Evaluation

Working with existing forms and conventions


My magazine related to music magazines in various ways. Firstly simple things like the mode of address. For example I would say things like "exclusive" or "breaking news" and even "the new kid on the block", in order to entice people into reading my magazine. In addition to this I made my mode of address slightly informal this was because my ideal reader was between 16-18 years old, and if i made my mode of address overly formal it would of alienated them. Also the design was conventional. For instance on my front cover the title of my magazine was the biggest size of writing. It stood out and was easily identifiable. Another thing that was conventional in terms of design was the use of things like bar codes to make it clear to my reader that this magazine was official. And also on my front cover I included things like the price, which all types of magazines regardless of whether its a music. In terms of my use of imagery, this was also conventional because the types of pictures that I took were typical of the R&B genre that I was trying to represent. For example on my front cover my artist is porting at my reader, this appropriately displays the attitude that the majority of \R&B singers posses.


Working in media production contexts



I approached both tasks in varying ways. For example in my preliminary task I did a lot of research with my peers because the magazine was aimed at them in particular seeing as it was a school magazine. Therefore I had to regularly do surveys in order to get information on what they wanted.


For the main I approached it differently, I mainly looked at examples of magazines like "clash" and "classic rock" in order to see how there magazines looked at how best I could implement some of there ideas into my own work.


During the course of the work I had to make some creative problem solving decisions. For example the editing of my images. Like in my preliminary task I took a picture of some of my friends outside of the sixth common room on a very sunny day. However I didn't realise how much a problem the sunlight would be. So I have to use a burn tool to darken the images, in order to make it more presentable.  Another problem was that when I had printed my preliminary task it came out extremely pix elated, therefore I made sure this didn't happen again, so on my main task I learned how to print off without it being very blurred.  

I organised my human resources simply by asking some people in my sixth form whether they would be able to participate in the making of my magazine. Some said yes, and some said no. For example I asked my Friend to be my artist, and we organised a date to have the photo shoot so that I could use the images for my magazine. The locations were easy to find because out school had a specialised room to take photos.  In terms of costumes and props I just asked my friends to bring in clothing that would be appropriate for a R&B mag. Other locations were hard to come by due to time constraints.  For my photo shoots I managed my time in class by doing 30 minute photo shoots, and then 30 minutes in class in order to edit photo's and to think of ideas about how I wanted my magazine to look.

Using technology

The use of technology was a key factor in enabling my ideas to come into fruition.  At first my creative ideas were
impeded by my lack of photoshop skills. This meant that I couldn't implement ideas that I wanted to for example on my prilimanry task I wanted to change to font of my title but I couldnt becuase i just did't know how to do this meant my lack of DTP technology understanding meant some of the idea I had floating in my head couldn't be done.  But by the time I needed to my main task I had managed to have a better understanding on how to use photopshop, and that meant I could use websites to change fonts etc.

Phottoshop was one of the main tools that I neeeded. It helped me edit my photto's like adjusting lighting. It helped me create a good front cover for my main task.

Thinking about audience
During the process of making my work I was making decisions based from ideas I was developing from my reader. Some of these ideas came from surveys. For example When I was choosing the name of my school magazine in the prilimnary task I had a range of names some boring and typical like "BD magazine" and some more exiciting like "Jimba" and "BD heat". When "BD heat" got the most votes I realised that my target audience wanted things to be more fun and funky, aswell as a little bit serious, this was good to find out because I could then use this information, and later applied it to my main task.

My audience also influenced the composistion of my shots because my target audiences attention neeeded to be caught, so I decided to take a picture for my main task of my artist pointing at the reader. They also influenced my micro detail becuase although my target audiecne wanted my magazine to be fun, they also wanted it to be intrested and informative. So I decided to frame my picture in black and white, which changed the complexion of my double page spread. So although my article was exciting, the pictures in constrast were reflectiive.

Representing
My ideas approached specific representations of school life because in the prilimanry task I took a photto of students together smilling and having fun. Which have a positive refelction of school live, and therefore it helped to include everyone because both females and males were being reprented well.

Contrastingly in my main task, although I wanted my magazine to appeal to both boys and girls, the choice of my front cover excluded the girls. This is becuase some of the colours I used were more manly and this would not attract a female audience. As well as this my mode of address excluded the much older audience, for example my magazine is R&B, consequently people from a middle class background, are highly unlikely to want to read . Where as those from a working class background would.

This is both pages of my double page spread. As you can see i have maintained some continuality because i have used the same colours. On my second page i put a much larger image,and also added a blur to it, as it maintains that retro vibe.  I have quoted my artist and made it big and bold because this a typical media convention that is used in all types of magazines whether it be music or media etc.  The photograph of my artist on the second page highlights the arrogance of my artist as he is wearing sun glasses, its as if he doesn't want you to see what he is like beneath the glasses but at the same time. I have purposefully made my artist take this pose because In most music magazine the R&B artists typically look arrogant, and in your face. 

There are some improvements I could make like checking my spelling as if i don't I could look vital marks. And also little things like adding page numbers. 

And here is my final draft of my contents page. I have made numerous changes in order for it to look better, and to add detail. Firstly I have changed the layout, for example there is a black boarder in the middle of the page. This helps seperate the information on the page. Secondly on the second half of the page I added 1 more image, but crucially I have made all 3 of the images smaller, which givers the illusion that there is more content than there actually is. On the left hand side of the page  I have added some features that will be in the magazine, I've done this becuase it very conventional as almost all the magazines I have read like "clash" included it. Below features I have a competition for the readers of my magazine for a ipod. I have done this because an ipod would be something my ideal reader would love to have.

Another thing i've done is moved the quotation from my double page spread to the main pictue  which in black and white, because it looked better. Lastly I put the title of my magazine "flow" at the top, so that it connects my front page with my contents.

 Here is my first draft of my front page spread. Firslty I have included a small image of my music artist DJ dexter, and have put it in black and white just like the image on my contents page of my artist. I've done this so that the contents page and the double page spread are linked together. I have been conventional with my  double page spread because I have done it in a Q&A format which means the I ask my artist a question and they respond. Also I used the same colours that were used on the contents page and the front page, red, white, and black.

Here is the first draft for my front cover, and as you can see its still a work in progress and it does seem a bit empty without a lot of content. I tried to make the layout very simple in order for it not to look to cluttered. I have put one of the images in black and white intentionality because I feel that when my reader see's it he will realise that the tone of the article might be serious. I have then put the other images in there real colour which indicates that those articles might not be as in depth, and also it might mean its more light hearted. I have added features on the bottom to make it more conventional as in music magazines they often include features that show the reader what things that that magazine will contain that is special to that particular magazine.

I tried to make my mode of address appropriate for example it says " his new album, is it any good". I've done this  to entice my reader as it will make them want to see whether or not Lil Wayne's album is actually any good. For some improvements I will add more pictures. Also I will try to add a competition advert somewhere. Then where the quotation is of my main article I intend to put it onto the actual image. And finally I want to alter the layout to make it look, well...better. 

2nd draft of my front cover

Here's the second draft of my front cover. The big difference between my previous front cover is that I have changed the colour of the background. I did this because I thought that red was a bit overbearing,  and I also thought that black would suit my front cover best. So I decided to have a vote involving the people in in my class I up 6 people participated. 3 people said that they prefer the red background, and another 3 said that they like the black cover instead. What was most interesting was the the 3 people who voted  for the red background were all female, and the people who voted for the black background were all male. What this shows is the because red could be seen as a feminine colour and it generally has female connotations  females are more attracted by this colour. And black is more neutral so therefore you could argue that males would be more attracted to it. And considering the fact that my I have identified my ideal as a male I took the decision to keep the black in order to attract the reader I want.

First draft

Here's the first draft for the front cover of my magazine for the main task of my media studies coursework. The first thing I did was decide upon the colour of my background. I decided to use red because I thought red would look best with the gold text theme i wanted to use. I also added a lighting affect so that its if there is a light shinning on him.


Another thing I worked on for the front cover was my mode of address. I tried to entice my target audience. So for example on the front cover I said " Beyonce reveals all" I deliberately tried to get the reader thinking, what she could be about to reveal instead of actually telling them she has to say, as a result my reader is more likely to look inside at the content page. 


The position on my artist on the magazine is at the side because i thought it would work well with the text being on the side, and with my artist pointing directly at the reader. However I still wondering whether this is a  good idea or whether I should change it.