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

Looking back at my preliminary task I think that I have learnt a lot. The school magazine looks really empty in comparison to the music magazine, as there are less articles involved, less pictures and it there is lots of unused space.

The photograph's used in both magazines are extremely different not only because they are aimed at different target audiences, but because I have learnt what camera angles look more effective and how to use lighting to add to the genre. The front cover image on the school magazine is striking but doesn't look natural, where as in the music magazine the image is dark to fit in with the genre, at a high angle and look natural.

I have found that my skills with Photoshop have improved a lot. I can tell this because when looking at that front cover image again in the preliminary task the outline of the male looks jagged and not smooth at all.

It is clear that I have learnt how to set up a contents page as in the preliminary task it looks completely empty. There are barely any stories included in the magazine and also there is not an editors not, which isn't essential, but looks proffesional.

I have learnt what colours work well together and ones that compliment each other to make them stand out, wich is an essential technique when making a magazine.

Overall I think that i have gained many new skills, especially on Photoshop, and created a proffesional looking magazine.

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

Technologies

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Who would be the audience for your media product? How did you address/ attract your audience?

Here is a hand-drawn image of what I think the target audience to 'Fusion' would be.

They would be between the ages of 13 and 18 and love rock and indie music. Their favourate bands would range from the Artic Monkeys to Green Day, from Mumford and Sons to Paramore. This is because in my magazine there are posters that have these bands in, and people of this age group generally go for free magazines in.
I think that they would wear dark eye make-up and have a striking hair cut., to match their clothes whcih may be from a variety of places like 'Jack Wills', 'River Island' or 'Drop Dead'.
They would mainly watch the music channel to listen to all of their favourite music, but will probably enjoy other programmes such as MTV and Never Mind the Buzzcocks.

I think that these people would buy 'Fusion' because it has everything that they are interested in. 'Fusion' contains almost all of their favourate bands so that they can read interveiws or albumn reveiws about them. There are posters in  'Fusion' so that they can express their taste of music by covering in the walls in them. Also the clothes worn by most of the bands will be similar to what they wear so they can copy outfits and find out where they come from.

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

I think that IPC media would be the right media institution to distribute 'Fusion'. This is because they own over 60 different types of magazines varying from 'Horse and Hound' to 'Now', and all of these are very successful. One of the magazines that they distribute is 'Look' and this magazine is one of the most popular high street fashion magazines around. IPC media does distribute other music magazines such as NME, but this doesn't really matter as Fusion is a rock-indie genre rather than just indie that NME does. This means that both magazines would still sell and IPC media would still gain profit from more of a variety of people.
My second choice was the Bauer Media Group as they too do have a gap in the market for Fusion magzine, but they own over 80 different types of magazines which means that they are a successful company, but it would mean less funding to go towards the making of Fusion etc.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The genre to my music magazine is rock/indie and the target audience was from 15-27 year olds so I had to make the magazine look appealing for them to buy.
I tryed to use some of the ideas that other music magazines similar to mine use and adapt their strengths into mine.

To represent the social group that I was aiming at I tryed to use images that drew you in and that looked interesting. The image to the left is my front cover image and I tryed to use ideas from the image above to the right.

I decided to use drum sticks as props as it made it clear to the customer that this is a music magazine and also because the pose that is being struck is striking because of the drum sticks, making it more appealing to buy than other magazines.

In my image I used dark lighting as I thought that it made it look more 'rock'n'roll' as generally dark colours are associated with this genre, although this is a difference to the Kerrang magazine shown above as the image is rather light. Also this is why I used dark hair and dark subtle make up as it is keeping in with the genre and is similar to the Kerrang magazine front cover above.

My image uses a slightly high angeled shot to draw the reader in, and it makes them focus on the image. This is similar to the Kerrang above although they are using a long angeled shot to make it look more dramatic

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

I think that my media product mainly sticks to the codes and conventions of magazine making for many reasons, making it look professional.

The title of the magazine-
Here is the mast head of the music magazine. It uses very bold and a unique font to make it stand out from other music magazines. It is placed at the top of the magazine as this is generally where you find a mast head and so that the reader can clearly see it. I found the font on the website 'Dafont' and felt that it fit in with my genre as it looks very edgy and uses black and white to make it stand out more, just like Kerrang magazine. I called it 'Fusion' because it is a term generally associated with music meaning 'The process or result of joining two or more things together to form a single entity'. I thougt that this went well with my genre as it is both rock and indie, so they are kind of being fused together. Also it is a sounds different to other magazines currently on the market, making it stand out.

Mise-en-scene of images-
I think that the mise-en-scene of the image that I used follow the codes and conventions of magazine making. This is because I used different shades of lighting, giving it more of a 'rock'n'roll' feel to it, used different camera angles to make the image look interesting to look at, and also I used many different locations. The locations that I used don't really follow the conventions of magazine making. This is because the photo shoot was set in a wood which is not the usual place where you would hold one, but this makes it different to other music magazines making it fresh and new.

Costumes and Props-
The costumes that I used do follow the codes and conventions of magazine making, and fit in with my genre. The girls wear bold red lipstick and black eye liner to make then look 'rock'n'roll', and similarly this is why they have voluminous colourful hairstyles. Their clothes are very simple, giving them an indie look and to also not take the attention away from their hair and make up. The props that they use are stereotypically linked to my genre so I thought it would be a good idea to use them. Also other music magazines sometimes use musical instruments in  photo shoots to make the shot look more interesting and eye-catching.

People-

The people that I used in my photo shoot are quite unconventional. This is because normally rock bands have about 4 or 5 people in the band where as I only have 2. This may be considered a good thing though as it makes them different to other rock bands around, creating more of an interest about them. Also by using 2 females as the band members it creates a contrast with other bands as say the White Stripes as they are male and female. The look of the 2 girls that I used are slightly conventional as their hair is bold and naturally voluminous, although their appearance may not be as extreme as other rock bands for example Green Day.

Title, font and style-

I think that the fonts that I used aren't very similar to those in music magazine as they generally use the same font style for each headline where as I have 2 different types of font. I think that the font that I did use though is very effective as it is bold and colourful. This font also shows the reader what genre the band is as the font is written in black and yellow (which is clever as its the band name) giving the impression that they play rock music. 

Written Content-
I think that the written content does follow the codes and conventions of magazine making. This is because the article is set up into columns making it look more tidy and structured. Also the interview has a really relaxed tone to it as though these questions are being asked and then answered straight onto the paper. The questions in the interview are very conventional as they ask things that you generally find in a music magazine for example 'When did you start composing music?'.

Music Genre and How and how your Magazine suggests it-
The genre of this music magazine is easy to establish for a number of reasons. First of all on the front cover it lists a lot of the bands names that will be featured in the magazine which indicates to the reader what the genre is, because for example you wouldn't find an article on 30 seconds to mars in a hip hop magazine. Also the dark colours and lighting show that it is more of a rock magazine than indie as the dark colours are normally associated with this. The costume and props that are used tell the genre as people who read a classical music magazine are not likely to wear the same clothes as these people do.



Layout-

The layout of my music magazine is very conventional. The main image on the front cover is very simple using a mid shot image of the main feature in the magazine. Also the mast head is placed at the top, a list of bands is displayed at the bottom as is the bar code. the only thing that I would say is different to other magazines is that there isn't as many stories shown on the front cover. On the double page spread I used a variety of different shots around the page which is conventional, as is having the text all together in collumns.

Contents-

The contents page for Fusion is slightly conventional. This is because it does have stories grouped up into the sections 'Regulars' and 'Features', has an image people in the magazine and has a short message from the editor. Although it doesn't follow the structure shown in most of the other magazines currently on the market, which does make it unique but also may be thought as a negative as other music magazine contents pages already look proffesional.

Evaluation

I will now evaluate the making of 'Fusion' and how I think the end result looks. I will be answering the following questions listed below to help me do this;
-In what ways does your media product use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
- How does your media product represent particular social groups?
-What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
-Who would be your target audience for your media product? How did you address/ attract your audience?
-What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

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

Technologies

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Fusion music magazine

Here is the final version of Fusion music magazine

Creating my double page spread

I then started to create my double page spread for the band 'Black & Yellow'.
I had many pictures to choose out of so I had to choose the best ones to include within the magazine.
I narrowed it down to these images as I thought it would be better if both of the band members were in the photograph.

 

 

In the end I used three out of the four of these images as it made the page more interesting to look at and this would encourage people to want to read it.

Here is the background that I created by using the 3 pictures and a black box. It is going to be the base of the double page spread.

Also I added the band's name at the top in big bold writing so that it stood out, and it was clear to the reader who this double page spread would be about.

I then added text and a lure to the page.

I thought that the writing was a little bit too big so I change the size and added more questions to page making it look like your getting more for your money.

This then finished my double page spread.

Creating my contents page

I then went onto making the contents page. I looked back at the mock up that I created and thought that it wasn't what I was looking for in the end, so I quickly drew up another rough idea of what the page could look like.

This version makes it look like there will be more included in the magazine and also it has a bit more of a variety.

I started by creating the background of the contents page. I wanted something bold and striking, so I thoughts that lights would be perfect. I got this image shown below off the Internet as I wouldn't be able to create something like that in the time scale I was working at so I made little adjustments to the image, such as changing the lighting and contrast, so that I wasn't completely copying the image.

I then used this picture to be the main image on the contents page.I modified it by cutting out the background , flipping the image and extending the swings chains to fill in the empty space.

Also I inserted 3 photographs of guitar amps as I thought that it would fit in with the genre, look funky and  also to disguise the fact that in the image her leg has been chopped off.

I then added in the stories and some extra images and here is what it looked like after this point.

This was going to be my final contents page, but I felt that it was lacking something, so I made a second draft.

I added more stories and split them up into two sections names 'Regulars' and 'Features' so that it looks like your getting your money's worth. Also I added an editor's note to the contents page as in most music magazines this is featured, so I thought that it would make it look a bit more professional. I changed the images at the bottom to my own, as the colours used in my images fitted in better with the contents page as a whole.

This then finished the contents page.

Creating my front cover

It took many steps creating my front cover, as I had many factors to think about.

  I first started off by choosing the front cover image. I narrowed it down to these four

I chose these four as I felt that they would be the most striking on a music magazine front cover. The top left image is the image that I drew for the mock up but eventually I decided on the one featured to the left as it was the boldest out of the four, it easily can be established as a music magazine and is different to front covers currently on the market.



Next I had to choose the font for my mast head. It needed to be bold, and fit in with my genre and other things displayed on the page.

I scanned this image of the survey that I did to chose the right font. I passed it around my peers and asked them which font would work best with my genre. I chose the fifth font down as it received the most votes and is different to the titles of magazines currently on the market.

Once adding extra information such as headlines, the bar code, price and so on I created the first draft.of the front cover. I tried to make it look eye catching so that customers would be drawn to it, and also make it clear what genre the magazine would be.

When looking back at this version of the front cover I thought that it looked a little bit empty so I added more headlines around the outside, a preview of the posters inside, and also a tag line to come along with the magazine. This then finished the front cover.