Q7.   LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK, WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO THE FULL PRODUCT?

After looking back at my preliminary task and comparing it with my final outcome of this task, I feel I have improved my skills a lot when working with technology and computer programs such as "InDesign". As well as that, I think I have established a better understanding and learning more about media institutions and what is expected from the media in the area of publishing. 

My final outcome of my music magazine has been a much greater success compared to my preliminary task. Overall, the design of each front covers is really different, and you can see that I have learnt a lot between the course of creating each magazine. When I finished my college magazine, I wasn't very happy with the outcome and I knew that I could of done a lot better. 

Therefore, when it came to starting my music magazine to aim to do the best I could do, I researched about many different types of magazine, different genres, styles and designs. I thought this would give me more ideas and inspiration to help me think about what I wanted my outcome this time to look like. I completed a skills audit tick list, to display to me what skills I have learnt and what I need to improve on. I decided that I needed to improve my skills in design, as I thought my college magazine lacked interest and a striking format. I didn't look proffesional at all. So then, when I designed my music magazine I tried to make sure I included different style fonts, sizes and colours but being careful making sure the page doesn't end up looking to busy, messy and tacky. I kept the same idea with both of the magazines though, by only using one portrait image on the front cover as a main photograph. However, I for my music magazine I centred the image instead of shifting it to one side. I also made sure I took a better quality photograph, and made it relate to my genre and topic more than my college photograph did. I learnt about grabbing the readers attention and what is usually eye catchy to them, so I asked my model to look directly at the camera hoping that my target audience would be able to relate better to my magazine and become intrigued with a connection of interest. 

I am happy with my outcome of my music magazine, however, I would of liked to learn even more skills and especially how to use the time period I had to the best I could, not wasting any of it and making it sure I had done everything I needed to at the right time and chronologically if I could of managed it. Maybe one day I would like to develop my skills even further and make better product to the best of my ability in the future. 

Q6.  WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?

After working on my magazine I have realised how different sources of technology and computer programs are used to design and create a magazine. When reading a magazine you don't think about what stages as well as how many, the magazine has been through to actually be on the shop shelf. Well I certainly don't.

I think I made the right choice choosing a computer program called "InDesign" on an apple mac, to design my magazine. I really struggled at first and still throughout the process of making the magazine I came across barriers that would frustrate me and stop me from doing my work. However, after overcoming them and moving on I began to realise from the mistakes and obstacles, I actually learnt more and gained many more skills and knowledge about the program its self and how to use it to the best of my ability most of the time if not to its full potential.

 I think if I was to design my magazine on a different program such as "Microsoft Publisher" or "Microsoft Word" then the outcome of my magazine would be at a much lower level and not to the best I could of done if I had the right tools. InDesign allows you to do so much more then another program would. Just to get your font how you want it, it enables you to stretch it to the right height, maximise and minimise the size and boldness of it, as well as making the width between each letter a different distance and even each word to a different length and width from one another. Where as, on a different program it will only allow you to change the font size its self and go no further. In addition, not only does InDesign allow you to insert an image from your files but it permits you to fit the content to the frame, fit the content to the frame proportionally along with many more options. 

As well as all that, InDesign provides many more tools for you to do so much more, and develop a product to a very high standard, higher then most programs would enable you. Programs such as InDesign and ones just the same advantage the publishing sector and media institutions ever so much. The importance of them is huge, without programs like these media would not be the same and there would certainly not be as much consumption, business and revenue. 

Q5.  HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE?

When designing my magazine I thought about how I would attract my audience and make my magazine stand out if it was on a shelf along with loads more. 

Firstly, when it came to the appearance of the magazine, I thought about different font styles, sizes, colours and boldness and I also thought about what image and colour scheme to use along with the layout and everything else. I decided for my front page to be striking and eye catchy I used a white background with a bold straight forward image bang in the middle. But I then used a big, bold, black font to write my masthead in, I thought this would be simple but eye catchy. However, to make the page look more interesting and not so boring I added a few different cover lines, tag lines and puffs and plugs. However, I was careful not to overcrowd the page. Furthermore, for my individual pieces of text I used a range of red black and white font, I changed the sizes of each piece of text and made a couple of pieces a different font overall. After I had done this, I decided that the page looked very flat and not as interesting as I hoped. Therefore, I clicked on a couple of the text boxes and added drop shadows, this developed the whole page as it made it look more bold and appealing instead of tiresome and tedious.

Lastly, when it came to making my magazine interesting from the context and not just the layout and the way it looked, I brainstormed a few different cover lines and tag lines that I could introduce on my front page. I picked a couple that I thought would not only look the best on the page but also grab the audiences attention, and make the magazine sound more interesting to read. A couple of lines I chose were things that featured inside the magazine and were the main story's and topics of the particular magazine issue, such as; Top 10 Festival Tips, Exclusive interview with Lois Wilkinson, Win TWO free bestival tickets, along with a few others. I thought these lines out of the many I mind-mapped would attract my audience the most.

Q4.   WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?

I set a target for my main audience to be a younger generation of a wide varied age group from 15-35, and unisex. But it could just be anyone into the genre of music and keen to know more about the content featured within the magazine issues. 

I thought that my ideal audience for my magazine, would be someone that has a passion for music and likes to know about the latest updates on artists. Also, someone that enjoys going to music events, such as Warehouse projects, live gigs, festivals ect. Because my magazine "ATMOSPHERE" keeps you updated with the latest upcoming, hottest events around. The edition that I have designed is a Festival Edition. It provides the humorous and exciting festival gossip, It tells you about what to do and what NOT to do at a festival, it gives you 10 top tips on how to survive at a festival along with loads more, including a chance to win a free pair of hunter wellies as well as two free bestival tickets. So it certainly would be a big bonus if the readers of my magazine are interested in Festivals. 

In addition, I think my ideal audience for this magazine would certainly have to consume other media devices and products. Such as, iPod's, CD's/record players, computers/laptops and so on. Mostly devices that enable them to listen to music and research about artists and keep updates with the latest news in the music world.

I would imagine this audience to be quite a lively person in general, with a good vibe and relaxed at the same time. Also, they may play an instrument themselves along the lines of the drums or a guitar and so on. They may even be into singing and have many hobbies too.  On the other hand, I would think a person who is a lot more quite and knowledgeable would be into reading books and sitting down and playing games such as chess. And they may also play instruments but i would think more along the lines of a violin or a harp, therefore they would most probably be into more classical, formal music rather than R&B/HIP HOP.  As well as that, I would imagine them to be a very family associated person. 

Q3.  WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND WHY?

I have researched a lot about IPC publisher in the past, and found that they cover many different magazines varying from "Yachting World" and "Golf Monthly" to "marie claire" and "Woman&Home". They reach to benefit the majority of people, publishing a range of products suitable for all different interests and hobbies. Interestingly, they currently engage with a massive 26 million adults in the UK alone. That's two thirds of UK women, and over 40% of UK men. 

Furthermore, I think my media product (music magazine) has loads to offer and is suitable for a wider audience then most other products along the same line. Therefore, I believe my magazine will be perfect for IPC to publish, even thought they publish NME which has inspired me greatly, I think they need to cover more music within the wide range of media products, as they publish many hobbies and out dooring events, as well as many home and women magazines. IPC may look to publish other music magazine that target one particular minority group of people, for example "Top Of The Pops"- targeted at young girls and teenage fans of popular bands and solo singers such as; One Direction, The Wanted, Cher Lloyd  Justin Beiber, Girls Aloud and so on. However, I completely disagree, I believe that IPC will benefit a great deal more from publishing a magazine like mine. Suited for the majority group of people, and personalities. It makes sense that if a wider audience is targeted and are happy with the product being produced and published, it will lead to a huge increase in consumption and therefore a larger increase in business and revenue for the company overall.

Q.2 HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?

I designed my music magazine to target a wider, more varied audience. The younger generation of people aged from about 15-35, or anyone interested in the music genre and content of my magazine.

 I used a selection of photographs that I have taken to represent the content that will be displayed within my magazine, and to make my magazine more appealing, striking and eye catching overall. I chose my front page image (a portrait image of an artist featured in my magazine) because the artist portrays a sense of music genre in my magazine through her casual choice of clothing, and fashion sense. As well as that, her body posture and casual slouched pose fits the genre of music well.

I asked my artist to hold a guitar, the use of this prop reminds my audience, and even people just taking a quick glimpse of the magazine that it is in fact a music based magazine, therefore they will become intrigued, acquire interest and buy the magazine.

I asked my artist to look directly at the camera when I shot the photograph, I hoped that this would allow my readers and audience to engage more with the magazine and take a deeper interest because of the direct eye contact. 

Furthermore, I designed my magazine aiming it at a social group of any class that is interested in the music and wants to know more about what is featured inside. However, I thought more consumption would come from lower/middle class people, without stereotyping I would not think of an upper class, wealthy person reading an informal, gossip involved magazine just like this. I would imagine them to read something more formal and classy. For example a magazine such as; "Classical Music". 

I have been mostly inspired by research I have done about other magazines, and I have established many different techniques on how to design and create a good magazine. But, I would like to further and develop my skills one day using the same technology and ICT programs to produce work to a better standard.

Q1.  IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR PRODUCT DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

Firstly, when it came to choosing what genre music magazine I wanted to design I didn't have a clue. But then I thought about a few different music magazines I have read in the past, and I also asked my friends for help as they read music magazines often. I've read a couple of issues of NME, Top Of The Pops, XXL and Vibe along with a couple more. But my favourites from them all has to be NME and Vibe, the magazines overall intrigue me a lot more then the others due to their wide range of music genre and interesting content in which they display. They are both ever so similar and share many similarities. One of which they both have a wider target audience, to suit millions of peoples likes and dislikes as well as their individual personalities. Furthermore  I think the design and overall appearance of each magazine can vary but is always very attractive and appealing, although some front covers are more striking than others, and some people may say the can come across as dull dreary and dry. 

Therefore, after researching more about different music magazines and what they have to offer I decided to follow the tracks of NME and Vibe when producing and developing my own magazine, however, slightly changing bits to make it my own style and portray diverse features within the content, yet along the same lines.

Double page spread, final outcome

   

Contents Page, Final Outcome

Front cover, final outcome

Further photos

After placing a couple of my photographs on my magazine from my previous two photo shoots I decided I wanted something a bit different to vary the photographs displayed throughout my magazine. Therefore, I thought about what else i was going to feature within the content of my magazine and I thought the main focus of this particular issue was about Festivals and upcoming music events. So, I then thought about how I could use my photography skills and knowledge to develop my magazine by adding some funky festival like photos. Finally, I came up with the idea, painting with light. I asked a couple of friends to do a shoot for me in a photography studio, i asked them to wave torches about with coloured cellophane in different patters and i hoped this would create funky style photos. The final outcome of the photos were successful and I hope that I can use them in my magazine somewhere, maybe on the double page spread or contents page. I thought these photos relate very well to festivals as they portray a great vibe and crazy atmosphere with wild, unusual and exciting lights and patterns as does a festival.

                                                                               

Final stages..
Finally, I thought about what I was missing and what I needed to add to make my magazine look better and to the best developed standard I could manage. I printed my previous page and asked my teacher to analyse it, thinking I would then have some feedback to help push me and learn exactly what I needed to do in my final stages. I moved all my text boxes to a margin to make the page look neater and more presentable over all. Also, I thought it looked slightly blank and need a couple of block colours to the page. Therefore, I added a rectangle pink filled box at the bottom of the page, displaying white writing of a few artists names that will be featured within the magazine. As well as that, I added a smaller rectangle box at the top of the page to show the date of the issue and the speciality of the particular magazine issue(FESTIVAL EDITION).

Annotated Front Cover 
I asked my teacher to annotate my work as i thought it would help me develop my cover and make progress with the magazine design over all.
My teacher wrote what i needed to do, she added a date, separate boxes with text in at the bottom of the page. Also to build the text up and make it bolder, using affects such as drop shadows. I am going to take on these ideas and hopefully my final outcome of my magazine will be better developed and more striking.

Second stages..

To develop my front cover I wrote out all my chosen cover lines and tag lines that I wanted to display on it, and i changed them to different font sizes, colours and font style itself. I did this as I thought it would make my magazine cover look more striking, interesting and bold.
I also made my masthead bigger by stretching it out and making the boldness bigger.
As well as that, I developed my skills using In design by exploring different affects I could use. I highlighted objects and different pieces of text that I wanted to stand out, I then used a drop shadow on them to separate them from the rest of the text boxes and make the page more eye catchy and less boring over all. 

MAGAZINE FRONT COVER DEVELOPMENT

First stages..

To make my music magazine I'm going to use a program called In-Design. In my first stage of creating my front cover for my magazine, I placed my chosen image to fit in the frame proportionally and not pixilate or become unfocused. 

I then wrote my chosen masthead "ATMOSPHERE" at the top of the page, and fitted it, stretched it and made it to the size I want.  This was my outcome for my first stages of development.                                                                 

 Final image choices

After taking my photo shoots, I have decided what main images I would like to use on my pages. For my front cover I have decided to use this image. I really like the direct eye contact between the musician and the camera,  I think it will make my magazine be more eye catchy and appealing to my target audience. The casual pose and body posture, reflects the very informal style of music which I hope to portray as the content of my magazine.
As well as that, the clothing choice, suits the music genre very well. The beanie hat, gold chain, casual clothes, gold hoop earings ect. I asked my musician to hold a guitar and a couple of records to reinforce and remind the audience it is a music based magazine.
I hope this image along with the others that I choose for my other pages, will help me develop and create a good music magazine, that people would choose to buy.

Photo shoot 2             

After taking my first photo shoot, I decided I wanted my magazine to display a different series and style of photographs as well as a few portrait images. As I liked the high key lighting for my first photo shoot, I kept the same setting but some images I made my focused object the whole image such as the music notes and piano. I thought about the main instrument my artist played (a guitar), so I focused on arranging a guitar at different angles and placed it next to different props such as the retro speaker. I also photographed a piano, retro speaker and music books to acquire a better varied set of photos. I then used my camera techniques, to create, develop and portray the photographs in a more interesting way. I used a deep depth of field to focus on particular parts of my props making the rest of the image blurred. I think this worked very well and I really like the outcome of the photographs. I think by using techniques like this it creates a more interesting set of photographs with a different vibe, instead of having a series of images all the same angle and prop. I think if I select a couple of my favourite photographs from each shoot, photographs that I think are most suited to my magazine genre, then my magazine will hopefully look a lot more proffesional, well presented and catch the eyes of my target audience.    

      

        

 

Photo shoot

 I set up a photo shoot and photographed my musician, in a number of different postures, poses and positions with different props within the frame. Such as a guitar, a speaker and a few records. I thought this would improve my images and develop them to help fit the genre of music my magazine is focused on. I used a high key lighting background so my musician and the props would stand out more, and hopefully be more eye catchy towards my audience. I had my musician wear clothing that was suitable for the music genre, such as a beanie hat, gold chain and casual clothing. I think this worked well and I hope the photos will look good on my magazine, and help create the style I am trying to produce. I think some of the photos will not work well for my magazine as they were not as successful because of different elements within the photograph and composition that went wrong. I would like to produce another photo shoot, changing what I photograph to create a different series of photos, then I can compare and have more to choose from for my magazine images. In my next photo shoot I may photograph instruments, based in the same high key lighting setting but practising different photography skills such as depth of field and composition to help me reach a better standard of work and make my magazine more interesting and professional looking.