Evaluation.

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

This is the title of my magazine, it is quite similar to a real magazine title as it is large and stands out, and is at the top of the page. 
Some magazines choose to have the cover picture over the top of the title so that half of the title is missing, however I chose not to do this as I liked the way it looked with the title slightly covering a small part of the model on my front cover. I don't think my title looks as professional as they do on real media products but I have tried my best to make it bold and stand out on the page.

The mise-en-scene of my images was just a plain white or black background. On this photograph it was a black background. I chose to have plain backgrounds because I think you can see the model more, as they stand out on the photograph more when the background is plain. 
Some of my photographs were taken with a black background and others were taken with a white background, I did this simply just to have a tiny bit of variety so that they were not all one coloured backgrounds.
My cover photo was taken with a white background, I did this for a reason which was because I wanted to cover of my magazine to be white.












This photograph is to show the costume and props that were used in my photo-shoots. 
As you can see in the photo-shoot for my double page spread my model wore a colourful skirt, black tights and a demin jacket. 
We used a wooden stool and an acoustic guitar as the props. I chose these props as I was hoping for the effect of it looking like my model was on stage performing whilst the photo was being taken instead of it just looking like a studio. 

This print screen is to show the other photographs that I used in my magazine. They were both used on the contents page. 
The photograph of my male model was taken with the same black background as the photograph above, I did not use any props on this photograph as I just wanted it to look like a 'casual' photo. 
The other photo of my cover model was also used on my contents page and I used it in a way to make it look like a cover photo for a CD. This photograph was taken in a different studio with a white background. I also edited my photographs after taking them using photo shop just to brighten them up using both the brightness and contrast tools. 

I also used this small picture in my magazine which was just a close up of the face, this was a different model that I used just for an extra photo on my contents page. With this image I have made it look like the cover or a CD by putting a name in the top right hand corner.


I chose these people especially to be in my magazine as I thought they were both very photogenic and they both fitted the right styles that I wanted my magazine to have. I wanted the clothing to be quite casual, but stylish at the same time, I think I have achieved this as my photographs turned out how I wanted them to be.

These were the titles on my contents page.
Throughout my magazine I used the same font which was 'Letter Gothic Std', which I have used on my contents page for all text apart from 'FUSION' and 'WHATS INSIDE'. I wrote 'fusion' twice in my magazine; on the cover, and on the contents page, as shown on this printscreen. For this the font I used was 'Poplar Std'. I used a different font when writing the large magazine titles just to make it stand out from the rest of the text.

This is the written content of my magazine. This is the text from the double page spread. I also used the same font (Letter Gothic Std), on this page as well to keep the font constant throughout my whole magazine. 
And again for the title on the page I used the font Poplar Std.
I think this is quite similar to the way it's done in a real media product as they use a similar layout when writing out reviews or interviews such as this. 
I chose to write out an interview on my double page spread because I think this made it a little bit more interesting rather than just writing out information about the main subject/person of my magazine. 


















This is a print screen from the cover of my magazine. Along the right hand side of my magazine, I wrote a list of artists (real artists) who are in the charts right now. This was to show the genre of my magazine which is pop/hip-hop, for example, music that is in the charts. 
I think when my main audience attraction read names such as these it would definitely give them a clear idea of what genre this music magazine is as they would know what type of music these artists make.
I also think the cover photo gives a lot away, for example you can see that it is not a rock magazine because it doesn't have that certain style; dark colours, rock-star clothing etc.

The layout of my magazine is quite simple, my front cover is really easy to work out with my image aligned slightly to the right, with text on both sides and the title at the top. 
The layout of my contents page is a little bit more complex, I placed the heading at the top of the page, then divided the bottom part of the page in to 3 separate columns. Two of the columns are showing the contents of my magazine with pictures, information and page numbers, the column on the right hand side is the column about my cover model, with a heading saying 'cover story', this is also a promotional feature for my artists 'new song' with a photograph and information.
For the layout of my double page spread I chose to split the page in to 2 and have one half filled with text, and use the other half for a large photograph of the subject of my double page spread. I have included a strip of images which looks like a camera film, this is just so I could add more photographs of my model to my double page spread. 
I chose to do this with the layout because I didn't want the double page spread to be filled up with too much text and I wanted to include a large picture of my model and then also some small pictures at the side.

This is a full view of my contents page. I have described the latout, however the colour scheme for this page was black, grey and bits of blue. I didn't want it to be too bright and colourful so I just kept it subtle and only added hints of colour in to the titles of the actual contents of my magazine. There is also hints of pink on the page too but this was just used when writing the name of the new hit single.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

This is one of the photographs from the first photo shoot I did with my cover model. The photo of the magazine on the right has Katy Perry on the front posing in a sophisticated way with a serious facial expression. This was the type of pose I wanted my model to do, but without the serious facial expressions. I wanted my model to smile purely because I preferred the photographs were she was smiling and thought that it would look good on m cover.

This is my front cover photograph with another example of a music magazine. The celebrity on this cover is Kelly Clarkson, the poses between both models are really similar except my model is smiling with her mouth open. However this was the look I was going for on the front cover of my magazine. As you can see the clothing Kelly Clarkson is wearing on the cover of 'Blender', is also very casual like my model. 

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

There are many distribution companies that I would use to distribute my magazine, but I would have to pick one suitable for my magazine. I researched to find the best one.

One distribution company I researched was Bauer, who distribute Q magazine, this company has an audience of over 19 million people in the UK and distributes other magazines such as Grazia and Empire,  and over 280 other magazines worldwide in 10 different countries. In my opinion, my magazine is quite similar to Q due to the content of the magazine and the artists inside it. However, Q magazine is a very popular magazine and I would not be persuaded to believe that they would be able to make people want to buy my magazine as well. 

IPC, distribute magazines such as NME, and Uncut would be a better option as the distributor or my magazine, currently mainly focused on quite 'rockish' magazines I think that if they were to distribute my magazine, it would not have to compete with magazines such as NME as they are of totally different types of music therefore they would have different audience types, so as the magazines would be so different this would not cause problems for NME etc, for example losing 

money due to my magazine. 

However there are some small independent distributors such as Central Books, which is based in London, distributes magazines such as Diplo. Although this company is only small, magazines need to know the market place – smaller magazines are much closer to the beating heart of the retail giants. Consequently, they can be much more in tune with the market place than larger magazines therefore smaller companies such as this can do a better job of getting your magazine to the top! Therefore, I think I would rely on a distribution company such as this one, were my magazine didn't have so much competition and would have more of a chance of being recognized and bought by my targeted audience.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?


The main audience for my magazine is between the age range of 13-19, so mainly teenagers. The type of music taste my audience would have would be pop/hip-hop music, music that is in the iTunes charts for example. So basically they would like mainstream music.

Their dress sense would be very fashionable, shopping at places such as Topshop, River Island, Newlook etc, to buy the latest fashions and designer clothing.

The audience for my magazine is simply people who follow the latest trends, for example clothing trends, popular music tastes, popular T.V programmes etc.
My idea of the audience towards my magazine is quite biased towards females, I have used examples of girls clothing to relate it to the clothing that my model is wearing because she is a female model. 

This image is just to show what the male audience would probably look like, I based my male model on what I would expect the male audience to be like. 
I have included a print screen from the 'Topman' website (men's alternative to 'Topshop'), to show the type of 'in fashion' clothing for males.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?
Unlike real music magazines, mine doesn't have a celebrity face on the cover. In my opinion this is the biggest attraction on magazine covers because if there's a photograph of your favourite music artist on the cover, its going to make you want to buy the magazine to read what it says about them inside.

However, if my magazine was about a real pop star/celebrity, I think this part of the cover would be the main attraction to the audience. As well as her photo being on the cover of my magazine, the text also adds more excitement because it says 'Exclusive interview', making the audience feel like they have to buy it because it's 'exclusive'. Also because of the text saying, 'Don't miss out', which is there to make the audience think they would be missing out if they didn't buy the magazine.




I think that this aspect of my magazine would also attract the audience. I have used real music artists names, this is to show the extra features of the magazine so it tells the audience that there is also sections inside the magazine about all of their other favourite music artists, which would also make them want to buy it.

Judging from the rising popularity of summer festivals, I would hope that this would also attract lots of people to my magazine. More and more teenagers a saving up their money to attend the biggest summer festivals (such as Leeds festival, V festival, Glastonbury etc), to see all of the biggest  artists performing live on stage. So, I though this would be a good feature to add on to the cover, especially with a competition involved to attract more people to the magazine.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?/7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?



To make my magazine I used Adobe Photoshop (CS4).
Before this project I had never used photo shop before so it was hard getting used to the programme and took a while to figure out how to use it.

As you can see, looking my preliminary project, this was when I was still trying to get used to the programme and hadn't discovered any of the special features you could use on it. 
After practising on the programme and playing around with the features and tools throughout the production of my magazine I think I improved since I first began using it. As I was making my magazine I got more and more used to the programme and kept adding in more different features to try and make my magazine look better and more realistic. 
I think that in comparison, the front cover of my actual magazine is a lot better than my preliminary project cover!










As for the images in my magazine, they were all taken in photography studios using an SLR camera with a flash. I chose to take my photographs with a good quality camera so that the images would be clear and not pixellated. 

I have done this to show the difference between the two covers, (one the left - preliminary, and on the right - actual magazine cover). 

Hopefully it is easy to see how much I improved on photoshop between doing the two projects. Looking at the preliminary task, it looked really boring, the text and font were both dull and the title was barely worth being there. Comparing this to my actual cover, I think the writing stands out a lot more, as does the title, because it is bigger/bolder and more eye-catching. 

On my preliminary project I made quite a few mistakes, such as the cover image, I took the photo outside and used this image without editing out the background, so it looks quite cheap and doesn't help in making the text stand out. Also the use of adding in a blue background to the text looks boring, its was hard to make it look 'ok' when using a cover photo with a background, however, on my actual cover, using the photograph with a white background made it much easier for text around the edge of the model to stand out.

Overall, you can easily tell that the cover on the left was the one I produced first, having no idea how to use photoshop, thankfully it isn't as hard to work as I first thought. 

Final versions.

Front cover.

Contents page.

Double page spread.

Photoshoot 2.

In this photoshoot I also photographed the same model as I did for my cover photo, as well as another male model to go on the contents page.
The clothing of my models is the kind of style that I wanted for my magazine, not too dressed up, but quite casual instead; which they are.
The female model is wearing a back top, skirt and denim jacket, and the male model is wearing a t-shirt and shorts. I wanted them to look more casual, especially with my main female model as 'she has only just became famous' so the style I wanted was for her to look quite down to earth and not looking as if she is taking advantage of the fame.
I also used props in my second photoshoot, the prop I used was a guitar, I used the quitar in the majority of my photographs, but I also took some shots of my model without the guitar.
I used a small wooden stool in some of my pictures which my model sat on, posing with the guitar as if she was playing it. I used these props together to make it look like a stage scene, as though she was on a small stage at a gig when the photo was taken. I am going to use one of these photographs on my double page spread.
Here are just a few examples of the photographs I took in the second photo shoot for the contents page and double page spread. 

The photo shoot wasn't too serious, as you can see from a few of the photographs I have uploaded, I wanted to make it look like my model was having fun, instead of taking serious expression photographs. So, I took some 'laughing' action shots of my model, I am going to use these as the small, extra images on my double page spread. However, the photographs of my male model  posing were quite sophisticated with serious facial expressions, but I did take some of him smiling also.

Initital magazine ideas.

I would like my magazine to look like a hip hop/pop magazine, which shares information about the music and artist which are topping the current charts. 
The subject for my magazine is about a brand new artist who has released a single which went straight to number one within a matter of days. She will be on the cover of my magazine, in the contents, and also my double page spread will be focused on her.
I have done two photoshoots of my model, one for the front cover and one for the use of the double page spread and maybe also for the contents page for a small boxed off picture.
I have also photographed a male model, so that my magazine is not just based on one person, the pictures of the male model will either be put on the front cover or the contents page, but will be boxed off so that it does not stand out more than the main subject.
My colour scheme will be quite calm colours, such as grey, with a few bright, outstanding colours to highlight some of the main features of the magazine. I have chosen this colour scheme so that the pieces of information I would like to stand out more are obvious to the readers and will attract more attention.




Cover.
I looked at lots of different music magazine covers on the internet, and decided that I wanted my cover photograph to be a medium close up/close up of my model. I also decided that I was going to edit the contrast and brightness on my photos so that my models hair colour would go even brighter to make it stand out on the cover.

 This Billboard cover with Taylor Swift is quite similar to how I would like my magazine cover to look. The photo is a medium close up of the head and shoulders and she is side-on but facing forwards.
There is text on the left hand side, similarly with my magazine I am going to have the main headlines down the left hand side but I am also going to leave a bit of room on the right hand side just for a little bit of text.
One difference is that my background is going to be white, the background of this image is hard to work out because it has been purposely blurred out, but it still looks good and effective.

The cover on the left is an Extreme Close Up, and the cover on the right is a long shot. 
I think that the left one looks really good because her face is in the centre and her hair is now the background of the cover.
The cover on the right is a good photograph but I think it is too far away, I think it leaves too much room to fill with text, although this is not the case on this cover as there is a background of buildings at the bottom, so it looks good when used in this way.  

This is the cover that gave me the most inspiration for my cover photograph, I think that my model and Kelly Clarkson's body language do look quite similar, the shots are the same, and although not intended; the hairstyles are also very similar. 
I like this cover because its quite simple but effective at the same time which is how I would like my magazine too look when its finished.








Contents page.

After researching on the internet I found that most contents page layouts are set out in to separate columns. Also the layouts are almost the same in each magazine in every issue.
In Q magazine, their contents page consists of a large column down the left hand side and multiple columns at the bottom of the page with images in the middle of the page. And in Billboard magazine, they always have the No.1 music chart down the left hand side of the page, with various columns and images set out differently in the middle of the page, then a separated column at the bottom of the page. These two magazines actually have quite similar contents pages. 
For my contents page I am going to have the title space at the top with the rest of the page split in to three separate columns were I will put information and page numbers including various images. The column on the right hand side will be used to write about the cover story with another picture of my cover model.




Double page spread.

This is the image that I got my design/layout idea from for my double page spread, from the beginning I decided that I was going to have my double page spread layout as a picture on one side of the page and text on the other. Then I found this image which is similar to how I would like mine to look.
I would also like my double page spread to include some more smaller photos as well as the large photo on the left hand side so it won't be that similar to this one.

I also like the layout of this double page spread from NME magazine, I am going to have my writing in columns like this but I don't plan on having a title as big as on this one. Although it is quite faded out and in the background, it does look really effective but I would like my title to be a big smaller with a large full page image underneath it. 


As I said above, for my double page spread I am going to have an image of my model on the left hand side of the page, with the title (possible going across both pages), and then the text/interview on the right hand side. As well as having the large image on the left hand side page I am going to include some more smaller images of my model from the second photoshoot to show the variety of different images I have taken etc. 
In the text I am going to write a little bit about Scarlett and then write out a quick interview asking questions such as; 'When did you first start singing?', 'Where do you see yourself in a few years time?' and 'Who would you like to be as famous as?' etc. 
I am also going to include an enlarged quote from the interview somewhere on the double page spread to make it look more like a real magazine. 

Rough sketches.

These are just a few rough sketches I did before I started showing how I originally wanted the layout of my magazine to look. Looking at it now I think I have stuck to my initial designs but some aspects that are different.