Evaluation front cover, contents page and features page.

Front cover evaluation Elena Di Maria

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

Flat plan of front cover I made a flat plan so I had an idea of what needed to go on my front cover. I put the basic forms and conventions on there and then when it came to designing the final product I added more specific details that made it my own.

Final outcome

Sky line- This is a convention that is used in many music magazines . I put known bands here as it acts as a lure to attract the reader. I used black and white as it represents the mast head,

Mast head- I used black asIt works well with the red brickWall, black red and white are Also my house colours so by Making the mast head blackIt is in keeping with the brand Identity I have created.

Cover lines - I put the cover lines on the left as this is what the Reader will look at first, The models eyes are also looking directly atThe reader and her head is turned left, this directs the reader to The cover lines.

Main feature- This shows The name of the central image And can attract them to read Article as it is on the front page.

New artist; framed with caption . This image is used to add depth, I positioned it there as the guitar is pointing in That direction so it makes the reader look at it.

Folio- date, issue number, barcode. This makes the magazine seem real as it has a barcode, this section has the date, issue number, price and website. This is key information for the reader.

Flat plan of features page

Drop cap

Final outcome of my features page

Mast head- I used a font called rough typewriter and I also put it in capitals and put it in capitals to make it stand out more .

Feathered so it doesn't look so sharp. I did this so it doesn't look like separate pages.

Pull quote do add interest to the left hand side as there is only a picture on there.

Folio, page number and the name of the magazine.

Drop cap, this is convention that widely is used in magazines. It gives the article a focus point and breaks up the text making it easier to read.

Pull quote- to give a short incite into the article. To lure the reader

Contents page flat plan

Contents page final outcomeThis is the skyline, I changes the colour from white to black as the background image changes colour at the centre point. I Then added a drop shadow and distanced it to create the effect of echoing as if it is important.

Buzz words lure the reader. I also made it in read to catch the readers eye and make them read that section. This is a known media convention used in many magazines as it works well to attract readers.

Page numbers and cover lines surrounded by the beer cans. This acts a symbol of the type of music e.g. Festival music, acoustic and live. The beer cans act as a curve for the eye line to follow, the reader will then see the word exclusive. This is convention used in many magazines as it helps hook the reader,

Folio- issue number and page number.

This is a main cover line as I made it stand out by making it red. And enlarging the font.

This is a pull quote that gives the reader an insight into the article and what it is going to be like. It doesn't give away what the article is about, it gives just enough to attract and lure them to read the article.

This is the mast head. The typography used is called ‘rough typewriter’ i put it in white so it stood out against the dark background.

Central image, i used this image as the eye line of the model is looks at the right hand side so it draws the readers attention to that side.

Images with an opacity of 65 so they don't create to much visual clutter .

Layout conventions The layout conventions I have used follow the typical music magazines, by following these conventions it gives

the magazine naturalism this is what readers look for as it is familiar. It is important that when creating a magazine you incorporate the forms and conventions on magazines.

If certain forms and conventions are not used it is still important that they are understood and there is reason

in why they aren’t being used. The forms and conventions I used to create my basic layout was focused around the image I had chosen. The image was of a girl with a guitar and then a brick wall behind. I used the left hand side to put the cover lines and buzzwords. Also in the skyline i put a slogan as it fit at an angle and looked eye catching.

All these different conventions build the foundations for the layout and the way the reader will interpret the magazine at first sight.

By doing a flat plan it helped me achieve what I wanted, it also made me think carefully about the positioning of images and text.

The layout is one of the most important aspects of the front cover as if the reader looks for the magazine again they will look for that layout and colour scheme. I put a lot of work into where i wanted things to go, I positioned it all accurately s to create the right mood for my magazine.

This is the central image the colour of his eyes matches the text colour

This is a banner that spread across the width of the page. This gives it importance

Folio, issue number, website etc...

Cover lines at the bottom lure the reader to read the articles.

Main cover lines, these are of more importance and stand out more.

Mast head, in capitals and covering the image, this is a media convention and creates a brand identity.

Mise-en-scene I shot my photos in Oughtenhead.The reason for this was because the setting resembles my idea of live acoustic/ indie

music. Some of the photos used were on a log in the middle of a river. Others were up trees holding a guitar, leaning on branches .With each of these different settings I used different camera shots e.g. low angle, high angle, close up, long shots, tilted etc... It was important that i had many different camera angles so that i could show camera and technology skills.

I chose a this setting as it creates the right tone for the cover, here are some of the images i used. A close up shot is just of the face and shoulders, this is used in magazines to show facial expressions and emotions.

Close ups eliminate the background making the purpose of the photo just on the face. This also shows direct address as the eyes can be directly on the reader making it more personal.

TYPOGRAPHY The typography I used was downloaded as I wanted to use something that was different to the

commonly used fonts.

The font I used for the mast head of the front cover and features page was called “rough typewriter” I used this at it worked well with the tone I was creating for my magazine.

Mast head of my front cover-

Once I had my font I then enlarged it, added a drop shadow and inner glow and also scratched it to give a vintage effect.

I used both serif and san serif, the reason for this was so it could be personal and informal, this will make

it easier to see where the informal and formal parts are.

Mise- en-scene The pictures on the previous slide show how I created my mise-en-scene, these pictures reflect the

genre of my magazine. I was going for an acoustic/vintage style, so I created this by using a natural setting. This shows an eclectic style and this also reflected the model.

The things I had to consider to create the right mise-en-scene were; the model, setting, lighting and props.

The model I used worked well with the style of my magazine, she wore a vintage jumper and a parker style coat and boots. I used this image as my target audience would wear similar clothes, by doing this it makes the magazine stand out from the others.

Magazines have to compete with each other to attract the right target audience so my putting my this picture on my front cover would attract more readers “ one estimate states that 70% of magazines are brought on impulse” suggesting the layout and central image impulses them to buy it as it appeals to them.

The lighting was important as I was outside and if I got to dark the image would not show the background clearly. If it was too dark then it makes it hard to see the image, I used flash so I could capture the image without worrying about it being to dark.

Music genre The genre of music I chose for my magazine was acoustic, indie sound, the reason for my choice was based of the

results I got from my target audience questionnaire: The highest choice was indie and acoustic, initially I wanted to use soul and acoustic music so it worked out well when I

received these results. I did my questionnaire on survey monkey and i sent it as a post on Facebook

Using a social network site to collect data was very helpful, as the majority of friends i have on Facebook fir the ideal reader criteria. So when i got my results back I considered carefully what people said as they are my target audience. From using Facebook i got over 50 questionnaires completed, i took into consideration all my feedback and it made the planning of my media product easier as i knew specifically what i was aiming to create. I knew that if i followed what people said then I would get a positive response to the final outcome of my media product.

This is an example of the results i got. The questionwas ‘what genre of music do you prefer’ 19/51people said Indie and Acoustic, so from these results took into consideration what was said and i followedwhat my target audience said.

How my magazine suggests this genre The images I have used suggest a vintage eclectic style, this is due my model and the setting. acoustic

music comprises music that solely or primarily uses instruments which produce sound through entirely acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means. This genre of music is more personal as it is performed with only instruments and voice rather than electronically adapted. I reflected this style in my front cover my having it natural with just an artist with her guitar in a natural setting.

“Following the increasing popularity of the television show MTV Unplugged during the 1990s, acoustic (though in most cases still electrically-amplified) performances by musical artists who usually rely on electronic instruments became colloquially referred to as "unplugged" performances” -Wikipedia

In the 1990’s there was an increase in acoustic music, a television programme called MTW Unplugged became popular as it let artists perform with just their talent rather than with electronic amplification. My magazine encourages unsigned artists to reveal true talent and I believe there aren't many magazine that offer this so I think my magazine would be successful. Some of the bands involved were Sting, R.E.M and Bob Dylan etc... These are the sorts of bands that i got my inspiration from. By researching MTV Unplugged i began to understand the genre of music and how to portray it in my magazine.

Style On my front cover I didn't leave any white space as my background was the image so there. The reason I did this was

because my image had a wall in the background and I used the top of the image to but text (skyline) and it worked well in contrast with angle of the wall. My front cover is simple to reflect the music. The left hand side and the bottom of the page show more visual clutter as this is the section where most of the importance is.

The house colours I have used are white red and black, these are the section where i have emphasised this:

I made the wall a red colour so I could make it clear of the house colours as this is the background image and takes up most of the space.

For my features page I also didn’t leave any white space, the background had two images . The image on the left was set to a low opacity so text could be placed on top.

I used the same convention in my contents page as i did in my feature page. I split the page into two sections and put different images on both. I then lowered the opacity to make the text more legible. I didn’t leave white space on my contents page as i wanted my magazine to have visual clutter rather than neat and orderly.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Social groups and how they are represented in my magazine

•Posture/expression/gesture- this is represented though the facial expression and the way they hold themselves- in my magazine she is sitting down in the street this portrays a carefree image. This image reflects the music that they listen to.

Price- £2.20 affordable weekly for all and this will make more people buy it rather than spending£3 or £4. By keeping the price low this suggests that younger people will be reading the magazine e.g. University students, school students etc... and may not be able to afford an expensive magazine.

Reading festival

Travelling, seeing new

things.

Individual style

Music

Enjoying peace

London

Parties

Mood board- ideal readerRepresented though images and

music

Who would be the audience for your media product

The audience that would read my magazine would have an individual taste in music, they would be interested in festivals such as reading festival and Glastonbury. They would shop in less mainstream places such as charity shops, vintage stools, brick lane and then places like topshop and urban outfitters.

Wears unusual clothes.

Plays guitar if has an a good taste in music.

•Range of tastes- festivals, live shows, gigs, pups, artistic, creative socialising etc... •Upper/middle or working class? Mainly middle and working class.•Stereotype- themselves- individual

My genre of music isn’t what the majority of people listen to, but I didn’t see this as a risk. I believe that doing this enabled my magazine to stand out. This echo's my ideal reader as they are the sort of people that stand out in what the wear and the music they listen to.

Images that resemble my magazine These images are from a magazine, it is similar to mine as they are both set in a natural setting and the

central image is similar.

Sky- edited with yellow tones to add a sepia vintage effect.

Guitar resembles house colours of red and black, these colours also stand out as the picture is all natural colours and then this bring the focus on the guitar.

Central image, the treeBring the focus to the Model as she is on the tree.

Natural image, symbolises the music she makes.

The clothes she is wearing are also of neutral colours. Makes her part of the naturalism .

Leaves, natural- similar To the look I was creating.

Central image, she blends into the image as if she is a part of it. This is the same idea as I tried to create.

Brown at the bottom of the image and green at the top, this contrast works well. I did this by having dark colours at the bottom then the sky in the background.

Branches to make it look natural.

Circular image

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

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

I think the institution that would distribute my magazine would be IPC, the reason for this is that my magazine is similar to the ones they already distribute, for example NME; it is similar in the sense that it focuses on the same target audeince and is aimed at people who appreciate music that is real rather than chart music that all sounds similar.

“IPC Media is the UK’s leading publisher of consumer magazines and websites. In print and online, our famous brands deliver high quality content time and again to 26 million UK adults in key audiences”.

The reason why I chose

Research on IPC- “IPC Media produces over 60 iconic media brands, with print alone reaching almost two thirds of UK

women and 42% of UK men – almost 26 million UK adults – while our websites collectively reach over 14 million users every month.

IPC's diverse print and digital portfolio offers something for everyone, with a focus on three core audiences: men, mass market women and upmarket women.

IPC, the Association Connecting Electronics Industries (formerly known as the Institute for Interconnecting and Packaging Electronic Circuits), is an organization whose aim is to standardize the assembly and production requirements of electronic equipment and assemblies”

IPC fit well with the genre and style of my magazine, when I researched IPC I found that they distribute similar magazines to mine , NME is part of IPC and i got a lot of inspiration from NME, I like the style and the music that NME has in their magazine; it isn’t chart music that everyone listens to it is more individual.

NME is a conglomerate of the music industry which constantly updates their audiences in upcoming bands and new music.

Magazine that IPC distributes

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

The technologies I have used are, Photoshop, slide share, serif photo plus/page plus , sony a200 camera, prezi, survey monkey and movie maker , Camtasia ( this record your screen while you work) I did this to show my technology skills.

The technologies I have used help me create my media product and also made me more advanced in the programmes I have used throughout the process. Photoshop was the main programme I used to create my media product.I used PowerPoint to create slideshows of things such as typography and my ideal reader, I then used slide share to upload them on my blog.

What I learnt from editing photos

basic editingOpen photo - using the software (I used Photoshop) Flip the image if its orientation needs to be changed.Crop – remove unwanted portions of a photo if desired; crop to a specific aspectResize – resizing makes a photo larger or smaller, most typically smaller. Its height and width change proportionally.Enhance image by adjusting its brightness and contrast, sharpening it if an image looks “soft,” or correct a colour cast to make an image have more true-to-life colours

I duplicated the layer and then added soft light

This box then appears and I clicked yes.

After that box appears I went onto my layers panel:

This was the steps I followed to edit my photos, more advances steps were changing the brick wall to bed, making the picture black and white and only the model colour, making the sky brighter, adjusting the image to a sepia tone.

To see how i edited this photo go onto my blog and watch the video called ‘editing a photo’.

How did you attract/address your audience?

to attract my audience i felt i had to be confident in who my audience was. I did a lot of research into who i would aim my magazine at, some of the things i did were; surveys on Face book.

The main thing that attracts you readers is the front cover and if they feel it suits them , for example if someone listened to acoustic music they would prefer my magazine style but if they liked rock music then they would listen to magazines such a rock sound.

I used direct address a lot in my photos as i fell acoustic music is personal as it is real music and its natural so i wanted to echo this though the facial expressions of my model . I did this by making her look directly into the camera. This would then be using the convention of direct address to communicate to the reader though images.

These images are an example of the direct address that I used. From both images i wanted to make her have a neutral face so that it fitted in with how artists pose in magazine. I think i achieved this successfully

Survey monkey I used survey monkey to create a questionnaire on who my ideal reader would be:

From my results from these 2 questions I could see that my ideal reader would be female and in the age range of 14-19. I took into consideration these results when I created my front cover, I did this by putting an artist that fitted this description. This would attract the reader.

From this I could see that NME was a popular magazine so I got a lot of inspiration from this magazine, I annotated NME magazines and posted them to my blog so I could understand how understand the brand identity of the magazine and make mine similar so I could get a big audience

What music magazines do you read?

I also took into consideration what other s said and I include aspects of their preferences in my magazine. For example people who like rock sound magazine i out cover lines such as ‘live gig’s’ so this cover rock music. By doing this i would appeal to a larger audience and be more successful.

On the weekend would do you prefer to do?

Care free, enjoys music and festival atmosphere.

Sociable- A high percentage said they like to go to pubs so this shows that 45% of people who would be my ideal reader would be 18 or over. From this I took into consideration that my magazine needs to be suitable for older readers.

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

Sky line, both completely different in styles, on the school magazine it is centred and in a serif font and on the music magazine it is in capitals and in a san serif font.

I edited this image on Photoshop. I put a pink tint layer over and then enhanced the colours on the dress. By editing this picture I learnt more advanced steps in editing and it helped me edit the images for my music magazine,

I prefer the cover lines on my music magazine as the stand out more. I did this by adding a drop shadow onto the white text. On my school magazine they blend into the background as the pink tint is under a white layer. So the white cover lines don't stand out as much. I learnt from this, so when i did my music magazine i put them against a red background so they wouldn’t blend in.

Overall i believe that my preliminary task was an effective way of me gaining a better understand in, photography, editing images and creating my blog successfully. For my preliminary task I put a lot of effort into the photos I took and how I was going to edit them.I am happy with the outcome of my final media product and I believe the research I did into my target audience helped my create a strong brand identity that would be remember stand out.

Preliminary contents page and music magazine final outcome My headline to my contents page has completely different styles, I realised that making the headline in capitals and clearer looks better and stands out more.

I used red to emphasise the buzz words. I also did this on my preliminary task.

Pull quote to give lure the reader Folio so the reader knows Where they are.

Pictures lining the page, adds interest and reader the reader across the page.