Monday 28 April 2014

Friday 11 April 2014

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







Overall, I feel my media product follows all the necessary conventions and barely challenges them, which can often be a good thing. I stuck to the conventions as I felt I wouldn't be able to challenge them well enough to make it still look professional and appealing. All the standard conventions take place on my front such as the masthead, main image and features, as well as others. This is the same for standard conventions of a contents page and double page spread. I didn't want to make my magazine look overly crowded and therefore didn't add extra conventions such as headers or too many features. I got positive feedback about this aspect as people liked the fact it was spacious but still looked professional and full of enough conventions.

Tuesday 8 April 2014

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

My chosen target audience was teenagers, students in particular as I'm a student and felt it would be easier to relate with them. I feel a large amount of students are interested in the Indie Rock genre and this age group are more likely to buy and Indie Rock magazine. The artists mentioned in my magazine usually aim their music at teenagers and therefore I felt it would be more appealing to them. I also chose my friend who is also a student to be my artist as students often relate to people who are their age.
I made sure my magazine was suitable for both genders as well by using a mixture of artists, features and a neutral colour scheme which would appeal to both.
I feel all of my intended readers value many aspects of a celebrities life, and not just the music they create. To follow this theory, I made my article about not only music but slightly about controversial topics such as drugs, as well as delving more into the life of a celebrity.

I feel the plug on my front cover appeals to my audience on a large scale because the majority of people who attend concerts are students. I asked various people around my college whether they were going to any music festivals this year and a large majority of them, including myself, mentioned that we are going to Leeds Festival where a large majority of the artists mentioned in my magazine will be performing. 

Adding my own photos to the magazine contents page added realism and reinforced what audience would be interested in my magazine as they're often the type of people who go to gigs like the ones that are pictured above.

Monday 7 April 2014

5) How did you attract/address your audience?

The main aspect of my magazine that will attract and address my audience from the beginning is the front cover, therefore making this to the greatest ability, as well as the contents page and double page spread, was important.
The following video which I made on Windows Live Movie Maker identifies the ways in which my final product attracts and addresses it's audience. It mentions aspects such as the plug, features and main image on my front cover which is specifically made to appeal to a specific audience. The engaging features of my contents page which help the audience feel involved are mentioned and the pull quote is also an important aspect that is mentioned as it once again, draws an audience in and intrigues them.



Sunday 6 April 2014

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

6) Technologies by jodieeb10 on GoAnimate



From the process of constructing my music magazine, I have learnt about technologies which include Photoshop in particular.
Tools I used on Photoshop included the text tool, the brush tool (which I also chose various brushes to do certain parts, like the background colour of the pull quotes on my double page spread), the liquify tool which helped to mould certain areas of my photos when I edited them. Many other tools were also used, such as the lasso tool and the healing brush tool. Almost every tool was used in the making of my magazine as it was a long process which needed to present a great final product.
I used a Nikon camera to take the photos in the college green room and was fairly experienced with taking the correct photos because of tasks beforehand such as the preliminary task.
I went on the website DaFont.com to help pick the fonts for my front cover, contents page and double page spread but found it easier and more beneficial just using the fonts that Photoshop offer.
Publisher helped me when making google mock ups of how I wanted the structure of my magazine to look. I basically made a magazine on Publisher which helped me when it came to piecing a full magazine together on Photoshop.




The process of editing an image became easier as I went along and despite it taking so long, I managed to perfect the background colouring using only the lasso tool and a white paintbrush.


The colouring of hair was a short process which included the lasso tool and also changing the opacity of the colour to see which percentage made it seem the most realistic. On this image I also used the liquify tool just to show what it does. 





Number two by jodieeb10 on GoAnimate


 Double page spread photo edit:


Peer feedback:







Saturday 5 April 2014

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

Preliminary Task:

Final Front Cover:


Final Contents Page:

Final Double Page Spread: 










The video below consists of peer feedback but in video form rather than written and is edited on Windows Live Movie Maker. 

Saturday 29 March 2014

Final Front Cover

My final front cover which was made after large amounts of research into other magazines follows the conventions of a typical music magazine front cover. This includes conventions such as a colour scheme, features, main image, barcode/price, plug and the masthead.
The colour scheme I chose was blue, black and white as I thought it stood out and followed the indie genre. 

The making of my final front cover

The making of my final front cover edited started with adding the main image to an A4 page in Photoshop.

I then edited the main image and made the background colour more even, using the eyedropper tool and the paintbrush tool. 


Then using the text tool, I created my masthead ‘BMC’. 


I then added a footer to my front cover, using the text tool. I also found a barcode image on google and added it with the price, issue number and date. 


Using the text tool once again, and going through various fonts I made my features, all whilst making sure they were relevant to my chosen genre. 


I then added the main headline to my front cover which took over a lot of space and started to bring the magazine together.



 he final convention that I added to my magazine front cover was the plug. I used the ellipse tool which created the circle and then I added the text inside it.





Friday 28 March 2014

Final Double Page Spread

My final double page spread sticks to my specific house style and follows many of the conventions of a typical music magazine double page spread. These include, the main image being placed on the left, one or more pull quotes, the article on the right page and the title. 

The making of my final double page spread


First I opened a new page, turned the canvas landscape and placed my image where I wanted it. 


I then used the quick selection tool to go around my model as best as possible and coloured the background in. I then removed the quick selection and used the rubber/paintbrush to perfect the outline. 

I added my double page spread boarders with the line tool and put in the page numbers, date and other boarder writing using the text tool. I also added a small black background for page numbers to make them stand out by filling the rectangle tool in, in black.

By using the text tool I added my headline and double page spread article. I went on to choose fonts that I thought were suitable.

added a pull quote next to my model which makes the space seem less blank.
 

Finally, I chose a different paintbrush and decided to add an effect to the background of the main written features of my double page spread.