Our Production

Our production final

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Representation of Social Groups

During this project we constructed a representation of both solo artists and groups. However what they have in common is that they are all performers and possibly role models.

In our magazines we have tried to represent our artists as being perfect and glamorous. We have done this through the copy by saying that the target audience will look up and aspire to the artist in the magazine by styling them in fashionable clothing and using are journalism skills to portray the acts in a positive light.

For example, we represented the artist Seth Moore positively. We constructed this preferred meaning by presenting him as famous, but 'real' as his background is the same as the audience so he relates to them positively. Also he is represented postively through the mise-en-scene of the photo on the double page spread as his costume is very stylish and links to the target audience as they are clothes that would be worn by the readers themselves. The photo of Seth Moore on the front cover shows him positively as it suggests he is devoted to his work as he is playing his guitar.

Another artist we represented positively was Vince Flynn. We constructed this preferred meaning through the mise-en-scene. For example his costume which represents him being stylish which makes him fit into the genre of music we cover in our magazine. The copy portrayed him positively as it shows he has raw talent because he had fans before he was famous. For example, "already had positive feedback from fans".

Audience Feedback

To get feedback for our magazine we decided to use a focus group. We thought this would be a good idea as we would be able to get direct information from a group of people whereas if a questionnaire was handed round they would not be able to tell us what they really thought about the magazine and instead only be able to tick boxes or write short answers.

Results
- Front Covers

"The font used is very attractive and the use of red to make the letters bold makes the covers stand out."
-Female, Aged 17

"The layout of the information around the image looks like a real magazine."
-Male, Aged 17

"I like the free gift offer and the way boxes are used to catch the reader's attention."
-Male, Aged 16


- Contents'
"I like the editors note as the language is powerful and relates to the audience."
- Male, Aged 17

"The strong photography makes the page look professional"
- Female, Aged 17

"I like the different headlines used, the stories sound interesting and i feel the interaction between the audience and the magazine. I also like the cover stories boxes used as they are a good feature."
- Female, Aged 17


- Double Pages

"I like how the continuity is kept within each magazine with the placement of writing on the page."
-Male, Aged 16

"The photography in the double pages is strong and they look like replications of current music magazines"
- Male, Aged 17

"The writing keeps the reader interested and is written in a way which would interest the target audience."
- Male, Aged 17


Own Comments
Overall we were really happy with the feedback we recieved as it was positive and they were part of our target audience which gave us an idea of what others would think in that age group.
However we were aware that as people knew it was our final magazine for our coursework the people were more flattering and gave us compliments for our work.

Distribution

The final idea for our magazine is how we would distribute it to the target audience. We decided that we would distribute our magazine in the same ways which the leading magazine publishing company IPC Media targets their audiences.

1)Conventional Distribution
This has been the most popular form of media for over 100 years and will be the main form our magazine will be distributed in. Our magazines will be transported by vehicles to major stockists like WHSmiths, Newsagents and many supermarkets.


2) New Technology
As our target audience are young and are more likely to use technology on a daily basis a website version of our magazine has been set up http://www.Entitynow.com for them to keep more regular contact with the magazine as well as the regular once a month issues.
For students who read our magazine and are on-the-go or do not have access to a computer a 'Entitymobile' is a great alternative for their handset which gives them the latest news updates.
During our casestudy into Cosmpolitan we were aware that they sent emails to their readers who had subscribed to the website, we have decided to do something similar with daily updates of the lastest acts performing, were to see them and any other music related news which can't be missed.

3)Subscriptions

Some readers may choose to have their magazines arriving to them through the post. We would offer this service although it may not be cost effective compared to the website and more modern technologies.

Following, Developing or Challenging Forms and Conventions

Each issue of our magazine is analysed in close detail below. We considered carefully how our magazine 'Entity' would fit into the existing magazine market. By creating a new title, we wanted to follow the major conventions of a music magazine because the audience will feel familiar with the magazine layout and form.

Conventional features we adopted include:
Front Covers - Masthead, Large dominant image, Coverlines, Graphics, barcode/ price/ date
Contents Page - Editorial column, numerical order of pages, grouping of stories, graphics refering to the front cover, large page numbers on top of images


The one area we developed from existing music magazines was our double page spreads. These are more stylish and artistic than most of the examples in 'Uncut', 'Kerang' and 'Q'. We designed pages where the photograph dominated the double page layout. This meant that the quality of our images had to be excellent to carry a double page spread.

Frankie's Evaluation Of Front Cover

The artist on the front cover of my magazine has a pose in which he is facing straight ahead, symbolising that he is confident and serious about his career. I knew the colour scheme for our magazine and wanted to incorporate that on to my artist when I done the shoot. I knew that I was only having one image so I had to make sure that the pose and styling of the artist was enough to catch the readers eye. When taking the photos the lighting was not perfect so I had to edit the photographs after so that they looked right for the cover and looked more effective. To make the photo look more professional for the magazine I cut the artist out from the original photograph. The copy next to the artist is in a different style to the rest of text on the cover, I decided to do this as it stood out from the rest of the magazine and made it obvious that he was important in this months issue.

The copy on the front cover targets our audience and represents them as I concentrated on naming acts which are popular and well liked which will draw our audience in as that is the type of music they want to read about. The bottom of the magazine has a rough summary of what is included in the magazine and I wrote 'WIN' in capitals because as our audience is young they want to feel engaged to our magazine and by having competitions they can enter they will feel that they are taking part in what the magazine has to offer.

I represent the magazine as being successful and being the first to have the latest news to keep our audience up to date with what is going on in the music world. By stating 'First EVER interview' it creates the idea that my magazine is popular and bands prefer to be interviewed with us rather than other music magazines, which represents our magazine positively as our audience will want to buy the magazine as they will think if we have the first interviews with bands, we must have other interesting information and that it will be worth purchasing to read.

The cover line for my artist is 'Recreating Music'. I think this relates to the target audience of my magazine as they are the young generation which has a reputation for being different and also recreating themselves to have a different image so they are portrayed differently from old stereotypes, Which is what my artist is doing with his music.

I used the audience theory to provide Uses and Gratifications in my magazine:
Inform and Educate - A quote on my front cover explains how a band don't believe things are the same as they used to be, this is later explained in an interview which would inform the audience of the bands views and make them aware of their points.
The top 20 albums of the year so far allow my audience to be educated into what is popular and worth listening too according to my magazine.

Entertainment - The number of bands I have on my front cover represent interviews and reviews inside my magazine which provide my audience with a range of texts to entertain them.

I also used the theory of style: Utopian Solutions by making my audience free of boredom by giving them excitement from the artist interviews and photographs my magazine provides.
To get rid of their confusion about what music they should be listening to we give them the top bands we think should be listened too which makes their choices clearer, offering them clarity.

On the front cover the conventions of a typical music magazine are followed similarity. To keep the magazine looking bold and attractive I stuck to a common colour used for all types of magazines which is red. By combining this with an uppercase masthead which was aligned to take up the entire top part of the page I kept to the conventions of the magazines I had previously looked at in the Radial Analysis.
A dominant image was key in making the magazine look more eye-catching as it is the first thing the target audience would see and to have a photograph that presents the artist and the magazine well will help to attract buyers.
I was able to price my magazine as I looked at magazines before making my own and used their examples to help find one that was reasonable and that people would be willing to pay. I then put the price next to the barcode, keeping the conventions of all the music magazines I have looked at.

Evalation of front cover

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Frankie's Evaluation Of Contents Page

When creating my contents page I wanted to keep the conventions that music magazines I looked at had which was to group information and place it in Regulars and Features boxes which was set out for the reader to understand. I was inspired by a the style of the Kerrang magazine and Q in which they were clearly set out yet kept the house style and found this looked effective.

Whilst analysing magazines I became aware that lots of articles about gigs and upcoming acts made the majority of their contents and so I decided to keep with this idea and include these types of articles with information on similar events.
I deliberated on a few different ideas for the photography which was going to be placed on the contents and decided after trying out different styles that one single photograph, if taken correctly and then edited to look more professional, would achieve an effective outcome. I then used this photo as part of a feature and wrote about the artists contribution to the magazine which was part of the layout presentation.

I represented the month's issue positively by including bands and upcoming events that I know are popular with the target audience and would interest readers. A number of different bands are included in the features column as the bands we interview vary each month. Due to the fact the acts that are covered change every month it gives the audience the suspense of finding out who will be included in the next issue and give them something to look forward too. The acts I included in the magazine fit all different eras of our genre music so that there is a variety of old to new acts which create the music they love. Creating a radial analysis of current music magazines allowed me to identify all the different styles used to make their features stand out, so I stuck to the conventions of Kerrang and Q again by including a couple of sentences underneath each story representing them all in a informal way so that the readers feel more comfortable reading about what the magazine includes and at the same time gaining a summary of the interesting points the stories contain.
I also used the information I gained from the radial analysis to make sure that I hit the correct target audience. 'Enlist the Playlist' encapsulates the idea that we have a young audience who are familiar with technology and use mp3s like iPods which include music playlists.

'Glastonbury Festival' is a perfect example of targeting the magazines audience as it is a festival which is mainly made up of youthful people who love music, the same people who read our magazine and want to find out the latest news for Glastonbury, in which thousands will be attending in the summer months. This stories also provides an inadequacy and solution from Richard Dyer's theory of Utopian Solutions; boredom is solved by introducing excitement into the lives of the reader, which is exactly what the weekend festival would bring to someone who is bored of their ordinary day to day way of living.

'Top 20 Albums of 2010' is another form of Utopian Solutions by providing clarity to those who are confused about what music they should be listening to in order to keep up to date.
Blumier and Katz Uses and Gratifications is used in my contents page to offer escape of the audiences 'daily grind' and to instead, learn about the lives of music stars and the world they live in with their fame.
'Entity News' informs and educates the readers of Entity magazine by updating them on the latest news going on in the music world which involves gigs, artist collaborations and all other information related to act promotions and releases.

Evalation of contents page

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Frankie's Evaluation Of Double Page

For my double spread page I decided to make it look different to the front cover and contents page by making the photograph black and white but felt it was important to keep to the colour scheme. I styled my artist in fairly smart clothing which is normally seen on younger males and fits the criteria of the indie rock artist I wanted my magazine to provide, I then edited the contrast to make the photograph stand out more and look more professional. I used a checkered black and white guitar strap to contrast with the striped shirt worn by the artist to make it clearer that a musical instrument had been used for the photo shoot, the contrast has a positive effect on the photograph as it makes the strap noticeable and leads the reader to look down the page to see the guitar in the hands of the artist. It look a time to capture a photo that i felt would make the magazine look more professional but by taking photographs at different angles to see which worked better with the page I was able to successfully get the photograph I wanted.
The heading for the double page represents my act as someone who wants to share his experiences with his fans and let them into his world to find out about what he has been doing since his popularity has increased.
The last answer in the interview is used to possibly create more fans based in the UK as he talks about how he is always going to stay there 'I'm always gonna stay in the UK'. Showing his sensitive side by talking about his family, this makes the audience feel that they are being trusted with the information they have been told by the artist and therefore brings them closer together.

I used a line from the interview to use as a pull quote to grab my reader's attention and make them want to read on to see why they said what they did. I think the quote targets the audience as it shows he cares about them and wants to produce music they would like and find useful for their own lives 'I really wanted people to feel they could relate to what I was saying.'

'talks to Entity about his life in music' also targets our audience as they aspire to acts like 'Vince Flynn' and are able to find out what life in the limelight is like which is an example of 'Uses and Gratifications' and allows the reader to Escape from their lives. I also use the gratification 'Entertainment' within the double page spread as the interview contains questions which need answers about other acts and the artists views on them which can be entertaining for our target audience to read about.

I followed the conventions of a typical double spread page for a music artist interview by using a dominant image to take up the space of two pages, by taking the photograph and editing it so that half of the photograph was fairly plain in background and was not the focus of the photo, it made it easier when coming to adding writing to the image as I was able to simply edit the colour so that this was made even more basic in colour and that writing would show up clearer. By using a single image it allowed me to easily connect the two pages together. I used a cover line which would summarise what the interview was about which was used by Q in their review of Kid Cudi which means that my magazine sticks to the conventions of magazines that are currently published.
So that the house style is kept throughout the magazine, I styled the double spread to match the colour scheme of the front cover and therefore keeping the continuity of our magazine.

Evalation of double spread page

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Frankie's Evaluation Of Journalism

The interview I conducted for my journalism on the double spread page of my magazine was done in a way which made the artist seem very down to earth and laid back. I didn't want them to sound rude so by making their language informal it provided an artist that would gain a positive response from our target audience.

To begin the interview I made the point that the artist had already collaborated with a well known act which immediately creates a positive image for the artist being questioned and targets our audience and the the type of music they listen too.
To include the language which would make my act seem more friendly to the readers I included speech which would lead to a playful response and laughter making him seem laid-back with the interviewing experience.

The use of musical lexis in my interview helped make the artist come across as a real song writer who was interested in the music not just the fame that came with it.

Talking about the positive feedback that the artist has received from fans when he wasn't as big as he now is shows the readers that he has talent and has worked hard to get where he is today, providing inspiration to the aspirers who will read the magazine and show that there support for his music has been recognised by him and that he appreciates it.

The whole interview is made fairly informal so that the audience feels closer to the artist as a person and see him as a friendly and outgoing individual with a fun personality. I found these conventions came up in the magazines I looked at previously when they talked about upcoming artists or contained interviews with acts to represent them in a certain way to gain approval from the target audience.

Evalation of jouralism

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Frankie's Preliminary to Final Production

My skills have progressed dramatically from when I created a school magazine in January. Since then I have become more aware of the work needed to make a magazine look professional and the planning which needs to go into the project in order for it to be successful.


To take the photographs I used a Nikon D3000 which instantly produced better looking photographs. I chose areas which I felt would represent the music genre my magazine was for. I looked online at photo shoots bands had been on and photographs used in interview pages in music magazines. Once I had a rough idea of the photo shoot I wanted to stage I was able to expand on the idea when I was actually at the shoot.

My photography skills have improved greatly during this project and I have learnt that taking the time to stage the photographs allowed me to improve my overall presentation for my magazine and helped me to get the best results I was capable of getting. Editing the photographs with the skills from photography that I already had was an advantage and I was able to expand on these skills further when it came to learning how to erase certain areas of the photograph in detail so that the image was of the best quality, whereas in my preliminary work I only used a simple programme called Picasa in order to change the brightness and shadows which didn't really show any obvious use of editing tools in the end result.
I used Jasc Paint Shop Pro X2 to edit my photographs for my magazine when I began my final production as the range of tools available was more varied and enabled me to edit my photographs in both complicated and simple ways to make my work stand out and show the effort I put into making my photographs look the best they could.


I used Macromedia Fireworks for designing the layout of my magazine as it provided lots of tools which were simple to use and allowed me to create a number of different layers which I could later edit separately before merging them to finally piece my magazine together. I used the Fireworks software to also complete the text which was going to be used on each page of my magazine and to then add effects which would make it look more professional. The simplicity of the tools enabled me to easily create shapes and lines in which I could write in or to section my work in order for it to be easily read by the reader.

The graphic design of my preliminary work was all done on Microsoft word and using the Paint accessory which limited my quality of work greatly as the programmes didn't contain many tools in which I could edit my work with which resulted in my school magazine looking unprofessional.

To write the journalism for my magazine I decided it would be a good idea to read some music magazines to find out how they spoke to artists in interviews and if they was formal or informal with their questions. After I had enough data to referr back to when I wrote the journalism for my double spread page I decided to also include to the personality of the model I used for the double spread page as I know them well and could incorporate my own ideas into the writing using my knowledge of what people my age and I would be interested in reading about which then allowed me to create the text for my double page.


For most of my work I had to use powerpoints to summarise the writing on my blog and to show the progress I had made whilst making the magazine. To then put these on my blog I had to use a website which I had never used before called 'SlideShare' which I uploaded my Powerpoints on to and then gained a HTML which allowed me to publish it onto my blog for people to view.

Frankie's Use Of Technology

Use of Technology

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Jamie's Evaluation of Front Cover

The artist on my front cover has a very relaxed, serious pose whilst playing his guitar, this shows that he is concentrating and is confident about his up-coming career. When the photo was taken I knew the colour scheme was a red themed magazine, so I used background colours which would make the masthead stand out. Also I had to edit the cover image to make it brighter as when it was taken on the photo shoot the lighting wasn’t very bright; this also gave the image a more professional effect.
I knew by using this image for the front cover I would have a decent amount of room for the text. During the photo shoot we made the background by sticking magazines onto the wall which made it look like a professional photo shoot. As I had a professional background to the image I did not need to crop the artist out of the image.
I made the text next to the cover artist larger than the other text as this is the important main story so it had to be larger and bolder to stand out more from the other text.

The text on the front cover represents our target audience as I included bands and acts that are popular and our target audience would enjoy which I found out via the questionnaire which was handed out. Also I included a celebrity which fits into our target audience who will be featured in the magazine. This will represent our audience as they will want to know about the celebrity which will want to make them read the magazine. There will also be competitions in my magazine, and all teens love to compete against each other!

My front cover represents my magazine being a successful as it is the first to have the latest news on all bands than any other music magazine. I show this by using the words “exclusive interview”, this connotes that popular artists will come to us about interviews rather than any other magazine. This creates a positive view on our magazine as the audience believe that we have all the first interviews on bands, this will persuade readers to buy our magazine.

The cover line “Shia LaBeouf” links to my target audience as he is a well-known actor for our age group and has starred in films such as Transformers, Disturbia and Indiana Jones, these are films that our target audience would go to see. So when they see we gave interviews with him, they recognise who he is and want to find out more which will want to make them buy our magazine.

The Uses and Gratifications theory is also used in my magazine;
Inform & Educate - a quote from the front cover that says “I was at breaking point” is explained in an interview and is informing the audience what happened. There is also a feature called 200 reviews which educates the audience on new bands.
Entertainment - there is many different band interviews and reviews which will keep the audience entertained when reading.

I have used the Utopian Solutions theory by making the audience free of boredom and giving them excitement from my magazine by features such as reviews and interviews that are included in my magazine. My magazine can also clear the audience’s confusion by telling them what music they should be listening to and giving them top bands to listen to which will offer them clarity.

My front cover has similar conventions to other magazines. To make the masthead stand out and to make it more attractive we made it red which is used in a lot of music magazines. We also combined uppercase with lowercase letters in the masthead as this is commonly used by looking at our radial analysis. One dominant image is mainly used in most magazines so we done the same thing as they are the first thing the audience see so the image has to be attractive and eye-catching. To find an estimate price for this magazine I looked at many different magazines and came to a conclusion that £3.99 is a reasonable price for a magazine of this standard, we also found this out by looking at our radial analysis. I then added the price next to the barcode along with the date to keep the conventions of a music magazine.

Front cover analysis

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Jamie's Evaluation of Contents Page

When making my contents page I needed to keep the conventions similar to any other music magazine. After studying my radial analysis we decided to make two columns of “features” and “regulars” so the content is clearly set out. Magazines such as Kerrang inspired us as they were very clearly laid out and also kept the house style.

By studying the radial analysis I found that other magazines include fourth coming events such as gigs into their contents page. This could also make the audience want to buy it to find out information about these events. The photography on this contents page has been chosen deliberately to fit the theme and style of the page. The photo was then edited to our desirability and was included as one of the features of the magazines, so I included some text explaining the picture and the band.

I represented this month’s issue of Entity in a positive way by including popular bands and artists in the features section which is more likely to attract our desired target audience. The bands also included in the features have also been interviewed so the readers will find out information they cannot find anywhere else in this magazine. Also the stories included could be left on cliff hangers and will tell the audience will be included in next months issue which will make them want to buy the next issue. The bands that I have included in my contents page fit into an era of the genre of music so the audience has a variety of different artists from old to new. I found this information by studying our radial analysis of current music. This allowed us to identify all the current popular songs to add to my features. I have kept the conventions of a music magazine by listing the current features of this magazine, but I also added a sentence beneath this heading explaining a little about the specific feature.

To make sure I hit my targeted audience I added a regular to the contents page called “Gig Guide”, in this feature the readers can check up coming gigs and information about them all, this links to my target audience as mainly gigs of our genre of music are made up of youthful people who love this kind of music, the same people who would read our magazine and will want to find out about the fourth coming event and will therefore buy my magazine. This also links to Richard Dyers theory of Utopian Solutions as the readers boredom is solved by attending these gigs/events which offer excitement. The feature “200 reviews” will offer the audience clarity as some readers will be confused about their favourite artists and this feature will offer them clarity.

Blumier and Katz Uses and Gratifications allows the feature “Entity News” informs and educates the reader on the latest news going on in the music industry such and gigs and new album releases.

Contents analysis

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Jamie's Evaluation of Double Page Spread

In my double page spread I chose my image carefully, it had to be a dominating photo but with space to the side for some text. I found a perfect photo to do this. The artist in my photo has been styled wearing informal and casual clothing; this represents him as being a much laid back artist. This style of clothing fits in with our genre of music for our magazine. The artist used in my double page spread is the same one used on my front cover but on a different photo shoot. We tried out many different photos for this page, by taking them from different angles and placing the artist on different areas of the photo. The sub-heading “the man behind the guitar” represents the artist being dedicated to him music as it implies he is always practising or singing. Also the pull quote suggests that he is also dedicated to his work as it shows he wasn’t doing so well but he kept on trying and finally made it.
The text represents the artist as being a normal guy “growing up in the city” shows he is ordinary and just like everyone else.

I have hit my target audience using the double page spread by styling my artist in the image in clothing that links to the genre of our magazine, this links to our target audience as they are also readers of this magazine therefore they will dress in the same way. The pull quote I have used in the text could also target our audience as it shows that the artist will never give up, this can also be the same for reader and have the same views as him.

The text also tells us about the life of the artist which also targets our audience as it explains how a normal person just like our target audience made it to the top, so they will want to find out how, this links to the Uses & Gratifications theory as this offers our target audience an escape from their normal lives to be like him. The double page spread also offers the audience entertainment and inform and educate as the story will entertain them and will inform them about the life of “Seth Moore”.

My double page spread follows the typical conventions of a music magazine by covering the whole double page with a dominant photo and having the artist to the side of the photo leaving a lot of the background leaving enough room for the text to go on without covering the artist. I used a heading and a sub-heading for the copy on my double page spread, I decided to do this as I found this was common amongst music magazine by looking at our radial analysis, this style was often used in Uncut and Q magazine. To keep the house style the same, I used the same colours throughout this page as the other pages which kept the continuity.

Double page analysis

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Jamie's Evaluation of Journalism

The review on my double page spread was written in a certain way to make the artist seem very confident and laid back. I kept the most of the language informal to it does not sound too rude, and this way when the audience is reading the review, it will feel more personal to the target audience which will be positive.

At the beginning of the review it starts off with a positive point as it explains how he made it into the top 40 with “no help from agencies”, this shows that it was a rough journey trying to get where he is now. To make the artist in the review link to the target audience I have made his life background to something I believe the audience’s life is like. So I could use the informal language to make the artist seem friendly, I wrote positive points about him.

The musical lexis of this review helped show that the artist as being a professional singer and song-writer who was only interested in the music by using lots of musical terms.

Talking positively about the artist and saying how successful he was before all this fame, shows that all his hard work has paid off and gives a positive view on the artist as it suggests he is not just in the music business for the fame. This also provides inspiration for the aspirers as he was one of the target audience and now after working hard, he has became someone in the magazine.

The language makes the audience feel closer to the artist as the review makes it seem like the artist is talking to the audience individually.

I found these conventions when I was researching different music magazines in my radial analysis, I noticed that in artist interviews and reviews the journalism is mostly informal to make it seem the artist is talking personally to the audience.

Journalism

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Jamie's From Preliminary to Final

My skills have improved a lot since making the school magazine in January. I have now realised what is needed in a magazine to make it look a lot more professional and the amount of planning that has to go into it to make it a successful magazine.

The structuring of the photography has improved dramatically since January as we are now aware that if we stage the photos, we can have the photos how we want so if we wanted to add text over a photo, we would move the person in the photo to the side giving enough room for text. In January we edited our photos with Picasa for simple shading and to change the brightness, but for our final production we used Paint Shop Pro and Adobe Photoshop as the range of editing tools is more vast than Picasa so we could make the photos look more professional.

I have used Macromedia Fireworks for designing the layout and structure of my magazine as I have much experience using this software in my Graphic Design lessons. This software was useful as it is very simple to use and can give a very professional finish. I also used Fireworks to create the text for my magazine as you can also add effects and edit the text very easily to make it look attractive.

In my preliminary, I used Microsoft Word to create the structure and layout of the magazine; this did not give as good a quality finish to our magazine as this software is meant to be used for text. Also this software did not have many editing tools to use.

The journalism on my preliminary production was very simple and not very detailed; therefore when it came to writing the journalism for my final production, I researched different music magazines and made a radial analysis to study the text in other music magazines. I found that if I’m writing an interview, it is best to use informal and friendly language. My research into the radial analysis I included into my work along with my own ideas as I know what my peers and I would be interested in reading.

Jamie's Use Of Technology

My use of technology

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Michael's Evaluation Of Front Cover

In order to portray my artist on the front cover in a way where she would represent the genre ‘Indie Rock’, I made sure that the props I used would symbolise that. The guitar represents her as being into the Indie genre of music along with her jeans and jacket. I kept the background of the black curtains to keep the continuity of music as it represents the artist on stage. The pose connotes that she is over confident and looking to be successful as she is looking away from the camera into the sky. This pose also anchors the text along side her, showing that she is optimistic. The long shot of the artist is positioned in the middle of the page for full view of her body. I placed her on top of the masthead which connotes that the magazine is also confident and popular. In conclusion consumers would be engaged to look at the product.

To represent the target audience, we conjured up a font that would stand out and appeal to the ages of 16 – 25. I also made sure that the other artists I included would appeal to the target audience as well as maintaining the music genre. We then looked at other magazines with the same target audience to help think of ideas to attract the audience. In conclusion of this I decided that at the bottom of the page, I would include short information that would appeal to them. For example, I said that there was a free promotional within the magazine, “Free £5 ITunes Voucher Inside!”
As a team, we decided that for our house style, we would use red with a drop shadow. The red connotes importance and alongside the drop shadow, the idea of being an important, confident magazine was created.
To aim towards our audience with social grouping, we made sure that we kept to the conventions of a music magazine and therefore the price of the magazine was made at an acceptable price for those who lie within the social grouping of C1, C2, categories for a well known music magazine.

To represent my magazine as being popular and a top buyer, I made sure that it would include the latest news and interviews. The promotional copy of ‘Exclusive new interviews’ make our magazine seem more popular than the other leading brands. Also, the ‘Poster Special’ encourages the readers to buy the magazine as they receive a promotional product which they will see as being good value.

I have used Blumier and Kats’ theory of ‘Uses and Gratifications’ throughout my front cover. The Exclusive new Interviews, gives a sense of information and educate as the audience are able to learn about celebrity artists and their childhood, which they wouldn't have heard before. They can also escape with the interview with Lucy Noels and Tabula Rasa as they can forget about their lives and worries, and read up upon others. There is also Entertainment that intertwines as the ‘Top 20 Chartbusters’ as they would be able to engulf themselves in new music.

Throughout the front cover we have followed the conventions of a professional music magazine. We included a bar code, with the price, issue number and the date around the outside. We kept the same house style between all 3 magazines. This included the same colour scheme, the same font, same layout of pictures and the same box graphics. I looked at a few music magazines to make sure that the price was reasonable. We also created the magazine as a monthly magazine and as a consequence each magazine was a consecutive different month.

Front cover analysiss

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Michael's Evaluation Of Contents

I have followed several conventions within my contents page. For example, the editorial column is positioned towards the bottom right of the page alongside a photo of the ‘Executive Editor’ and his signature. To create the signature, we downloaded a font which looked just like somebody had hand written it. Whilst writing the editorial column I made sure that the context would appeal to the target audience via the use of media grouping. As our target audience would be the ones who regularly check up on the internet, newspapers and TV, so the language I used and names presented was clear and appealing. We also realised that the audience we are targeting would have the latest technology, for example Ipods, Mp3’s and the latest mobile phones. So we decided to create a heading within the regular’s column called ‘Enlist the playlist’. Here the readers can look up at what Entity believe should be on their playlists!
To keep the continuity of house style, we used the same uppercase font for the title of the contents page that was the same as the masthead of the front cover. Including the colour scheme and just under the title of the page is a clearer issue number. These little things made the contents look more professional and easily noticeable.
To get ideas of conventions for a music magazine, I created a radial analysis on kerrang and Q. This way I was influenced by their styles and then altered them to create a layout which would appeal to the target audience and make the contents page itself to be easily navigable.

To represent the month’s issue of the magazine, I made sure the language and style I used would continue from the front page. For example, under the ‘Features’ heading, I kept the copy ‘Exclusive New Interviews’. This combined with a graphic ‘cover story’ makes page is easily navigable for those who want to look at a specific story from the front cover. Also, when I wrote about certain articles that may seem exciting for the consumer to read, I included exclamation marks; “Best 20 top sellers this month!” This way the reader is intrigued to read more as it may give them the solution of excitement to replace their inadequacy – boredom.
To represent the magazine as being informational as well as exciting, I made sure that I would add an article based on a comedian that will appeal to the target audience. “A round with… Justin Lee Collins”. This way, if the reader no longer wants to read about music, then he/ she can read some humour to escape (uses and gratifications) from the world.
I styled the artist at the top of the page in a way where he would be an aspiration for the segmentation of the target audience. The skinny jeans and long sleeve jumper create a perfect image to the readers. He is positioned mainly to the right and looking down which signifies that he isn’t confident and shy. Thus appealing to those in a similar situation.

Contents analysis

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Michael's Evaluation Double Page Spread

I dressed the artists in specific clothes that represent the genre of music they create. I used a checked shirt to create a feel of the Indie Rock genre that my magazine is portraying. The second artist, located at the left of the page is partly cut off. This along with him wearing a coat over a jumper connotes that he still isn’t confident after the duo’s past.
For the background, I used an open field with houses located at the far back for the perfect scenery that I had planned. I wanted to represent the band of having a rough past which is why I made sure there were houses at the back, and I wanted to connote that the band have a lot of free space to roam free; the use of the field.
When choosing the size of the photograph, I made sure that it would dominate the image and along side the effect the camera had when the photo was taken, I achieved that as the background has a blurred effect. The space this created was perfect for putting in some text.

For this page to appeal to the target audience I made sure that the pull quote I used; “we’re determined to rise to the top again” would be an inspiration for the segmentation of the target audience. To help this stand out I put a drop shadow on it to show that it’s an important piece of copy on the page.
To make sure the text would appeal to the audience and be relevant to their lives. I made sure that it would have the gratification of being entertaining as well as having a solution of clarity for their confused inadequacy, as they can relate to the article and take advice on what they can do to help in their situation.

My double page spread follows a lot of conventions of a music magazine. The house styles of all 3 double pages have been kept the same. For example, I used the same colours, fonts and effects from both the contents and front page. The use of the “New to Entity” graphic helps inform and educate the audience as well as being an exciting article to look forward too. I used a heading above the article as I found it was a common thing to do and was well presented. To find a decent idea for the double page, I looked in Q magazine, Kerrang and Uncut. I used ideas from both magazines to conjure up a final template on which the rest of the group used. I also found that within the Uncut magazine, the text was based upon a graphic that was translucent. I liked this effect as it doesn’t ruin the image but also makes the copy easy to read.

Double page analysiss

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Michael's Evaluation Of Journalism

For my journalism that I conjured up for my double page spread, I wanted to represent my artists seem confident and on a level where they could interact with the youth by using informal and colloquial language.

To start the journalism off, I wanted the duo to represent them as being “normal” people and that their fame hasn’t affected their ego. To accomplish this, I wrote about ‘Rex’ and how scared he was the first time he was on stage. Doing this helps the duo interact more with the readers so they can get an idea of their personality.
I also made sure I included the duo’s forenames to create a relaxed tension and a personal relationship with the audience which would create a positive vibe throughout the article.

I used a lot of musical lexis to show how popular the duo is and how incredible their talent is to achieve nominations for their music. I also wanted the duo to come across as friendly and confident, which is why I come up with the idea that they would be going on a lot of tours and concerts. Achieving this increases the respect they would receive from the audience.

I also wanted to create a story that would inspire the target audience. To do this I had to make sure that the music Tabula Rasa performed wouldn’t be the only talent they have. Instead I wanted to portray them as people to be inspired by the public by helping the youth stay of the streets to keep a safer society and spreading their talent by teaching them how to play other musical instruments.

Journalism analysis

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Michael's Preliminary to Final Product

My skills of the use of technology have improved considerably since the preliminary task of creating a school magazine. I have now seen how much time and effort is needed to create the perfect music magazine. From the layout and house style to the journalist entry; in order for my magazine to be successful.

My use of technology has improved noticeably. I now know how to navigate Macromedia Fireworks MX 2004 at a steady pace. By using this software, I managed to conjure up ideas for a house style and layouts for each of the magazine front covers, contents page and the double page spreads by using certain tools like the lasoo tool where I was able to cut out the head of my model on the front cover out and paste it as another layer so her head would overlap the masthead. This made a dramatic change in the appearance and quality of the magazine from the preliminary school magazine to the finished music magazine. By using the scale tool; I was able to rotate, enlarge and skew both pictures and graphics in order to make my magazine to look professional. This made a dramatic difference to the software that I used for my preliminary. I used word which had several editing tools but I felt restricted. For example I could skew the font but couldn’t create a drop shadow.

As I have no experience in photography, this was probably the biggest challenge for me. When we had decided a structure of how we would stage the photos, I then took it upon myself to try and take photos for my magazine. I had my ideas set out in my head but when it came to me taking pictures, I was useless unable to fulfil my wishes. However, after a lot of practise and advice from fellow photography students, I was able to take a range of pictures from which I then chose the best one. To edit my photos, I used a program called Picasa. Here I was able to edit the lighting of my photos to either increase the light or decrease.

I have also increased my knowledge of internet websites ranging from www.blogspot.com to www.dafont.com. For my preliminary, my knowledge of some of these websites was restricted, and therefore for my fonts I used default fonts already installed on the computer. However, for my final product I was determined to find a font that fitted in with the genre of music my magazine was to portray. I then was able to install the font onto the computer in order to change the size, colour and then edit it with a drop shadow or outer glow.

By researching up on other magazine like Q, Kerrang and Uncut, I was able to read other journalist entries. I made sure that the copy I included in my magazine would reflect on the target audience and inspire them to do well in life. I created a background story on how the duo were forced to leave their record label and become independent and made to put all their hard work and effort in to become well known in the music industry again. The pull quote was made to stand out and draw in the readers’ attention.

Michael's Use Of Technology

Use of technology.

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Production Phase

To complete our production work it took around 5 lessons which were 50 minutes/1 hour long.

In the first lesson we decided what genre of music we wanted our magazine to be and thought about the colours we would use and how we would style our models for our photographs.
After this was done we spent another lesson trying to find a name for our magazine. This was harder than we thought as we found it hard to agree on a name as we had different ideas on what we wanted it to symbolize. Because of this we decided to discuss our thoughts and each looked for names we thought were appropriate, after we had a group of names each, we analyzed them all and finally came to an agreement.

The next two lessons were consumed trying to find a font style which matched our genre of magazine, which we again had disagreements about and drawing up sketches of possible layout ideas for the front cover, as we had different tastes in style for the magazine it took up a lot of time to come to an agreement but decided that a simple and bold font would look better for our masthead and wouldn't look fancy and take the attention away from the images and other writing on our front cover.

Once the sketches were finished we spent a lesson discussing them and how each one would provide a positive appearance for the magazine which would catch our target audiences eye. We decided that having the masthead going across the page would look bolder and make our magazine look confident and popular.

Once we had completed all of this work we got to work on putting our ideas together.

Production Phase[1]

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Photo Shoots

We booked locations, booked actors and styled them for our magazine. In each case we planned the location (carefully considering the mise - en - scene), styled our actors (costume, hair, make-up) and directed them to construct the representation we wished for.

Below is a sample of the many photographs we took on the different photoshoots.

Research into existing music magazines

In our group we each brought a different music magazine in and then completed a radial analysis on the front page, contents page and double page spread. After we had finished, we combined them into one slideshow and compared the conventions contained in the music magazines and how we are going to apply these to our music magazine.

Radial Analysis

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Audience Identification (Secondary Sources)

With the use of secondary sources, we are able to apply professional research such as Burtons Theory to help identify our target audience. However, we have to be careful about what questions we write in our questionnaire to make sure that they have high validity and suit our sample. For example, we can't ask what social class they come from as they may find it offensive, or use social-desirability bias to make themselves look better.

WHY WOULD PEOPLE READ THIS MAGAZINE?
Considering Richard Dyer's theory of utopian solutions we will try to offer particular solutions to our audiences inadequacies. For example, by including free promational products, our audience will be relieved of their bordem with excitement. Also, through the use of album reviews and interviews, the feeling of confusion will be replaced with the clarity of being wanted in a community who enjoy the same music as they do.
Finaly, after taking Blumier and Katz's idea of uses and gratifications into account, we want to offer alot of excitement and entertainment in our magazine. To achieve this we will promote our magazine with langauge like 'Exclusive' and 'latest'. Social interaction may will happen within our magazine as readers may discuss the content with each other.

Audience Identification (Primary Data)

We decided that to gather rich primary data we would construct a questionnaire. By using a questionnaire, we are able to gather quick, reliable quantitative data which requires little time and skill to create. However, by using questionnaires it restricts deeper understanding such as emotions and body language and could deprive participants of expressing themselves. Therefore helpful data may not be recorded.

Primary Data

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Creating the magazine

Before creating the magazine we all sat down and discussed what kind of articles we could include and who would be covering each monthly issue. Once we had done this we got to work on creating a baseline for the magazine.
We looked at each others work after we had done this and made constructive criticism in order to make them look at good as we could.
Deciding on a time and date in which we could take photos for our magazines, we got volunteers and used places we knew in order to take the photos needed. Our next media lesson we put all the magazines together and made a slideshow on slideshare to show our work.

Magazines

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Preliminary Task

In the first 2 lessons of this course, we started by designing a front cover on the computer for a college magazine we made up. We used the same logo and same title, however we all used a different layout to see which worked best. After we designed them on the computer, we draft sketched them by hand then scanned them in onto the computer and put them into a powerpoint which is shown below:

Slideshow Of Sketches

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Designing College Magazine

We each conjoured up ideas of what to call our college and design and then merged them together to make a final logo and masthead which we all agreed on.

Briefing

We decided to work as a group of 3 to use our individual skills and qualities in creating the magazines.

As Jamie studies Graphic Design, Frankie studies Photography and Michael has leadership and creative skills, we decided it would be a good idea to consider working in a group to fufill our potentional in making our magazines.

We discussed the ideas we wanted to include and came to a compromise on what we would use on our final idea.