Evaluation- Looking back at your Preliminary task, what do you you have learnt in the progression from it to the full project?

Looking back at my preliminary task I think my work has improved in quality. At the time I was pleased with the outcome of my preliminary task but after learning how to use all of these new technologies and learning through mistakes my final music magazine has much improved from the school one. I spent quite a long time on the preliminary task and I think this was because I had only just started using software such as pages and the Macs themselves. I can see now there is too much empty space around the model, I could have improved this by cropping the empty space on the right hand side making the model larger. I used personal pronouns on my front cover of my preliminary task but the font didn't stand out enough because its too small and I the colour is too similar to the colour of the models jumper. This is something I took into consideration during the construction of my final cover I made sure the colours didnt clash with the colours in the image and I made text and the title much larger to make sure there was little empty space. In my preliminary task the title and images are not equidistant and it makes the magazine look unprofessional, I realised after making the preliminary task I had to pay a great attention to detail to make the music magazine look professional.

The Preliminary task was a key past of the coursework because it gave me a starting point to build around and without it I wouldn't have been able to develop the understanding I have of new technologies and I wouldn't have mistakes to learn and develop from. Learning to use these new technologies during the preliminary task meant I was much more comfortable and confident when it came to creating my music magazine final cover, double page spread and contents page, I could spend more time on correcting detail rather than learning how to use the technologies properly. Another thing I have learnt is how much goes into constructing a music magazine because there are many different aspects such as the photography, writing the article, editing, making drafts and the actual layout this made it harder as I was responsible for all of these roles and it was also hard to construct a text to a deadline.

Evaluation- What have you learnt about technologies from the precess of constructing this product?

Evaluation- What kind of media institution might distribute your media product?

Evaluation- How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Evaluation- How did you attract/adress your target audience?

Evaluation- Who would be the audience for your media product?

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

Final DPS

Pages edit

I went back to 'pages' software to edit as I found it easier to use. I am pleased with this outcome. From my last draft I have made the text in line with the top of the models head, enlarged the model and cropped out empty space. I added white text like previous posts but changed the opacity so it blended in well with the image and looked like a whole image and not separate.

DPS image drafts

DPS image draft

Picmonkey edit
This was my second draft of my image for my DPS, I used the same editing website. The main changes from my first draft are the size of the model. I cropped out a lot of the space that filled the image this made her more prominent and it just looks neater.
Theres still a lot of empty space at the bottom of the image that I need to crop, and I could probably make my model a little bigger still. I'm not happy with the text quite yet the line space between them could be a lot smaller and I don't think the 'I' o its own works because of the size of the other words, so sitting it with the word 'love' I think it will just make it look more even.

Improvements to consider

Looking at my draft theres just something not right about it. I think to improve the appearance I need to change the equidistance  between the text and the edge and top of the page. In this edit I added a shape around the guitar so that the text didn't overlap the image and fitted around it without looking too spaced apart.

Final contents page

Contents page draft one

My first draft of the contents page was to get a rough idea of the layout. I decided to place the writing on the right hand side because it looked more alternative. I also used a type writer font because I like the effect it had on my style model, it makes it look more personal.
In my final contents page I need to include the full stop between alt and sound, its not included in this draft because I made it before my final cover. I need to add images to the page or colour to the background to make it look more interesting, however I do like the simplicity so I need to see if I can add these things without losing that.
I like the idea of simplicity because I think thats what the indie and alternative genre is about, the musics the most important thing.

Double page spread draft one

DPS draft two

Double page spread draft

This is a rough draft of my DPS, I really like the outcome of the image but there are some changes I would like to make, I chose to edit the image into black and white and leave the model in the original colour to highlight the fact she is breaking away from her band and trying to stand out as a solo artist.
 However, I do need to change the text and add a title because it looks very plain it needs a background image or text to link it to the image so it actually looks like a double page spread and not two separate pieces of work.

Final cover

My final cover is a lot different to my original plan, however I am pleased with the outcome. The first change I made from my last draft was the actual name of the music magazine. I decided to add a full stop between ALT and SOUND, I did this to create an alternative sound when people try to pronounce the title, so the target audience can link the title with the music genre immediately.

Front Cover draft

This was my first draft with the call out. I don't think the colour of the text works with the image. I used this colour because black blended into the image too much and it wasn't really visible. I also tried white but it stood out too much and looked odd because theres an earthy colour scheme to my image.
I also cropped the image because there was a lot of empty space on the right hand side that was too small to put call outs on, and it wouldn't have looked professional with text on both sides.

First front cover draft

I tried to recreate the effect I had in mind while doing my plan, however it didn't really work. You had to take two of the images, cut the head out of the second, place the text over the first and then layer them together. This was difficult because the background was still there so it covered the text and the text didn't fit around the model like I had originally planned.

Double page spread research

While I was drafting my first ideas for my Double page spread I researched real music magazines DPS's and I found this from Q magazine. I really like the idea of having faded text behind images as I think it really goes with my genre it looks alternative. I think its something to try in my drafts for my DPS and contents page to see how to create the effect and what it looks like.

plan

Double page spread analysis

This is a double page spread taken from NME magazine. This double page spread is a stereotypical Alternative/Punk genre.  This magazine firstly uses colours to portray this music genre. Red and black harmonise well together and the clothing choice for Lily Allen is Tartan which is a very iconic Punk trend. Key names in this article are also highlighted in red, the artists name having attention drawn to her specifically in this colour suggests her popularity in the music world. Lily's shirt is very bold and stands out which is a contrast to the statement she is making as quoted in the title.The text for the title is in a bold newspaper print is very bold again in keeping with the magazines style and with the genre.

Questionnaire

I decided to do some primary research for my music magazine to help with the design and what to include on the front cover, DPS and contents page. To reach my target audience I thought the best way would be through social networking sites. I posted the questionnaire on social networking sites such as Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter and received several responses.

Gender 

Female        5
Male            3


Age 

under 18?    5

18-20?         2

21-25?         1

26-30?         0

31+ ?           0

How often do you purchase music magazines?

Weekley?     0

Monthly?     2

Yearly?        5

Rarely?        1
(Never)

What is likely to catch your attention and make you purchase it?

The band/artist photo?   8
Competitions?                0
Other?                           0

What musical genre do you prefer?

Alternatve     4
Metal            1
Pop               3

How much would you be wiling to pay for a music magazine?

Less than £1?      1

Less than £3?      6

More than £4?     1


                                                                                               

Chosen Cover image

Editing

Second location images

Editing

 This image was my favourite from this particular location. Here is the original and below are various experiments I made on an editing website called 'Pic Monkey'.

Taking the images

More Location ideas

This location will be my chosen location to take my final images, I have chosen this location because many of the alternative rock bands have images taken of them standing up against a brick wall in this sort of location. However because my music genre is indie/Alternative

Magazine differences

Difference between magazines and target audience. These are two very different magazines mainly because of the demographic difference. Firstly Top of the pops magazine. This magazine is aimed at female children aged 6-13. You can tell this is the chosen target audience because of firstly the colour scheme. Pink and yellows are a vibrant eye catching and stereotyped with females.


Top of the pops



Young audience
brought by parents for children
Soft safe and sanitary
girly and aspirations are different- marriage, make-up

different colour schemes

Kerrang


Older demografics
Usually male/ teenage boys
Aspirational aspects
Swearing and more of open conversation topics- more adult

music magazine deconstruction.

Under the Radar

Under the Radar is an indie rock music magazine.

The artist on the front of the cover has her arm over the title of the magazine this suggests the magazines name should be well known making the audience feel privileged if they know the title. The way that the title of the artist is bigger than the title magazine portrays the idea of the music being more important than the magazine itself and that the music magazine must be popular to have the artists name and text taking over the front page. The colours used on this cover are very vibrant and alternative.

Ray Gun

Firstly the font used on the cover is like a typewriter this portrays the idea of a timeless music genre. The way there is no readable text on the front cover and just an artist image suggests the magazines popularity. Use of no call outs or artist name suggests that the magazine is very well established in the music world and well known for its individual style.

Style models