Finished Product

Evaluation Question 7

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

I think that i have learnt quite a few things whilst creating my final product. Looking back at the preliminary task that I did I was able to spot errors or badly made sections in my old magazine.

The first example of this is using all one colour for the sub headings, this clashed quite badly on the girls dark coat, and also was not very attention grabbing for the reader. The second example of mistakes is that the title of it "Winstanley Weekly" is alligned to the right rather than the left which is very unconventional and so does not look as proffesional. The final flaw was the layout of the contents page, because of its layout the page numbers would all be in big clumps leaving to much text to picture ration for a teenage magazine.

Overall I think I have progressed from my prelim to create quite a good music magazine.

Evaluation question 6

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

As far as computer programmes go, I have not learned much more about the softwares Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Publisher because they are two softwares that I was already quite familiar with from doing ICT and Art at high school. However it took me longer than I had expected to get to grips with the newest version of Photoshop and I feel that this task has greatly helped me to do so.

However two types of technology that I was not familar with were the digital SLR cameras and the online blogging website Blogger.com, I had to learn how to use these two peices of technology quite quickly to be able to complete the task on time.

Evaluation question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

One of the main things that makes my magazine attractive to the audience is the bold colour scheme of RED, BLACK, WHITE, and GREY. It uses this particular colour scheme because the red and the white stand out to a potential reader because they are big bright colours. The Black and Grey are used more to give contrast and make blank spaces feel a lot smaller than they would had they been a lighter colour.

Another way I attracted the target audience is by using the title WIRED in capital letters, the reason that I chose this name is because indie music is often associated with bits of duct tape and loose guitar leads, another reason is that "being wired" is another way of saying that you a connected to all the information (this particular information being about music).

One more aspect of my magazine that should grab a potential readers attention is how the person on the photo is looking out almost at them, it sounds odd but it makes people feel more obliged to by the magazine.

Evaluation question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

From the information I found on the distributors page I was able to find out that the main audience for this type of magazine was 16-25 year olds with slightly more male readers than female, however I did not try to make my magazine more appealing to any gender over the other so kept out any references or jokes that would be more intended for a particular gender.

The above image is one of a group of stereotypical "indie kids" from the picture it is clear to see that they generally wear

Males; Fitted Jeans, T-shirt, Jacket

Females; Tight Jeans, Leggings, or a denim style skirt, T-shirt or Styled top

They are also portrayed as a happy group of people who generally tend to enjoy themselves whether they are going to concerts or just hanging out.

Evaluation Question 3

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

To find out what sort of distribution this type of magazine would have I decided to look at the official NME website to see if it had any information about their distributors, doing this lead me to their distributors site, which on the information page I found this information.

" NME.COM is Europe's biggest and most viewed music website. It has earned worldwide respect for its rock music news and features, which are updated around the clock. With 1.3 million unique users generating over 13 million page impressions nme.com is the U.K.'s premier music content website. It offers unparalleled access to an affluent young audience and a unique opportunity to communicate with them in an environment that they relate to and return to frequently - 63% visit the site weekly or more frequently*. The nme.com audience is made up of key demographic groups-
• 65% Male*
• 50% 16-24*
• 23% 25-34*
• 79% ABC1*
Our readers are passionate about music and as a result of their close relationship with the site content they are far more responsive to advertising. Whether they are more positively disposed towards brands that they see as supporting their favourite site or accessing advertising that they see as particularly relevant to them and their lifestyles they are 33% more likely than average to have taken action as a result of seeing an advertisement on the site*.
Music may be our readers' passion but they are also keen consumers of films, dvds, concerts, technology and lead exceedingly active social lives. "

Although it didn't tell me that much about the magazine, it told me about the website, and also told me some information about the audience to it.

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I believe that my magazine represents the fans of most "Indie" style music, baring in mind that "indie" music varies in many different styles from pop to rock style songs. The people in the articles match the overall style of the magazine. The style of clothes they are wearing are their own so I believe that they match the right type of fashion and have similar types of interests such as loud music, drinking, and going out to concerts.

Jamie fairhurst, above, is an example of the typical indie fan. Although he doesn't actually play an instrument, we can see that he still looks like the type of person who would be seen on the front cover of NME. Although the article in my magazine wasn't about Jamie in real life, it is loosely based on a real story about a band that I am a fan of.

Evaluation Question 1

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

The style of my magazine is similar to existing popular music magazines. The use of a simple color scheme of black, white and red matches NME’s colour scheme. The person used on my front cover has a similar style to many musisians at the moment, and the use of large headings that are bright colours makes it stand out.

Comparing my magazine cover with an NME magazine shows these factors.

I chose the person that used for my front cover because he is quite tall and thin like a lot males in the music industry are. He also dresses in a similar style to some of the band members of The Killers, the Kaiser Chiefs and other similar bands. I asked him to wear an outfit which suited the color scheme of black, red and white. I believe that his outfit works quite well on the front cover because it doesn’t clash with the colour of the title or draw the reader’s attention away from other sections of the cover, like the titles or the smaller photos.

I kept the color scheme of my magazine quite consistent throughout all the pages, which is a common factor of popular music magazines like NME or Q.

The above photo explains my point.

The types of locations usually associated with this type of music/magazine are slightly grungy or smoky locations, however this can vary from small nightclubs to large venues. However because I am just under the age of 18 I have found it difficult to get into nightclubs so all my photos have either been taken in the colleges photography studio or in one of my friends houses...

Props that I have used on the photos within my magazine have included musical equipment; guitars, drumsticks, recording studio equipment.The photos have also included drinks made to look like alcohol because of the large drinking culture with older teenagers and young adults in this country.

The style of my magazine logo also matches the style because I ave used the simple font Impact, from Microsoft office.

Creating The Single Page Spread

I decided to create a single page with a separate story to the two page spread. I decided to do this incase my two page spread did not contain enough text or words, but also so I could do a slightly different style page aswell. Rather than creating another black page, I decided to make a page with a white background but also with a different type of story. Whereas my two page spread is about an existing artist, my single page is a short story on a new band.

I created the main title by using the same downloaded font as the one used for their band name on the front cover, I placed it into publisher by using word art and setting the colour to black so it stands out and gives contrast on the black background. I created the text boxes using autoshapes and created the fake CD case in the same way to the one on my two page spread.

The original photo that I used had an awful greyish tinge on the background, so I used exposure to make the photo very bright so it stands out. This also makes the persons skin on the photo brighter which in this case looks good, however sometimes it can make people look orange which doesn't look good.

Creating The Two Page Spread

I decided to create the two page spread using Microsoft Publisher. I created a layered effect by purposely overlapping some of the images, and I kept to the same colourscheme shown on the front cover. I decided to use a black background rather than a white on because I think it compliments the colours of the photo better, and it also allowed me to create white text boxes for a large contrast.

I created the title in the same way that I created the subtitle on the front cover, by selecting the area behind the text and using the paint bucket tool to make it red. As for the title "James Fairhurst" I used the same image file as on the front cover.

For the photo of Jamie, I purposely chose a photo of him in which the light is obviously stronger on one side than the other. I decided to do this because I think it looks quite effective on a dark background because it looks like a purposely done lowlight photo.

Another thing that I created was the CD shown in the bottom right, to make this I used a photo that I took of Jamie which I converted to black and white. I then took the image and edited it using the lasso tool so that it would be on top of the stock photo of a cd case that I found.

One more thing that I did was making the coiled wire shown at the middle right, I didi this by taking a picture of a guitar lead, then using the magic wand and the lasso tool in Photoshop to remov the background.

Creating The Contents Page (continued)

I added several photos down the middle of the page with small captions so that the page would not be filled entirely with text.

All of the photos liked to stories that would be in my magazine if it were real, so the captions linked to the stories in one way or another. I also included a subscribe section in the bottom corner so that it would look authentic, because most magazines usually contain some form of offer like this.

One more authentic feature that I added was an editors note at the top of the page in the centre. I added this because most magazines have them.

Creating The Contents Page

I decided to make my contents page in the same basic style as the NME one, however I decided to break the traditional method by putting the list of stories on the left and the band index on the right. I created the bars for the sub headings by selecting a rectangular shaped area and using the paint bucket to make it white.

I created the big red box for the band index in the same way, and I then added the text using the standard Photoshop text tools.

Building Up The Front Cover (continued 2)

I then added the large red bar at the bottom using the Autoshapes tool in Microsoft Publisher to create the arrow like shape, I then saved it as a PNG. image file then imported it into the photoshop file. I then added the text onto it using the text function in Photoshop.

I also added the barcode by Google searching an image of a barcode then pasting into the document. I did not want to have the barcode on the front cover, however I felt that it was necessary to make it look more authentic as a magazine cover.

Building Up The Front Cover (continued)

I then added a large title for Jamie in the middle of the page, I found this custom font from DaFont.com as well, and I added it in front of him with a smaller title underneath it. To make these titles stand out I used the refine edge tool in Photoshop to make a red glow around his name, but then used the selection tool and the Paint Bucket tool to make the red blocks behind the small writing.

Building Up The Front Cover

After adding the title onto the page with my photo of Jamie, I built up the layers by adding some photos of other people to create other stories to be featured in the magazine. I also selected the area around them and used the paint bucket tool to create borders around them so they stand out and don't look lost in the image.

The size of the images is very important because I can't make them too small as they will look almost lost, but I can't make them too big because they will draw attention away from the main picture too much.

I also added text to these photos; the band or artists name, and the caption or story to go with it. I found the fonts for the band/artists names of a useful website called DaFont.com, it has hundreds of different fonts to choose from.

Creating The Title

I created the title of my magazine using a basic font of Microsoft Offices "Impact". I created using Word Art on Microsoft Publisher, then saved it as a PNG. image so that it could easily be imported into any type of document.

I used quite a simple font because I belive it stands out more than some of the more complicated fonts, however I decided to swap the I for an arrow pointing upwards because it is more distinctive as a logo than plain writing would be.

I quite like the title the way it looks, however I am tempted to change the colours so that the writing would be red inside with a white border.

Removing The Background From My Photo

I used the lasso tool in adobe photoshop to remove the background by drawing round Jamie and deleting the wall from behind him.

I then clicked on "refine edge" to fade and blur the edges so he blends in to the background quite well.

Choosing A Photo For The Front Cover

After looking through all of the photos that I took in the three different sessions, I decided that I was going to use one of the photos of Jamie from the second photoshoot for my front cover. The other photos will not be wasted though because I am going to use them for other sections of my magazine.

I quite like the the photo in this post of him sitting on the stool with a guitar because the position he is sat in would be quite easy to place text and other images around, I also really like the grungy background however I want to use a traditional blank black or white background to make it more like a standard magazine.

The way that I would achive this would be to either take a new photo in the studio or use the lasso tool to edit out this background on Adobe Photoshop.

Photoshoot 3

For the style of my third photoshoot, i decided to use lots of cables and playing cards to give it a messy sort of look, i used two of my friends to throw the cards in the air, and two of my other friends to pose for the photos.

Unfortunately it was difficult to get a decent photo because they kept blinking or flinching away whenever the cards were thrown towards them, making it so that i was only able to get a few good photos.

Photoshoot 2

For the second photoshoot I used a different friend, I did some photos in the studio and some outside.

I think that the photo of him sitting down would be a good one to use on the double page spread, because it is on a neutral blank background so would be good as it is or would also be easy to edit onto a different background.

I thought that some on location photos would be good too for if I wanted a good background on one of the photos.

I think that the paint on the wall looks quite good because although I didn't do the paint, it looks intentional because of where he is standing.