Final Post-my media AS coursework experience

From this experience of planning, making, and evaluating my music magazine and creating my preliminary task, it has taught me many things. The best part of this task is when I actually made the magazine on Indesign and how I used Photoshop to edit all my pictures. I  also enjoyed taking the photo's and coming up with the articles to add in. This is because it is creative and gave me a responsibility to make it look as professional and like the magazines you would buy in a shop. The thing I least enjoyed was evaluating all of my work, mainly because I saw where my weaknesses were and how I could of improved it further when at the time it was too late to go back and edit. 

I am glad that we done the preliminary task because it was like a trial for the music magazine for using the programmes and getting experience on how to use it. From creating the preliminary task it taught me the things not to do when making my music magazine and also which features to use and carry forward to make my music magazine look professional and grown up. 

By using blogger to help record all of my work it kept me organised and efficient when updating it. I could customise it to suit me and label my blog entries to make them more organised and neat.

Overall, I really enjoyed the experience of the tasks and using blogger to record them on and from it, have learnt many creative and technical skills.

What I have used from using blogger

Since making my preliminary task and music magazine, I have been using blogger which allows me to post different entrys which shows my progress through the tasks I am set. On it i have posted essays, improvements i have made, used technology such as slideshare and prezi which present my research and evaluation in a clearer way. By using different technology and programmes it organised my work so it can easily be read compared to clicking on links. Blogger has helped keep my work together and in a formal way so nothing can be confused. I added labels onto my posts so my entrys are seperated into the right catagory.

Audience Feedback for music magazine

Evaluation question 6- looking back at your preliminary task, what have you learnt in the progression to your full product?

Evaluation question 5- How does your media product represent social groups

Interview analysis of my music magazine

Evaluation question 4- Who would be the audience for your media product? How did you address/attract your audience?

From my Prezi and also pictures of the pages from my magazine, you can see how my target reader; Helena Bates is attracted to my magazine. Other things that can make Helena attracted to my magazine are;

• The use of bright colours that stand out and make the pages look happy and friendly
• The captions below pictures and added information so it is easy to understand
• Pictures of people that are 'well known' and recognisable
• Chance to win competitions (easy to do for teenagers)
• Bold headings that highlight the reason for being on the page
• Clear and easy to understand text

Evaluation question 3- What have you learnt about technology from constructing your product?

 

This slideshare was made for my to evaluate the technology that I used during the process of making my magazine. For each slide I have named a different technology that contributed towards the making of my magazine, explained what I learnt from it and how it helped me. 

Evaluation question 2- What kind of media institutions might distribute your product and why?

After completing all of my magazine, I am now at the part of having to evaluate my work, and compare it. After looking over my magazine, trying to decide which media institution best suits my piece, i have decided that the media institution that would best suit my magazine is BBC. This is because the magazine that i created, aims at a similar audience.I have chosen this media institution to compare to because, just like 'Gardeners world', 'Easy cook', 'Radio times' and 'Wildlife' (which is produced by BBC), it uses the same kind of layout as my magazine. The closest example to my magazine, is 'Top Of The Pops'. This is because they tend to stick with one main picture on the front cover, and text all around, just like mine. Also there is a banner of text along the top, as well as a bold and big title that goes across the width of the page.  You can see this below;

Also, the contents pages are quite similar between 'Top of the pops' and my one which is called 'Tuned in'. As you can see below, both magazines include a few pictures, and also have sections of where the articles are found. For example, my magazine has got 'exclusive pics!' section, and on Top Of The Pops it has 'Celebs & gossip'. This has been done to make it easier for the audience to navigate through the magazine. They have chosen the word 'celeb' instead of 'celebrity' to make it look informal and friendly. 

 

I dont think that my magazine would suit other institutions, because institutions such as Future Publishing publishes their magazines monthly, where my magazine that i created is published fortnightly. Also, BBC 'Top Of The Pops' magazine is a supplementary magazine from the TV programme.  Also it would not be a suitable match for my magazine because another example institution such as Conde Nast produces 18 consumer magazine, whereas i produce more than 18 which proves that the BBC institution is similar to mine. Also the country of origin of Conde Nast is America and mine is in England, just like the BBC. Another thing that makes my magazine not suitable because Conde Nast focus' on travel, food, home culture and other interests rather than music, which is the main theme for my magazine.

The double page spread of BBC 'Top Of The Pops' magazine again is also similar to mine. As you can see, there is a full page that is mainly taken up with a big image of a famous singer/musician with a bit of text that backs up the picture. On the other page, there is a article that shows an informal interview with 'Leona Lewis' and also has a few pictures in between the text. This is similar to my magazine because as you can see above on the left, i have produced an article which is an interview of a member of a band, and on the right is a poster/ bigger picture of them. This is a good example of why BBC is a good and suitable media institution for my magazine, compared to others.Overall, the best suited media institution for my magazine, is BBC. The main reason is because they are trying to build a personal relationships with engaged readers and listeners. They chose subjects to speak about that they know the audience will enjoy, which is what my magazine aims to do. 

Evaluation question 1- In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products

Final magazine double page spread article

Music celeb Sophie Jones confesses what she has been

bottling up for months..

Everybody ‘s soft spot’ celebrity Sophie Jones speak up about her and her 

former band member Rachel Fewell

They might seem like good friends on camera and whilst performing, but current ‘Girls Are Loud’ singer confesses her long term hate for Rachel Fewell, ever since Rachel was caught

flirting with Sophies current boyfriend and member of ‘The Needed’ Charlie Enright.’ Since the

incident between Rachel and Charlie early this year, Sophie has had a problem with Rachel and her music. Sophie’s tweet that was posted yesterday afternoon explains the situation..

Sophie, was that tweet you wrote
directed at Rachel? Or to your fans?
 It may of seem directed at Rachel,
but it was just a general tweet about
how im feeling about the situation.  I think she
knows we’re not bestfriends since the Charlie
situation but none of that was my fault. 

                                                                                  
What does Charlie think about yours and  
Rachel’s friendship?                                              
Err i dont really know, i dont think they                  
speak for obvious reasons but even if                    
we was bestbuds i dont think it would                  
bother him. We’re in the same band so                
spend alot of time together which isnt easy.
          
Does Rachel know how much you            
dislike her?                                                          
Yes i think she does. She doesnt let it                      

affect her though, in a way she would              
be wrong to ever have anything against            
me, but some of the things i say to her                
and about her are kinda childish, oh well.            

Do you think you and Rachel could ever
go back to how you was before?
Umm thats a hard one. She really hurt me
when she tried it with Charlie behind my
back and when I see her, Thats the first thing
that comes to mine. Maybe in time we can sort
it out.

When you say you dislike Rachel's music, 
is it true or is it just to annoy her and wind
her up?
Well we're in the same band and have similar voices
but because she isn't contributing to all of us, its just
getting on my nerves, even if she has to talk and give
her own ideas. 

Comparing my old logo and new logo together

This is my old Logo that was on the first draft of my magazine. I took it off for the second draft because I thought it looked tacky and unprofessional. Things that I done wrong when I made this logo is that I left white space between the letters, making the quality look bad. Also because it has a grey murky background, it means that it doesn't blend in with the current white background of my magazine. By having 'TUNED IN' written across the music note is also unneeded because the readers can already see the name of my magazine.


After my second draft, I decided that my magazine looked bare and boring without a logo on it. I made a new one (below) to make my magazine recognisable and look more professional. 

I think that this logo is much better than the one before. It is more simple which is good because if it was really detailed, it would look seem too busy and less focus would be on the magazine. Also it is unique because the music notes symbolises the reason of this magazine (music) so even if it is not clear what type of magazine it is, the logo should give it away to the audience. Lastly, by using two bright colours it makes the logo stand out but not too much that it takes over the pages. It is also recognisable to have on the front page and contents page.

Final draft of my music magazine completed

This is my final draft of my music magazine front cover. I have made many changes

between the second draft and this one such as;
-changing the background colour from purple, to now just the image background which is a grey colour
- changing the main picture on the front completely from a boy and a girl, to a single girl on her own
- changed the main title 'Tuned in' from blue to pink and made the font thinner and more professional
-added text such as '100% exclusive!' and a quote from 'Rachel' which the story carries on inside
-added a banner along the top with text saying 'the 10 biggest music moments of 2012 inside!'
-added a logo that appears on the front cover and contents page
- put a circle shape around the price
- Added a yellow box on the left hand side of the front cover that advertises makeup products
- Added a circle shape that persuades the reader with 'Your instant makeover'
-put more and new images on the page with a coloured border to make them stand out and fill up space


I made these changes to make my music magazine look more professional and similar to a real magazine that is bought in shops.


This is my final draft of my contents page of my music magazine. I have made changes to the contents page to make it look neater and better presented, such as;

-changed the main image at the top of the page to a more relevant topic and to vary the stories in the magazine
- I edited the picture of the guitar (cut around it and made it brighter) so it blends with the page background
- Added a text box at the bottom which informs the reader about more information regarding the competition to 'win a guitar'
- Added the logo that appears on the front page onto this page too to represent the magazine more
- Added a page number at the bottom
- Adjusted the text layout in the blue box to make it straight and neat

This is my first page of my double page spread inside my music magazine. Changes i have made from the second draft are;
- Changed the text box that has 'EXCLUSIVE CELEBRITY GOSSIP!' from black to pink
-Changed the font of the headline to 'papyrus' to look more professional
- Also added a page number

i havent made many more changes because i didnt think it was needed.







This is my final page of my music magazine, which is my double page spread. The only change i made on this page from my second draft is i added a page number. This is because i wanted to keep it simple and not add too much detail.



Overall, i have improved my music magazine huge amounts since my first draft. All the changes were made to make it look professional, like it was being published, and to make it neat, realistic, eye catching and interesting to read.

Second draft completed

This is my second draft of my front page for my music magazine. The improvements i have made since my first draft are;
-Changing the background colour from white to purple
-Adding another picture on the bottom right hand side which has been edited on Adobe Photoshop
-Changing the issue number and date's colour and background and the position of it
-Adding a website address at the bottom of the page
-Changed the 'Tuned In' titles position to the top left
- Edited the main big picture to change the brightness and took away the shadows
- Took off the logo
- Took away the picture on the left and replaced it by the title



I done them improvements to make the magazine front cover look more professional.





This is my contents page, the improvements i made since my last draft are;
-Making the top picture of the three girls smaller to make it look neater
-I added the guitar picture and a caption to it to take up more room and fill the blank space
-Moved the 'suscribe' box to the bottom of the page

This is the first of the double pages of my music magazine. Since my first draft the improvements that i have made are;
-I changed the whole storyline and the characters from two boys, to two girls
-Added a main title next to the picture
- Kept the idea of a fake tweet but changed it to match the storyline
-Took away the logo from this page to create space
-Took out the arrow and the caption that was on the top of the page








This is my second of my double page spread and the final page of my music magazine. The improvements since my first draft are;
-Edited it more in photoshop by filling it dodgy editing work
-Rounding off the edges of the outline of the photo

I havent done much improving on this page because there wasnt much i needed to do. The two double pages relate to eachother because the story on the left, matches the person or 'celebrity' in the poster on the right.

My friends opinion on my music magazine

This is another video by my friend telling me what she likes and dislikes about my music magazine.

Other peoples opinion on my music magazine

This video is my sister speaking about what she likes about my music magazine, and what she would maybe do differently in her opinion.

Logo for my music magazine

This is the logo that i created to go onto my music magazine. I have designed it like this because it is simple but at the same time is effective. Something i would change about it if i had the chance to do it again, is fill out the white space where the text 'Tuned in' is written. A logo on any magazine is important because it is used to recognise the company and it advertises the product.

Tweet that i made for my music magazine

I made this fake tweet to go onto my magazine because it makes it look more professional and realistic. i made it on a website and created all the text myself. Having a tweet from 'a celebrity' on my double page spread, makes the story in the interview more reliable to the readers and is there to entertain. 

Barcode for my front cover of my magazine

This is the barcode that i made and i put on the front of my magazine. I made it by putting lots of black lines next to each other with different thickness to make it look realistic. 

First draft completed

This is my front cover for my magazine. The background photo has been edited on photoshop . I have edited it by taking out all of the shadows and making the background all one colour. I have also taken blemishes off both of the peoples faces. 



This is my first draft for my contents page for my Music magazine called 'Tuned In'. I have completed it on Adobe Indesign and edited the pictures on adobe photoshop. The picture in the bottom left hand corner, i also edited on photoshop to make the background all one color and to make it look more professional than it is. The text i wrote is all relevant to the music magazine. 














Out of the two pages i done for my 'double page spread' to go into my magazine, this is one of them. The story is about the friendship between two musicians and how they do not get on together. I have made the text the style of an interview to make it more exciting and professional. 

This is the second page of my double spread. I decided to fill it up with a poster because it makes it look realistic as a magazine. I edited the picture in photoshop and put in the blue background to make the female stand out. I included a caption at the bottom to include some information about who the poster is of.