Note To The Moderator

Dear Examiner,
I hope you have enjoyed looking through my blog posts that I have been working on over the past few months. All of my posts are labelled and can be found on my blog at the top right hand side of the page. I have enjoyed the firs year of media an AS and have put a lot of effort into my final magazine, I hope to carry on with the course next year.
Thank you! 

EVALUATION 7

Q7

EVALUATION 6

EVALUATION 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

My audience age range is 16-24 year Old’s, older teenagers to younger adults. I designed my magazine so that it would attract this particular age boundary. I used both genders on my pictures that I took to attract both to buy the magazine; this has also helped me publicize my magazine. 

Although as the cover has a 'attractive' girl on the front page it will sell more to the male sex as due to the 'male gaze' theory. I feel my magazine will attract an audience of 16-24 year Old’s as it’s my target market and also because it’s like other magazines that have already been published. For example clash and Fader have used a bold title to attract the audience so i have tried to do the same however my masthead is slightly to the left. 

My front cover, Contents page and Double page spread feature both male and the female sex, both in juxtaposition to each other to get the correct balance. Through the images I have taken you can see what sort of personalities they have, however in these photos they have more of a serious face so they look moody looking directly at the camera. Rob looks like he is more dominate over Carly as he is looking upright and has good posture; both took it very seriously whilst we were in the studio.

When I was writing my article I didn't want to bore my audience so i had to keep it flowing to keep the readers interested.

The contents page will attract the audience because it’s easy and clear to read and understand.  It shows pictures of what’s inside the final magazine and brand new news for the reader of the age group 16-24. My audience will want to read on as I have exclusive interviews inside. Also on my double page spread again showing pictures on the band members attracts the audience the way my article is written is to inform the readers of the bands success so far, it’s not a question and answer layout.

EVALUATION 4

EVALUATION 3

EVALUATION 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The age range for my magazine is 16-24 and my genre is indie, so I have tried to show this through my images for example if we take a picture I took and then a picture from a real magazine we can see how I have tried to make them similar, after looking at some very important information on the UK tribes website, I picked to use both male and female models on the magazine as it would attract both genres of sex, and encourage them to pick it up off of the shelf and buy the magazine. On my font page of the magazine i have used two models one aged 16 and one aged 17, both falling into the age gap i am aiming my magazine at so hopefully this will attract more readers. I have dressed here with the current trend reaching a niche market, also fitting in with my genre of 'indie' 

 

• I have chosen to use a photo of Carly standing on her own (on the left) and i will compare it to the other picture (on the right)
• Carly's bold curly hair  captures the readers attention as soon as you look at the magazine.
• I liked the way the model on the right was standing so i showed Carly some images of how i I wanted her to pose and she did it and over all i think they look like good pictures that i captured. 

I needed to dress both rob and Carly in a way that suited my genre and my target audience age range. so i asked them what items of clothing they already owned that looked indie to fit in with my theme to attract the social group of indie and alternative. From looking at UK tribes the best group that fit in with my genre and age group is the indie and alternative, they are looking for the newest music around and the newest fashions. They have their favorite bands and interests.

EVALUATION 1

Q1

EVALUATION 7 draft

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

I feel that after looking at my very first attempt of using Photoshop I have made a huge improvement, the first time I used the Photoshop program I didn't really know what I was doing so I didn't even edit my picture, During the production of the prelim my knowledge of the program was little as I had never used such software before. Just setting up a page, let alone additional layers was a challenge. I just placed items such as text box's pictures and labels onto the page and put the mastheads over the top, at the start of this task of creating a magazine I wouldn't even of known what a masthead was. I chose for my title to be plain and bold so that it would appeal to the audiences eye. Looking back at the prelim task i dot like the font that i used as it looks too fancy and if you look at the magazines on the shelf like clash and fader, the fonts are quite bold so i decided to make my font bold like these magazines. From looking at the progressions i have made since the prelim task i feel my main improvement has been using the Photoshop program. I stuck to the three colour rule in both tasks. i think there is a drastic improvement.
Things i learnt during the making of my magazine were 

EVALUATION 6 draft

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

From doing this course i have learnt many new skills such as;

Computers: I did the majority of my work on a computer, i was used to working on a computer so it wasn't much of a challenge however some of the software i used was new. i also used my laptop at home to complete the work in time, so i had to download all of the software that i needed to make my magazine a finished piece.

Adobe Photoshop: This is the software i have been using throughout this course to construct my final magazine, it took some getting used to as at the start when designing my prelim task, i didn't get along with it at all however as the course progressed i got used to it and now i quite like it for editing pictures, i have developed my skill and knowledge of this software and used it to my advantage to create my magazine to the best of my ability.

Pages plus X6: This is where i designed my double page spread i had never used it before and it was all very new to me, i like the programs as it gives you the measurement margins and i also like the layout of the program its similar to word but allows you to carry on text box's with your text with out creating a new one.

Word: I used Microsoft word to create my written article, i am used to working with this program so its not anything new to me, this program allows to see my spelling mistakes and allows me to correct them without retyping them. i was also able to keep a word count at the bottom right hand side of the page to see when i had reached the correct amount of words.

Blogger: I have used blogger throughout the whole of the course starting in September so i was used to the software, i posted all of the stages of making my magazine and i also showed my research and planning. before the start of this course i had never used the software before so it was all new to me but now i have learnt how to user it so i can show all the stages of my magazine. i feel this is a great way to show my work throughout the course.

Animoto: This is the software i used to create my magazine pitch using 25 words. i had never used this before so it was new to me but i feel its a good way to present work to peers and is a different way of presenting my work to others.

Camera (Nikon D3200) : This is the schools camera an it takes high quality pictures that i used to put on my front page, contents page and double page spread. I feel i got the best quality pictures that i could possibly get for my magazine then using the photo shop for editing. I felt confident in taking picture as i have an interest in photography.

Lighting: I used the lighting that was provided for me from the school, i had 3 lights in the studio with me, i moved them around to make sure i got the best possible picture of my models. The lights helped me enhance my models facial features and made them stand out.

EVALUATION 5 draft

How did you attract/address your audience?

My audience age range is 16-24 year old's, older teenagers to younger adults. I designed my magazine so that it would attract this particular age boundary. I used both genders on my pictures that I took to attract both to buy the magazine, this has also helped me publicize my magazine. although as the cover has a 'attractive' girl on the front page it will sell more to the male sex as due to the 'male gaze' theory. I feel my magazine will attract an audience of 16-24 year old's as its my target market and also because its like other magazines that have already been published. For example clash and Fader have used a bold title to attract the audience so i have tried to do the same however my masthead is slightly to the left. 
My front cover, Contents page and Double page spread feature both male and the female sex, both in juxtaposition to each other to get the correct balance. Through the images i have take you can see what sort of personalities they have, however in these photos they have more of a serious face so they look moody looking directly at the camera. Rob looks like he is more dominate over Carly as he is looking upright and has good posture, both took it very seriously whilst we were in the studio.
When i was writing my article i didn't want to bore my audience so i had to keep it flowing to keep the readers interested.

EVALUATION 4 draft

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my magazine OOAK would be a target market of 16-24 year olds as they are most suited to my theme of indie. This is quite a small target market however I feel that for a music magazine it will draw the audiences attention in as I have used big names on the front and contents page of my magazine including; disclosure, sub focus, the xx and more... these artist and band names also fit in again with the genre of my magazine. Also I feel that the price of a magazine is always important as to whether it will sell on the shelf, I priced my magazine at £3, I feel that this is an affordable price for my target market that will be new on the shelf once a month. Its not just about looking good but t also needs to be of high quality. The audience  I am aiming my magazine at would be interested in the type of music that my magazine is about also it contains other articles of big names.

AUDIENCE PROFILE:

NAME: Isabel Walker-Smith
AGE: 16
HOMETOWN: Thurlaston 
OCCUPATION: Studying health and social, sociology, psychology and science at Lutterworth college.
INTERESTS: fashion clothes and music
FAVOURITE COLOURS: Yellow
FAVOURITE STYLE OF MUSIC: Indie/Alternative
FUTURE PLANS: Become a midwife

I used UK tribes to look at what sort of audience would be interested in my magazine i came to look at indie and alternative. 

EVALUATION 3 draft

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

I have looked at 3 different media institutions; Bauer, IPC and Comag. Personally i feel that the 
best suited institution for me would be IPC to publish my final magazine. They have had 
great success with the magazine NME. NME has become a truly unique multi-platform media 
proposition, This magazine reaches 1.1 million music fans every week. NME.COM is the world's biggest standalone music site serving an intensely engaged audience of 16-24 year-old's. There is a gap in the market for a more current version of the magazine Q so this  age gap fits perfectly so i feel that it is suited to my magazine as indie and alternative listeners prefer to find things out online and download them onto their tablet. I would trust IPC with publishing my magazine as its had huge success as they support channel 4 TV, I can also have the subscribers version available as an app, I feel that this company has had huge success so i hope that trusting this company I will gain more buyers.  I think this would be a great way to distribute my magazine as technology is so advanced and the audience I am aiming my magazine at would benefit from this accessible way of distribution; particularly because my target audience (16-24) would be familiar with the technology to access the magazine with ease.

EVALUATION 2 draft

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The age range for my magazine is 16-24 and my genre is indie, so I have tried to show this through my images for example if we take a picture I took and then a picture from a real magazine we can see how I have tried to make them similar, after looking at some very important information on the UK tribes website, I picked to use both male and female models on the magazine as it would attract both genres of sex, and encourage them to pick it up off of the shelf and buy the magazine. On my font page of the magazine i have used two models one aged 16 and one aged 17, both falling into the age gap i am aiming my magazine at so hopefully this will attract more readers. I have dressed here with the current trend reaching a niche market, also fitting in with my genre of 'indie' 

 

• I have chosen to use a photo of Carly standing on her own (on the left) and i will compare it to the other picture (on the right)
• Carly's bold curly hair  captures the readers attention as soon as you look at the magazine.
• I liked the way the model on the right was standing so i showed Carly some images of how i I wanted her to pose and she did it and over all i think they look like good pictures that i captured. 

I needed to dress both rob and Carly in a way that suited my genre and my target audience age range. so i asked them what items of clothing they already owned that looked indie to fit in with my theme to attract the social group of indie and alternative.

EVALUATION 1 draft

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

During my research and planning for this project of making ad designing my own magazines, I took style models such as Dazed and Confused, Clash, The Fly etc.... and also the graphics that had been put into the magazine. To make my magazine successful I also looked at what genre had been used, this is how I decided the genre of my magazine would be indie, I chose this also so that it suited the age range I had chosen at the start which was 16-24 year olds. 

For my front page I took inspiration form a few different magazines (clash, Q mag, faded, dazed and confused, the fly) I adopted ideas from these magazines and aspects of all of them will be found on the front page of my magazine. I wanted to be consistent through out my magazine so I used the same pictures, fronts and colour schemes right the way through my magazine, these were white, black and blue. By doing this I gave my magazine a lot more structure. I first placed my masthead so it was central but then when I had take my pictures, it looked better to the left hand side at the top and this layout suited my magazine a lot more. after taking my picture from my photo shoot I had to decide which was the best suited for my magazine and when I had chosen I had to edit it to make it look presentable and modern I enhanced the photos brightness to make the colours of their blue tops stand out. I also chose to put the band name and album name on the front page of my magazine to draw in peoples attention as they would never have heard this before and it will be new and intriguing to the eye. I followed the inspiration the 'The Fly' magazine for this subheading on my front cover of the magazine. I placed the bar code on the bottom right hand side of the magazine as dazed magazines have done, however I didn't follow the exact placement of the bar code and there's is horizontal and mine is vertical.

For my contents page I was hugely inspired by the magazine esquire. I followed the layout of the contents more a less exactly the same, I may have moved a few bits around and used other magazines for slight inspiration but the main idea came front the esquire magazine. I chose to have the word 'contents' going down the side if the page but not vertically written, again taking inspiration from the esquire magazine. I decided to put a picture in, like esquire did, however Instead of photo shopping round a small image I decided to have a full size image slightly to the right of the contents page as I feel it draws the readers attention in and its dominate to the text on the page. I took the idea of having magazine contributors also from an esquire magazine however a different one and I placed it in a different place on the page to others. I chose to included social networking sites as due to my target market been 16-24 year olds they are involved with a lot of Internet socialising. 

For my double page spread I didn't really have a particular magazine that inspired me, for writing my article I thought f the idea from scratch then I took bits and re worded them to put in my article, the inspiration for this was from a Faded magazine. The layout of my magazine I took inspiration from a magazine called Clash, I like they way its all spread out and on the page and its not all crammed in, I feel it draws the reader in straight away, as the big header showing the bands name immediately strikes us as the audience and stands out. I have used the same font throughout the magazine so its consistent. As my article wasn't a question an answer, I didn't have to use any bold text during the article.

FINAL MEDIA FRONT PAGE, COVER PAGE AND DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

Action Plan

For this final week leading up to the deadline i will finish and complete my whole magazine and will go back and look at the original plan i set for myself at the very start of this task that was set. I hope to complete the magazine for the deadline I want to correct all my spelling mistakes. I want all my posts to be up to date and published onto my blog.

Front cover - coverline

I have chosen to have my album name smaller than the band name because from looking at the magazine 'The Fly' as i like the variations of the font sizes, i like the way the spacing and layout is made to fit the magazine on the cover.

Photo shoot editing CARLY AND ROB

Style Model

Magazines that have given me inspiration are CLASH, THE FLY, DAZED AND CONFUSED, WONDER LAND, ESQUIRE, Q MAG. All of these magazines have inspired me even if its just little bits that i can pick and take inspiration from. i have looked at each magazine and chosen to take bits that suit the style of my magazine and the genre indie. 

Photoshoot Editing ROB

With this first picture the one on the left is the original and the on on the right is the eddied picture, I adjusted the contrast of the picture so it was brighter and more appealing to an audience. Also if you look on the top right hand side of the original photo the white screen has a crease in it so I used the spot healing tool to try and get rid of this mark and it worked.

This second picture i have edited i have put the brightness up and the contrast down so we get an even balance of colour over the whole of the photo not just in the corners. i feel it has less shadow in the corners which makes the image look brighter.

Another picture i edited was this final one, the only thing i changed on this picture was the brightness of the photo to make it look at better quality and i managed to get rid of the black marks in the corners.

Photo shoot editing CARLY

 

DRFT IMPROVEMENTS CONTENTS PAGE

Inspiration for contents page

On my contents page I had a space and decided I want to take part of the esquire magazine contents layout again, by this I would fill the gap and also it would look professional to the audience who I have targeted it at the age of 16-34 your old's.

DRAFT IMPROVEMENTS DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

Final magazine article

The writers of OOAK give you some exclusive news that no other magazines have yet to talk about.

The band Indifference have been asked to perform on the main stage at V - Festival. You could say that this music festival is for people that don't actually like music but still want to say that they've been to a music festival.

LET’S MEET THE BAND?

Indifference is an indie based band which consists of 5 members, Matt Crane, Carly Nelson, Ellie Rea, Connor Taylor and Callum Barker. They originated from a small village called Ebford, Exeter, they all attended the same high school where they stared creating songs and playing gigs in the local pubs or fates around nearby villages. Now the classroom music lesson have paid off as it’s soon to become a career for this 5.

The band say "there motivated and ready for a challenge". From the looks of things they are hoping to kick the festival off with a bang playing songs that feature on their brand new album ' The Wild Card'. A dream for them is staring to become reality by the looks of things.

BRAND NEW MUSIC FROM THE BAND INDIFFERENCE!

Their new album ‘The Wild Card’ contains a track list of 16 songs all in which are different, bringing something new to the music industry, something that no one has ever heard before. Behind each of the songs they all have a meaning, whether it’s a personal meaning or a meaning in everyday life. The album is new and powerful and is hitting the shelf a week before the festival.

“It’s from the heart. The songs and the subjects come across more human” says Matt Crane, speaking to us over the phone about the band indifference to do with their first ever album called ‘The Wild Card’. It’s an unexpectedly candid statement form the otherworldly front man.

Then name of their first new album ‘The Wild Card’ is named after them taking their first steps in their career and taking a chance. This is scattered with disparate influences, some harder to pin down than others. Carly Nelson tells us that "when I was writing the song the feelings I wanted to get across in the track called 'tell me now' would just override any other consideration"

The bands upcoming ethic has taken them in many ways and interesting directions, including a photo-shoot on the red carpet for filming for their new music video for the song ‘it’s now or never’ this is one of the songs featuring on their new album ‘The Wild Card’

From looking at advertisement the band they look as if they are to go far in the music industry selling over 2000 copies of their first ever song ‘one day’  this was a shock to all 5 of them as they didn’t believe in themselves till now. This was the start of something big.

IS THERE CHEMISTRY IN THE BAND?

COULD THIS BE THE NEXT NUMBER ONE?

Many of you readers have been writing in to us asking "will be the next number one" well the magazine writers of OOAK say we'll have to wait and see what happens in a few weeks when their first ever album is released in store and available on I tunes. I suggest if your attending the V festival this year, make sure you've bought the album and that you’re at the main stage and give them a listen. They have a whole career ahead of them. The festival is an experience, probably one that everyone should have in a lifetime.

You will gain a load of memories from this festival. If you'd like to see Indifference performing their new album live ' The Wild Card' then you can go to www.vfestival.com and get your tickets now!

Second Photoshoot Review

My second photo shoot i did with Carly and Rob went so much better than my first one, i feel this is because they were both relaxed and felt comfortable around each other so i managed to get the look i wanted. i got some good photos that look much better than my first attempt, i will edit a few of them and show what they look like once i have edited them, i will do another post to show my progressions. 

DRAFT IMPROVEMENTS FRONT PAGE

i have looked at the feedback given from my teacher, and looked at the comments I could use to improve my work, this is what I have looked at improving so far, I have changed the image on the front page and the text so its starting to look like a real magazine. also I have made the bar-code bigger and changed the layout of my magazine name. I will change it again as the title looks like there is too much writing so I will reduce it down so its just plain. Also I will change the writing in the bottom left hand corner as on real magazines we see in the shops it shows band names so i will adjust it so it becomes more sell-able for shops. Finally the issue date and price will be central to the bar code and smaller fonts.

Carly and Rob

For my photo shoot involving Rob and Carly went better than my first one, the outfits I got them to wear were to make them look indie and fit in with my theme. Rob was wearing a black/navy bomber jacket this make the boy look more prominent over the girl, this contrasts with Carly as she is wearing a baby blue  texture crop top, this shows a girly stereotype and shows she's feminism, makes her stand out and also contrasts with her hair colour.

I was inspired by dazed and confused magazine in what to dress Carly in, for example on the left I am showing a model of the magazine and on the right an image of Carly in my photo shoot.

And i was inspired for rob to be wearing a casual smart dress sense from looking at magazines such as wonderland magazine, again the magazine on the left and rob the model on the right hand side, both are smartly dressed and look like they have the same in common to do with the theme of indie.



Picture of contents Esquire

This is the magazine that inspired me for my contents page, i haven't copied it completely as i don't think certain parts like the big image in the middle of the page suit my magazine genre, although i put a larger image at the top of the page instead, however the image i chose fits in with the genre and theme of my magazine. i liked the layout of this particular magazine as its kept simple and stands out because its plain and bold, again suiting the genre of my theme 'indie'.

Weekly plan

This weeks plan is to continue trying to improve my front page, contents page and double page and hand in another draft to see if the improvements i have made differ on my work produced. i will also do another photo shoot and evaluate how well they went or what even better if's i could think of. then over the half term holiday i will continue to evaluate the work i am producing for my planning and research.

First Photoshoot Review

On my first photo shoot I feel it went well but it could have gone better, both Carly and Matt have both said to me that they weren't photo genic and in some of my photos you can see this. I thought that it was a little bit awkward to work with both the boy and the girl together as they weren't that close as friends and looking back at my photos I see that Matt doesn't really fully suit my theme of the magazine. I did get some good photos but I feel that I needed to try again and possibly with a different boy model so the use of time I had to take photos was more relaxed and less awkward.

Inspiration for my front page

For my front page I looked at quite a few different examples that linked with my theme of 'indie' I looked in magazines such as wonderland clash, dazed and confused, faded, the fly and more.

Photoshoot

I have done another photo shoot with Rob and Carly as the first photo shoot I did  with Matt and Carly didn't look quite right as both of them together didn't look quite right. So I tried another boy Rob and they seem to match and look quite good together on camera. I will look through the photos I took and choose some of my favourites, edit them and see which I will use on my final.

Picture Editing (ROB)

On the contents page I chose a picture of rob, however in the top right hand corner you could see a crease in the white background. I went to crop the photo and pulled it to the size I needed but it stretched and didn't look right, I then decided to try and use the spot healing tool to see if that would get rid of the crease, and it worked so I put it back to the original size and changed the contrast to get rid of any shadows.

Sophie's photostream

beeston01's photostream on Flickr.