As Overall Evaluation (555)

8/2/2019 As Overall Evaluation (555)

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AS Project

Overall Evaluation

Jadie Jackson


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The Specification

For AS media coursework I had to create two similar projects:

The front page and contents of a new college magazine

featuring a photograph (medium close-up) of a student, plussome appropriately laid out text and masthead.

The front page and contents of a new music magazine, as wellas a double-page spread (the DPS must link back to the key

image on your front cover).

There must be a minmum of four images per magazine, whichyou must have taken yourself, not taken from the internet.


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Time ManagementOverall, I feel I managed my time very well during this project.Coursework was set at the beginning of the college year and theconstruction was entirely finished by the end of November the

evaluations are the pieces taking the longest as I can do them one

slide at a time instead of in one bulk chunk, thus I took advantage

of this slower pace of work and took my time. I didn't feel rushed

during these projects and I am very happy with the end products ofmy work. The research and planning took the second longest to

complete as I wanted to be thorough so I could effectively target my

intended audience. Construction was done within hours as I am

familiar with the software and I had layout plans also so I knew

exactly how the magazines would look

the creative thinking, thehard part, was already done. The photography was done in a small

amount of time and as my subjects were very cooperative and

happy to help, the shoots were over and done with very quickly,leaving me with the great images I needed for my magazines.


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Looking back at your preliminary task, whatdo you feel you have learnt in the

progression from it to the full product?

My college magazine was constructed in Publisher and so it wasa large jump from this to using Quark for my music magazine. Ihave experience with Quark from other pieces of work I have

done but I learnt a lot more from working with it on this project. Ilearnt the importance of time management and planning also, as

my to-do list was huge and overwhelming and I had to plan itdown to the ground to get things done to a high standard in time.


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What kind of media institution mightdistribute your media product and why?

The industry that would distribute my media products would bethe print industry as they deal with things in print such as

books and magazines. However, this industry has undergone

dramatic changes recently with profits falling because ofonline media such as online magazines, Ebooks and newswebsites. This had led to a decline in physical readership and a

sharp increase in virtual readership as it can be seen to bemore convenient, free and mobile. Thus, my magazines might

have to be distributed online to attract and gain an audience as

well as being put into print in newsagents etc.


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Improvements

College Magazine Cover Music Magazine Cover

Between these two magazines I feel my skills

improved. My college magazine cover waspurposely kept plain to connote academiaand also because the software used in it's

construction, Microsoft Office Publisher, had

very little creative wiggle room. Whereas with

my music magazine I could use effects to

make sell lines and plugs look better, with thecollege magazine I was quite restricted with

what I could and this shows when it is put

beside my music magazine and you can seethe huge contrast plain on the left and fun

on the right. My Photoshop skills alsoimproved. The image used for the college

magazine was simply cropped whereas the

one I used for my music magazine was

cropped and had it's colour replaced. Because

of the extra freedom I had when using Quark.I feel the sell lines and plugs on the music

magazine look better and are much louderthan those on the college magazine. The

entire music magazine cover seems to be moreattention grabbing as it is brighter, more

chaotic and everything on the page has more

emphasis and life.


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Improvements

College Magazine

Contents PageMusic Magazine

Contents Page

I believe I have made vastimprovements with my twocontents pages. My collegemagazine contents page,while being slightlydisorganised in anorganised manner, is stillquite boring with very littletext and a limited number ofitems on the page. The texton the page was also quite

dull with no effects used.On my music magazinecontents page, I included alot more text and usedeffects on the fonts such as

increased and decreasedo acit and multi-coloured

The one main image also looks a lot better than the manysmaller images it's more of a focal point and draws attention.The brighter colours on the text and items makes the page popmore and prevents the page from being monochrome and boring

as the college magazine contents page was. Altogether I feel themusic magazine contents page looks a lot more professional and


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THE College magazine

Final evaluation

Jadie Jackson


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Target AudienceThe target audience for my college magazine would be college students, aged

16-19, who are interested in what's happening at their college.

How did you attract/address youraudience?

One of the biggest attractions to the magazines would be the price free. College students aren't the richest of people and if they had

to pay for a magazine about their college, they would be unlikely topick up a copy. Other pulls would include the first look andexclusive plugs that give the reader a sense of finding things out

before anyone else. Also, a number of my sell lines and plugsinvolve music. This is because for a lot of students music is a big

part of their lives and the gig guide and features about music wouldbe a big pull for them.


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The Final Products


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The CoverOverall, I feel this cover encompasses

both side of student life with coverlines and plugs that will appeal toboth the very academic and thevery social students at college. Thedesign is uncomplicated and easyto follow with the main attentiongrabber being the red of mymodels cardigan the lack ofcolour in the typography ispurposeful to pull the eye to theimage as it is the only item of vivid

colour. Theamount of sell lines and plugs ispurposely kept to a small numberso the reader is not overwhelmedby the amount of copy on thecover and thus put off of themagazine altogether. The reducednumber also means it is easier toread, follow andunderstand.

The reason for some items beingplaced in semi-transparentblack/grey boxes is because I feltthat the white font would be hard toread in certain places but I did notwish to change the colour of thetext. Placing them in small boxesmakes them easy to read without acolour change and also adds a bitmore body and structure to thefront cover instead of it

Above is the final product: mycollege magazine cover. Thelayout was voted for bystudents at my college via aquick ten questionquestionnaire. Created inMicrosoft Officer Publisher.

being just strips of writing here and there..

The reason I have used an outside shot (midshot) of my subject that lacks books andother items and scenery that holdconnotations of academia is because collegeis not just about academia. There is thesocial side also, the fun side, the enjoyableside. That and I feel that most collegemagazines have books of some sort on thecover and I didn't want to just follow thecrowd and produce another stereotypical

cover. The outside setting connotes freedomand space and I feel this is what collegegives most students, freedom from theconstraints of high school and space to growand develop as a person. The use of eye-linein the shot on my cover is purposeful to drawthe reader in and to engage them, makethem feel included. Though this is alsostereotypical of college magazines, I feel it isalso very effective this could possibly bewhy so many magazines use this technique.

The barcode is neatly tucked away in thecorner as it isn't the main feature but is stilleasy to locate along with the price and issuenumber and the greyed out boxes at the topand bottom of the cover gives it a feel ofcontainment as there are obviously page sizeconstraints and I feel the masthead is boldand obvious while being clear, easilyrecognisable and also coordinated despite itsslight detachment from the rest of the copy.


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The Contents PageThe layout of this page is simple and easy to

follow despite the fact that it is slightlymore chaotic and less list-like than thefront cover. During my research I founda contents page made by anotherstudent for AS media that I really likedand I took inspiration from this andadapted some of the ideas I found there.

For instance, the stencil font I used Ifirst found in that piece of research andas it was fun but still held connotations

of academia, I decided to use that fontalso with slight colour changes andother variations. The colours used forthe fonts are simple and clear andcoordinate with the other colours usedon this page such as the redcoordinating with black in the contentslist as it does in the stencil typography.The contents table itself I wished tomake less list-like as it always appears

like that in most magazines. As it isultimately just a list, all I did was slantthe numbers, the copy and the 'C' coverlogo.

Like the table borders, this logo wasalso designed in Paint and copied andpasted over where I situated it where Iwished it to be. The purpose of this logois to allow readers to easily find storiesthat interested them on the cover and it

is a technique used in many magazines not just college ones.

Above is my finalcontents page. I

chose the layout forthis piece based onmy research intoother collegemagazine contentspages. Created inMicrosoft OfficePublisher.

The film roll strip that runs horizontally

across the page was created inPublisher and once the images weremanipulated in Photoshop mainlycropped as they included too much ofthe background I resized them andslotted them into the empty spaces.This links back to the main image onthe front cover and also reinforces theidea that the new college film is themain feature of the magazine.The letter from the editor is a staple

convention in most magazines and Ihave included a small one in the upperright hand corner surrounded by a redand black dashed border and polishedoff with a smiley face.The use of other text on the page thatwas created using the Word Art Galleryhelps to fill space and also highlightsthese small features such as thefunnies and also the letter from the

editor. The small image beneath thecontents table links to the anchoragebeneath it and highlights another smallfeature that may interest the readerimprovements to their college viewedthrough the eyes of fellow collegestudents.Overall, I feel this contents page ischaotic enough not to be boring butalso organised and coordinated enoughto be easy to follow and understand.


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In what ways does your media product use, develop orchallenges forms and conventions of real media

products?

My college magazine conforms to most forms and conventions of college magazines asit was these that gave me inspiration and on which my magazine was based. It has the

bar code, price and issue number tucked neatly away in the corner, a bold masthead andsell lines and plugs to attract the target audience. The contents page is much the same

as any magazine contents page with a table of contents, a letter from the editor and small

side features. Overall, my entire college magazine conforms to the norms andconventions of real media products.

My Cover Real Cover Real Contents Page My Contents Page

Similarities:Masthead BarCode Sell Lines Strapline Skyline Eyeline and Mid Shot of Image

Subject

Small Graphic Accompanying Plug

Similarities:Letter from the editor List like table ofcontents Images relating to articles

Differences:The small print on the real magazine The film rollgraphic on my magazine and floating article plugs


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How does your media productrepresent particular social groups?

My media product is aimed at college students and this ideais reinforced by the use of an image of a student on the cover.Students are known to be quite strapped for cash and so selllines such as Clean up and go out for less would represent

students well as they look for cheap nights out etc. Music isanother quite important to students and so I have includedmany plugs and sell lines about music to represent thatparticular aspect of student life. Another aspect of student liferepresented on my cover is the student voice item as manycolleges have student councils and representatives to voicestudents concerns and ideas.


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Feedback

GoodThe cover lines are well spaced and clear with an easy toread font.

The image is free of overly academic connotations.

Fonts are clear and well spaced.

Cover lines and plugs are appropriate and relevant to thetarget audience.

Placement of the main features in small boxes drawsattention to them.

Bad

The left hand side seems overly crowded whereas the righthand side looks a little sparse in comparison.

It could be said that it is plain and bland, and possibly too list-like in terms of the sell lines etc.

The small boxes around certain features may be seen todetach the text from the rest of the sell lines.

Good

The contents table is not just another boring list as the typographyvaries and font colour changes.

The fonts are clear and coordinated and the small 'C' logo informsthe reader instantly of the location of articles/features from the

cover.

The film roll strip prevents the page from being overly bland andthe somewhat chaotic layout prevents it from being too boring.

The fonts used are the same as those used on the cover, bringinga sense of continuity and together-ness to the two pages.

Bad

The space in the upper right hand side could have been usedbetter it seems a little bare in comparison to the rest of thepage.

The background is a little bland and dark and it could be said thatthe entire page does not quite coordinate with the cover it ismore chaotic and disorganised by design.

The left hand side of the page seems well connected andinclusive whereas the letter to the editor etc. seems detached

from the other side of the page.

The Cover The Contents Page


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Changes

During the construction and editing of mymagazine cover, no changes were made to thelayout and the copy as I believe that the text toimage ratio was appropriate and that becausethe layout was voted for, it would be a bad idea

to change it as it was chosen by my targetaudience as their favourite.


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Changes 2Changes were made tomy contents page duringconstruction and editingand as of such, it variesgreatly in places from myoriginal layout plan. Onthis slide I will discuss thechanges I made and thereasons why I made them.

The letter to the editor

was moved from the lowerright hand corner to theupper right hand cornerand the small side featurethat it replaced wasmoved to where the letterwas originally supposed tobe. The reason for themove is simply becausethe letter would have been

too big for the allottedspace and needed moreroom.I also included another small

sell line below the letter asthere was a chunk of emptyspace that needed filling andalso because a lot ofmagazines have funnies and Iwished to include them.

The anchorage text connected to the small image belowthe contents table was also relocated from beside theimage, as in the layout mock-up, to below it. Again thiswas due to space constraints as there was not enoughroom beside it but plenty beneath it.


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Time Management

During the research, development and construction of my college magazine I feel I havemanaged my time very well. The research portion of this project took the longest tocomplete as I wanted to be thorough and ensure I was effectively targeting my audience.The questionnaire was done to this purpose so I could ensure that my target audiencewould approve of the layout of the cover and that it would appeal to them. Overall, I foundthis research very useful in deciding the layout of my cover.

The construction of my magazine took the second longest, obviously, as during theconstruction of it, things were changed and added and problems with software etc. had tobe overcome. During the construction of my contents page things had to be moved andedited in Paint and then moved back across and fitted in and I also had to decide whetherI would change the film roll strip or keep it the same this will be discussed on a differentslide.The photo shoot for this magazine didn't take long at all and the image manipulation wasquite quick also as I only had to crop the images before using them.

This evaluation is also taking quite a chunk of time to complete but I feel the end result willbe a thorough and well put together evaluation of my work.


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Variations?

The above images and their variations, made in Publisher during development, were the main thing I had to decide upon. The one ofthe left was my original, and my final idea, and the one on the right was an idea I had to fill space and give the page more body.My original idea was just to have it going horizontally across the page but I then realised that some of the images I wished to

include would be badly distorted if they were forced into a box that was wider than it was tall. Thus I attempted to add in a verticalfilm roll strip as well and fitted in one of the portrait images. I kept the one on the left the same and developed the one on the left

to the same level to see how it would compare.

In the end I decided to keep to my original idea as I felt the variation would cause the page to look overly crowded and distract fromthe other items on the page as well as reducing space for other items and thus causing more changes and possibly removals to

be made.


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Hardware Usedand Skills Learned/Gained

Nikon DS100This camera belongs to the college but I was allowed to take it outfor use during my photo shoot. The digital camera I own would nottake pictures of such a high quality as this camera and so Idecided to use this instead of my Samsung ES25.I didn't have a clue how to use it until I did my photo shoot and Ilearnt as I went along. I am now capable of using this camera to

capture images and I will be using it again for my music magazinephoto shoot.

Samsung N150 PlusI used my netbook for the majority of my work on this project aswell as the college computers (although these became rathertroublesome and were a reason for complaint to IT services).

What have you learnt about


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I used Photoshop CS2 at college andCS5 on my netbook at home. I haveprevious experience with this softwareand as I only used it to crop images thistime, it wasn't particularly taxing and Ididn't learn anything I didn't alreadyknow. Although I hadn't used it in awhile, how to use it came back to mequickly and I was only rusty with thissoftware for a very short time.

What have you learnt abouttechnologies during the process of

constructing this product?

I used Microsoft OfficePublisher to put mymagazine cover andcontents page together andfound it relatively easy to useas I also have previousexperience with thissoftware. There werehowever problems with thissoftware which will bediscussed on another slide.

Open Office 3.3 Impress was used tocreate this power point evaluation. I don'tuse it much so I have gained skills and

knowledge in this area although it is notmuch different to Microsoft Office PowerPoint. Again there were problems with thissoftware.


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ProblemsThe main problem encountered duringthis project was the college computersplaying up. They constantly froze duringblogging and use of Publisher andPhotoshop and this became sofrustrating that it was reported to ITservices many times and eventuallycomplaints forms had to be filled outalthough the results of this are yet to be

seen.

Another problemcame in the form ofmy netbook and itsinability to runprogrammes andsoftware particularlyfast. During themaking of thisevaluation theprogramme keptfreezing and thisresulted in it beingrepeatedly andviolently hit.

Publisher became problematic also as itran extremely slow and slowed me downmassively and this led to furtherfrustration and hardware abuse.

My photo shoot had its problemsalso and because of the collegetechnical theatre students, I had torelocate - despite having permissionto use the main hall for the shoot.


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The Music Magazine

Final Evaluation

By Jadie Jackson


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Target AudienceThe target audience for my magazine would be music lovers

mainly rock and

alternative ages 16 and up.

How did you attract/address youraudience?

One of the biggest attractions would be the price as it is lower thanmost music magazines on sale at the minute. Also the big, bold gig

guide plug would be a large attraction to those who like to go togigs on a regular basis. The colours used which connote rock

music would also be attention pulls as they are bright and bold andwould draw the target consumers attention while in the music

section of a magazine shelf.


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Final Products

Cover

DPS

Contents


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The Cover

Constructed using Quark, printscreened, saved in Paint as a JPEG

then PhotoShop-ed for the finalpiece.

Using my style models as inspirationand reference, I believe my cover to

be a good example of the cover of amusic magazine. It has the chaoticlayout that I wished to incorporatewhile still being clear and easy tofollow. The colours used connoteunconventionality while helping to grabattention via their brightness andboldness and on the darkerbackground they stand out more.The effects used such as dropshadow,

outline and strikethrough were usedpurely for effect to emphasise plugsand sell lines and to make the coverless plain. The fontsused are clear and understandable butstill bold and obvious and almosttough again connoting the style ofmusic. The font change between theplugs etc. and the masthead was doneto make the masthead stand out morethrough it's uniqueness on the cover.

This was also done to the band name'Hope Within'. Bands usually havetheir own font style when their name isin print and because of this, I gave theband I used their own font style andused dropshadow and outline to makeit even more unique and attentiongrabbing.The use of different colours whennames are used helps to draw

people's attention to them and

emphasises the presence of these people in themagazine. This is an effective way of pulling in

consumers as if they see that someone theylike is in the magazine they are more likely tobuy it.The repeated utilisation of exclamation markshelps to connote the loudness of the music andalso seems to shout the sell lines at viewers ofthe cover.The gig guide plug was given a yellow frame tomake it more attention grabbing and also toslightly divorce it from the background without

it's frame it simply looks like text just slappedonto the page and it looks plain.Overall I believe my cover to be very effectiveand coordinated while still being chaotic andconnoting rock music via it's layout and use ofcolours and fonts. The eyeline of the imagehelps to engage the viewer as the subjects ofsaid image are looking directly at them.

The TitleThe title for my magazine is one that wasnot originally being considered and wasnot in my preliminary title thoughts blogpost. However, after much consideration Idecided that none of my original ideaswere good enough and so I came up withsomething new. I chose TheNoise! as mytitle because rock music is loud and noisyand people of the older generation often

refer to rock music as noise.

C C


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Cover Construction


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Construction Details

The first step of my coverconstruction was to fit an imagebox to the entire page and theninsert the image you see on thecover. Once the initial problem ofgetting the image to fit had beenresolved - I had to unlink it'sheight and width then stretch it tofit the image box I inserted a text

box for the skyline and insertedsome text in a plain font andcolour with the intention ofexperimenting with this later.

1 2

Next I placed a black triangle tothe left of the page, fiddled withthe transparency and inserted asmall long text box at the topcontaining the words 'posterspecial' in red Rockwell ExtraBold. Below this I inserted threeimage boxes and then insertedsmall images into these.

3

I then inserted a small picturebox to the right of the page andinserted the bar code which Ihad created online using a barcode generator. I placed a smalltext box next to this which Ifilled white and put my issuenumber, date and price into.Placing these two items

together on the cover is atypical magazine convention asit makes all the details easy tolocate without them being tooobvious. Then I changed theimages in the poster specialbox, giving them a thick yellowoutlining frame to make themstand out more and to completethe look of this box.

At times during theconstruction of my cover Ifound it easier to workwithout the guides and sosome of my print screensdo show guides and somedon't.


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Stage 4 led to the creation of mymasthead. I used two separate textboxes and added my text in whiteRockwell Extra Bold. I heightened theletters in the word 'noise!' and widenedthe letters in 'the' so that they werebetter coordinated and spaced inrelation to each other. I put themasthead in this layout so that itcreated a sort of logo for the magazine

that is easily recognisable andnoticeable in it's big, bold appearance. Ialso changed the skyline, changing it'scolour to make it stand out better andadding a shadow to it to make it pop. Atthis stage I also added the gig guideplug by inserting a text box, adding mytext and it's effects a yellowdropshadow -, angling the text box andgiving the whole plug a yellow frame

whose transparency I again changed.

4 5

My next step was putting in themain cover line Hope Within'sstrip across the width of thepage. I inserted a blackrectangle and slanted it to makeit less conventional thenchanged it's transparency so itwasn't just a solid black band. Ithen inserted a slanted text boxinto this rectangle and put in the

band's name in Script MT Boldand gave it a red outline and aturquoise dropshadow to reallyemphasise it.

6

This screen-grab is toshow my progress

during the constructionof my cover. All that ismissing here is my selllines and the rest of my

plugs.


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7 8

I added in a small lift-out quote fromthe interview below the band's name inthe same font as the wording above it.I gave it a solid black outline to help itstand out more from it's blackbackground. I feel this quote helps tofinish off the band cover line and

because it is in the same font as theband's name, it helps associate thetwo lines of copy.

At stage 8 I was finishing my cover off withit's sell lines and plugs and the rest of theireffects. All the lines and plugs were in thesame font, DejaVu Sans Condensed, butdifferent colours. Two of the lines have noeffects and are simply plain and obvious.The white on black stands out very well asdoes the yellow used for people's names.

The two remaining plugs had strikethroughand dropshadow used on them to makethem stand out more on the blackbackground.

^^The Finished Product^^


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Contents Page

Constructed using Quark, printscreened, saved in Paint as a JPEG

then PhotoShop-ed for the finalpiece.

Inspiration for my contents page

was taken from the Kerrang!contents page with a largeimage taking up the majority ofthe right hand side of the page.The layout is simple and clearwith a list-like table of contentsthat is easy to read and follow.The small cover logo beside thetext for stories appearing on thecover makes it easy for

consumers to locate storiesfrom the cover that piqued theirinterest upon initial viewing ofthe cover.The masthead being duplicatedat the head of the pagereinforces the magazine'sidentity and links the contentspage back to the cover. Thecontinuing theme in terms ofcolour and font choices alsolinks the two pages togetherand creates a sense of unitybetween them.The feature names being inupper case letters and solidwhite helps the reader to findspecific articles quickly andeasily and the featureinformation being in lower caseletters and having reduced

solidity again helps to draw

attention to the feature titles.

The inclusion of a page number on theimage again helps the consumer to quicklylocate the related feature. Yellow with ayellow dropshadow on black helps tomake the page number stand out more.The subscription deal side feature in thebottom right corner of the page helps takeup the remaining space with somethingnot as conventional as a letter from theeditor and also grabs attention with it's

bright starburst shape, drawing thereader's focus to a deal that will bring inmore money for the magazine.The use of colours such as red, white andyellow on the black background of thecontents page means that the text anditems pop more and are clearer to read aswell as connoting the genre of music. Thenames of bands and band members areagain typed in yellow here for the samereason as they are on the cover: to draw

attention to them and also emphasise thepresence of these people/bands in themagazine.Overall, I feel my contents page is wellconstructed and coordinated without beingoverly conventional. The colouring ischaotic without making the copy hard toread and helps to draw attention to certainthings.

Contents Page


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Contents PageConstruction

C t ti D t il


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Construction Details1 2 3

The first stage of my contentspage construction was to put animage box around the entirepage and fill this black mychosen background colour.Then on the right hand side ofthe page I inserted anotherimage box before inserting textboxes at the top on the left for

my chosen text. I then inserteda text box below the image boxand another to the left of thisstretching from just under thetop text boxes to the bottom ofthe page.

Step 2 saw the insertion of themain image on the right againI had to unlink the height andwidth of the image and thenstretch it to fit the box. I alsoinserted the header text here.The masthead being replicatedfrom the front cover meant Isimply had to copy and paste

'TheNoise!' and change thepositioning to reach the desiredresult. Below this I insertedanother smaller text box andtyped the word 'contents' inupper case Rockwell ExtraBold. I then fiddled with thetransparency of the word toreach the end result of whatyou see above.

Step 3 was the stage at which I insertedthe subscription deal. The red starburstshape was an auto shape in Quark but Ichanged the colour and inserted theblack framings to really make it pop andstand out. I inserted a slanted text boxinto this shape and added the wordingin Rockwell Extra Bold with reducedopacity and a black drop shadow.These small effects help the word to

stand out more on the red background.Next, the rest of the text was added viathe insertion of another text box and thetyping of the text in Rockwell ExtraBold. The smaller white text was putinto another text box in DejaVu SansCondensed. Many magazines use smallprint below offers such as these soreaders are able to find out morewithout the information being overlyobvious and detracting from the initialattention pull: the deal.


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Construction Details4 5 6

At stage 4 I put in the pagenumbers in red Rockwell ExtraBold with reduced opacity. Thered on black really stands outand the reduced opacity helpsto prevent the bright colourclashing with the other brightcolours on the page. Rockwell

Extra Bold is a thick, bold fontand is the font that the majorityof my headings etc. are in. Theuse of other fonts is purelybecause they are easier to readwhen small than my RockwellExtra Bold font.

Here I inserted a starburst onto themain image, filled it black to standout on the red and inserted a slantedtext box into this shape. The text boxholds the text 'Page 22!' in RockwellExtra Bold with a reduced opacityand a yellow dropshadow. This givesthe text a glowing effect and makes it

stand out more on the black. At thisstage I began typing in the copy forthe table of contents. The font usedthroughout is 12pt. Calibri. The titlesof the features are typed in uppercase, solid, bold, white letters tomake them easily locatable and thefeature information is typed in white,lower case letters with a reducedopacity so they are easy to read onthe black but do not detract from the

emphasis put onto the feature titles.

The final stage was the filling in of thetable of contents. Again I used yellow tohighlight the names of bands and bandmembers as I did on the front coverthis way consumers can find the rockersthey want to read about by just lookingfor the colour yellow. The small colourlogo is very simple a yellow circle withreduced opacity holding a red upper

case 'c' in Rockwell Extra Bold. It wasvery simply made in Quark during thepolishing of my contents page andalthough plain and simple it drawsattention quickly to the stories that werefeatured on the cover, making themeasy to locate it is extremely irritatingwhen one finds something interesting onthe cover but cannot find it in the tableof contents or the actual magazine.

Double Page Spread


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Double Page Spread

Pictured above is my double page spread. It was influencedstrongly by my style models as you can see by the inclusionof a full page image of the band, a small introduction and a liftout quote layered on top of said image. Theband name was the first thing to be coloured and because ofthis, the colour scheme was worked around it. The use ofreds and whites on black in a clear font makes the copy easyto read and follow in it's conventional layout of columns whilstbeing unconventional in the use of such colours. Thequestions asked were put into red while the answers were putinto white to help the reader distinguish between them whilereading the feature.

Constructed using Quark, print screened, saved inPaint as a JPEG then PhotoShop-ed for the final

piece.

The use of a lift out quote onthe image helps to pique thereader's interest as oncethey read it they wish to

know the context in whichthe quote was spoken. It isimportant to choose juicyquotes to lure the reader in.A small introduction in thefirst column of the featurehelps orientate the readerand introduce them to theband thus easing them intothe interview. A convention ofmost magazines is thecapitalisation of the first lineof an article and thisconvention is one I haveembraced here.Small page numbers in theoutside corners of the pageshelp to orientate the readerin the magazine and placingthem in the outer cornersmeans the consumer doesn't

have to open the magazineup properly to find a specificpage they can just peelback the corner and searchmore efficiently, cutting downon page turning time.Keeping the colour schemesimple in terms of the copymeans that it is easy tofollow and looks less

crowded, more than twocolours in text can be

overwhelming for the eyes andif a headache or eye acheensues, the consumer is notgoing to continue reading and

may stop buying the magazinebecause of such a badexperience.The band name 'Hope Within'being put into red whensurrounded by white text wasdone to make it stand out in achunk of copy and again theband's font was used toreinforce the identity of theband and make the name easilyrecognisable just by the shapeof it. It is a proven fact that themind recognises the shapes ofwords and associates this withthe actual words in the brain.The use of an informal mode ofaddress makes it easier for thereader to relate to the text asdoes the use of colloquialismsand familiar language.

Overall, I believe my doublepage spread to be quiteprofessional and effective in it'slayout and look and to targetmy specified audience very wellwith the use of familiarlanguage.

DPS C i


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DPS Construction

C i D il


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Construction Details1 2

Construction of my DPS began with theinsertion of two large image boxes, eachone encompassing an A4 half each. Then Iinserted the image on the left hand pageand stretched it to fit the entire page beforemaking the background colour of the otherpage registration black. Next I inserted all ofthe necessary text boxes for titles, pagenumbers and the columns etc. Above is theskeletal end product of stage 1.

At this stage I began inserting my text. I started with theeasiest part inserting the page numbers. These Isimply typed in a font and colour that would be obviouson both backgrounds before giving them a dropshadow.The band name was the next text to be added. For this Iused the band's chosen font Script MT Bold to

reinforce the band identity. The font colours used hereare only preliminary and were subject to changethroughout construction. The small introduction to theband was then typed again the band's font was usedwhen their name was inserted and the colour waschanged to make it stand out even more. The text boxthis was typed into was turned black with reducedopacity as the font colour was hard to read on thebackground image. Then I typed in the lift-out quote andabove is the end product of stage 2.

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Construction Details3 4

Stage 3 was simply the insertion ofthe lift-out quote in upper caseRockwell Extra Bold in the centre ofthe feature copy page.

This last stage saw the inserting of the feature copy. I used a clear,simple font Calibri so the text was easy to read and put thequestions into a different colour to the answers. The answers hadreduced opacity whereas the names of the members who answeredthe question were left with regular 100% opacity. This was done tohelp easily distinguish between the person's name and the answerthey gave. I also changed the colouring at this stage. The band namewas changed to red, the lift-out quote on the left to white and the lift-

out quote on the right to red. This was done so that they stood outand grabbed attention better. They also better coordinate with theirbackgrounds now that they have been altered and they are alsoeasier to read. In the right hand corner of the image is the imagebyline in a dark, small font that could easily be read if the reader wasinterested enough if not, it is hidden enough not to distract fromanything else. The feature continues on to another DPS and at theend of the copy on this page there is a small arrow and the shortphrase: continued overleaf. At the end of this stage I made sure thecopy was horizontally aligned and that the text boxes were all alignedalso. Inclusion of the band name in the feature copy was in it's staple

font and a different colour to the copy surrounding it and the top lineof the copy was capitalised.

Finished Product

In what ways does your media product use


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In what ways does your media product use,develop or challenges forms and conventions of

real media products?

My music magazine is quite similar to Kerrang! as it was my stylemodel and a lot of my inspiration came from it. Like all magazines mymagazine has a bar code, issue number and price tucked away in thecorner and contains a masthead, skyline and plugs and sell lines. In a

lot of ways my cover conforms to all the conventions and forms ofmusic magazines including the type of picture I used.

The contents page also conforms to these forms and conventions witha list-like table of contents, a large image and the magazine name

printed at the top of the page.The double page spread conforms also. There are lift out quotes, a

large whole page image and the feature itself is written in columns.These columns are perfectly aligned with each other also, as are those

in real magazines.

In what ways does your media product use,


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develop or challenges forms and conventions ofreal media products?

Similarities: Bold Masthead Skyline Dark background Eyeline ofsubjects Bold main feature coverline/anchorage Barcode etcPoster special Colour scheme of

sell lines and plugs

Differences: My sell lines andplugs aren't framed My imagehas fewer subjects and is lessphotoshopped

My music magazinecover was styledupon other music

magazines such asKerrang! and so I willbe using a K! coverto compare my coverto to test if itconforms to formsand conventions of a

real magazine.

In what ways does your media product use,d l h ll f d i f


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Similarities: Magazine titlePage name Large imagePage number for imageListlike table of contents (clearand concise) Small side offer

(subscription)

Differences: Other small articlespictured with the main imageLetter from the editor Coverlogo on mine Contentssectioned under subtitles on K!

My contents page wasalso modelled onKerrang! and here Icompare them and list

the ways mineconforms and theways it varies from theconventions of realmedia products.

In what ways does your media product use,d l h ll f d i f


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Similarities: Bold title Pull quotesFramed introduction Introduction atbeginning of article Page numbersQuestions and answers in differentcolours Text aligned horizontallyColour scheme continued throughoutMain image takes a full page Eyeline

of subjects

Differences: Articlecontained to onedouble page spreadin K! - Small sidefeature in K! - K!'sarticle begins with a

dropcap

My DPS was also modelledon K! Here I compare my DPSto my style model from K! toillustrate how it bothconforms to but also variesfrom conventions and forms

of real media products.

How does your media product represent


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How does your media product representparticular social groups?

My music magazine is aimed at people who love music and wantthe latest music news and interviews. To represent this

particular social group I have included sell lines and plugs suchas Best new bands around and The best shots of 2011

suggesting that they would be finding out brand new informationfirst. People who enjoy this kind of music also really enjoy going

to gigs and so I have included a plug that says 3 page gigguide to represent this particular aspect of this social group.

Another aspect of this social group is that they do tend to enjoy

having band posters and so I have included a poster specialplug on my cover to appeal to this aspect of the group.

Feedback


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Feedback

The CoverGood:-

The sell lines and plugs are clear and easy toread.

The layout is simple but conveys the chaos ofrock music.

The masthead is easily recognisable and is evena sort of logo for the magazine.

Large emphasis is placed upon the main featurevery simply with the inclusion of an obvious imageand a large strip containing the band name.

The barcode, price, issue number and date are

well hidden but still easy to find when necessary. It is well colour coordinated with the colours used

connoting rock music with vibrancy and boldness.

It has a crowded look but is still easy to readand follow and it does not overwhelm theconsumer.

Bad:-

One of the sell lines does encroach on oneof the subject's faces slightly.

The word 'Andy' in one of the plugs isslightly hard to read because of it beingblack on a black background.

The red text looks slightly out of place ona page where the rest of the text is whiteand yellow.

The bottom right corner of the page is abit bare.

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Contents PageGood:-

The cover logo makes it easy to find articlesfrom the cover.

The titles being 100% opacity and capitalised

makes it easy to find articles by name anddistinguish between the title and featureinformation.

The right hand corner 'deal' is eye-catchingwith being too distracting.

The large image on the right hand side ofthe page reminds the consumer of the mainfeature and makes it easy to locate with it'spage number located on the image itself.

The magazine title being at the top of thepage reinforces the magazine identity.

Musician's names being in yellow make it easyfor the reader to locate features that involvetheir favourite artists.

Bad:-

The table of contents is quite a largechunk of uninterrupted text.

The background colour is quite bland and

block. The picture borders are quite harsh and

sharp and not blended with the rest of thebackground.

The cover logo sometimes encroaches uponthe text.

Feedback

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Double Page SpreadGood:-

The mode of address is informal with useof colloquialisms making it easy for thereader to relate to.

Well colour coordinated with the use of aminimal number of colours red and whitefor text, yellow for page numbers.

The copy is horizontally aligned very well.

The use of different colours for the Qand A makes it easy to distinguish betweenthe question and the answer given.

The lift-out quote on the left hand pagefits well over the image and is simple toread.

The font and colours used make it easy toread and follow the article copy.

Bad:-

The band name is slightly hard to readon the left hand page because of thelightness of the background and thebrightness of the text.

The yellow numbering doesn't quite fitwith the rest of the page's colouring.

The lift-out quote on the right handpage divorces one line of a questionfrom the rest of the question.

Again the background is quite bland andblock.

There is no decoration or effects usedon the right hand page leading it to lookplain.

Feedback

Changes


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ChangesOriginal Cover Layout

Variation

The layout for my covervaried slightly from theoriginal layout mock-upand on this slide I willdiscuss these smallchanges and thereasons they weremade.

MastheadThe masthead originally spanned the width ofthe cover. I did however change this so that themasthead was situated to the left of the page. Ialso made it smaller and changed it's layout soit could become an icon representative of themagazine itself. I placed it to the left as peopleread from left to right therefore they will notice

and read the title first.

Plug and Sell LineThe gig guide cover lineswapped places with theplug from the original layoutmock-up. This gave the topof the cover a more balancedlook. The remaining plug wasmoved to just above thebarcode and the sell lines

were moved up and downslightly to again balance thepage better.

SpacingThe spacing between the barcode and theposter special was increased to disconnectthem from one another as I felt that theywere too close together in the original mock-up and looked associated with each other.

Changes


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ChangesOriginal DPS Layout Variation

Small IntroductionThe original layout mock saw the smallintroduction positioned on the left.However, after placing my chosen imageinto Quark and attempting to place saidintroduction here, it became clear that itwouldn't work as it would be covering oneof the subject's faces. Because of this, Imoved the introduction over to the rightwhere it would not block any faces.

Image BylineThe image byline was originally situated to theleft, slightly to the right of the page number. Idecided to move this over to the right to makethe page less crowded and disconnected. Onmy final product it sits just below the lift-outquote on one of the lighter stripes of one of mysubject's jumpers. I feel it looks better here andless disconnected from the image.

The majority of mylayout for the DPSremained similar to myoriginal layout mock-up but some things didchange in order tobetter structure thepage. On this slide Iwill discuss these

small but effectivechanges.

No Changes?


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No Changes?

Contents PageThe contents page didn't vary from theoriginal mock-up as I decided this layoutworked well. It is simple but effective.

DPSThe second page of my DPS alsodidn't vary from the mock-up asthe layout worked well and issimple and easy to understandand follow when copy isincorporated.

Time Management


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Time Management

Time management was not a particular issue when it came tothis part of my project as I already had many ideas for my

music magazine before the completion of my college

magazine. The images were taken at the same time as mycollege magazine images were and I already had layoutplans before I even started on this particular piece of myproject. The things that took longest to do were probably

the construction itself and this evaluation powerpoint. The

research portion of this project took quite a while tocomplete also as I wanted to be thorough and ensure I was

effectively targeting my audience.

Hardware Used and Skills


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Learned/Gained

Samsung N150 PlusI used my netbook for the majority ofmy work on this project as well as thecollege computers.

Nikon DS100This camera belongs to the college but Iwas allowed to take it out for use during myphoto shoot. The digital camera I own wouldnot take pictures of such a high quality asthis camera and so I decided to use thisinstead of my Samsung ES25.As I had already used this camera in mycollege magazine photoshoot, I alreadyknew how to operate it and again I found itvery easy to use.

What have you learnt about technologies from the


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construction of this product?

I used Photoshop CS2 at college andCS5 on my netbook at home. I haveprevious experience with this softwareand I find it extremely to use with onscreen captions telling what tools dowhat when I hover over them. Mynetbook runs this software very well andI have no complaints about thissoftware.

Open Office 3.3 Impress was used tocreate this power point evaluation. I usedthis software to create the powerpointevaluation for my college magazine so I

knew exactly how to use this. Theproblems however were the same as theones that I faced during the collegeevaluation.

I used QuarkXpress 9for the construction ofmy music magazine. Ialready had experiencewith this softwarealthough having notused it in a while, I wasa little bit rusty. Thingscame back to mequickly however and Ididn't stay rusty forlong. My netbook ranthis software very welland I have nocomplaints about it.

Problems


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Problems

Open Office 3.3Impress ranextremely slowlyduring the makingof this powerpointand repeatedlyfroze leading to

extreme frustration.

Again the college computers wereproblematic when it came to runningsoftware and blogging and despitenumerous complaints to IT services,nothing at all has been done to solvethese problems.

Exporting things from QuarkXpress wasanother big problem as it has no exportas JPEG option and exporting my workin PDF format led to all of the effects

such as drop shadow etc. being strippedaway. My media tutor is currently tryingto fix this issue and find a better solutionthan printscreening, saving into paintthen photoshopping the image to reachthe end result of a JPEG of my work.

PhotoShop-ing - 1


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PhotoShop ing 1

On the left is the original picture taken in the college's music studio. On the right is my photoshopped image. Icropped the original image as there was too much background and not enough of the subjects in it. I really didn'tlike the background colour of the image as it washed out the red on Erin's jumper so I used the colourreplacement tool in Photoshop and changed the red to black and grey. The darkened background colour makesthe full colour subjects stand out more and means that none of them are washed out.

PhotoShop-ing - 2


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PhotoShop ing 2

The original on theleft again had toomuch background toit, especially abovethe subject's heads.The image on theright is the one Iedited. All I did wascrop it until therewas less backgroundand so moreemphasis on thesubject's instead oftheir surroundings.


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End

As Overall Evaluation (555)

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