Technology has helped me massively during the creation of my production piece. I would say this has improved the way I have been able to produce my magazine. I have used a range of different technologies as from this blog post it explains a little bit about the equipment that I have used. I have explored this in another post on this blog
By writing blog posts every time I have done something during my production piece is another way technology has been used in the process.
I used the website http://www.scribd.com/ to upload powerpoints that I had created to uploaded onto my blog which would put it into a little slide show to present it on my blog.
The equipment that I used and technologies were also important, e.g. Photoshop, SLR Camera etc.
I have made a big difference from producing my preliminary task to completing my final magazine. I used Photoshop to create my preliminary school magazine and my final music magazine.
I used very similar layouts for both magazines although I have gone much more in detail with my music magazine so that it challenges forms and conventions of other music magazines. I have thought much more carefully about many features of my music magazine, including, layout, font, text size, images and colour.
My preliminary task was a short task to get started using Adobe Photoshop and create a much simpler version of my music magazine.
My music magazine was created to a much higher standard compared to my preliminary task. The language that has been used throughout the magazine has been thought about very carefully so that it fits in with the genre of magazine that I was trying to create. Each of my images are of younger people which help promote it to my target audience much more and will appeal to a wider audience of younger people.
I have learnt that using photoshop to create my magazine on has been a difficult task but for me to stick at it and to make sure I created each page very carefully to produce something that could compete on the market if it was going to be sold.
Although my music magazine has been deliberately produced to attract pop fans I have used fresh young images that are likely to attract my target audience and beyond.
The costumes that I chose for my models to wear in my magazines were current clothes that were in fashion at the time of producing my magazine as people will aspire to this. Having similar clothes to that worn by celebrities is likely to interest and attract people more as they are interested in finding out the latest gossip within the music industry.
My magazine has dominated a much more with female prospective rather than male. Modern representations show that there are many more female solo artists and girl bands within the pop genre, than there are male. By looking at this typical representation I think my music magazine is likely to be aimed more towards women rather than men. This will not increase or decrease the number of people that are likely to purchase my magazine.
My magazine has been designed and produced to be bought by many social groups although it may attract just certain social groups that are stereotypically aimed towards in different parts of the magazine. Each of my images that I have taken will appeal to people in different ways, this is something I took into consideration when I was creating my music magazine as this is one of the main things people look at while they are flicking through a magazine.
Although I have a laptop at home I preferred to do most of my creative work in school. This still created problems for me along the way of the creative process. For me to be able to complete work at home I saved all my work onto a memory stick to make it easier for me to access both at home and at school. I had many problems with my work not opening while I was in school and many of my files becoming corrupted so I did not find the school computers very useful at all.
I used Adobe Photoshop to create my music magazine which I could use both in school and at home, once all my photographs had been taken there was nothing obstructing the creative process as I followed my drafts and stuck to my time plan as much as I could.
As you can see there is a really big difference between my preliminary task and my music magazine. When creating my college magazine I used a simple layout that met most magazines that I looked at, which were music magazines and gossip magazines. When creating my music magazine I looked much more in depth when researching music magazines as I wanted to have a music magazine that followed the forms and conventions of other music magazines so that my magazine would fit in really well if it was to go onto the market.
There are some similarities to both my preliminary task and Music magazine as in both I have used one main image for my front cover and the same for my music magazine. I have also put the title of both magazines at the top in large bold writing. Text has been placed around the outside of the image in different sized text but keeping the same font. I have been more in depth when creating my music magazine as I thought a lot about how I wanted my images to be taken, what exactly my the language of my text was going to say, which fonts would look best and fit my genre of magazine, the colours that I should have used etc.
To begin my media practical the first thing that I did was to create a gantt chart to show how I was going to manage my time throughout the process of producing my own music magazine.
By doing this I could keep looking back to make sure I was managing the time I had correctly to ensure that I would meet all deadlines that were set.
To keep my time accurate I made sure that I planned my ideas ahead so that I could stick to these throughout the production and if any changes needed to be made, it would only be very slightly.
I made sure that I was using my time well outside of school to complete the work that needed to be handed in, to ensure I was doing at least 4 hours of media work a week made sure I would meet all the deadlines. Although I spent much longer time some days/weeks as I wanted to make sure I could complete everything really in depth.
Equipment
To ensure I achieved a high standard photograph to put into my magazine I used my Canon EOS 40D DSLR camera. For some of my pictures I also used an external flash so that facial features of my models really stood out.
To do the creating part of my magazine I used Adobe Photoshop. The program has many features that helped with the production of my music magazine. From image manipulation, different font and texts sizes, to being able to rearrange images and text to look like a conventional music magazine. The program creates each little bit that you do in a separate layer so that it can be rearranged so different things can be placed on the top of other things.
Models
I had 3 people as models to feature inside of my magazine, this made easy for my to stick to my time plan as I only had to arrange 3 separate photo shoots although more took place my ideas changed slightly during this pre production stage. All of my photo shoots took place in my own time after the school day, which shows how I have managed my time well.
I feel I have worked very well while working individually to create my music magazine and feel my time and resources have been managed very well.
Each of my images were taken in a particular way to keep all readers interested throughout the magazine. For example my main image was taken in a unique way to attract my audience and creating a mode of address. Having a strong photo with a direct address really attracts my target audience to my magazine.
None of my photographs really portray a particular stereo type, meaning my magazine can attract a wider audience of people to want to buy it. As you can also see by all the photos that I have shown here they differ slightly to the ones present on my magazine. This is because I did a slight manipulation process to each of my photographs so that they looked correct to be on/in my magazine. The lighting and saturation was the only aspect that was changed on the photographs as some were taken with a flash that came out too bright and some were a little bit darker with some shadowing that I wanted to get rid of.
I have thought carefully about how I wanted to images to look on each of the pages and I have shown that I have used a range of different shots. With the use of mid shots, long shots and a close up shot for the producers say.
I feel all of my images that I have taken follow the conventions from other music magazines. The photos especially fit in with my genre of a pop magazine, as I have though carefully about costumes, make up and lighting. Sticking to mainly studio shots because I wanted the photos to fit in nicely onto my magazine page so that text could fit in around the images.
Each of my images were taken in a particular way to keep all readers interested throughout the magazine. For example my main image was taken in a unique way to attract my audience and creating a mode of address by the way I have stood my model and used her arms to create a particular look with a direct address to my target audience.
I used the same idea when taking my other photos that are inside my magazine to make sure I was keeping my audience interested throughout the time they were reading my magazine.
I made sure that I was using a range of different shot types within my magazine because I wanted show that I could follow conventions from other music magazines.
All these images that are shown were taken using a DSLR camera where the photos were then uploaded onto photoshop so that they could be easily manipulated and edited to fit the genre of my magazine. Although I did not make many major edits to my photographs I needed to change the lighting, contrast and saturation settings so that each of my models looked the right colour to be on each of the individual pages.
All of my images have direct address to keep the reader interested when they are looking through all the pictures inside of my magazine. I think if I had to design more pages for my magazine I would have included pictures that didn't all have a direct address as it would have been more appropriate.
Looking at other pop music magazines in the research stage I figured out that many institutions are likely to distribute my magazine. It doesn't necessarily mean that because I have created a music magazine that it would need to be distributed by a specific media institution.
Having a look in lots of different supermarkets e.g. Asda, Sainsburys, Co-Operative, Tesco etc. I found that all these supermarkets held a large amounts of magazines from music magazines to gossip magazines, which are likely to be one of the institutions that my music magazine could be distributed by.
Other institutions similar to supermarkets would be smaller shops e.g. in a town centre or a local corner shop. WHSmiths is another major distributor for my music magazine as they get a lot of attraction from customers for books and magazines and aim to target a much wider audience each year. Although my target age group of 16-25 year olds may not be attracted to a shop like this.
A music store is another institution that will distribute my media product as they will be attracting many music artists for album's etc. This is likely to create a wider target audience for music magazines as a range of music fans will be in shops like HMV.
I have finished producing my contents page for my Pop music magazine. Once again I have used Photoshop to create this as I found it easier to align my text and images so that my contents page looked like it would feature in a Pop music magazine that is currently on the market.
As I have already shown parts of magazine which I have had my inspiration in my last blog post I am now showing the production stage of my contents page.
I have included a presentation of slides with some print screens of the production of my contents page, showing the different stages of the making.
My inspiration for my contents page has come from a couple of magazines that are already on the market as I couldn't find one that I liked and one that I could easily match my magazine to the conventions of my pop music magazine. Although I have chosen pop as my genre I did not want to follow a pop magazine like, Top Of The Pops, as I knew that this is likely to be aimed more towards girls with the colour schemes etc. and would not fit the design of my front cover and my double page spread which has been produced.
I am going to use my logo that I have created to feature inside of my contents page as I thought it would be good to have the website and subscription prices next to it so that people will look at the logo and relate it straight to the Body Of Music magazine.
This was some inspiration for the bottom of the page inside of my double page spread as I had a free space that needed to be filled.
The way that the images have been presented inside of Kerrang magazine has influenced the way that I have set my pictures out. By keeping them all straight with a black line around the outside to define the photograph so it makes it much easier for the reader to look at.
I have kept my writing in columbs which has come from most magazines that I have analysed that are already on the market. Most genres keep it simple with the text in columns and that is how I have decided to present the writing on my contents page.
My producers say was an idea that i really liked, therfore I have taken a photograph of myself to show the magazine has been produced by me and written a little paragraph in the top left hand corner of the contents page. This was something that I have seen in many of the magazines that I have already looked at.
I have now also finished making my double page spread. I have taken some print screen shots of the different stages in the making of my double page spread.
I also used Adobe photoshop to create my double page spread. I looked at a double page spread from NME magazine to follow the look of the title to make my magazine look similar to it, although I used a different colour scheme to the NME magazine.
I liked the idea of having just one main image for my double page spread but as I have written an interview I wanted to be able to spread it across the two pages. Therefore I decided to use two images but kept the same style and conventions as the NME magazine has done in its double page spread.
I have now finished the front cover of my magazine and to show some different stages through the production of this I have created a powerpoint with some stages during the making.
I created my magazine front cover on Adobe Photoshop which made it easier for me to manipulate photos and produce a page where I could have a layout of a main image with text around it, placed to the front and back of the image so that it followed the conventions of other pop music magazines that I have already looked at.
Although I chose to look at a well known pop magazine I added in things that were similar to other pop magazines and things that I thought worked well and fit in with the conventions of a pop music magazine.
I have decided to create a logo that is going to feature somewhere inside of my magazine. Taking the name Body Of Music and trying to create something that would look like a logo that is going to fit the genre and the layout inside of my magazine. I have created this by taking a photo of someone then changing the exposure of the photo in photoshop so that it was really low, therefore the image went black.
To create the B O M that is down the middle of the body I used the same font that I have on my contents page and filled the colour in so that it is white and it stands out from the main image, obviously because it is black.
This idea came purely from the name of my music magazine that I produced. By using the lettering from my contents page and putting them onto the body really emphasises the 'Body Of Music' name.
I have created some more contact sheets of another one of my models that I am going to include inside of my magazine as one of the girls in my girl band. These are the range of photos that I have taken just to show that I have considered lots of different shot types so that she could be used elsewhere inside of my magazine and that my shots that have been shown match the conventions of a pop music magazine.
As I am going to produce a pop music magazine I have looked at two current pop music magazines Top Of The Pops and Blender, each of which are pop music magazines that have been produced as a monthly magazine to sell to each of their target audiences.
Top Of The Pops
Top Of The Pops magazine was launched in 1995 to go along side the television show and the supplementry magazine for the TV show; Top Of The Pops. With a monthly magazine produced with star gossip, song lyrics, posters and quizzes etc. the magazine became very appealing too young girls. The magazine was famous for giving the 'Spice Girls' their name in the music industry.
Produced by the BBC, the monthly magazine uses colours like pinks and purples that are more aimed towards girls. The crowded front cover of the magazine that is not as sophisticated as other music magazines show that this magazine is also more aimed towards a younger audience.
Top Of The Pops regualarly use pop bands on the front cover of their magazine to attract a younger audience who are likely to enjoy the music that each of these bands produce. This is one of the main features that help to sell the magazine.
Blender
Blender magazine is an American music magazine known as ''The ultimate guide to music and more'' The magazine began in 1994 with ''best of'' and ''worst of'' reviews on albums, artists and songs.
With a more sophisticated front cover we can automatically see that the magazine is aimed towards an older target audience, rather than the Top Of The Pops magazine, with a much younger target audience.
Very little colour has been used on the cover of the magazine which shows that the magazine is not aimed more towards a one gender.
A well known pop music artist has been placed on the front cover of the magazine with a a direct address which is going to attract the target audience to this magazine.
After creating my questionnaire and asking some people of my target audience and others i found that three fonts were very popular.
Looking at these fonts and other fonts that are used on current music magazines, e.g. Top Of The Pops, Blender and Billboard:-
Each of these current magazines have very similar fonts used for the masthead. Out of my three fonts that I have whittled it down too, font one and font three are the closest fonts that follow the conventions of these three pop music magazines.
Therefore I have chosen font 3 as my masthead and as this was the most popular chosen choice in my questionnaire.
Taking into consideration that the genre of music magazine that I am going to be producing is a pop music magazine I have taken into consideration the costumes that each of my models are going to be wearing.
My front cover model Tara will need to have a direct address to attract people to buy the magazine, therefore a stylish and sophisticated outfit will suit the genre of magazine. I have chosen a flowered skirt and a plain black top would be suitable for the front cover as this will make my model stand out more on the front cover, although I will be using a mid shot or a close up for my front cover so we may not be able to see her outfit.
The same clothes will be worn when Tara features inside of my magazine in the contents page and double page spread, following the conventions of a Pop music magazine.
As I am going to create a girl band to use as one of the images inside the magazine on the contents page I will need to think about costumes that are going to work well on the page and fit in with the genre of music that I have decided to create my music magazine around. Sticking with stylish and sophisticated outfits, each of the girls that are going to be in the girl band will be wearing a dress, each wearing a different colour. I thought this was suitable for my pop magazine as it follows conventions of other girl bands. I have three girls, Tara (my cover girl), Olivia and Georgia as my models that I will take individual photos of to put the images together to create a girl band.
My male model alex will be the only image that is taken in an outside location that will fit into my magazine, within the contents page. I have chosen a much more casual outfit of dark jeans and a navy blue polo top. Having looked at some pop music magazines I have found that the males are dressed in a much more casual outfit, therefore I am following these conventions for my own magazines.
For my contents page I want to use a few different pictures that relate to what is going to be shown in my magazine. On my contents page I have created a list showing what is going to feature inside of my magazine and I plan to use images, with small numbers in the corner of the image, indicating to the text in my contents page to give more of an idea of what is going to be inside my magazine. This is also shown in my draft drawings of my music magazine.
I am planning to show two photos of my main model that is going to feature on the front cover of my magazine, in the contents page and in the double page spread. A photo of a male that I am photographing to show a male music artist and a group shot of some of my friends which are going to create my made up 'girl band' that will be featuring in my magazine.
The numbers indicating what my magazine has inside will match up with the four images on the page so that my target audience can look at the picture and then see what the story is going to be about.
I have taken photos of my main model Tara and as she is featuring in my Girl band as well I have taken some separate pictures of her for it, wearing a different costume. I have used another model, Olivia that is also going to be in my girl band. By taking each of their photos separately I can place them together inside my magazine so they look like they are a girl group. I still need to take a picture of another girl to feature in my band that i have created.
As my male model, Alex, will only be featuring in my contents page I thought it would be a good idea to take his photo in an outside location. I am planning to take this photo a.s.a.p so that I can fit it into my contents page.
Using outside locations will work well on my contents page as they are not being used to fill a sufficient amount of space on my page, therefore I will not consider the background if there is a lot going on in the scene, e.g fields and trees.
These are some of the images that I have taken to feature in my contents page in my magazine, I am unsure of which photos I am going to put together to form my girl band in my magazine but by taking lots of different shots it shows the different pictures that i may use to go on my contents.
