Preliminary Task
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learn in the progression from it to the full product.

Comparing the two magazine front covers together, i think that i have learnt allot. I have learnt how to use photoshop better and how to add different colours and effects to different pictures. I also learnt how to use different fonts better, the colours of them. I also used photoshop better by putting the title behind the artist, and being able to copy the image of the title onto the new document. I thought i put more information on them then i did on my college magazine. I learnt that the more cover lines that are interesting makes the whole front cover look better. With both of my magazines, i kept the same colours for the text, as i think it looks better if you have a colour scheme. I think i struggled more with the college magazine because you don't really have a target audience compared to the music magazine. I learnt what is best to feature on the front and how to keep referring back to the picture of the artist or the student. I used the conventions better in the music magazine, by using all the cover lines, headlines and also referring back to pages numbers. With the college magazine i didn't refer to any page numbers and it all looks boring because i only use two colours, if i used one more colour then i think it would look slightly better. With my college magazine, i didn't use a bar code, put a price on it, date or website to go too. On the other hand with the music magazine i was more creative with the layout of my page, but still following conventions. I used a cover line just above the XYX title. I added more excitement to it as well, in the college magazine i tried to do that with "interview with the teachers" but when i decided to add suspense with the music magazine i had things that everyone would want to know. I think it was good to be able to do the preliminary task because it allowed me to get the basics of how to start the magazine cover and i learnt the basic conventions of a front cover too. It also gave me an outlook on what looks good and what didn't.

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

I have learnt a lot about photoshop; the first thing i learnt was how to use the quick selection tool and how it helps copy one section of the image on to another new document, i used this with my front cover, and put the title behind the model's head, to do this i had to copy a section of her head and paste it on a new layer which allowed me to do that, the only thing that went wrong is that i didn't copy enough of her head so then you can still see a bit of the title that you are not meant to see. The quick selection i found was easier to select big sections rather then small and detailed, it allowed me to have different backgrounds on my pages and also helped blend my picture with others. The only problem I had with this was when i got to the point of copying the picture on a new document, and if it was a completely different colour then you could see the jagged outline of the picture which made it look very photo shopped.


I also learnt how to use the transform scale/rotation tool, i used this on all of my pages. It helped with the previous tool used (quick selection tool).With this, it helped me get one picture from one photoshop document to the other to allow me to make the pages. I used it on words as well as on pictures. If i got the words from another font from a website i had to use transform tool to move this, and i used the quick selection tool to cut around it. With the transform rotation too, i used this to change the angle which pictures or words were on. I found it made the magazine look more interesting if somethings were not as straight as normal. The problems i had with this, was the fact you had to click enter to get off the transform too, which i kept forgetting to do. Also if you wanted to reduce the size of the picture, you had to click a button at the top, which looked like two links together, if you didn't click that then the picture would end up looking lop sided.


The third tool i learnt how to use, was the spot fix, i found this
useful, as it made the artists skin look flawless, and if it were i real magazine, i don't think an artist would let a picture go out on the front of the magazine if they didn't like the look of it. With this tool i learnt that you could only do little sections at a time, as if you were to spot fix a large area, the different shades on the skin then take that place and the skin looks worse. It also looked very natural compared to if you were going to airbrush the face. The artist that i chose for my front cover is natural looking and the air brush would ruin that. From the before and after pictures you can see the difference between them. I only used the spot healing brush once, and that was for the double page spread.


The levels that i use allot on all of my pictures, it makes the pictures look more professional as the colour of the background is made brighter from being in the studio, and the colours that the artist is wearing is also made brighter and everything becomes more visible. This helps with the spot healing tool as well, because it allows you to see things clearer. With this tool, you have to have it apply to all of the layers, as if you decided to use the quick selection tool and the levels isn't added to it, then that part might be a different shade of colour compared to the rest of the picture. The only problem i had with that, is the fact you have to singly do it to all the pictures. Although you don't have to use the auto levels, you are able to change colours; red, green and blue. I used this for my front cover to add a blue tint to the whole page, not just the picture. The colours that you add to the picture can give out an effect on the audience and can pursue who will buy the magazine.

Understanding how the structure of the layers is important. It links in with all of the tools that you use. I firstly always make a copy of the background in case anything went wrong and you could just use that copied picture instead. After that the levels layer had to go next so then all of the tools that you are using and the objects are affected by this tool too. If you need all the layers to be affected by a certain type of affect then it would need to be below the other layers. On the layers, to the left there is a eye tool which allows you to unseen things without deleting them. To be able to move the picture on to another document, you won't be able to do that unless you flatten the image, doing this means that you wouldn't be able to change any old affects and if you flatten it, the picture will move to the other document, how it looks.

Audience:
Who would be your audience for your media product?

i decided to do alternative, so it would be a older audience that would more likely read it then. i chose this because i listen to this genre and i find the music better. I also like the style which all these bands get represented. I feel that it was trickier to get the best possible front cover as its hard to pin-point and stereotype this audience, because of this age group i had make sure the colours won't be as bright as if you had a pop magazine. I needed to make sure the cover lines were easy read and would attract the people i wanted in. For example not many young teenagers go to festivals so i thought it would be best to advertise them and some of the artists that would be there. i also featured Glastonbury because Coldplay, U2 etc. play alot there. I used a questionnaire to find out information on what to put on my front cover, but i asked a range of ages. From this i found that they like more neutral colours rather then really vibrant ones, the majority of people that took the questionnaire were female, and that they buy their magazines every two weeks. Which suggests that you would need new and better story lines each week to keep them interested and wanting to buy the magazine. I also found out that they don't want to spend so much on a magazine since they would be buying it every two weeks, so the price of the magazines wouldn't be over £2.50. Most of the answers showed that they wanted more pictures and posters which would be available to get.


How did you attract/address your audience?

from the research i found that they wanted lots of posters, so then i advertised a lot of posters that would be available of different artists of bands and i said that there was a chance to win a U2 album which people of the older generation would benefit more than younger. The colours ain't to bright, they are quite dim but are very affective so it didn't look to much like a pop magazine. The colours also match what the main artist is wearing, so it attracts the older people to look at what is new.

I asked people of different age groups who like the genre of music i use for my magzine, if they would read it. In total i asked 40 people.

From these results i think that since the main age group i focused on was 10-25 years old, and the most people that i asked, they all said yes. People that were 30+ only 3 people said they would read it but one person said that the front cover lookes attractive. The age 13-18 years old group, the majority of them said that they would read it, although i wanted people to read it in that age group because some people do listen to that music, and the artists that are advertised in it, swear and are stereotyped in that way, from having the posters available probably attracted them more. 26-30 years, all of them said that they would read this magazine, so the music that i did advertise actualyl worked since the music was from an older generation.

Who would distribute it?

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

I think NME or Q would distribute this type of magazine, as the music they already promote some of the bands that have been advertised on my magazine. The publisher for NME is called Robert Tame, as they started off in the USA from the billboard suggests that they only promote the music which people have been voting for. They would distribute my magazine because of the layout I used, I think it represents a lot of bands and it’s very striking to look at. The colours I used would help attract a certain audience that would listen to a specific sort of music. For example, with the picture to the right, it doesn't have a lot of colour from what they normally have. This suggests that they don't really stick to one type of style when they are designing them.



i would want NME or Q to distribute my magazine, as i think they are both very popular magazines and since i would have not well known bands on my front cover then i think it would be a great opportunity to promote them. although NME only have main artists pictures on the front covers, they represent them on how they are, not what they want them to be. They also use a lot of colour in the majority of them. With the Florence front cover they use her hair as colour and only use black and white for the writing which focus's on her. In comparison to my magazine, i have decided to use the colour that the artist is wearing for the writing and it follows through in all of the magazine. They also promote other artists which i would do as well, whether they are well known or not. This magazine type is also for people who are older, e.g. 15+, since they use mature language in this magazine such as swearing, i wanted mine to be like that as well as the bands that i have used, like Coldplay use mature language. if older people are wanting to read this then they know what to expect. The advantages of NME or Q distributing my magazine, is that it would have more of a chance of becoming popular quicker than if you were to start a magazine of a brand of your own. It also stereotypes it as if a certain type of people read NME then they would possibly read a magazine that they are promoting too.

Representation.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I decided that my age group wouldn't be very specific as this magazine would be for anyone; Male or female. Although it wouldn't be suitable for people over the age of 13 as there would normally be swearing in it if it were i full magazine. it was the same with the colours, i wanted them to attract everyone. Although i have a female artist on the front i made sure that other mixed or male bands were featured on the as a cover line so it attracts males too. i used the table below help with the social class.

As the bands that are featured in it are mainly listened to by older people, not really teenagers. i thought the suitable social class would be between B, C1, C2 and D. Because in this industry the music tends to be out for a longer period of time compared to the pop music or Indi. This table helped me a lot because it gave me something to aim towards too. It gave me ideas for the artists that I would feature on the front cover, DPS or the contents page. In the end I chose someone who was quite young but I put forward that she sang songs that sounded a lot like pink who has been around for a long time and teenagers or older normally listen to her more than others.

I used alternative rock as my genre to focus on so I wanted to show festivals on the page so I was promoting Leeds, Glastonbury. As well as having people featuring with that, the artist I had on the front cover was wearing a Leeds festival bracelet, to show that she may be going or has previously gone before. On the front cover I only had one competition chance and it was to win an elbow album, and the fact elbow are quite a well-known but old band I think people would jump and the chance to win it. I also chose to put that the magazine had won in 2012; I think it represents the magazine well and shows that it’s well-read and even that it is presented by MTV boosts it up even more.

Analysis

Analysis of Front page, DPS and Contents.

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

 

With all three of my pages I tried to use similar colours all the way through, not really using the same background though. I used the colours, blue, and red, green, black and white. My artist seems to wear a lot of them colours so I though that if I matched them all the way through it would show the continuity. I used mainly Arial in the DPS and the contents page because it links them both together, and if I were to-do a full magazine I would have the same font in the pages, just have different ones for the front page. I decided to use 3 fonts on my front page, as it makes it more exciting and attracts a wide range of people, at first I used a lot more and it looked messy so I think the fact I have lowered it to 3 has made the magazine look more readable and connotes the magazine genre I wanted which was alternative. I chose not to put a page number on the double page spread, as some magazines don't do that. Since on the contents page it tells you what page it is on I thought it wasn’t vital that it didn’t need to be on my DPS. I felt that it matched the conventions of the genre as the colours are what people in that sort of group would wear. It also doesn't attract males or females its colour that attracts them all.