Evaluation 7

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

Looking back at my college magazine, I feel I have come a long way on this journey. Looking at these two front covers I can see what a massive I have made. Because of Photoshop I have learnt how to fade in images, take out backgrounds and make better fonts. For example i went back and found very simple errors throughout my music magazine drafts the where easy to improve. I am able to now realise and analyse the construction of a magazine and its requirements for it to become successful and address the correct target audience.

The use of photoshop allowed me to get more creative with my tasks so I had more freedom to express what I was thinking.I was also able to learn a lot about photoshop manipulation, allowing me to edit images to better fit them to the genre of the magazine. You can see how i have used a gold house style to make my magazine a lot more stylish and to fit the genre.

Finally I think that I have learnt to plan my work much better than when I started. I think about where everything is going to go before I put them there and I try to give myself a rough idea in my head of what the final product will look like.

Evaluation 6

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

The first thing I learnt was how to use Photoshop for the first time. At the start of the journey it was harder than I expected but as I used it more and more I got the hang of it. I used many skills such as 

• The colour effect
• The crack and peel effect
• Text photo effect
• Airbrushing 

The picture below is one of my practice pictures that I done on photoshop when I was getting used to it. It is airbrushing. The left is the before picture and the right is the after picture. 

Another thing I used on my journey was 'Voki'. This was very easy to use. I just added text and uploaded it to my blog and it automatically spoke so the reader doesn't have to read anything, they can just listen. I enjoyed using Voki because it made my Blog look more efficient and more creative. It also gives the reader more enjoyment instead of reading writing for 60 blogs. 

Evaluation 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

In this question I once again had to look back at my questionnaire for answers. In my questionnaire I asked the question why people do not read music magazines. The most popular answer was because they were out of date. When making my magazine I had to look at this and try to change it. There was nothing really I could do but a small thing I done that could have caught the audiences eye was the Twitter logo. This shows that the magazine has Twitter so it could give the audience updates on social network. 

Another thing I done was related to the price they ticked on the questionnaire. Because they were a young age they were willing to spend anything on a magazine because their parents would be paying for it. I made this an advantage and made sure the price was clearly on the magazine.

  
Another thing I done was use the words "new religion" on one of my pieces of text. I thought this would catch the eye of the young people that were saying magazines are out of date. The words are bold and easy to see. I wanted this to stick out as much as the Twitter logo. 

Evaluation 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

After doing my questionnaire I found out that my audience was males aged 16-21. In the questionnaire, I asked them what they wanted in the magazine and I got the answers

• Rap
• Large images
• Little text

When I was making my magazine I took all of these points into consideration and tried my best to give my audience what they wanted.






















The following picture is the reader profile for XXL magazine that distributes rap magazines. This can help me get an idea of what type of reader profile and target audience read rap magazines.
This shows that rap magazines sell best to men aged 18-25. Because I only gave out my questionnaire to people in my class, I could only go with what I had.

Evaluation 3

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

Here are some of the reasons why music companies would publish my music magazine.

















This is a magazine front cover made by the company IPC. As you can see, even though it is dark and looks like a rap magazine, it is totally different from mine. 










If any company was to use my magazine I think it wuld be becauseof the following reasons...

• It is well set out
• The design is suitable and relevant to the genre
• It will catch the eye
• It looks neat and tidy (l;ayout)

   

Evaluation 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

On the above image there is a picture of the famous rapper EMINEM at a concert. He is wearing a hoodie (with the hood up) and just a plain t-shirt. This is the look I went for when doing my front cover picture. The mis en scene on this picture looked like the perfect suit of a rapper. For the other three images on my contents page and double page spread I used another famous rapper Drake's style of clothing. Simply just a black hoodie and a plain t-shirt. The thing I have learnt about rap is everything is kept as simple as possible when relating to clothing.




After reading a lot of rap magazines music articles I have found out that there is no specific language that I could identify. They are written formally and the only colloquial language used is when the artist is being quoted. So that is what I done when writing my double page spread and using the quotation for that and the front cover. The age group for the magazine is around teenagers to about 22. Because the people in the magazine (Kasey and Lewis) are the age that you expect for people to read your magazine, you wouldn't be able to talk bad about them because they would not buy the magazine.   

Evaluation 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Making my music magazine, I tried to challenge and embrace the traditional conventions that surround the genre that I have chosen (rap).
Front cover

On my front cover I tried to use as many ideas as I could from other rap magazines I found on the internet. I done this on the colour scheme with my front cover because I found one on the internet and thought it would look good. My masthead was nothing I had seen or found on the internet. The ones from the internet were all very simple and easy to do. I wanted to create my own but it needed to suit the genre of the magazine. Most of the writing on the front cover was put in them places because they looked good on another one I was researching. The Twitter logo was my idea and I never seen it on one magazine in the shops or on the internet. I needed this so my magazine was different compared to others. I changed the Twitter colour t white so it wouldn't look stupid blue. The following image was the magazine I took a lot of ideas from.
Another thing I noticed that I took from this is placing the barcode in the bottom left corner. Most of the magazines I researched had them in the right bottom corner. To existing products I think that this front cover compares very well and is very believable to be a real music magazine cover. Comparing it to the one on the right I actually think mine is better because it relates to the genre rap a lot more.
Contents Page

My contents page was completely different from my front cover. I did not use many things from my research to make this contents page. The colours from my front cover I wanted to keep because I thought the blacks work very well with the mes en sene of rap. I wanted Kasey in black clothing like the picture of 50 Cent on the right. Like the other contents page, I had the image slightly left so the text could go down the right in a list. I took the idea of the page number in the bottom left corner and the name of the person underneath it. The contents text in the top right corner was not copied from anywhere. I got a slight idea from a magazine I seen on the internet but I had to change it a lot. This was from the following image. 

   










Looking at my contents page compared to many others I have been researching I don't think that it looks as good and realistic as them. I think one of the reasons is the colours in the background don't really go too well with the text and image. Looking at the one with 50 Cent on the front, the image is a totally different colour than the background. This makes the image stand out more and also the text on this magazine is easier to read than mine. 
Double Page Spread
     
For the double page spread I got a lot of ideas from the image on the left. This was an image I found on the internet. It looks like a student made this from a school like I done. I really liked this design because I thought it would suit my genre very well if it had the right colours. That is basically what I done. I added the colours I have been using all the way through and made it fit the mes en scene of rap. The image I kept on the left hand side of the page. The quote I added was just a stupid quote but I thought I needed one to make the image stand out a little bit more. I changed the design of the headline but I kept the colours I have been working with. The text is set out in the same way and I have put the image in the same place. Comparing these two double page spreads I would say that mine is a bit better because when you first look at it you know what the genre of the magazine is. The black  

Double page spread update 4

I wasn't happy with an empty space in the bottom right corner of my double page spread so I needed to add something. Some pages I analysed in my researched I seen they have two picture of the same person. I had another picture of Kasey that I never thought I was going to use, but I think it fitted nicely in the space. The picture is just in the same position at the big picture, but he is doing a different pose and not looking at the camera. This picture could relate to the text to show the low points of Kaseys life.

Double page spread update 3

On this update I have added The chunk of text that makes up the double page spread. The text itself is just a story about Kaseys life but its about what the text looks like. The text looks small at first but it is not hard to read. I got this design from research I done a couple of weeks before. The 'W' at the start of the text looks very good because it stands out and I have changed its colour to yellow to suit the magazine.

Double page spread update 2

On this update I added a quote coming next to the picture of Kasey. I think this looks really good because it suits the magazine. From my research, nearly every double page spread has a quote. The text itself intimidates the reader. I also added a quote on the top of the page and a headline. This is again done from my research I done on double page spreads (rap). The font of the headline looks very good in the two colours (yellow and white) because it goes with the rest of the magazine.

Double page spread update

I have started my double page spread by keeping the black background. The picture is supposed to say a lot on the double page spread. I think this one does. He is wearing a black hoodie and looking in the camera trying to intimidate the audience. The black really works on this page because I am planning to write a dark mysterious story about the life of Kasey, and the darkness of the page will relate to this.

Contents page update 4

On this final update I have just tried to add some things on the left side of the page because it was looking plain. I added a date, the BREAKIT website and the BREAKIT twitter page that the audience can follow. I also added a page number in the bottom left corner and the name of the person in the picture. I got this idea from a magazine I researched.

Contents page update 3

I have added the contents writing on the right hand side of the page. I have done this because there was many different places I could put this writing, but I just liked this place the best. The font of the word 'FEATURES' fits in with the genre of the whole magazine because I have tried to keep the same writing and the same colours. The list of names and titles on the right were all just made up. I tried to name some rappers and headlines comparing with rapping.

Contents page update 2

I have only added the picture of Kasey on this update. The picture is supposed to represent the genre of the magazine. I think the way he has his arm up is saying he doesn't care about society. This is giving out the right vibe because from my research, all of the rap pictures are like this. My contents still needs work, but so far I am happy with it.

Contents page update

The first thing I added was the Masthead and the contents writing. I made the masthead the same font and colour as the front cover and I kept the yellow, white and black writing for the contents. The background is stayed black but fades to white at the bottom. This is because I didn't want ever page to be black, I wanted to try something different. I
I will next be adding the picture of Kasey Porter.

Front cover update 4

This is my fourth and final update on my front cover of my music magazine. I have added everything on the right side of the page.
I have kept the text the same on all the front cover because I wanted to keep it as simple as possible.

The main text that reads "MAKE OR BREAK TIME" I thought of myself. I linked the word BREAK to the masthead. It is the same coloured writing and the same font just smaller. I thought of this because I knew I could link the genre with the masthead.

The Twitter logo was put there to give the audience a way to contact the magazine using social media. It also makes the audience feel they can have a say on what they think of the magazine.

Finally the cross in the right hand bottom corner is supposed to be a '+' sign but I had just photoshopped a tattoo to fit into the genre.

Front cover update 3

This is the third update on my front cover. I added a motto above the masthead which I think fits in really well. It doesn't stand out over the masthead but you can see its there. I worked on the left hand side of the front cover here.
The 'EXCLUSIVE' writing stands out and looks very well in front of the yellow background. I looked at a lot of real music magazine front coverts and a lot of them has this writing on it.
The price I put was '4.99' because this was the most popular price i found while I was researching.
The barcode I put on the left side because I found that they are more popular on the right but I wanted mine to be different and the front cover I researched with Drake on the front looked like mine.
At this point I was very happy with how my front cover was looking but I knew the left side of the page needed more text.

Front cover update 2

This image shows I have added the Masthead and some names above it. The names are just people that will be involved in my music magazine. I really like the masthead. I kept it from the mock because I got some really good comments on it. The font style straight away gives a danger vibe so I think this suits the genre of the magazine and suits the mise-en-scene of rapping and life on the streets.

My front cover start

I have started the front cover of my music magazine. I have gone for the black background because I thought it went really well for my mock. The picture is Lewis Webster who is clothed to fit the genre of rap. I gave him a hoodie that is unzipped because I have seen many rap music videos in the past and this is a very popular look. The white bandana shows the rap genre as rough and gangster. This was the sort of vibe I wanted to give the audience.

Pictures analysis

I tried to fit my pictures to my magazine genre (rap) as much as I could. I used brick walls, bandanas, hoodies and different poses. I think most of these things relate to rap considering my research of different rap magazines. I will edit some of these pictures on photoshop to make them more realistic to the genre but they wont need much work. An example would be on the picture were Lewis is wearing the ripped tshirt around his mouth to look like a bandana you can see his mouth coming through the cloth. I will fill this in white on photoshop.

The picture with the brick wall in the background looks very good but I am not going to keep this because I want the same type of background on every page.  

My pictures for my magazine

Mise En Scene

The pictures I will take for my real music magazine need to relate to the genre of the rap magazine. I will do this by making the people in my pictures wear things that relates to this. Here are some items of clothing that would suit my magazine...

My latest work

Over the past few weeks I have been working on making my 4 pages of my music magazine. From the last comments on my mock front cover, I have taken some notes and changed a lot on my recent one. I used all the bad comments to make it even better. For example I had to change my masthead and I took more time making my picture better.

Changing my Masthead

During making my mock front cover, I experimented with a different name. This name was 'Break It'. 'Break It' seems like a gangster/rap type name, when you say it you automatically think of many thoughts related with this name.
The title 'Shot' gives off a very violent impression and I don't want this. When you think of this you think of murders and deaths. I don't want my audience to think these types of ideas because that does not give off a good impression.

Production log

Risk Assesment

Mock up front cover analysis

My mock front cover went very well I thought. I thought for a first ever attempt for a music magazine I done very well. I spent roughly about 6-8 hours doing this front page.

I thought there was many positives to take from this front page. Firstly I liked the colours (black, yellow and white). I got these colours from I magazine that I researched. These colours suit the genre of my magazine which is rap. Another thing I thought was good about it was the front cover was the writing surrounding the image in the middle. These quotes were totally made up but the quotes themselves didn't really matter for the mock up, but I like the way they look. I really like how the masthead and main heading looks. The writing for the masthead looks very good because it relates to the genre of my magazine. Finally I like how the barcode looks on the bottom left of the page. I had many arguments saying this should go on the right bottom of the page but my research shows me otherwise.

The image on the left shows the barcode in the left hand bottom corner.

I thought there was also negatives to this mock up as well. Firstly I think that the image was not very good. I used photoshop to try and change the colours of the clothes to make them suit the magazine genre but I made the clothes look less realistic. I also thought that the main title would have looked better on the top of the page underneath the masthead. This is because normally the main text stands out the most and when you look at the front cover, it does not really stick out like it should. Finally I think that the background is very poor. I would like a black background but the background on the front cover does not blend in with the images.

The only regret I have with the equipment I used was the camera. The camera I used did not have the quality because it was an old one. For my real front cover I will much a much better camera so that it looks a lot better on the front cover of my magazine. I don't think the images look very blurred but I think that the latest technology will make the images look better quality.

My research massively impacted my choices because my whole front cover is based on another magazine front cover that I researched (this is the image above). It also had an impact because without research, I would never have had a clue what music magazines looked like and represented.

I will need to change things on my real front cover to make it look better. These things are stuff like taking better pictures with better clothing, using photoshop a less as I can to make it look more realistic and moving some of the writing around it to make the front cover look better. A final thing I would like to do is make the masthead bigger so it stands out more.

Mock Front Cover

Naming my music magazine

I have been thinking over the past couple of days that my magazine will need a name. I have had a look at different music magazines and realise I need a name to suit my genre (rap). After looking at these names I realised that the name is a huge factor for a magazine because it tells the audience what type of magazine they will be buying. The name I have chosen is "SHOT".

I think this name relates to the violence, streets, guns, bad language and rap. Over the next few days I will be trying out different fonts and colours for my title. I have an image in my head for what it will look like and I will try and build upon this.

SHOOT 

Getting ready to make my magazine 3

Here is some double page spread pages from rap magazines I have researched and I will relate to when I start my music magazine.

Getting ready to make my magazine 2

These are some rap contents pages that I can relate to when I start to make mine...

Getting ready to make my magazine