FINAL: Main Task, Front Cover

FINAL: Main Task, Contents Page

FINAL: Main Task, Double Page Spread

FINAL: Pre-lim Frontcover

FINAL: Pre-lim Contents

Evaluation 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? - Slide share link

Evaluation 2

My Powerpoint is on slideshare

Here is the link: http://www.slideshare.net/karlgraham7/evaluation-2-34478710

Evaluation 3

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

I think Bauer Media would be the media distribution for my magazine. I used NME as a style model and you can see this by a few of the conventions on my magazine. Bauer Media is based in German started by a German named Heinz Bauer, it is a family business. IPC media and Bauer Media are two big worldwide media companies who produce Magazines and other media. Bauer Media distributes around 300 media brands. As you can tell by that figure they have a huge audience. Bauer reaches out to both genders too, so this would be a good company to get to distribute your magazine. I think that Bauer Media would distribute my magazine as it is quite similar to IPC's magazine NME and it would get a lot of sales and also give NME big competition and could eventually shut it down. I think that if Bauer produced my magazine that it would benefit them producing a new magazine and giving IPC another challenge.

Evaluation 4

My Audience for my magazine 'Stars In Your Ears' would have an age range 16 - 24, this range is rather big but I believe people of these ages would be interested in buying and reading my magazine. I have put a set price on my magazine of £2.49 which is a reasonable price for that age as some may work and some will still be receiving pocket money. I personally think my magazine is for both Males and Females because that would be a bit sexist. My magazine doesn't really focus on one genre of music it has a variety, so it will be open to more people and a lot more people can read it. The genres are: Indie, Rock, Rap, Pop, Hip-hop and RnB.


Male Profile:

1 - Name: Daniel Hammond

2 - Age: 17

3 - Hobbies: Football, Basketball, Guitar, Drums and Going to Gigs

Female Profile:

1 - Name: Dot Cotton

2 - Age: 22

3 - Hobbies: Gigs, Singing, Playing the Guitar and Photography

As You can tell by the profiles by the research I done, that my magazine does have older and younger readers and shows they have similar interests.

Evaluation 5

How did I attract/address my audience?

I looked at style models to see what I thought stood out and what I could do to make it stand out even more. 

I Used big fonts to make my title stand out and the colours I used stood out in the background. I also think my galactic type background stands out so it will catch peoples eyes. That is what we want, for everyone to see it and want to buy it. I used yellow to because it is a bright colour and that will also stand out. 

Some of the features on the front cover will also grab peoples attention, headings like WIN, FREE Posters, people will want to buy the magazine for them reasons.

Again I have used big fonts which stand out towards the people who look at the magazine. I used a brighter yellow on my contents page so the titles could be seen and stand out, I used a big image of Will playing the drums so people who like rock and like playing the drums would see the magazine and would want to read it.

In my DPS I used big font in the title, the sub-title and the offer at the bottom as they will all catch the eye of the buyers, the special effects I used called 'glow' will also catch the eye as its sparkly and bright. I used a sparkle in Wills eye to fit in with my magazine name. The offer at the bottom will also make people want to buy as it is 25% off which is a lot. The font is easily read and stands out.

Evaluation 6 & 7

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

Overall I think I have learnt a lot more whilst building my media product, I have had experience using a camera and photoshop when I used to make desktop backgrounds and thumbnails for youtube videos, but overall I think my photoshop skills have became a lot better over the recent months of constructing my piece. I learnt how to use some more effects like 'Bevel and Emboss' and 'Satin'. I also didn't know how to use effects like the paintbrush effect which gave my model a completely better look. Since I stopped editing on photoshop I forgot how to do some of the things on it, but getting back on to photoshop and editing was good overall and a bit challenging at the start but I got the hang of the new software and produced my front cover, contents page and double page spread.

Also I have used a camera before but when I took photographs I didn't consider the 'Rule of thirds' because I didn't know about it, also I just took photographs not considering the background, but I did consider the lighting because you don't want a bright photo. If i'm honest before this course I got a bit confused about Landscape and Portrait, but now I know. The camera I had used was a Nikon Coolpix L26, which produced top quality photos. I was pretty privileged to be provided with such great equipment. These photos didn't really need editing apart from taking the background out.

During this course we have been using software to keep track of what we have done, this is called blogger, it allows you to share your work with the world and show what we can produce. The blogs have also shown our teacher what we have done. We have also used  online powerpoints called slide share and prezi. These softwares are also new to me and I was a bit confused at first but I gradually got the hang of it.

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

It has been a long time since the preliminary task and I can tell that my work has improved a lot and my finished piece looks 10 times better. The first magazine I created was very poor and now my magazine looks very professional. I looked at style models a lot more and was very careful with my main task. 

7 Questions

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

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

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

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

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

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

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

These are the 7 questions we need to answer for our evaluation

Playing on my magazine name

As I Have Called My magazine 'Stars In Your Ears' from the original TV Show Star in your Eyes, I decided to put a sparkle in wills eye to show this.. 

Moving Features Around On My Magazine

The old magazine is above and after moving the text around I think I prefer the newer magazine. The magazine below is the newer magazine with the features that have been moved around and I think I prefer this.

Add Social Networking Icons To My Magazine

I added the social networking logos on to my magazine because it gives my audience a bigger range of platforms to access my magazine on, whether its online or on paper.

Facebook: Key Features

What got mentioned a lot is the name of the magazine and the theme, everyone said thats what they loved about the magazine. They also said they liked the colours and the stars. People said it was different having a star background because its unique. 

Facebook: Feedback

These are the comments I received, overall I am happy with these comments and I will add minor improvements

Social Media: Facebook

I Have Posted My Images Of My Creations on My Blog and Waited for Feedback.

Star Theme

I Have Chosen a star and galaxy theme for my magazine because it fits in well with my magazine name 'stars in your ears' I got the name from the TV show stars in your eyes and gave it the twist for my magazine. I Also specifically asked my model to wear a star/galaxy themed top so it looks better

Facebook: Improvements

Lucy told me to use some more colours instead of just having a purple magazine, I Will take this into consideration and maybe try out more colours, the feedback will help me improve my magazine.

Kirstie and Jen also said to me I need to add in the social networking logos which I will do

Sharing My Work: Twitter, Double Page Spread

This is my twitter page and I have requested feedback on my front cover, contents and double page spread

Sharing My Work: Twitter, Contents

This is my twitter page and I have requested feedback on my front cover, contents and double page spread

Sharing My Work: Twitter, Front Cover

This is my twitter page and I have requested feedback on my front cover, contents and double page spread

Changing My Background

I Changed the background on my double page spread as the black and blue gradient was just filling in until I found the background I liked, below is what it looks like, but I still might change it.

Working On My Contents

I Have Made a few changes to the editors comment and i added an effect onto the model like i did on my front cover

Contents Page Banner

The banner on my contents is big and stands out because the colours mix well. White goes with the purple and I Have Included the issue number and date. I Have also included the earphones to keep my housestyle.

Adding FX

I Have added an effect to my model and it looks like he is painted onto my magazine

Working on my Doublepage spread

My double page spread is going to contain a Question and Answer with my cover model, before half term, I had just put the questions in and a photo of Will. Now I am adding the Answers and The Banners

Draft Templates For Liddell

My 3 Templates For Mr Liddell

RESEARCH: Kerrang Double Page Spread

This Double Page Spread is from the magazine Kerrang.

RESEARCH: Looking at Content Pages

I Have Been Looking Around For Some Good Style Models For My Magazine and I Found 4 Kerrang  Contents Pages, They All Have a Very Similar Look About Them and Thats What I Want Mine To Look Like.

RESEARCH: NME Style Models

Again, I Would use these front covers to help create my magazine.