Final Words:

To the Examiner,

I hope my blog ties in with my final magazine, I tried to make the image header fit with the idea that my blog is indie/acoustic themed. The mixpod playlist on the right hand side suggests the style of music I am personally interested in, but also the music that is featured in my 'Unplugged' magazine; beneath this on the right hand side is my labels list, this makes my blog easy to navigate around.
Since my preliminary magazine I have made many improvements with the colour scheme, layout and photo shoot set-up; this has also been improved since my final draft. My final magazine colour scheme is consistent throughout and the fonts I have used all tie in together and work well with the style.
I have fulfilled my skills throughout this coursework project, especially through Photoshop, I have learnt a lot since I started the course including computer skills and I have improved my determination when working.

Thank you for marking my blog,
Jess Pardoe

Final Magazine (Re-Post)

Media Evaluation: Part 1)

Media Evaluation Question 1

2)

2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine hasn’t taken much inspiration layout-wise but the social group it would attract is similar to those of Billboard or NME, a mix of rock and acoustic fans means there is a wider audience. I think my product represents the indie/alternative/acoustic scene as being laid back and interested in vocals – as opposed to the fans of a magazine featuring dubstep style music. I didn’t base the looks or visual appearance of the ‘band’ on any existing bands in particular, I looked at people such as The Dum Dum Girls and Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs to study particular existing girl bands in general as I wanted something to compare my band to afterwards.

The images on this double page spread are all the final ones chosen for my magazine, I took over 200 photos to get a range of possible choices for my magazine as I think it’s important not to just take one photo, as I can always improve the shot.

The qualities the existing NME magazine above shows are the layout of the text, the structure of the image and the tag-lines and advertisements on the cover. Firstly I think the front suits the magazine as well as the band which creates a style of writing associated to them, the yellow and white writing looks really effective over the top of the image. The positioning of the band members in the photograph imply that the band will be lively, which they are - so this depicts a true image of the band; also the clothing they are wearing links through each person to give off a similar vibe. The advertisements tie in with the fonts used on the magazine as well, and they don't distract the audience attention from the topic of the magazine either, which works exceptionally well. I took a small amount of inspiration from this cover however as I was looking for a more simplistic effect with less bulky writing or adverts; the font used on my cover does go with the theme of my magazine and band though so although I haven't used anything similar, I have thought along the same lines as NME magazine.
The Wombats magazine cover portrays the band as idols in a way, as they look the part and have an action photo which makes it a lot more appealing to the eye and would stand out amongst others in a shop. I tried to create the same effect with my photograph but without using an action shot as the band I have featured are more acoustic and "chilled out".

Other bands similar to my false band - Dustland Fairytale - and the exisiting band - The Wombats - are;
Laura Marling, YeahYeahYeahs, The Pretty Reckless and Dum Dum Girls.

3)

3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product? Why?

As I have previously noted, my magazine is somewhere between NME and Billboard, having big names of artists inside but also featuring new up-and-coming bands of the UK. The institution that might take my magazine on could be the same owner of NME magazine; they claim to be the most well-known and iconic music magazine in the UK. I think my magazine gives off similar vibe to NME magazine on the inside and outside, the cover always features a particular band or artist and the inside gives a double page spread about them; my magazine also features other topics such as festival line-ups etc. which is what NME allow as well.

This is an example of an NME magazine, featuring The Vaccines;


Institution of magazines consists of production, distribution, exhibition, ownership, profits, funding and audience. I have researched these over the AS course and have compared them to NME magazine;
Because the magazine has been around for a long time, the original idea doesn't need to be pitched to anyone; however the person designing the cover would have to pitch their design to the NME team and they would decide whether to print it or not - I did a similar thing when I created my magazine, I asked around my friends and other students at school about their opinions on my magazine, I used Facebook, Twitter and verbally asking them.

As NME magazine has been around for more than 50 years it is an incredibly successful magazine; in the 1960's the magazine company were producing and selling over 200,000 copies of NME a week, this was only when they had been around for roughly 10 years. By the 70's the sales had decreased to 60,000 copies which was fatal for an up and coming magazine; however they regained themselves by 1973 reaching a phenomenal 300,000 a week.
Krissi Murison is the current editor of NME magazine and it also a British music journalist, she has had this role since 2009 and continues it to the present day. The magazine costs £2.30 to buy in England; this is an exceptional cost for such a famous and successful music magazine, my coursework magazine costs a similar price - this is where I took the idea from to make it affordable to a wider range of people than expected.

5)

5) How did you attract your audience?

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Evaluation q5

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4)

4)  Who would be the audience for your media product?



- My typical audience member for my product is someone who is really interested in keeping up-to-date music, likes to spend some socialising out with people. They would be a student either in college or at university, but my audience profile suggests anyone of the age of 16 and above. Stereotypically interested in creativity and fashion; and they would most likely enjoy going to gigs and festivals often. Their inspiration would be The Arctic Monkeys, The Maccabees, The Vaccines, The Strokes, Ellie Goulding and Laura Marling. I researched this before hand in my preparation work when I created an Audience Profile, however this question clarifies that my magazine is suited to this specific type of person. I believe it appeals to this audience because of the theme of indie/acoustic, the cover photograph alone suggests the genre of the band and the list of existing band names on the cover represent the vibe that the magazine is trying to give off.

This was my original audience profile;
It hasn't changed at all from when I first created it, there are more details about the type of person to be found within the original however: 

Audience Profile

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6)

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

-       Canon EOS 1000D SLR camera, I used this camera to produce my test shots and my final magazine photoshoot shots. By using this I could learn to use all the different settings on my camera and adapt to the lighting or surroundings. The ISO setting was the setting I learnt the most about as you have to alter the number according to the brightness of the sunlight; I also used the 'P' (portrait) setting to do individual photos and the 'AV' setting for group photos with background.

-       Sony Vaio laptop, this is the laptop I created my entire final magazine on; for my draft I used the school computers which had Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 compared to the version 4.0 that I have; using my own laptop with Photoshop allowed me to edit my work at home as well as in school.

-       SD memory card was the card I saved all my photos to, it has an 8GB memory which can store up to 1,000 high definition photos.

I have also used computer programmes such as Photoshop Elements 5.0 and 4.0, Blogger website, Scribd website and Slideshare to post information about my magazine and other posts on my blog.
I have learnt how to use Photoshop to a more skilled level in school as it's easily accessible on all Media computers; the process of cutting around objects in photographs has become easier as time went by for me, I knew how to use the lassoo tool before I started the AS Media course but I have developed this throughout the months of working with Photoshop in school.
I had never heard of Blogger before year 12, this took me time to explore all the tools of the website however as time has passed I know my way around it easily and can access other peoples blogs to make comments also.
Scribd and Slideshare are used to upload Microsoft Word and Powerpoint presentations so that they can be embedded into a blog post for people to view publically on my AS Media blog page. Scribd was hard to use at first as I had to rearrange some of my documents to allow them to be adjusted to Scribd's particular settings. However Slideshare was a lot quicker to learn from as it was simply choosing the Powerpoint presentation and pressing upload.

7)

7) Look back at your preliminary task (the school magazine task) what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from that to the full product?

Compared to my preliminary task my final magazine layout is much better and I thought it through a lot more, starting with the cover. My cover was plain and had a dull colour scheme in comparison to my final magazine with full, bright colours and a border surrounding the page. I prefer my final cover for many reasons, firstly the cover image is more striking and the colours are brighter and the characters chosen look like a band; secondly, the title is a lot bolder and the text surrounding the image stands out. I also had to do my preliminary surrounding a school magazine so I didn’t know how to structure the cover image in quite the same way as for a music magazine.

I was not certain on how to make my preliminary fit the theme of ‘school magazine’ whereas this was a lot easier with my final magazine being featured around music. The camerawork on my double page spread for my final piece varies with close ups, mid shots and long shots which is similar to my preliminary cover and contents; however the front cover image for my preliminary is a mid-close up, whereas my final cover image is mid-long shot.  The colour palette used on my preliminary is extremely plain and consists of yellow, white and black, my final magazine shows a colour palette mainly focusing on coral-orange and black, but also including tones of blue. This magazine is set to be released in spring which influenced my colour choices whereas I produced my preliminary at the start of winter, this affected my decisions. My editing skills have improved from preliminary to final piece also as I have learnt about new tools on Photoshop Elements 4.0, I could already cut around an image with the magnetic tool but I improved my skill of making the image finer and the edges neater when cutting out.

FINAL: Cover

FINAL: Contents

FINAL: Double Page Spread

Font Change - Final Magazine

Final - Font Change

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Inspiring Existing Bands

This video created on Animoto shows the images I am taking inspiration from to come up with the perfect front cover image, I want to include all three members of the band but I haven't found the right layout yet.

Bands included:
Dum Dum Girls
YeahYeahYeahs - Karen O
Sleigh Bells
Warpaint

Final Shots

My magazine featuring (fake) band name: Dustland Fairytale

Song playing throughout presentation: The Killers - A Dustland Fairytale
(Inspiration for the band name came from this song)

Camera used: Canon 1000D

Shots will be used on the cover, contents and double page spread pages.

Final AS Magazine Colour Palette

The colours I have decided to use for my final magazine all blend together with a flash of blue, the coral and red colours will be used for the surroundings, some clothing items and some tones of hair colour. The black and white will be used for fonts and small sections of the photographs. Finally, the bright blue will be used with slightly lighter and darker tones within the clothing of the band and the location/setting of the photos, this will all tie together to create a brightly coloured summer-feel to my photo shoot. As I have planned to take my final magazine photos outdoors around my house in the countryside some of the photos may appear to be in an old or wood-like setting - however I haven't included the green tones of the nature surrounding the photos as they shouldn't need to stand out in my images and won't be key to the features of my magazine.
My final photos will be posted shortly, within the next two weeks through an Animoto short film.

Grading my Draft:

I think I would give my final draft a level 3 because the layout is consistent and the font links the pages together, it would probably stand out due to the bold image on the cover. However it isn't a level 4 because it still needs improvements due to gaps in the layout and article. I have written questions on a previous post and recieved some feedback via blogger comments, I am going to ask peers who don't take Media as an AS level as well to vary the feedback.

When I recieved my teacher assessed feedback it was also a level 3, this can be improved by the following things:

• add some form of detail to the masthead on my cover page, as it could stand out more
• make the contents page layout more interesting (text and numbers)
• double page spread - columns? less boxy?
• more model-like images for the final magazine (like the black and white one on DPS)

For my Research and Planning work on my blog I recieved a level 4, this could still be pushed up to full marks by using other software to present ideas on my blog, such as Animoto or Prezi.

Draft Feedback (Peers):

1. What do you like about the magazine cover?
2. How can you tell it's a music magazine?
3. Is the contents page lay-out suitable?
4. Do the cover, contents and double page link together? Why?
5. What would you change about any of the magazine?
6. Would you pick it up from a shelf? Why?

Double Page Spread DRAFT:

Contents DRAFT:

Cover DRAFT:

Market Research:

 

This is an example of a music magazine that is already on the market, NME is an extremely successive indie-alternative-rock magazine and is sold all across the UK. My magazine should hopefully be successful in the same way, a large population of the country are between the ages of 16 and 35, this is roughly the age range my magazine is aimed at. Indie-alternative music has recently escalated in popularity so the genre of my magazine is spot-on for current music interests.

My idea is different because the cover will always be simple with the same plain header so that the image catches the eye rather than the title; I think my design of the grey-scale base colours with two or three brighter colours to contrast this works exceptionally well.

As my magazine will focus mainly on up and coming bands this will also open up new ideas and inspirations to the public, whereas Billboard will feature particularly famous people. NME has a mix of both of these and I have taken a lot of inspiration from this magazine for my draft, I think the success of NME is something to look further at and work out why it's such a huge name now.

Similarly to Billboard, my magazine will have little writing down one side of the cover; I think this stands out well and outlines the image in the centre of the page. However Billboard is an American based magazine and has been produced for more than the last 100 years, they feature the top selling albums worldwide whereas my magazine will focus on new, fresh music.

Final Group of Test Shots:

Test shots

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Camera Angles/Shots:

Close-up: A close up image is when the frame of the photo is taken up almost entirely by the person/object/feature of the image; in this case it's a person's face. Close ups work well in magazines as it allows extra detail on images showing the reader more, for example if there is an article on a new up-coming celebrity they may well have a close up image to show the audience their face so they become memorable. I have used a close-up image on the contents and double page spread pages of my draft, this is because the band I am focusing on are new to the world of music and the audience of my magazine will recognise them in future if I add in close-up shots.

Mid-shot: As demonstrated in the two images above, a mid-shot is where the feature in the photo is visible from roughly the waist upwards; this is a common profile shot of someone - as used in the 'dirty glam' magazine shown above. The image above that is one that I have taken for my test shots, I played around with different shot lengths to see what would work best for my magazine genre and style, I like this type of image a lot particularly as I am featuring a band rather than a solo artist.

Long shot: I like long shots but I haven't taken any for my test shots as it wasn't suitable for how I wanted my pictures to be set up, the two magazine covers above work really well with long shots as it adds detail in a different way. A typical long-shot could be the whole body or from the legs upwards, they would both come under the category of long-shot. I particularly like the NYLON magazine cover as the image works well among the busy writing, the dark colours contrast with her skin tone in the photo which causes a great contrast for this long-shot.

Dazed & Confused Cover:

I really like this front cover as the layered text and images work really well; I may use a similar layout to this with the text over the middle of the image in a neutral colour as it attracts enough attention for people to read it but not too much that it overrides the image. I also like the colour palette of greys and creams as they compliment each other well; the title works really well in a darker grey over the pale grey/off white background as it's layered behind the picture. The font all ties in well with the curved, natural image with minimal editing or effects on it. The bar code is slightly oversized in my opinion but other than that I think this magazine cover works really well from studying all its factors; I am particularly fond of Dazed & Confused covers as they are always individual and different.

Kerrang! Double Page Spread Analysis

I have looked at many double page spreads but I have picked this out as one that I like the most; I think the colour palette of reds and blacks works really well together and it reflects the genre of the band. I like that the main image stretches over both pages and the title is beneath it. Two thirds of the double page is taken up by image and title which leaves just the right amount for the article; when I produce my article on my double page spread I will have to rearrange it so it fits in around the image as that will be the key focal point on the pages. The image is very controversial but this works as it's in Kerrang!'s magazine, which is aimed at an audience of around the age of 16+, similar to mine so I could use factors like this to take advantage of the age range and make it specifically targeted for my age range.

Golden Triangles + Spiral

I looked into the spiral shape of an image and realised it worked with one of my test shots so I tried to show this through Photoshop, I have drawn on a spiral shape showing the movement of the eye as it looks at the picture. Typically the eye could start at either end of the spiral in this case as both ends have a similar colour scheme and inbetween the colours blend together. I think this works really well on magazines as it causes the reader to visually take in the picture if there's a particular system to it. I may use this on my double page spread as I would like the images to stretch across two pages and doing this could create the effect in a more obvious way.

I also tried looking at the rule of thirds in images splitting it up into three parts; in this example one third is the face of the model, the second is the strings of the guitar and her hand and the third is mostly an empty space. These are the three sections of the image, they all have a slightly different colour scheme but without the triangles they all blend together well. I might use this technique on my front cover having the image in one third, the second being the text and the final third being an open space as this is appealing on a front cover.

Colour Lovers: colour palette research

- upload via Scribd later

Mock-up Contents

This is the mock-up of my contents page; I took inspiration from an ELLE magazine contents page I researched at the start of the course, this gave me the idea to create a border of images around the text. The text is not visible on the page as it's a mock-up however the blank white box in the centre of the page would be filled with a list of pages with page numbers and a brief description of what you should expect to find on each page.
I like my idea of having one repeated image around the outside of the text in black and white and then other images over-lapping these to represent other band members, in colour. The instrument props used in my test shots came in very handy for this contents page as I used the drummer with her sticks and the guitarist holding her pick. I like my mock-up a lot and think I will produce something similar for my final magazine. The title font is the same font as used on the cover of my magazine for the small text, this shows continuity through the pages and creates a themed font for the magazine.

Institution Profile:

Institution profile

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Draft Article:

Ardent Love Article

Double Page Spread - Mock-Up

I produced this double page spread mock-up to show the style of layout I would like my magazine to look like, there will be a lot more writing on my final copy and I will shortly produce a mock-up article as well. I will include what is listed on the second page within my double page spread;

- Where the band are from

- The band's genre of music

- Examples of their songs

- The band's inspirations

Followed by an individual breakdown of each band member somewhere else on the page, this shows a well thought-out layout of a spread.

I think the images work really well together and they all tie in because each member is wearing denim, on the real version I will use a similar theme to this as it creates a unique signature dress sense of the band.

Ardent Love - Font

I used the website www.dafont.com to find the right font to use on my magazine to advertise the band name across my double page spread interview. The eight I have chosen each have provide a different vibe about the band. Some are more girly, hand written style and close together letters; when some are more spaced out and bold. One of these fonts will be used in my magazine but I will play around on Photoshop to find out which one works best with the genre of the band and style of magazine.

I like all the fonts for different reasons but the 1st and 5th are probably my favourite;
1st because it's different and the elongated letters create an interesting effect; 2nd because it's equally individual and the swirls surrounding the words gives it an edgy alternative style. Both of my favourite fonts are lower case, this appeals to me as not very many bands would want their name to appear inferior if it didn't have a capital letter at the start of each word. 

NAME CHANGE:

I have considered the idea of the name 'Rewind' and have decided it isn't suitable for my acoustic Indie-Alternative magazine, it seems to modern and technological for the genre of music I am focusing on.

New name: UNPLUGGED
I think the word 'Unplugged' has a certain ring to it, and it literally translates into the language of music as being non-amplified.

I have looked at many fonts on dafont.com but I chose to stick with my original font provided by Photoshop Elements, called 'Harlow Solid Italic'. I will also use all lower case letters as this font in particular looks more professional in lower case; I also think this makes it appeal to a younger audience as well as older as it doesn't look too formal.

25 Word Pitch: Feedback

I recieved 5 comments off other members of the class, they all said similar things:
- 'I rather like your close-up idea...'
- 'I think you need to represent that it is a fashion and music magazine...'
- '...unsual aspect to it'

I have taken this feedback and tried to use it to my best advantage, I am making the title of the magazine revolve around music to ensure that the genre of the magazine is obviously music. I am still unsure on the title however as 'Rewind' could sound too technological and modern for my acoustic-style music magazine; I will continue looking for the perfect name. As my magazine revolves around music and fashion I will tie in the fashion on the double page spread and contents pages, this will make sure the audience know what's included after flicking open the first page. As for the title font I will keep the idea of a neutral colour against the brighter, bolder background colours, one person mentioned they liked this idea and others said it was unique.

Band Profile:

Name: Ardent Love
Members:
Abbie - 17 - Vocals & Electric Guitar
Georgia - 18 - Drums
Jess - 17 - Acoustic Guitar & Other Vocals

Formed: 2010

Genre: Indie-Alternative

Interests: Writing songs, playing music, listening to music, reading magazines, fashion, going to gigs

Inspired by: Ellie Goulding, The Maccabees, The Arctic Monkeys, Foals, Little Comets, Two Door Cinema Club, The Pretty Reckless, Mumford & Sons, Biffy Clyro, Plain White T's, Vampire Weekend, Katy B, Laura Marling.

Creating a Band Name:

Intoxicate

Blaze

Ardent Love
Nobody's Perfect

Intoxicate: This word appeals to me as it means that a person could become intoxicated with the band; it would usually be associated with breathing too much of some form of air, or becoming intoxicated with alcohol. I think the name could be catchy and memorable for the audience of Indie fans, I don't know of any bands with a name similar to this so it's a new idea and could be successful.
Blaze: I like this idea of a word as a name because it reflects the idea of fire, and fire is linked to danger; this could be popular among an Indie-Alternative audience. I think people are unsure on what you can class as Indie-Alternative, and what becomes more Rock, or even Folk, this means there is uncertainty about the genre which links back to my Blaze-Fire-Danger connection.
Ardent Love: These two words came about when I tried to search for fire related words, the word Ardent means passionate, like a never-ending love. This could link to how if a person likes a band's song, they tend to keep up-to-date with their music or style and form a never-ending love for the band. However it's also not a commonly used word so it would stick in peoples minds.
Nobody's Perfect: I really like this as a band name, it doesn't pinpoint a genre that the band should be expected to be so it entails mystery. However I feel that as it's been used as a song name three times it could be too familiar and nothing fresh or new in the world of music, which could be a threat to the success of the "band".

Rankin - Colours:

I am interested in making the eyes stand out on my front cover, these pictures are also part of Rankin's work and I think the different eye colours are really bright and bold. The picture cut out in the shape of a lightning bolt would be an amazingly eye-catching magazine cover and the colours used makeup-wise make the eye colour stand out against the white base colours of the image. When I come to making my final magazine cover I will try out different effects on Photoshop to create interesting and bright eye colours; this shows in Rankin's eye photos as they must be enhanced seeing as the brightness is
unbelievable on some of the iris'.

Rankin - Inspiration:

The make-up on these models looks so effective and different, if I saw a magazine in a shop among hundreds of others with a photo as individual as these I would certainly pick it up. These images are part of Rankin's 'Special Projects' photography; these in particular show the beauty of faces. There is nothing particularly unusual about the faces in the images above, the make-up just makes them look striking and interesting. I will have a go at creating a characterisation as well as Rankin has through make-up on my model(s), this will help to make my magazine cover stand out from the others. The colours used in the first image blend well with the grey-scale and blue to stand out against it, I like this colour palette a lot and would create something similar if I chose to do a photo like this.

Jessie J

I have included this video on my blog firstly because this is the style of music people should expect to see appearing in my magazine, it's live, acoustic, tuneful and bold. The lyrics of this song and her braveness are inspiring and everyone should be able to experience listening to videos like this without having to search for them on YouTube, these types of performances will be mentioned in my magazine. I also like her visual style, her 1900's black hair cut stands out amongst a crowd, the same way my magazine should in a shop.

Dazed and Confused Cover:

I really like this magazine cover, if I saw this in a shop I would pick it up and read the cover without a doubt, the colours are so vibrant and the title is slightly transparent which focuses all the attention on the models. I like the make-up used in this image and I am inspired by how the editor has managed to achieve such an eye-catching cover. The tagline at the bottom being 'Smile!' really ties in with the huge smile that has been painted onto the models' faces, I like this idea a lot; as Dazed and Confused has a number of different features to the magazine they haven't singled just one of them out on the cover, it is very neutral. The black writing in the four corners are barely noticeable which I like, the colours in the middle of the page are so bold that they are insignificant at first.