New Front Cover 25/04/13

Comparison of Old and New Front Page - 25/04/13

          

                                                                                                                                            Older Version

Newest Version

I have went for a completely different look for the front cover of my music magazine.

The sub-images I Firstly, I have used a different layout, and tried to use a similar look to tat of 'NME'.  I have decided that the NME music magazine is very modern and the layout is effective as it is appealing. I realised, after doing new research for current music magazines, that the aim I was trying to achieve was similar to the NME magazine.

The title 'Epic Music' was very unrealistic with my old magazine, and although it contained bright colours to appeal the reader', feedback from group members helped me realise that, a darker more simpler title would actually be more appealing. I have used in the top right of the music magazine are very modern. My old music magazine shows images on the left-hand-side that weren't particularly appealing to the teenage audience. Having less images, with a simpler caption was also more appealing.

Using a different colour at the bottom of my new product, made the story I came up with stand out. I used this purposely  for a variety of colours but also to have an impact on the reader. The blue background was used to contrast the main image. I wanted the main image to be stretched and be the first convention to stand out to my audience. With my older version, it was clear that my main image was too compact and needed to enlarged to create more  realism.

My masthead is one of the conventions of my media product I am most happy with. The change is very effective, in the fact that it is more simple, and also most importantly easier to read. I realised previously to my newer version, that my masthead was long and didn't attract the reader enough. The feedback from my teacher as well as my classmates, give me the idea that I needed to have a masthead which is short, easy to read, and stood out. This meant I had to use a contrasting colour to that of my background image, something I feel I have achieved.

The barcode, price and date are also something I feel have improved. I am happy that I realised this didn't need to be the main convention the reader had to see, when in fact the teenage audience want to know the price after analysing my media product.

Overall, I am a lot happier with my new media product. I think there is a vast improvement in the layout, the conventions used, but most importantly the colours I have used.

Social Groups Video (Extended Evaluation)

This is a video I have made, which is an extended version of my answer to the question; How does your Media product represent particular social groups?

This is not the full answer to the question, which you can see further down my blog

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=920QFOkCajk&feature=youtu.be  - This is the link to the video have made.

Comparison of Old and New Contents Page

Updated Version                                                                                                            Older Version

I feel there is a dramatic change from my old and new contents page.

Firstly, the title is completely different in where it has a new style. When recieving feedback, it made me realise that you don't necessarily need to have the literal words 'contents page'. I done a lot of research for this as to get a clearer understanding of what modern magazines use as their title. My research showed many modern music magazines use logos or a replica of their magazine title. I think my new title is a lot more modern, unique and it relates to my front cover. I think that having the title 'contents' on my contents page made it look unprofessional and it wasn't realistic. I feel achieved a more  modern type of contents page with my updated version.

The image is also an improvement as it is clearer but also the overall effect of the picture is far different.  My old image didn't have any appeal and it lacked in clarity, and so from my updated version links heavily with the contents page and the artist is a lot more recognisable to the audience.

The layout is also something I feel I have improved dramatically. For instance, the gap between each of the page numbers and text to go with it is much further. I done a lot of research before updating my newest version, and realised that although it is good to have a lot of pages listed, the gap between each of the lines needs to be realistic. When comparing the two versions the main difference is the text used. I have updates my text to a simple black colour, but also i think I found added something unique in the start of each sentence. This can be found on my newest version where the start of each letter is a different colour to the information to go with it, something that is effective and appealing.

Although not completely different, the logo that is on the top of my page has been updated. I thought my older logo was not completely bad, yet I felt the feedback showed it could be modernised. Therefore, i went for something more basic but effective.

My newest version is a lot more realistic in the fact that it has a page number. I was frustrated that my oldest version was submitted with no page number and this was very unrealistic and the reader would not know the page number. Adding this adds to the overall look to my contents page.

At first, I felt (on my oldest version) the screenshot of my front cover was very unique and something I could later use to challenge Media products. Yet, I realised that there wasn't a necessary need for this, and that despite being a good idea it was only taking up space. I decided to remove this, and on my new version I have added section of an artist and come up with a realistic article.

Overall, I am very happy with the changes I have made. I feel some of the changes I have made have been modernised, realistic and are more appealing.

Comparison of Old and New Double Page Spread

This is my new double page spread against my old one. (The one on the left being the newer version) I think there is a much clearer difference from the two. I think having a main image taking up the whole left side of the page is much more appealing and intriguing. Furthermore the clarity of my older picture compared to my new one shows exactly how much more realistic my newer double page is. I feel the colour is highlighted specifically when comparing the two pictures in the fact that my older version looked extremely dull and boring. Having two bright but contrasting colours has made me realise that it is far better to make the reader want to stay on the page then be put off it. The feedback further helped me realise that colour is one of the most important aspects of a double page as the reader, especially my target group of teenagers, are more appealed to the style and layout then the actual detailed information.

This links in heavily with the text I have used. My older version was more of a story rather than an introduction to the information and so this had to be improved. My updated version shows a much smaller but relevant introduction, in where the reader can get an idea of what the interview will be about, rather than getting bored with the amount of text their is. Changing the story completely was also   something I had to consider because of the realism. Although original, talking about issues that are linked with some music artists, such as drugs and alcohol, was much more realistic. When sending off my older version I was extremely frustrated with how I failed to use a title. 

Although the quote helped supply this, there was not clear title that the reader could find and they would have no understanding of what the story was going to be about/ Therefore, changing this has made me much more confident in that it is realistic and also appeals to the reader. 

New Double Page Spread (14/03/13)

This is a screenshot of my new double page. I feel a lot happier with my new double page, especially the image. Previously, I used an image which had very little relevance to the story, and also wasn't c;ear enough to make out. I feel after realising this the image links to the story a lot more, and looks very professional.

The text is also an improvement that I am more confident with. Using contrasting colours at the top of the page makes it look effective but I also used this to make it appealing to the reader. I may ask for more feedback about the colours I have used for the more detailed information in which the story is presented.

 I used that colour to make the text stand out, but when reviewing it, I feel that it looks less realistic. As for the story, although it wasn't my primary focus, I am happy I have came up with something original. I think that this shows clearly what my thought was and how I wanted to represent the singer.

New Contents Page (14/03/13)

This is my new contents page that I have been working on. After getting feedback from classmates I realised that my previous contents was not modern enough and lacked realism. I think the colours I used were too strong and didn't invite the audience in a good way. Using this I now have a much more simple contents page, but I think that this is the most effective because the text is easier to read and the images are also easier to make out. I think that my title is modern and this is what I was trying to achieve. I am happy with my main image because it links with the music genre and it is evidence i have used my own photos.

Updated Double Page Version 14/03/13

This is my most updated Double Page Spread (14/03/13).  After receiving further relevant feedback, it was clear that I needed to have one side of my double page for the main image, and the other for text and information that makes the story realistic. I think that the feedback for this, has made me realise that having a main image taking up one side of the double page, then it would be more appealing to the audience. Especially given the fact that the person I am using is apparently a famous person, the audience would respond quickly to the main image and be intrigued to read what the other page has to say.

I have changed the colour and text completely. I think that my previous version shows clear signs of dullness and that it doesn't have much appeal to it at all. Having a contrasting colour on the right page makes it more interesting, appealing and intriguing for the audience then my previous version. I am happy with the story I cam up with and want to keep this throughout my updates. I feel it is original and different to most stories and so could give me an advantage.

The main image I will use will hopefully make the double page spread come together. I am currently thinking about applying a white background with the singer either posing or singing in action. White would be the colour I want to use because I think, Red, Blue and White are all very different colours and so therefore would make it a very appealing double page spread.

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

Looking back at your preliminary task,

what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

From the preliminary task, I have increased my knowledge massively in terms of the layout of my magazine, the tools I use, and most certainly the colours I must use for my magazine.

Firstly, the layout from my preliminary task was very  plain and didn’t look similar to any current music magazine. The background I used was very pIain and lacked any signs of intriguing the audience. I had sub-headlines at the side of the page rather than under the main headline, which I now know is the best way to present a magazine. My main headline, on my preliminary task was very small, and didn’t look like the main headline. Developing this into the full product, I made my music magazine masthead standout clearly and take up a large quantity of the upper half of the music magazine.

Secondly, the tools I used have developed remarkably since the preliminary task. For the preliminary task, I used Microsoft Powerpoint tools, which were then transferred onto my preliminary magazine. Looking back at this, I cannot believe how much I have progressed. The full product has all the tools from Adobe Photoshop, and when comparing this to the preliminary music magazine, it looks much more technical and professional.

Finally, I feel the colors I have used are much more relatable to a music magazine. I used very dark brown colors for the preliminary task , and now, when I think that it was a college magazine, I have come to realise it was the opposite of what I needed. Using this experience in my full product and having a better understanding of contrasts of colors I have developed on this massively, and I have realized that it is better to stick to a certain amount and good quality of colors rather than have a quantity of colors.

In summary, I personally feel I have developed massively since the preliminary task, and that my full product has a much more appealing look than that of the preliminary music magazine.

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

Looking back at my preliminary task, I feel I have learnt an awful lot. My preliminary ask was to make a college magazine. When comparing both of the magazines, I feel I have developed my skills of using Adobe Photoshop.

Prior to making any of the magazines, I had very little idea of how to use Adobe Photoshop. I knew the basic tools but didn’t know many technical aspects of the program. The preliminary task was beneficial for me to develop my skills, and get used to using Adobe Photoshop. I could have used Microsoft Publisher, yet I wanted to challenge myself, and If I could develop and improve my skills on Photoshop, then it might be beneficial to me later in my life. When doing my music magazine, I didn't’t realize how much more I had learnt, and how many tools I could now work well.

Editing was one of the tools I used the most in Photoshop, and using this on my own preliminary task, didn’t have a very positive out come. Yet after developing these skills in Photoshop, I feel my music magazine looks a  lot more professional.

Doing this music magazine has made me realise that, in my opinion, Photoshop is the easier software to use rather than Microsoft Powerpoint.  Some of the tools on Photoshop are very technical and I feel that this is what makes the product look the most professional.  

How does my magazine attract/address the target audience?

My music magazine is aimed at teenagers appealing mainly to 15-21 year olds. Any teenagers that are interested in music will be attracted to my magazine due to the images I have used, the phrases I have used and the colors I have applied to my pages.

Firstly, I have used many images that can be relatable to a teenager. My front cover image will attract my audience as he is aged in the range of my target audience. Teenagers interested in music are usually quite laid back and tend to be cool’. To attract more teenagers to my magazine my front cover main image shows this type of theme.

Secondly, I have used relatable phrases and sentences that could be relatable to a teenager. My front cover even includes the word ‘teenager’ and so will attract a teenager to continue reading. Words that are used in the modern day, are the type of words I have tried to use in my own work, for example, ‘teen heartthrob’. Although this is aimed females particularly, it immediately attracts the audience to this story, and other headlines in the magazine. Furthermore,

The colours are and modern, which could be an attraction to the audience. Researching magazines helped me do this. Firstly, I wanted to research a magazine that is out now and aimed at teenagers. When researching ‘NME’ the colors were very strong and bright, and immediately caught my attention. I tried to use some of these colors in my own magazine work.

Prior to even beginning the work on my magazine, modern words and phrases that are used in the modern day as my aim for attracting the audience. ‘Epic Music’ is the name of my magazine, and ‘Epic’ is an extremely modern and teenage-related word that means awesome, and huge. This highlights exactly who my target audience are, and the word ‘Epic’ will catch-the-eye of the teenage audience immediately. This word is also very informal, which again implies who I am aiming my magazine for. 

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my media product is teenagers. The image shows the kind of audience my music audience is aimed at. Teenagers use the internet, whether it be on computers, phones or IPads on a daily basis. This is the reason for having a website for my product. The internet has a huge impact on teenagers in becoming very related to Youtube and websites of their interests. If I could establish my website to teenagers who use the internet often, then my product could become a lot more popular.

Teenagers tend to go to a lot of concerts, especially to bands they like and they type of music genre they like. This image shows some teenagers at a concert. I think this could be effective as my music magazine has bands similar to this, and so the audience could be instantly attracted to my product.  this I had m target audience set prior making my music magazine, and so I included certain elements that are relatable to teenagers. For example, my main image for my front cover, is a teenager playing a guitar. Here, I could express that my magazine is aimed for female teenagers, yet this is wasn’t my aim particularly.

The socio-economic group for my target audience would possibly be C1 to D. Teenagers that my music magazine is aimed at, will only just be looking for full-time jobs and some would even still be developing their education at Universities.

I would argue that my magazine would be approximately 56% males and 44% females. I don't think their is a huge difference in the sex of my target audience. This is because I have added aspects that attract both female and male readers.                                                                                                       

My product is aimed for readers aged between 16 - 25 years of age. I may even have readers of higher age, but I feel that since I have many teenage-related stories and image on my product, this would be the main age group for my magazine.

I think in terms is psychographic profiling, my target audience would fall into the category of an explorer or even a reformer. I want my audience to explore the magazine and not just look at the obvious parts. For example, when looking at the image, it would be effective if my audience were able to come up with representations and opinions of the images.

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

In what way does your Media product use, develop, or challenge forms of real media products 

My magazine challenges and develops forms of real media products in many different ways.

Firstly, I feel I have challenged media products by the colours I have used. I have used very bright, modern and strong colours such as, bright blue, bright green, and very dark red colours. When doing research into some of the magazines currently on the market,  such as, ‘NME’, ‘Kerrang’ and ‘The Word’,  I found that many of them use very dark colours to represent their magazines. Before doing my masthead, NME was the main magazine I looked at in detail I found their masthead was effective, but I personally feel it looks very basic.  I have challenged this style by using different fonts and slightly more complex colours to make my own magazine more appealing and more noticeable.

In term of lighting, my images were very carefully chosen. I feel that I challenged some current images used by magazines, by adding my own image taken at a concert. My image was edited to be more darker, and contrast the right side of the page. I felt that other music magazines use a range of colours, and that this gave me the impression that using continuous colours throughout would make my magazine less appealing and less realistic. Therefore to challenge current media products, I edited my main image of my double page spread by reducing the exposure and noise of the image, making it darker and more of a contrast. 

Many of the images I have used on my magazine include low angle, long shots. The long shows are to make the image realistic and show more of the surroundings rather than just the artist themselves. This challenged media products, because although many media products do include images from past concerts, research showed that many do close ups of the artist. The long shots I have used in my magazine appeal the reader and challenge some of the current music magazines. I edited some of the images on Adobe Photoshop, whether this was editing colours, enhancing the images or reducing the noise and exposure. 

I have aimed to go for artists who represent the music genre indie rock.  I feel achieved this by using my own photographs of artists dressed for this type of genre. Although some of the images reflect different genres, particularly my front cover, I feel that the costumes can be associated with indie rock.

I terms of the actual people in the images, I believe I have done very well in challenging media products. For example, the majority of my images are of people aged 20- 25. When doing research into images used by media products, it was surprising to see the vast majority differ between different ages, and that many of the magazines didn't completely focus on their age group. I have challenged this by sticking to people of that age, and helping relate this to the audience of my music magazine.

The fonts and styles I have used do change as the magazine progresses. My main front cover doesn't completely change media products due to many current and modern music magazines using similar fonts and styles in order to attract the audience. Yet, it could be argued some of the other pages of my magazine, have styles, that do attract the audience, but are used to make the text look realistic and effective, also purposely used to develop on some of the media products. 

It may be suggested that my double -page spread challenges current media products, in the way I have ordered and layed out my page. Despite a full image being used on one side of the page, and this appears to be the main aim for many music magazines, I have used the right side of the page to try and make it more unique. Doing further research into media products, I was able to find that many media products have an interview filling the page. Although I have used and developed this idea, I have added a paragraph giving an introduction to the interview. I feel that this is unique and media products would include this on a different page.

My contents page could also be said to challenge media products, as normal magazines, such as ‘NME’ have text on the left of the page. Yet, I have put my image in this position, and put the words on the right side of the page.

I have also developed on modern music magazines by placing logos in the typical position (top-left corner).  It could be said that I have challenged this in some way, as I have dragged this all the way along the top of the page. Magazines such as ’NME’ place it in a set position with very little editing, so I feel I have challenged the form of real media products here. However, I feel that sticking it in the normal position of other media products is the correct thing to do, because it is where the reader will look first.

What I am happy to have developed in my double-page spread, is the ‘quotes’ that are used. Many double-page spreads use quotes from the singer, band or the person related to the story. I have used this in my own magazine, and although it hasn’t been faded into the text, I have used it in the magazine.

How does your Media product represent particular social groups?

When analysing my product, I feel confident in saying my front cover main image, shows representations of a youth male. This was my aim, as my magazine was aimed at young people and teenagers. I feel it was important to have a young male, as  a young teenager could associate themselves and relate themselves to the image.

I have represented my main character by purposely dressing the young male in modern teenage clothing. When doing research into magazines aimed at young audiences, I took notice to the costume of the males and females. With my main mage being a male, I knew my image would have a bigger impact he were dressed up similar to how my audience would. 

The location of the main image wasn't relevant, as I was going to remove the background through Photoshop. Although I did place the male in a background that I knew would be easy to edit, this wasn't my first option in terms of how I wanted to represent the main image. 

My main camera angle is a 'mid-shot'. I thought this would be important, as I imagined looking at the image if I were the audience. I felt it would have a bigger impact if the audience could look directly at the image and come up with similar representations as myself. 

My images for my product all include artists in action. My product was designed like this because I wanted the images to be represented similarly and that they could all be linked with similar representations. This is linked with the body language of the images I have used, in that they are cool and confident, and these are some more of the representations I was trying to achieve. 

The lighting for all the images are quite dark. At first, I had a mixture, with my front cover being very bright. This was the same for my double-page main image, where I edited the image to be darker. I felt this would be effective as it links with my music genre. I didn't want to contrast the type of music I was promoting , and having a light and bright music magazine. 

All of the images I have used were deliberately used to not intimidate the reader. I feel it is better to use images for my music magazine that show the artist playing naturally rather than them looking directly at the reader. I think teenagers prefer images of artists playing than them posing looking directly at the camera. I have used this idea on my front cover as shown.

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

Some of the magazines that ‘IPC Media’ represent are ‘NME’ ‘Instyle’ ‘Now’. These magazines are worldwide and are extremely respected in terms of the content, impressions, and the way it is styled. I feel that have the IPC Media institution would be very good for me, as it would make my magazine have a high level of respect and reputation and it would possibly be known in many areas of the world. Therefore, the I can have a wide range of audience groups who could relate to my magazine. This institution is also extremely popular, so my magazine will hopefully have a huge audience to start with, rather than if I went of another institution which is not recognised well. 

This is former NME magazine that has ben published. I would relate my music magazine to the style and layout of this NME magazine. This is the look I was trying to achieve, and some of the features helped me. Given this idea, I feel that the IPC media institution would suit my magazines. Research shows that they promote magazines that explore 'soft rock'. This is would therefore suit my music magazine, and have a similar audience as other magazineI would like to advertise my magazine through billboard advertisements, television advertisements and youtube advertisements. The adverts on youtube would be my main priority because of the audience I am aiming at. The younger generation use Youtube on a daily basis, and is used commonly my many people. Similarly with television, younger audiences tend to watch television.

Linking Youtube and the internet in general with younger audiences, it may be effective that I can help promote my music magazine through an online website. I have added this on my own product, and since so many teenagers use the internet, it could lead to many people viewing the website and exploring my product in this way.

This is an example of a Youtube advertisement I was discussing earlier.  Many links appear on videos, and so younger audiences could be interested by these types of advertisements.

http://www.ipcmedia.com