final outcome

Front cover

Contents

Double page spread

Evaluation 7

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

For my preliminary task I had to produce a front cover and contents page for a school magazine. This was in aid of having a practise on photoshop, to help with the construction of my front cover, contents page and double page spread for my music magazine. This also enabled me to compare the two and therefore show the improvements I made. A major factor distinguishing between the two tasks is the amount of time spent on them. For the preliminary task we only had a few weeks worth of lessons whereas we spent a much longer time period on the full product. I have learnt so much in the progression from my preliminary task to my full product. When completing my preliminary task I had carried out no real research into how a school magazine should look and what it should contain. Little planning went into producing both the front cover and contents page. The images that I used were taken quickly and with no real thought going into certain vital aspects such as costume and location. At the time I didn't realise just how important it was to have good, strong images for my magazine. To take many of the photos I had used my 5 mega pixels camera on my phone, which is why the images were so poor in comparison to the images I used for my full product.I wanted my magazine to be effective and successful.It was very important to get feedback on my ideas because I wanted my magazine to be effective and successful. Overall, alot of research was done before producing the final piece and everything was thought about beforehand in a lot of detail. For example, when it came to the photoshoot I planned it out detailed beforehand which included locations, clothing, make-up, poses, hair, lighting, props, backgrounds and what pages it would be on.I think the locations of where i took my preliminary magazine made it look how it looks, By finding interesting locations other than a plain wall made my final products interesting to look at whereas in my premliminary task all the photos had simple backgrounds. My Photoshop skills have also improved dramatically. My school magazine cover and contents (preliminary task) look very cheap and amateurish. I had used the magnetic lasso tool to cut out my main cover model, which I found extremely difficult. The edges around her head look rough and the image stands out like a sore thumb - not at all as it should. At the time my Photoshop skills were very basic and looking back now I should have atleast tried to soften the edges using the eraser tool. The cover's blue background looks very basic and the shade of blue I have used clashes badly with the bright red. The contents page looks slightly better in comparison to the cover, however it is still very basic. All in all I have learnt a great deal in the progression to my full product, and my skills have expanded on photoshop so i can use more advanced tools without any help.

Evaluation 6

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

I have learnt many different technologiesI have adapted to using the Mac computers, which before this project I had never used. At first it was strange as the set-up was very unfamiliar to me. All computers that I had used in the past used microsoft windows software, where as this was obviously not the case with the Mac computers All of the icons and programmes were arranged differently, so it took a bit of time for me to get used to it. I liked some features of the Mac computers however, I think that I would have preferred to use a computer with software that I was more familiar with. The main technology that has been vital during the whole production process is the photoshop software. I first used this software when completing my preliminary task. To begin with I 

found it extremely difficult to use. There were so many different settings and tools that made the software just bewildering for someone like me who had never used it before. One tool that I found particularly hard to use was the magnetic lasso tool. I remember using this in both my preliminary task and my main coursework production. I used the tool to cut out people from images and it was a very frustrating process. You needed a very steady hand and lots of patience to be able to cut out the images neatly. I was also new to blogging, i didn't like the idea at first but after i posted some of my work and got used to it i like the idea and found it interesting using different fonts and colours. An advantage of blogger is that it eliminates the large amount of time spent on making a folder look attractive. The main benefits of blogger is that it is simple, quick and teachers can help you at anytime because they have access to this. My camera managed pretty well in these conditions, I had to use the brightest flash available and luckily still managed to get a few amazing photos. I was extremely pleased with the pictures until I uploaded them onto the computer and found that unfortunately many of them looked grainy and not as sharp as I had hoped. Also, due to the bright flash the model's  face looked fluorescent white, with little or no definition showing her features. As the front cover was the first page I produced, much of photoshop was still completely new to me and so it took me a while to find the desired effects I wanted to add to my title. I used the effects column that runs down the right-hand side, combining effects until I was happy with the overall look of my title. Another very useful tool was the scale option on the move tool. This allowed me to re-size any images without stretching or altering the proportion of the image. The eyedropper tool also came in handy, as it allowed me to take a colour from one section of the page and use it for another section or feature on the page. I frequently used it to select the shade of red used for thetitle, so that I could use it elsewhere on the page, helping to keep with the colour scheme of the page.

Evaluation 5

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

  

By attempting to attract to the audience i have used images of young people, this helps to attract my target audience as they are young as well, also they can relate more as they are a similar age  to themselves. This image i have chosen i feel relates to the audience, as the audience is more likely to connect more

 with the model as she is young. The clothing the my main model is wearing is a leather studded jacket, this makes her appearance more edgy, as she resembles to the clothing the audience will be wearing. Again this helps me to relate to the audience. 

 

                                

                             

I find this image interesting as it looks like she is not wearing anything. This attracts to the audience because once again they are young, and young boys would find this sexy, attracting the audience. also her pose portrays even more seduction. I think its wacky and different, almost like a rebel which is a good thing if i want to attracts the rock music listeners, as they are seen to be quite rebellious. The text uses normal everyday language which attracts readers as it's not intimidating. The readers are more interested about the music than a high use of special vocabulary words.In addition to this, my image of em, and distorted notepad is a way of attracting people because it stands out and is about a chance of winning a signed guitar by a famous girl. It was important to have a prize that my target audience would want, otherwise it would be pointless. For certain text on the pages I have used bold, capital font to grab the attention of the audience, as well as to give a loud impression, much like the music itself.

Evaluation 4

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

My target audience are older teenagers, and young adults aged in their 20s. Who are interested in indie/rock music. I have explained in more detail who my target audience in a previous post, and who it is aimed for and why it would be suitable for them. 

Evaluation3

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

I think that the Bauer might distribute my music magazine. Bauer publish magazines such a kerrang and Q. Bauer media group are hugely successful and have a portfolio of influential media brands that includes many of the best known magazines in the UK. The institution already publishes music magazines that contain similar content to my magazine, http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/ However Bauer may think my magazine is competition and therefore not want to publish my magazine. However Q attract more mature people to read their magazine, and Kerrang have more hard core readers, so i think there would not be any conflict between us so Bauer would be the best publisher for Sniper. 

Evaluation 2

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

m I wanted my media product to represents indie/rock fans. This is portrayed through the look of the model. This includes her leather jacket and her shaggy curly brown hair. Also the font style of the Sniper masthead relates to the rock genre because it is edgy and quirky.Youth is also expressed through the bright, modern colour scheme. My main model, Georgia attracts men because she is attractive and has a seductive pose. At the same time women would aspire to her and envy her because of her quirky style and good looks. I noticed that using white people for models was a convention of existing rock magazines which is why I did it aswell. Stereotypically, rock magazines are associated with white people whereas rap and R&B magazines are associated with black people.I decided to use white models for all of my models so this shows that my media product represents white people. My media product represents late teenagers which is portrayed through my young main model used on the front cover who is a similar age to the audience.