Activity 7

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

When we were asked to do the preliminary task I didnt have a clue how to use the programmes, such as Indesign and photoshop I was learning the basics. As you can see my front cover for the school magazine and the contents page is very simple. It was a mock at which helped my familarise myself with the programme. Not much colours was used and my contents does not look perfessional at all. After doing some research and looking at magazines such as NME, The Source and Kerrang I was able to identify how magazines are suppose to look. I closely concentrated on how it was layout and the fonts used.

There has been a big improvement compared to my preliminary task as I was beginning to get use to the media technologies. Comparing my school magazine to my music magazine I would say my skills and ability to produce a magazine was good. I didn't do any research as to how a magazine is layout, how important photography is and the mode of address to attract consumers until I produced my final product. From the period of creating my preliminary task to my full product I can tell I have learnt to experience with new softwares such as indesign and photoshop. I learnt how to produce a double page spread as this was not required in my preliminary task. Although this was all new to me my overall production came out successful and has showed that I have made an improvement. In a magazine it is important the models on the front cover have direct mode of address, this is one thing I didn't think was neccessary therefore in my school magazines the models are looking down. I took note of this and made sure the models for my final product had a direct mode of address engaging with the consumers. Overall I am happy how my product came out although in my final production I could have included a background. I would next time bear that in mind and have a background which would be included in the front cover and contents.

Activity 6

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

This is the camera used to take the images, although it was clear how to operate a camera it was the camera shots that was relevant.

From the beginning of the course we had to create our own blogger, this was new to me as I didn't have a clue what this was. The blogger has helped through every step to create my final product. It acted as a guided as I would refer back to it and how i could improve on it to make it better.

Overall the blogger was a good form of communication as I was able to do unfinish work at home, updated with blogs by the teacher therefore I was able to keep my blog up-to-date.

I used Adobe InDesign to create my product. At first I found this hard to use as I was new to the porgramme. I think overall my product came out better than I had imagined. Adobe InDesign has shown me how I can change the images and fonts in different styles and shades. During this production I have learnt how magazines are produced and ways in which magazines are done to attract the consumers.

I did not use Adobe Photoshop to produce my product but I did use the software to create my masthead and the contents font. Adobe Photoshop was also new to me, it took me a while to get use to it. I experienced new methods for example manipulating the fonts. The font shown in the image fitted the genre I was working on as it is retro which links to graffiti which is why I had chosen this to be my masthead.

With my images photoshop allowed me to crop around the images and manipulate the colours of the image by changing the contrast or changing the colours of the image. Magazines do this to match the colours of the masthead with the colours in the image.

Mood Board

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Flat plan of magazine

Before making a start on my magazine I first had to plan it out so I sketched my ideas on a piece of paper. However I first did some research on how other magazines are layed out. Taking ideas from the information I had researched I put it on to a paper and this is what I had came up with. All magazines have a masthead at the top visable for consumers to see when it is displayed on the shop racks.

Using media techniques such as masthead, strapline, coverlines I put them in the right places to make the magazine look like a magazine that could sell. Below the masthead is the date and issue number so consumers identify it is the latest issue. I decided my front cover to be bright and colourful which would engage the cosumers attention.

Again to start on my content page I planned it out. Contents page included images and page numbers, I first looked at other contents pages and thought of ideas of how I can make my content page look different and realistic. Dropping ideas on to paper guided me throughout producing it, it is always best to plan before going straight into producing the magazine. I loooked through magazine such as NME and The Source for ideas how a realistic magazine content page should look them combined with my own idea I came out with a rough sketch of how it should look like.

The double page spread took me a while to decide what I was going to include in it. In the end I decided to do an interview, this was common in the music magazines I was analysing allowing consumers to communicate with the artist however not physically but they are getting to know more.

I planned a layout of how I shoud produce my double page, the colours used would also be colourful to represent 'retro'.

Masthead Analysis

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Audience Theory

Audience Theory

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Magazine Proposal

Name of the magazine:

RetroKidz

Genre:

Retro/Funky

Slogan:

Got to be down with the RetroKidz....

Cover price:

£2.90

Target audience:

Teenagers age 14-17

What are the circulation figures for similar magazines?

- NME

-Rap-Up

-The Source

Advertisers/Advertising- how do we know they will advertise?

Advertising is a form of communication intended to persuade an audience to the product. Advertising for music magazines are commonly through the internet, newspapers, questionnaires or t.v adverts. Advertising helps sell the product. I have been using NME magazine as a guidance and it is said to be the popular music magazine in the U.K as it is published weekly since 1952 so that consumers are up-to-date with the latest music and artists.

If advertising through the media is unsuccessful then another suggest is by free distribution, the method is from door-to-door so that consumers are directly told about the product. As it is likely some consumers do not have access to the media.

Presentation of my magazine

Layout

The layout of my magazine is simple yet funky. I have included a masthead, tag lines, strap lines and cover lines to make it a realistic magazine.

Fonts

I decided to use a graffiti font for the masthead which relates to the theme. The rest of the fonts I've kept simple however used different colours and size of the fonts so that the magazine looks bright and colourful in order to catch the consumers eye.

Colours

Colours are important for my particular music magazine as the theme is retro which goes back to the 1980's, when bright colours were in fashion. For my magazine I matched the colours in the image with the colours in the masthead, this could also be an association as i used a mixtures of colours the use of bright colours could symbolise happiness and being active.

Pictures

My main image is a picture mid-shot image shot from an above angle so that the models in the picture are looking upwards with attitude. I only used one image for my front cover and the reason for this is that i did not want my front cover looking over crowded and consumers will open the magazine for more! I purposely chose a background with graffiti wall as it links to the theme of my magazine also contrasting it with the font of the masthead.

Content

In my magazine I have used slogans such as 'Get into the retro vibe!' this will make readers feel they are directly being spoken to. I also included the issue number of the magazine which shows that it is published often.

Who and what does it feature?

For my magazine I have chosen to do an interview so that the reader know more about the artist and their lifestyle.

The people I have chosen my magazine are a small group of teenagers passionate for music, I've decided to name them RetroKidz linking it to the magazine. Also in this addition of my magazine the group is searching for a new member of the group so that it interests the reader.

Target audience

After doing some research I came to the conclusion my target audience will be teenagers from the ages 14-17. Therefore I have used teenagers as my model and not formal english that won't be understood.

What is my unique selling point!

My USP will be the fact that my magazine will be 1 out of 10 magazine that have the theme retro. I wanted my magazine to be different however used magazines such as NME as a guide so my magazine will look realistic.

Double Page Spread

Contents

Final Front cover

Results

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Music Magazine Analysis

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