front cover 1st stage of construction

This was the first stage of me constructing my front cover. As you can see its pretty simple at the moment as there is just the magazine title on a white background.

front cover 2nd stage

This was the second stage of construction. All i have done here is put my main image on the page and made the mistake of putting the title over Izels head.

front cover 3rd stage

This was my third stage of construction. I decided that i didnt like the title at this stage so i put a temporary one in until i had decided on my final one. I also put in coverlines and the main story title. I also added an image and barcodes at this point.

front cover 4th stage

Here i have added my pug in the top right hand corner and i also change my title. I also added more stories down the side and added a skyline along the top and bottom.

final stage (5th)

At this point i had changed the title of my magazine to give it a bigger and more recognizable name. I also gave a new main story text image. Here i made the word 'Bounce' bigger and bolder than the other text as it is the most important part. The last thing i added was a small image and a text just below the title of the magazine.

contents 1st stage of constructing my contents page

This was the first stage of creating my contents page. As you can see, there is a mainly white page with a masthead and a skyline. There is also a few lines where the top stories section will later be.

contents 2nd stage

At this point, the contents page was pretty much constructed as i had added images and text to the page. I also added several other lines and related to my colour scheme successfully. I also added another 'splodge' effect below the top stories column to take up some space.

contents 3rd stage

This was the next stage. As i changed the whole masthead to my coursework, it had to be changed here also. I also had to change the masthead on the subscription image at the bottom as it had the old one on it.

Final stage (4th)

This is the final stage to the creation of my contents page. The only thing that has been changed here was minor adjustments to the subscription image in the bottom right corner and the text revealing my competition. I chose to put the important information in a bigger and brighter text, then the other information in a smaller and more slender tone of colour.

1st Stage of constructing my double page spread

This was the start of me making my double page spread. At this stage, all i had done was make the original photo i took the background. I then added in a piece of text which was my title and tilted it to the right hand side. The next step i took was to add two "splodge" effects to bring out the graffiti look of the title. The last step i took her was adding the page numbers in at the bottom left and bottom right of the double page spread.

2nd Stage

At this point, the only difference i made was adding in the main body of text on the right hand page. It consisted of a title, text and an image. At this point, these were the only changes made to my double page spread.

3rd Stage

At this stage in my creation of my contents page, i made quite a few changes. The first being i took away one of the "splodge" effects and put in my magazine title along with a body of text which told the readers about the consistency of the text on the left hand side. I also highlighted some important parts in the text on the right hand page.

     I also added in a question and answer which filled the left side of the page around the body of my model. The last change i made here was adding in a pug with a graffiti effect on it. This told readers about the photographs of my model on the next page. This is located by my models left foot. 

Final Stage (4th)

  

The only change i made from the previous change her was the title of the main story (text). I put the word Bounce in apostrophes and made that word larger than the word "reviewed." the reason for this was to draw the readers attention straight to the main story and tried to make it look like it looked on the front page. I made the apostrophes the same colour as my colour scheme too.

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

If we take a look back at my preliminary task, we can see the huge difference in professionalism. The reason that my final piece of coursework looks so much better than my preliminary task (titles 'Secondary Situations') is that i have learnt so much from when i made my preliminary task til when i made my final front cover.

This first major thing i have learnt is that you cant have shadows behind the photos you take for your coursework. This made it very hard for me to cut out with the lassoo tool on photoshop elements. I had to learn how to place the model in a place where no shadow would be casted on the wall behind.

The next thing i have learnt is what music magazine conventions are. These are things such as pugs, cover lines, images, skylines and barcodes. These conventions are all here for specific reasons and i feel i have successfully learnt why they are put on the music magazine.

Also in the run up from my preliminary task to my final media piece, i feel i have learned a lot about photoshop elements software. I have learnt how to use the icons successfully but still needs some practise on this. However, i learnt enough to construct my music magazine coursework.

The last thing i believe i have gained a greater knowledge on is the use of technologies. These are things such as the software, the mac computers, the cameras we used and the blogs we post our coursework on. I didnt use any of the above technologies before this academic year, and now i feel that i can use all of these successfully.

Overall, i feel i have learnt a lot of different things within the space of creating my preliminary task to the construction of my final media parts of coursework.

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

There are three main technologies i used during the creation of my media coursework. These were using a camera effectively, using photoshop (mac computers) and blogging. All three of these is didnt know how to use until the start of our AS level year.
Using a camera effectively was hard for me as i am not very good with the Cannon ones we used. These had many buttons and was very tricky to use how i wanted. I understood the camera angles and shadow factors but i couldnt put them into play with the tricky camera. However, after some practise; i got the hang of this piece of technology and took some pretty effective pictures. I believe i learnt how to use this piece of technology well and could definately use it again in the future.
The second piece of technology i used whilst constructing my media coursework was photoshop elements software. I had never used a mac computer before this school year and it was very tricky to understand what the icons meant and what they did. I also had lots of orkwardness when trying to save and copy+paste my work. All of these things were overcome as i got the hang of it pretty quickly. Eventhough i understood some parts of photoshop, i still didnt understand some elements to the software. But during the use of photoshop, i also gained a great knowledge on how to use the Apple Mac computer. I had never used a Mac computed until the start of my media coursework. So i gained a greater knowledge on not only the Apple Mac computers but on the photoshop elements software also.
Before this school year, the word blogging didnt register in my brain. I didnt have a clue what a blog was or how they were used. But as you know, this was the only way to display my coursework on an electrical format. So really, i had to gain an understanding and fast. So as this is what i had to do, i learnt very fast and i think i produced a pretty effective blog considering it was my first time blogging.
I believe i have gained a huge knowledge and learnt so much about the above technologies. I believe i have done considerably well for a first time user and would love the challenge to use them again in the future.

How did you attract/address your audience?

There are 5 main questions i put in my questionnaire purposely to answer this evaluation question. These questions were:
What genre of music do you like?
What color scheme do you think will look best for my magazine?
What draws your attention the most?
How much are you willing to spend on a magazine?
Would a magazine competition convince you to buy a magazine?
So the first way i attracted my audience was by asking them their favourite genre of music. The poll come back with a clear favourite of R&B clearly being the favourite. This was then the genre i created my music magazine around.
The next question i asked was what colour scheme my audience liked best. This came back with a joint two schemes at the top. I then chose the colours of Red, White and Blue as this was one of the joint leaders and made my usic magazine with these colours in mind.
I also asked my audience what two main features attracted them to a music magazine. The results come back as colours and images being the top two. I then created a strong image to go on my front cover along side with a good colour scheme. Images and colour were then created throughout my magazine as this is how i wanted to attract and address my audience.
The next two question were how much are my audience willing to spend on my magazine and would a competition attract them even more. My audience come back saying they would be willing to pay between £2.01 and £3 for my magazine and that they would like a competition to be inside my magazine. So for these two reasons, i priced my magazine at £2.99 and i included a competition to win several i-pods.
The main way i attracted and addressed my audience mas by making the majority of them happy. I managed this by adapting my questions in their favour to give them ultimate satisfaction. So for these reasons, i would like to believe that i have many happy customers for my magazine.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my media product takes a look back at my questionnaire results. These results show me the type of people i have set up my magazine to aim at. You can see the description of my results at http://codymcmahonsblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/my-questionnaire-results.html. I created my questionnaire electrically over the net. It was located down the side of my blog so anyone looking at my blog could fill it in.

     From my results i could tell that the female audience was going to be my main targets for my coursework. I could also tell that these females would be aged between 16 and 25. So straight away, i have an audience starting to build up. 

     The next step i took to aiming my media product was the genre of music. My questionnaire revealed that most people enjoyed R&B music. This gives the need to aim it at a multi cultural society due to the number of ethnic backgrounds. So now my audience opens up to a much wider range of teenage females. And this is exactly who i aimed my media product at. It was aimed at teenage girls of all ethnicity who enjoy the genre of R&B.

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

After lots of primary research, grazing the internet looking for music magazine distributors; i have found an institution who may distribute my media product. The institution is called IPC Mediaand they are famous for distributing many magazines. However, they only distribute one music magazine which is NME magazine. You can find IPC's website at http://www.ipcmedia.com/.
The reason i think that IPC Media may want to distribute my music magazine is simply because they only distribute one. I believe they may want to increase their business in the music magazine sector. My music magazine closely relates to the NME magazine due to its professional look and its a serious magazine. This is why i think IPC media may want to distribute my music magazine.
However, IPC media ay not want to distribute my product as NME's stories are mostly on english bands and my magazine is a multi cultural magazine with different ethnic backgrounds. But IPC is definately the institution that may want to distribute my media product because of their small business in the music magazine sector.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My final piece of media coursework was aimed at a multicultural society. Its aimed at pretty much, the teenage girls living in England.So the main social group i was aiming my music magazine was girls between the ages of 16 and 25. As we all know, England today is a very multi cultural country and we do have a wide ethnic range within our society.

     The first way in which i represented a multi cultural social group was the use of my main model. Her name is Izel Abdulla and she is a Turkish Cypriot female. She is 16 and lives on the outside of london. I used her because she is of a foreign origin and wanted to represent a multi cultural society. I also used Izel's friend in my music magazine as she is an Italian. This enabled me to put in another race giving it a verisimilitude look to the public of London for example.

     Another way i tried to represent particular social was by the top stories within my magazine. It included artists such as Dizzee Rascal (black), Rihanna (mixed race), and Mr Husdon who is white. I done this as it shows a wide range or artists and a wide range of social backgrounds. We have Dizzee Rascal who has an African origin, Rihanna and her Jamaican background and Mr Husdon who is English. These are three origins that you usually see if you go out in public in the United Kingdom. You can see the multi cultural effect with over 4 social groups on my contents page at http://codymcmahonsblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/my-final-contents-page.html.

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

On my contents page i used some conventions but tried to develop them in my own way. Below i will run through my developed conventions.

     My first convention that i developed on my double page spread was my main story title. In all music magazines, the title usually crosses the crease of the page extending over two pages. As you can see on the Q magazines double page, the story of Lily Allen is spread over both of the pages. This is the reason i chose to do this. I also wanted a graffiti affect on the brick wall background, so for these reasons; thats why i used this convention.

     The next convention i produced on my double page spread was the use of page numbers. These are used in all magazines are are vital for readers to find the stories inside. There is no real explanation why i used them, just because all magazines do. All magazines also use another convention i have used on my double page spread. This is the use of multiple columns. Most magazines use a minimum of three columns in the main story article. For this reason, i have used three and also put a picture in between the columns which is a music magazine convention. The image has to relate to the main story.

     The next convention i produced on my double page spread was the use of my colour scheme. I didnt want to use a white background again, so i come away from my scheme and added the brick wall in behind my model. I still created my colour scheme with my four chosen colours. I was going to try the effect of the Q double page, but i challenged the convention of a plain background and used my own idea.

    My model is making strong eye contact with the readers, i tried to produce this convention as Lily Allen does in the Q magazines. I thought this was vital as when the readers flick through, it will catch their attention to the main story. I also used the sexy pose as Lily does to give it more attraction to the readers. So attraction was the main reason i challenged this image convention.

     The last convention that i produced on my double page spread was the use of a question and answer. These are very popular in music magazines as the readers want to know what their stars say. I chose to add this in my double page spread to take up space on the left side page and to give it a verisimilitude look to a real music magazine.

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

This Q magazine contents page was my main inspiration of producing, developing and challenging conventions of a real media product. 

     The first convention i developed on my contents page was the use of the magazine title in the top left corner. It clearly tells the reader what magazine the contents page is from and by sticking to the colour scheme, makes it look professional. I also decided to use the black skyline bar across the top of my contents page. This clearly states that this page is the contents section and also has the date and issue of the magazine. Again i chose to use this produce a convention used in most music magazines, also to take up some space on my white background.

     Another convention i developed on my contents page was the text bar down the left hand side of the page. This is vital in a music magazine as the reader needs to know what pages the stories are on. I chose to add this convention in my contents page as most music magazines have it and i wanted my magazine to be the same.

     I have chosen to develop my own main image on the contents page i developed. This will enable my readers to distinguish the main story at one glance. The image also created eye contact with the readers and will convince them to turn to the desired page. I also decided to develop the white strip along the bottom of the main picture. I challenged this aswell by making it the full width of the image and slightly tilting it to the left as i thought it didnt look right when it was straight. But by adding this main image, it left me space below to produce a second box. The Q magazine uses the same kind of format, but in theirs they have a review. Here is where i developed my competition convention and added the i-pod image and the special subscription offer.

     The one convention i properly developed on my contents page was the "splodge" graphics above and below the top stories column on the left hand side. I done this for one simple reason, and this was to take up space and cover some of the white background i used.

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

This question is asking me how i used conventional ideason my own music magazine. Conventions are things such as pugs, coverlines, title placing, images and even the placing of the barcode. I am going to explain why i used certain conventions on my coursework and why i may have chose to challenge the convention and not use them.

The first simple convention i produced on my piece of coursework was a pug. As you can see on the Q magazine, the pug is the silver circle advertising readers on a story about John Lennon. I put my pug on my coursework to aware the reader that there are photos of "Izzie" (my model) inside the magazine. I chose to develop this convention because it was easy to create and i had to take up some space as i used a white background.

The next convention i used for my coursework had something to do with my model. If you look at the images above, both of the main characters are making eye contact with the person looking at the magazine. I chose to use this convention as i wanted my main character to make eye contact with anyone who picked up or even looked at my magazine cover. This enable my magazine to have an immediate attraction to any other magazines i may be competing with.

There is a big similarity to my magazine title and the Q magazine title. The reason for this is because i developed the convention for my coursework. The reasons they are both similar are because they are both in the top, left corner. They are also made up of only two colours which makes it look tiday and professional. It also is a third of the page width which makes it the same as the Q magazine title.

On the Q magazine cover, the barcode, date, issue number and price is all neat and tidy in one place. If you look over at my magazine, you can see i also produced this convention by placing my barcode, date, issue number and price all tucked away in the bottom left hand corner. The reasons i decides to develop this convention is because every music magazine in the shops these days have this so that the customer is aware of the price, aware of the issue and date the next issue comes out. It also enables the shop keeper to swipe it through the til when my customers buy my magazine.

The next convention i decided to produce on my piece of coursework was words on either side of my model (coverlines). These are used on music magazine covers to aware readers of what stories are inside. For example on the Q cover, it tells us (the readers) that bands such as Snow Patrol and Vampire Weekend are featuring inside the magazine. Whereas my coverlines are:

Featuring Inside:

Dizzee Rascal

Rihanna

Ne-Yo

And many more!

Interviews With:

Mr Hudson

N-Dubz

I chose to use coverlines to make my readers aware of who and what is going to be featured inside. It is also something that almost every music magazine uses and it takes up space on my front cover as i needed to cover up some white space as it is a gamble using a white backgroung on a front cover.

Another convention i chose to produce on my media coursework was a main story on the front cover. On the Q magazine cover the story is "3 words, Cheryl Cole, ROCKS." Whereas mine is "Izzie's New Single 'Bounce' Reviewed Inside." The main reason i chose to produce this convention on my front cover is that all music magazine covers has a main story and i wanted the same for my front cover.

On the Q magazine cover, ther are 4 colours that create the colour scheme. These are Red, Black, White and Grey. I also produced a colour scheme convention by using Red, White, Black and Blue. By using a minimum amount of colours, it make the front cover look more professional and this is the effect i wanted to give to my readers. I also challenged this convention because if i used more colours, i would have ended up with a messy look for my front cover. This may put readers off and i wanted my magazine to have the professional verisimilitude to other leading music magazines.

The last convention i produced on my front cover was the use of a skyline. This is the bar of text that runs along the very top of the page with writing in it. On the Q magazine cover, there is no outline to the skyline. Its just a bar of text put over the main image without a background. Whereas on my front cover i challenged this convention slightly by putting a background bar behind my skyline. I done this, again to add colour to my cover and also the writing was white and wouldnt have showed up on the front cover.

There is one convention i decided to challenge with my front cover. This is one thing to do with my magazine title. If you take a look at the Q magazine title, the red square the Q is in is over the face of Cheryl Cole. Whereas on my front cover, my title is tucked behind Izzie's head. I chose to do this as i have faith in my magazine and trust my readers to distinguish that it says Chart Busters. This is the only convention i have properly challenged.

There is also a convention i chose to develop on my front cover. This was a competition that run along the skyline along the bottom of my magazine. I decide to add a competition as my questionnaire down the side of my blog revealed that my readers would like a magazine more if there was a change to win something.