Go animate question and answer about magazine

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Prezi on the making of my front cover and double page spread

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

This is my college magazine that I made at the start of the course..

Since then I have learnt more about the conventions of magazines, more about technology, how to use things such as Photoshop to make my magazine look better and I have a better general idea of how a magazine should look...



Since my preliminary task I have done a lot more research into existing magazines, I have got a better understanding of what draws people to magazines, what would be an appropriate set up for my target audience and what would sell. I have got a better understanding of what colours should be used together and what colours stand out to draw the audiences attention. I have looked at a lot of existing media blogs who have done the same tasks as me to help me get a better understanding of what I would need to do for mine.


Peer feedback I got on one of my front cover drafts:

Positives - all features included -mast head, cover lines etc. Laid out well with a good text positioning. Including a bar code and follows typical conventions.
Negatives - the image doesn't represent the music genre of the magazine. The photo quality could be better. Needs a tease at the bottom to make it more appealing.
As a result of this feedback I changed my main photo and made sure it involved something to do with music, I added something along the bottom and i tried to include a better quality photo.



If i were to do this task again, the things I would do differently are:
Use a female model as I think this would be easier to show the genre of the music magazine as you can change the appearance of a girl more through the make up they are wearing and how their hair is styled etc, so this would help the audience understand the genre of the magazine. It would also mean the magazine would appeal to more people as boys would like seeing a girl on the front and girls would look at her fashion sense etc.
Another thing I would do differently is use different fancier text as this seems to be something people have told me I should have done in my feedback so it obviously means that it would appeal to more people if I did this.
It was useful carrying out the preliminary task because this gave me a basic understanding of what a magazine should look like and the things you should include when creating one. I had to do a lot of research for my college magazine because I didn't know a lot about the conventions of a magazine, so this gave me a head start when I was creating my music magazine as I already had the basic understanding in my head of what one should look like. It was also good because when I had finished my college magazine I was able to look at it and say that if I was going to do it again I would do so many things differently, so I have been able to corporate these ideas into my music magazine.

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

I have learnt how to use editing technology, mainly Photoshop  This is the software I used to create my front cover and double page spread. For my front cover I started off by putting my main image on and making sure it was the right size for a magazine cover (A4). 

I then changed it into black and white and changed the levels to make the photo stand out.

 I started adding the important bits of the magazine; name, date and bar code.

And I then included the articles and other extras to complete the front cover.

This is what I had to do to get the effect I wanted for this part of my magazine

I had to touch up my models face and get rid of any imperfections such as spots and blemishes, I did this by using the 'spot healing brush tool'

This is me getting rid of some spots on Photoshop




This is how I changed the font of the text

This is how I changed the colour of the text

I created my own bar code by getting on from the internet, cropping out the information then adding in the information of my magazine

Evaluation. How did you attract/ address your audience?

The audience I had chosen to attract/address were young adult middle class people. I chose this category because the majority of people fit into it, also I would be easier for me to create something that's based at my age group instead of the older or younger generation. Another bonus with choosing this category is that most of the students at college fit in it so it was easy for me to get feedback and ask people what they think I should include in my magazine.


Questions I am going to ask on a questionnaire about my music magazine are..
Could you see this being on the front of a magazine and in a shop being sold? If yes,would you be drawn to buy it?
Do you think the price of this magazine is reasonable, too cheap or too expensive?
Whats your favorite feature about the front cover?
Whats your favorite feature about the contents page?
Whats your favorite feature about the double page spread?
Is there anything you think I could have done to make my front cover look better?
Is there anything you think I could have done to make my contents page look better?
Is there anything you think I could have done to make my double page spread look better?
Do the three things I have created look like they belong to the same magazine? If yes then why, if no then why?
Would you say this is a pop/rock music magazine?

Evaluation. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my music magazine would be young adults/ teenagers who do not have a lot of money but who have a love for music. Part of the research I carried out was to see the average price of a music magazine that appeared to be aimed at my target audience. I thought they were all a bit expensive, averaging at about £3.30. I wanted mine to be cheaper as this would appeal to more people so I went with £2.70. I also saw that most magazines that were aimed at my target audience were quite colorful and had colours that stood out, so I chose to have bright red on mine. This would also distract people from the amount of text as this can sometimes put people off, especially if they do not have a great reading skill.
Most of the music magazines I looked at had the artist on the front in a posed position depending on their attitude. Some look shy and others look like they are shouting out for attention. But very few have a prop with them that would indicate they are a music artist, so I felt like I wanted this for my magazine. That you would be able to look at the image on the front cover and instantly know it was a music magazine, and also know that the artist is a singer and not a guitar player etc.

I made Steve put his hands in front of his face because this shows his shy side, but in his hands are a microphone which shows his musical side which is where he comes out of his shell. I also made sure his hair was a bit messy as this represents the life he had before he became famous.




This is the video of my focus group i did before creating my magazine. This helped me get an understanding of what people look for in a magazine, what attracts them to buy a magazine and what they expect to see. So I made sure I tried to include the things they said when creating my magazine.





Graphs I have created from the focus group

Evaluation. How does your media product represent particular social groups? What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

This is a demographics table showing the categories people are placed in. I looked at this and chose a category that I would create my magazine to fit into. I went with D, working class. This meant i would try to make my magazine appeal to young adults/ students, people who do not have a lot of money and who would be into modern music as opposed to older people who may have more money and be interested in music from years ago. The demographics table helped me understand the differences between each category and helped me in understanding the money side of the magazine (how much some one would be willing to pay for the magazine, how much money the person has etc).

I knew I had to keep the language I used in my magazine very simple as a stereotypical working class person doesn't have  a wide range of English and only understand very basic sentence structures. Another thing I had to think about when creating my magazine was the 'freebies' I included. Because its aimed at a working class audience I made sure I had competitions in there where they were able to win things they may not otherwise be able to afford, where as if I was aiming my magazine at category A for example I would advertise the same things but for them to be able to buy. 

I used colour in  my magazine as the younger generation are more attracted to colour than the older generation. I went with red because its often the colour associated with love and this emphasizes that the person reading this magazine has a love for music. I stuck with simple colours as I think this makes my magazine look more sophisticated and more expensive so when a working class person is reading this magazine they may feel like they are actually reading something that costs more.

On my double page spread I included photos that looked more relaxed so it made the article look more  fun to read and it would also connect to the audience better if they can see the artist is messing around and acting like an ordinary person. Because my target audience is working class I wanted to make my article something they could relate to, so I created a story about how a man went from having very little (which some of the readers might be able to relate to) to then going and having everything.Music changed his life and the people reading this magazine might feel like music helps them escape from their life for a little bit. 

I also wanted to make sure that my article ended on a good not (he got signed) because this would mean it gave the audience some hope and make them think that they could do the same with their lives.

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

I based my music magazine on Q, Vibe and Kerrang. I liked parts of each of these magazines and tried to mix up all the styles when I created my music magazine. 

These three were my favorite front covers from each of the magazines that I could find. From Vibe I copied the columns of writing down both sides and the bar code being at the bottom left of the cover. From Q I took the red colour as I liked how it stood out from the rest of the magazine and also how they have boxes over some of the text. And from Kerrang I copied the bottom of their front page as I think this made it look effective and made that part stand out from the rest.

I would want this magazine to be published once a month as this is common of music magazines. The publishers of Q magazine and Kerrang are Bauer Media Group who are a multinational media company who operate in 15 different country's. Their worldwide circulation titles to about 38 million magazines a week. So I would pick them to publish my magazine as they have a turn over of 2.129 billion euros and they deal with 282 magazines worldwide in 15 countries. This could be a bonus as because they have so many magazines they obviously know what they're doing but it could also be a disadvantage because they may not be able to spend as much time on your magazine as you would like them too and you could just become lost in a sea of other magazines.