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

I believe the one thing I have learnt/become skilled at through the progression of producing my final product, is the ability to use the programs necessary to produce my media product.
Out of all the programs I utilized  I believe I have gained the most knowledge of Abode InDesign. When I first began my preliminary task, I was very unaware of many of its features, and how to use the software in general. I believe this is evident from the difference in quality between the preliminary products I produced, and my main products. Certain useful features that I hadn't used in my preliminary task, (due to the fact that I had little knowledge of them) I discovered whilst making my main product; these features helped me to better the overall the quality of my main product, showing an evident improvement from my prelim task.

Not only have I gained great insight into the features of InDesign, I have also learnt a lot about using Photoshop. Similar to InDesign, there were a lot of features I newly discovered whilst in the process of making my main product, helping to improve the quality of my photographs. As the photographs play a huge role in the overall look and quality of my products, this aided me in produced a main task of higher standard in comparison to my preliminary.

Though, computer programs aren't the only technologies which I gained knowledge in to better my main products from my prelim products- my increased awareness of how DSLR cameras operate helped me produce a much higher standard main product. Just looking at my photo shoots, there is a vast difference in quality between my prelim and main pictures. Understanding the importance of lighting, camera angles, models positioning etc., helped me improve my photography skills over the progression between producing my prelim task and main task. Again, this is evidently visible from comparing my main products to my prelim products.

Aside from computer programs, I have also learnt the importance of research and the depth of which I must go into researching in order to produce the best products possible.

All these elements have aided in making my work more professional and of a higher standard. Overall, I believe my knowledge of computer software and other technologies (such as the DSLR camera) have improved- I have learnt my new skills and techniques which have resulted in me having the ability to create a much more professional and higher quality final product, that is my music magazine.

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

http://www.slideshare.net/TheRealDans/what-have-you-learnt-about-different-technologies-from-the-process-of-constructing-your-media-product

5) How did you attract/address your audience?

http://padlet.com/wall/u94atl08b7

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

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

Firstly, what is an institution? An institution is a company that disperses a media product for audiences to consume them. There are many different companies which disperse magazines, such as Warners Group Publications plc, Seymour, COMAG etc.

InterMedia is a publisher that distributes many magazines, one of their most popular being Vibe Magazine. This company is unlikely to distribute my magazine as it holds a strong resemblance to Vibe magazine through the layout and genre, as I was influenced by it when producing my own product. InterMedia would not be interested in distributing my magazine, as it is very much like one magazine they already distribute (Vibe). This means it is unlikely they would gain anything from distributing my magazine, as the audience I would be hoping to reach would most likely have already been targeted.

 

 

Conde Nast are a very well known company that publishes one of the biggest, most read and popular magazines available; Vogue. Due to the fact they publish and distribute such a popular magazine shows they have the expertise and experience to popularise a magazine, which is something I would want for my product. On the other hand, Vogue is a fashion magazine, and the company may not have the experience when it comes to distributing music magazines which is something that would be vital to me. Not only does this mean they are probably not the best choice of institution to distribute my magazine, they may not want to distribute it if they feel it isn’t within their area of expertise; if they make an investment in my magazine and chose to distribute it, they could fall short and damage their reputation.

 

 

Another very large publishing company that could possibly distribute my magazine is IPC. They publish a variety of magazines genre i.e. men’s interest, music, TV guides and many more. IPC also publish NME, which is one of the most popular music magazines available. My magazine would be of a whole different genre to those they already distribute, therefore I believe my magazine would be successful if distributed by this institution. On top of this, they have the experience of distributing one of the largest selling music magazines and would most likely have the expertise and knowledge to popularise my product.

Out of these few institutions I have mentioned, I believe IPC would be the best distributor for my magazine. Both my magazine and the company itself would benefit from the distribution of my product; this is because they do not publish a magazine like mine, meaning they can enter into a new music genre market. Having IPC as a distributor will also mean I won’t have any internal competition, as there is not other magazine like mine that they publish or distribute.
Though another thing I should consider, are digital magazine distribution companies. My target audience are young adults; at the ages of 18-28, in this day and age, people are very much in tune with new technology and the internet. The vast majority of my target audience are likely to have electronic devices, such as android and smart phones, where that can access the internet throughout the day and the press of a button. Accounting for this, I believe it would be important for me to consider digital magazine distribution companies- companies such as PixelMags. They are the leading digital magazine distribution company, who offer publishers multiple channels to instantly reach millions of customers. They have a very wide array of clients, ranging from Elle Magazine (a fashion magazine), to Men’s health magazine, to Surfer (a surfing magazine). Due to their clear success and popularity, I think it would benefit my magazine it they were to digitally distribute it, but it may also benefit them as they don’t distribute many/any music based magazines, so they can go into a new market. However, primarily, I think it would be good to have my magazine distributed by them due to the great influence technology and the internet has upon young people- specifically, my target audience.

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

http://padlet.com/wall/xlpu5rjfsp

1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Prelim Task: Final Magazine Contents Page

Here is my final contents page. I decided to include an image of my dad, posing as the head teacher, and then link it to the page necessary, rather than the image of the school logo. I kept the picture I took of the two school students, also linking the image to the necessary page number.
Ultimately, I decided to stay on the path of ‘less is more’ and making sure that the images I included correlated positively to the text on the contents page.

Prelim Task: Finalising Contents Page

To make my contents page a little bit more interesting, I decided to add a coloured background. I used the same maroon/deep purple colour featured in my front cover, to show consistency.
I went for a simplistic, but sophisticated look, keeping the layout simple and not too all over the place.

Here, I added three images that relate to the contents page and magazine itself. The first being the school logo featured on the models’ sweatshirts (as opposed to an image of a head teacher, shown on my original plan).
Secondly, I included an image of the 2 students featured on the cover, in black and white, to show a bit of diversity in my images. Lastly I added an image that links directly to the information on the contents page, which I saw used in my research.

Prelim Task: Contents Page Research and Plan

 

 

 

This is the original plan for my contents page (purely text based). I made this to simply show where everything will be placed; the layout I will probably follow. For the title, I have used the same font as on my front cover, to show consistency. The titles are also in this font to link them together in terms of importance, similarly like the titles in the first contents page I analysed. I have also developed the amount of pages I believe would be prominent in school magazines.

Prelim Task: Final Magazine Cover

The final edit of my school magazine.

Prelim Task: Creating Front Cover

In these first four print screens, I have placed and fitted my front cover image, then also placed my chosen magazine title at the top. I also used a tool to make the image fade naturally into the white on top, where the title is to go.

After placing my title on my magazine cover, I increased its size and fitted it to where I wanted it.
I then added text that relates to my magazine- “Don’t just chase your dreams; run them down!” & ‘New, spectacular sports wing open at St. Daniel’s School; inspiring London’s forthcoming athletes.’
Lastly, I added a barcode to emphasize the authenticity of the magazine.

Prelim Task: Photoshoot 1 & 2

For my first photoshoot, I used my younger brother. As my magazine is promoting a new sports wing, I decided to do a sports themed photoshoot. Here are a few examples of the photographs I took:



In general, these photographs aren’t great- they would take a great deal of editing as the background is not what I want on my magazine cover.
This led me to do my second photoshoot.

Here are some images from my second photoshoot, taken after I analysed my first, looking at what needed to be improved and/or changed.

I decided to use two subjects in this photoshoot, to make my images more interesting and dynamic. I also used my local park as a backdrop, which gives a better impression of school grounds than my back garden.
In the end I chose my favourite image and edited it; this is the image I am using on the front of my magazine…

My Magazine Cover Image

Prelim Task: Font Research

To begin choosing my font, I selected many different types and styles, to see which ones would be best suited.






I then cut these down significantly, to the fonts I believed were best suited to my magazine. I stuck to the idea of mainly sophisticated fonts as it mirrors the high standard of the school. Though I also kept a few fonts that looking a bit less serious; maybe they could make the magazine more interesting but at the same time, not unprofessional.

 

I went on to cut the list further to my top 3 favourite fonts, all very contrasting.

I then treated the three fonts in the same way; enlarged the ‘S’ and merged the bottom and top line together using the s. I did this to see which one I most preferred, and which one I could truly visualise on my magazine cover.





As you can see, I decided to utilise the centre font, as I think it looked more professional than the other two.
To experiment further, and see what looked interesting, I added colour and a background colour of grey (to compliment the maroon font colour).
In the end, I decided that less is more- the first of the three prototypes appealed to me the most, and this is the font that I will use on my magazine cover.





Prelim Task: Research

General Ideas:

- General Advertisement

- Promotion; - new wing (certain subject) to school added
- sports facility available at school
- healthier school meals

- Specialized schools;- School of arts
- School of sport- Magazine for new year 7's

- Special needs school

- Extraordinary Children

Chosen idea: School putting more money into their sports department, to promote healthy lifestyle for young children
Name of school: St. Daniel School CofEAs the school is advertising a healthier lifestyle through sport, the magazine cover should give an implication of this. Therefore, I have chosen to research images that surround this theme.

· Magazines depicting "sporty school":

Though this is not the front cover of a magazine, it is still somewhat useful to my research. As we can see, it has a dynamic and energetic feel to it, due to the images and colours used.
The image in the bottom right hand corner has a very robust feel to it, depicting the enthusiasm and excitement of sport.
This is something I should consider when deciding what picture/s to include on my magazine cover.

In the top right hand corner, the text used (‘fun active educational’) is bold and large, and each word varies in size; ‘active’ is the largest word, giving the idea that it is of a higher importance than the others.
This makes me think I should also consider what parts of my magazine cover I should highlight over the rest.
Also, the pictures in this section of the magazine are placed in an animated way, making it pleasanter to look at; picture positioning is something I also must consider.

Moreover, the text standing out in general (through font, size and colour) is very important, as it makes the magazine far more interesting and appealing.


Further Research:

Here are further examples of sports magazines.
There are some similarities between them, and some differences; to start off with, the images used on them. Though they are both midshots, one depicts a person in action, whilst the other is a posed image. I think the inaction image is more captivating than the posed image, as it portrays the essence of sport. Though some may argue an inaction shot looks more untidy than a posed image- in this case I think the inaction shot works well.

Another difference is the amount of writing on each of the covers. The one to the left is quite plain and simplistic, with very little writing, whilst the one on the right has a vast amount in comparison. Personally, I think the magazine with less writing takes on the appearance of a poster over the appearance of a magazine. At the same time, I believe too much writing would have the magazine cover look clustered and messy. Once again, I think the ‘School Sport’ magazine.

On both magazines, the titles are bold and stand out- I think this is very important, as the title usually identifies what the magazine is; therefore it is important to make it stick out.

These are all things I will have to consider when deciding what kind of photographs to use designing and creating my front cover.

 

FINAL CUT OF DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD

Process of creating Double Page Spread: Part 2

I went on to add the text for my article, which I had previously prepared on Microsoft Word. I put my article into columns as all my research supported this.

Finally, I increased the size of the first letter in my article again, supported by my research. I added a footer to my double page spread, expressing the page number, those involved in the making of the double page spread and the year it was produced in.

Process of creating Double Page Spread: Part 1

To begin making my double page spread, I opened a new document on InDesign and placed my images into where they belong, corresponding to my plan.

 

After placing the pictures, I added my quote, closely based on my previous non-specific research. I highlighted the text by placing rectangles over the top of the text, filling these boxes black and making the text white.

 

Photograph Editing Process for Second Photograph: Part 2

After sizing the picture to my specifications, I manipulated the lighting, shadows and highlight. I also added effects such as ‘Sepia’ and ‘Tranquil’ etc., and then added a pink tint to her lips.  

Here is the final edited version of my second photograph:

  

Photograph Editing Process for Second Image: Part 1

Here is the second image I need to edit; the problems with this image are very similar to that of the previous- creased background and relatively poor lighting.

I first opened the image onto Picmonkey and blurred the background in order to remove the creases as much as possible.

I then cropped the image; this is because I plan to use this photograph on the A4, left hand side of my double page spread, to take up the whole page.

Photograph Editing Process for First Image

Here is the first photograph I need to edit. As you can see, the photo has a number of faults that need editing- the creased background and the poor lighting which don’t exentuate the models features.

I opened the image onto Picmonkey and blurred the background to try and eleviate the creases as much as possible.
 

I then manipulated lighting, highlights and shadows and added effects including ‘Tranquil’, ‘Sepia’ and ‘Dusk’. I also editing lipstick onto her lips to give them a subtle pink tint.

Here is my final edited photograph: