Looking Back at Your Preliminary Task, What Do You Feel You Have Learnt in The Progression From it to The Full Product?

Looking Back at Your Preliminary Task, What Do You Feel You Have Learnt in The Progression From it to The Full Product?

Preliminary

Looking back at my preliminary task, I feel that I have learnt a lot about different software’s that can be used in the process of making a magazine look really professional and to a very good standard.

Final Magazine Front Cover

From doing the preliminary task, I have learnt that Microsoft Word and PowerPoint is not the correct software to be using to make a professional looking magazine, even though it is easy and simple to use. It may have been a good software to use but the final product would not have been to the professional standard needed to achieve a good grade. This meant that I had to use Adobe InDesign and Photoshop, which after a while, became very easy to use and allowed me to create a unique magazine. One which looked professional and to a good enough standard to be published be a media institution.

As well as that, I have also learnt how to make my layout more complicated and appealing to the reader. By having a layout that appeals to the target audience and includes content of what they want from a magazine also helps to make this appealing and professional. In my preliminary task, my layout is boring and it is hard to see the cover lines on the page meaning that it is hard to appeal to the readers. I learnt from this and so for my final magazine front cover, I made sure that each cover line was separate and you can see this by the red lines under each of the cover lines. Also, I made each cover line a different colour in the hope that it will draw in the readers attention. I feel that my final magazine front cover page stands out more than what what preliminary page does.

What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process of Constructing This Product?

What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process of Constructing This Product?

While constructing my actual music magazine, I learnt about a few pieces of software that would help to make my magazine look real and professional.

The first piece of software that I used was called Adobe Photoshop CC, this helped me to manipulate some of the photography I had taken and allowed me to change them to a way I wanted them to look. By doing this is is made my images look more professional and helped to make my make my magazine fit in with it's music genre.

The Picture on the left was the original picture that I took from the photoshoot and the picture on the right was the image mmanipulated on photoshop that was used on my magazine front cover.




Another photo editing software that I used to change my photograph was a software called Aperture made by Apple. I used this software for a picture featured on my contents page where I have a grey image but the guitar that the artist is holding is in colour. I felt that seeing as the front cover image was in grey that I should perhaps keep it constant throughout the magazine, however there are images that are in full colour featured in my magazine.

Again, the image on the left was the original image and the image on the right was the completed picture after being changed to the way I wanted it to be.







Another piece of software that I used in the process of making my magazine pages was Adobe InDesign CC. This software was what I used to actually make the magazine pages themselves. It allowed me to create professional looking pages while offering fonts and various other tools I needed to help create the magazine pages that I had envisioned creating.




This is what Adobe InDesign enabled me to create. These are the final pages of my magazine.

The final piece of software that I used in the construction process of my magazine was Adobe Fireworks CC. I used this program to create the logo for my magazine that is featured on the top left hand corner of all my magazine pages.



This is my logo that I created using the Fireworks program. I simply mad it using the line tool and then the text tool to add in the 'I' 'S' and the 'UK' text.









The website that we used to post all our our research findings and final magazine pages was a website called blogger. 

How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?

How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?

I believe that the way I attracted my audience to my magazine was the general layout of it. The overall design of my magazine is rather simplistic which means that it reader friendly and easy to read, especially for people who don't normally read music magazines. I have placed all the text on my magazine in columns. By doing this is is making it easy for the readers to be able to read as they don't have to read across the whole page making it harder for them to get lost on what they were reading.

Another way I attracted the reader was by the use of my imagery. Again the pictures used are rather simple, keeping a consistency throughout the magazine, and as well as being simple they are cheerful ones, the majority of images used in this magazine feature the artist smiling. That is one way that will definitely draw the readers attention in because if it shows that the artists featured in the magazine are happy with smiley faces on them then maybe it is enough to put a smile on the readers face. 

The content featured throughout the magazine should also attract the reader as all content featured in the magazine is aimed at the age range of my target audience so it is content that they will want to read about and is suitable for them and their personality's.

Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product?

Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product?

I have chosen the target audience for my music magazine to be 13-25 year old both male and females, this is because by having a fairly large age range the magazine will be able to draw the attention of a slightly bigger audience and it won't be specified to just the one gender meaning that it available to anyone wanting to read. The readers for this magazine will most likely be from the demographics ABC1.

However, due to way that my magazine is laid out and the colour scheme in use, I feel that, although being open to both genders, maybe it will lean to being more appealing to male audiences. This is because the colours used are not exactly 'girly' colours and this may steer the female audiences away. When planning this magazine I wanted it to be appealing to both male and female readers though the house style I created makes it seem like it is aimed at only male readers.

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 that Bauer Media would be the media institution that distributes my magazine because they seem to have about the same target audience to the target audience of my magazine. As well as that, some of the magazines that they publish, such as Q magazine, have the same sort of style to my magazine so it would mean that my magazine would fit in well with others published by them.

In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

The conventions that I have used for my music magazine are similar to those used on professional magazine that a large quantity of people read. 

An example of a convention that I have used is the layout. The layout of my magazine is that similar to Q magazines, the reason for this being that Q magazine is a well established music magazine with a readership of nearly 400,000 and it made my magazine look as if it was professional. Although I have followed some of the conventions that Q magazine uses, I feel that however, I have made my magazine unique to others and this will help with making it stand out to readers. 

Another convention used in my magazine is the colour scheme. The colours I used throughout my magazine were red, white and black, this was because I felt these colours really went well together and gave the magazine a friendly feel to it. 

The puff for my magazine is the logo, this is the certain aspect of my magazine that stands out from the rest of it because it isn't the stereotypical kind of logo that you will find on magazines and I feel that my logo helps readers to slightly recognise what style this magazine it is that they are reading.

A traditional convention that I have used on my magazine front cover is a main image. The main image I have used is of my feature artist. The image I decided to uses as my main front cover image is one where the artist looks relaxed and seems to be enjoying herself. This will help when coming to sell it as the image is really friendly and will encourage readers to read it.

Magazine Feature Article

Magazine Feature Article