My first creation was my school magazine. I used very basic techniques to create the magazine such as using simple word art from a basic computer word processor. I used just one main image on this magazine and cover lines surrounding it. This gave an easy route for the eye to firstly immediately focus on the picture then the cover lines and masthead after. The background was light for the picture on the front to stand out and for the headline and cover lines and also the masthead to be in bright colours so that it attracted the eye. I used a school logo which would also attract the eye of the consumer.

From creating the preliminary task I took some of the basic techniques and made them more complex into my final magazine product, I decided to make them more complexed so that it looked more eye catching and sharper for the consumer. I feel that looking at my final product, I could have been more imaginative on my double page spread because comparing it to the contents it looked plain and simple. From looking at other magazines which related to the genre chose by my target audience, I made my research skills more in detail so that I could easily base my own magazine around it.

I used my preliminary task to show that I had improved my skills into general magazine making and also for the specific target audience, there is contrasts between both of them but major differences in the skills. From completing the preliminary task, I knew what was needed to base a genuine good looking teen music magazine and what areas needed to be stressed throughout the front page, contents and the double page spread. 

Final Evaluation

Evaluation of Final Magazine Product

At the start of this project, for the development of the magazine I researched into music magazine conventions. From the website; http://www.ipcmedia.com/ I looked into researching similar products which gave statistics about different magazines and what their target audience was. My main magazine that I wanted to look at, although I looked at more than one type of music magazine was top of the pops. From looking at Top of the pops, the conventions that I found out was that the magazine price that is found on the cover was £2.45 and the most frequent readers were female, the age range that people read the magazine were 11-15 years old. From those conventions that I found out, I have put them onto my magazine for example, based the magazine at girls because this was the main percentage of sex that read the type of magazine and also the age range.

This an image of the magazine product that I intended my magazine to be like, and then my product:

From producing my magazine from basing it from 'Top of The Pops' I made similarities such as using girly colours such as pinks, purples and whites. I used slightly the same cover lines and also used one main cover image on the front page. My magazine focuses on only one certain genre of music (POP).

From looking at all of the magazines that I analysed, I tried to base my own magazine around them. The colours used in the magazines represent the social group that I was aiming for. I also composed a questionnaire for people to fill in which gave me more of an idea what target audience I would be basing my magazine round.

From the results I found that most of the people who took my questionnaire 75% were of girls, this firstly gave me the idea that my magazine would have to have girl like features including colours and types of fonts that girls would attract to. Then from the second question I found that most of the girls who took the questionnaire, were from ages 11-13. From this I could conclude that the words that I would be using in my product would have to be relatively simple and also I would try to use slang words so that the teenage girls reading the magazine found it interesting.

In my production of my magazine, the main technology that I used was camera work. I used many images throughout my magazine and used a digital camera to take the picture on my front cover and also for the pictures through out the contents and double page spread. On the front cover I used a long shot, so that you can clearly see what the whole outfit the girl is wearing and the background around the two girls. The shot goes with all of the cover-lines around the front page and relates to them in some ways.

I took the pictures on a digital camera which made them look clear and also when uploaded onto the computer, they were easy to edit. From editing the light and contrast, it made my photo look more into depth, I also de-noised it to make it look more proffessional and more magazine like. From researching into magazines, I could clearly see that this is what all other magazine producers did too, to make all of these alterations I used iPhoto and an Apple Macbook Pro.



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preliminary task

Updated Double Page Spread

Updated Front Cover

completed front cover

completed contents page

completed double page spread

Development of Magazine

Development of Magazine

Development Of Magazine

Development Of Magazine

start of contents page

Start of double page spread..

Double Page Main

1st Draft of Double Page Spread

1st Draft of Double Page

My idea for a music magazine will be teenage/pop themed aimed mainly at girls aged 16-18.

 Its main selling points will be:

·         The front cover, as this will be the first thing the buyer looks at, it will be suited for the age and the gender that it is made for by having a sophisticated and ordered layout. The colour scheme will be brightly coloured so that it will stand out to the buyer. There will also be pictures of celebrities on the front cover that are young so that the audience will know them and be able to recognise them straight away.

·         The articles relate to girls and people who are interested in famous Pop-stars who have current upbeat music out in the charts.

·         I also plan to appeal to this target audience by the things i am including in it, for example I will do this by making the front cover of the magazine the most appealing it could be to draw the audience in and make the target audience buy it. I will do this by arranging it in an ordered and mature way, while keeping the cover-lines about relevant subjects and in places that they will be seen through different routes of address. Its colour and font scheme will also be clear and attractive to make it easy to read and appealing which will be a big out to the audience.

·         The colour scheme that I choose will be the overall theme for the front cover and contents page to keep it simple and then different or additional colours will be used on the double page article spread to make it look more appealing and different to the rest of the magazine.

·         For example the feature of the magazines (interview of artists on front cover) will have a different colour scheme that perhaps relates to that artist in some way as well as the audience which will give the audience an idea and link things.

·         On the contents page and throughout the magazine there will be articles about various famous singers that are in the current charts, interviews with other music stars, a poster section, reviews of artists, singles and albums, tour dates of boy solo singers. The interviews will be of music stars that are young to relate to my young target audience, they will be of both male and females.

·         As my magazine needs to appeal to girls, I will also include recent news about music stars and things that they have been wearing as in my questionnaire the interests on girls included gossip and fashion.

·         The image of the celebrity on my front cover will either be a girl who is fashionable and successful or a boy who is attractive and successful to appeal to the female audience as well as the music side. Or I could have both as also in my questionnaire people said that they like more than just one photo on the front cover.

·         I think that my magazine will be extremely successful as i have made sure that i will include all the things they said they would expect to see in a music magazine and the other answers will let me appeal to my specific target audience well. I also plan to keep it at a reasonable price of £2-£3 so that it is affordable for young teenagers who currently are at school or in higher education, as they cannot afford high costs.

1st Draft of Contents Page

Contents

Fonts

DRAFT TEXT

Draft Text

Level 4 Criteria.

From looking at past AS students Level 4 Magazines I can identify that they have used many different aspects to achieve their grade.  They have used brightly coloured titles and large bold fonts for them to stand out and the pictures used are relative to the stories. For example, the “Drowned In Sound” pictures have been selected purposely for the mise-en-scene of the magazine and for the mood from what they want the audience to see and feel, the pictures have been manipulated to the context of the magazine by using ICT appropriately to the task they have been set. The lighting they used was bright to go with the mood of the front page. They have also used appropriately integrating illustration and text in all the front page, double page spread and contents page. They have showed understanding of the conventions and layout of all the page designs keeping it all very formal and running the same theme throughout.

From looking at the planning of my magazine, I think that I have the potential to achieve a Level 4 for my proposed magazine if I think particularly about the ideas of my photography and the range of different shot types so that they are not all the same, they all also have to be relevant. I have thought about the mise-en-scene of my photographs for my magazine as taking photos in a background with un-related things to my audience would not appeal and also not look as good as it would, this is why I chose to take all the photographs with a blank background behind. The language that I have planned is relevant because I haven’t used words that the target audience would not understand and have used relative words that they would know and use themselves. My layout will have to follow my conventions and the range of suitable fonts would have to be a wide variety as using the same would be boring and not attract the reader’s attention and would probably not want to read on more.

Draft For Front Cover