be unreadable making it harder for the audience of the magazine to enjoy the whole of the article. I feel that with less images there will be more room for the text which i am going to include in my article, the images which I have left i feel make the whole image of the band come though very nicely. For example I am showing that while they fight, and could stand alone they will always love each other as they are sisters, all of this representing the mise en scene. The other alteration I have made is that I have moved the black and red down lower so that I can add some kind of header into the article to show the audience what they are going to be reading and why it should interest them enough to read the article and to purchase the magazine.

5- Before my text was entered onto the page I had to make some alterations into how I was going to have my text displayed. I have added a header telling the audience why they should read the article and who New Dawn are to the other readers and to us as a 'company'. I have also again added the borders onto the pictures to make them stand out more and added two quotes onto the page to make the text stand out more. The quotes are in the same colour as I feel that it would go with the rest of the page more than it would if they were two different colours that I have chosen at random. As well as the added designs on the images I have also moved the captions onto the images to make room for more text on the page. The captions are small, only one sentence each, this is to show what the image is showing without the audience having to much trouble looking at the image for the caption.

6- This is the last print screen of my 2 page spread. At last i have finished, as you can see I have taken away the second quote on the second page as I felt that there were already too many images on that page and it would just look to crowded if there were pictures, text and a quote on that page. I have moved the text around the images and the quotes which are located as obstacles on the page. The two images of the girls alone offered the hardest part as I had to work out how the text was going to fit on the page. While there are no lines to show the audience were the text starts a new line i feel that I have made it clear because on the second page I have lined it up with the ends of the images and also the letter 'D' at the back to line it up with as well. While I have played with a mix of ways to set my work out in, for example on the first page the text I have played out the text so that it goes straight across while on the second page it goes in columns.

As there was room at the end of the article for some text, but not enough for another question to be posted I choose to place an advertisement for their new album which is mentioned in the article. There is an offer about the album in capitals at the end of the article along with an image of the album so that the audience know what they are looking for when they are shopping for the album.