Finished Pages

Evaluation!

Introduction:
For my Media coursework I have created a Magazine Cover, Contents and Double Page Spread for a rock magazine called Mosh. Its targeted for all genres, ethnicities between the age 15-30. However the majority of the costumers will be teenagers, most lower class so the price will be kept low. I choose the rock genre as its what I listen to myself so I will understand what the costumers will want. This evaluation will examine my magazine into detail about how I used, challenged codes and conventions of my chosen genre.

Q1:
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?




Q2:

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Q3:What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

 

Q4:

Who would be the audience for your media product? 

Q5:How did you attract/address your audience?

Q6:What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

During this course I have learnt a lot, from using a mac to using programs I've never used before and those I have like Photoshop I have developed my skills dramatically! I was also taught how to use different websites like blogger and prezi.

Using a mac!:
I had never used a Mac before I started this course so I learnt a lot about using one, for example the basics like the layout of a mac, how to find things like folders quickly, saving things to the desktop to make things easier. I also learnt short cuts like how to save using the keyboard only, and print screening. It took me a while to get used to a mac, but now I prefer them!

Photoshop:I had a little bit of experience with using Photoshop because I used it at school, but since doing this course my skills have improved! For example I knew how the use the quick selection tool to remove backgrounds but I didn’t know how to refine the edge to make it look smoother and more professional.  I now know how to make my images look more professional looking and enhanced the quality as I was also taught how to play around with the colours to remove shadows.

Indesign:This was the first time Ive ever used indesign, I learnt how to make columns and make them the same size to make it look more professional. I also learnt how to import images, I struggled with this as the positioning wasn't going to plan and my photo kept getting a glow around it.

Blogger:We also used a blogging website called blogger to present our work. I found this quick and simple to use. I found this website was very good at presenting my coursework as you could easily do frequent blogs about your progress and you could import screenprints of your work and talk about them in detail.

Q7:Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Conclusion:

Overall I am proud of what I have achieved in this project, especially my cover and contents pages. I feel that they turned out looking a lot more professional than I thought they would and I feel that I have kept to all the codes and conventions of the particular genre but still managed to make it different and unique. However I don't like my double page spread as much. I don't think it looks as professional as the others, If I were to do this project again I would plan more for the double page spread and make sure I leave more time than I did to work on it. 

Double page spread!

Double page spread!

Colour Scheme:
I chose this colour scheme because it fits well with my chosen genre, rock music. The black background is often seen in rock magazines like Kerrang. The colour can symbolise the dark emotion found in rock songs. I also included the blue font as I thought I contrasted against the black nicely. Also it links the page to the cover page very well as blue was used as the colour scheme on that page.

Font:The font size I used for the main article was 11pt, this is the usual size in most magazines, I also used a plain font this makes it easy to read. I decided to make the questions and answers two different colours to split up the text a bit more. This attracts the readers in as it makes it easier to read and makes it easy for them to find a specific question they might want to know the answer to. 

I made the introduction paragraph go over two columns, it makes it look more professional and easy for readers who are knew to the band find out the main story of the article. This technique is also used in Kerrang magazine. 

For the pull quotes I made sure I selected the most interesting and grabbing parts of the article to attract the readers attention and make them want to read on. I made are article as I thought it looked a lot better that way when I was testing the different positions I could put these 

Columns:
Making the columns in indesign was really quick and simple to do. It was really simple to make them the same size as there was a template on the page. Making the columns the same size is important to do in magazines to make it look professional and neat, and I was able to copy and paste my article I had typed up in word very easily. 

More Changes!....

1. I changed the layout of the text, I made it so the text was in a neat square this made a huge impact I thought to make it look more professional.
2. I changed the colour of the questions to a brighter blue as my peers said they found it hard to read before so by making it brighter it helps a lot.

My Article!

Sanctum are new to the music industry however this hasn't stopped them from already winning an Grammy award for best rock album of the year! Ever since their album, unleashing chaos, was released they were racing their way to the top of the music industry. After a few months on tour with Fallon in the USA Sanctums finally back in the UK! And Mosh just had to catch up with lead vocalist and screamer Learna Gibbins. So here we are with the most talked about band this year…

Mosh: You’re quite new to the music industry. How has this whole experience been for you?

Learna: It’s been crazy! I never expected anything like this to happen to me, I had doubts about the band succeeding from the very beginning, its been a bit of a shock to all of us! I can’t explain how amazing this whole experience has been for all of us.

Mosh: Your album unleashing chaos is very dark and has very meaningful lyrics, did anything influence this choice?
Learna: Yes, It was made for one of my close friends at school. He was always a good kid until he started mixing with the wrong people and although he never admitted it at the time he was peer pressured into meeting their expectations. He started taking drugs and shortly got addicted to them leading him into crime. They started to steal and got involved with gangs until there was a shooting and he was arrested. I wanted to make this album to send out a message to everyone going through the same thing he did.

Mosh: So, we understand you had an accident while you were on tour, what happened?
Learna: Oh god (starts to laugh) I knew this would pop up at some point. It was while we were in New York the crowd there were amazing! So, I was drinking quite a lot around the time and started to act stupid and climbed up some scaffolding and slipped and ended up breaking a few ribs. I had to postpone a few gigs so I could recover; I was horrible having to let everyone down over my stupid actions. I’m certainly going to think twice before I do something like that again.  Nobody seems to let me forget about it.

Mosh: You mentioned you were drinking a lot around that time, care to explain?

Learna: Well, It was when we were first getting noticed by fans, the fame kind of got to my head. I started going out partying every night. At first it was harmless but I started to get addicted to drinking to the point I started to drink all throughout the day, every day. I was out of control and I was literally unleashing chaos! I started to treat everyone around me very bad, but luckily my fans, family and band members stuck by me the whole time and helped me recover. I have no idea where I would be now if it wasn't for them. I am so ashamed of how badly I behaved back then. I went against all my beliefs and the message I was trying to send out with the album, but I have been sober for six months now and I hope my fans will learn from my own mistakes. From now on my main aim is to become a better role model. Everyone makes mistakes but you learn from them and move on. 

Mosh: We are glad you’ve recovered now, what would be your advice to those going through the same thing you did?

Learna: I would say quitting drinking is really hard! Don't go through it on your own; tell your family or someone close to you, they can help you! Seeking professional advices helps a lot and most importantly have faith in yourself, anyone can do it with the right determination and if you really believe in yourself.

                                                                                                  

Mosh: We heard you’re working on a new album; will there be any surprises in store for us?
Learna: Well I don’t want to give away too much but we have tried experimenting with adding some different sounds like dubstep. We’ve been working with Skrillex a lot recently which has been a great experience, we are all glad with what we have accomplished so far.

Mosh: Other than the new album, what are your plans for the future? 
Learna: well... we have a single coming out next Thursday to give our fans a sneak peek of our album we are working on then we are going on tour with architects which I’m over the moon about!  I have been listening to them ever since I was a child and have influenced me starting my own band. We are hoping on doing a few festivals in the UK also so keep a look out!

Mosh: What other bands have influenced you besides Architects?

Learna: There are so many! I listen to loads of different bands and all have made me want to create my own music in different ways. If I had to choose the top band I would have to say Archenemy because if it wasn’t for Angela Gossow I would have never expected girls can scream and would have never tried it myself and the screaming plays a big part to our sound.

Mosh: At what age did you start making your own music?

Learna: I started to learn how to play instruments at quite a young age, around five years old I’d say. My dad was in a small band so he taught me to play guitar and piano. It wasn’t till I was fourteen years old I started to make my own songs. My dad would let me tour with him during my school holidays and it was around this time I decided I wanted to pursue it as a career. I didn’t get serious about my music until I left school and studied music in college, this is where I met my band members and started screaming.

Contents page

Contents page!

Editors Letter:I think its important that editors interact with their readers because it makes the magazine seem more friendly and welcoming. This is why I included a editors letter. The language I used was informal and chatty so the readers feel as if they are being spoken to directly. I used a simple text so it was easy to read and for the name I changed the font so it looks like it has been signed.

Banner:
It is important to sell as many magazines as possible which is why Mosh magazine try to gain as many subscribers as possible. By putting this in a banner it makes it stand out but also looks tidy and neat on the page

Image: I chose this photo because I liked the facial expression. I think his facial expression makes him look as if he's in deep though and distracted, this would make the target audience wonder about what he's thinking and therefore would want to read the article. Another reason I liked this photo is because when I edited it I could make the red in his shirt vibrant and I thought it would help set the colour theme as red suits the genre. The photo was also a perfect position and size to fit in the section wanted without making it look to crowded or empty.Editing the image:

1) The first thing I did to this photo was erase the background I did this in photo shop by using the magic wand tool then I refined the edge making it look smoother and more professional.

2) I then started playing around with the curves as I thought some of the photo looked to dark and the colours looked dull and I used the curves to make the colours look a lot brighter and I was pleased with the result and made the page colour scheme match this.

3) Thirdly I wanted to edit his eyes to make them look brighter cause eye contact in magazines can really draw readers in. I selected the colour balance tool to do this but had some difficulties as I couldn't get both eyes looking the same, One eye kept getting a random white part in it and this stood out and looked unnatural.

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Overall I am quite proud of this page, It was much better than I was expecting it to come out as. I feel that it looks very professional. My favourite part about the page is probably the image, I thought the editing looked really good and I love the colours in the shirt against the leather jacket. Secondly I think the layout worked really well, its not to cluttered but not to empty either. 

Front Cover

Cover page background!

Backgrounds! :(  

In this background I found a picture on the internet of burnt ripped paper then changed the colour on photoshop. This has been my favorite so I need to take my own photo soon and include it in :)

I didn't think this background worked so well and it didn't fit my colour scheme and the main image looked to big in comparison to the size of the room.

 

In this background we took a photo of a brick from the internet so we can use the texture of it then I changed the colour of it  to fit the colour scheme on photoshop but I didn't really like the outcome. It also when quite blurry as the photo I used was to small however when I took my own photo I might not have had that happen.

Although I like the look of this background I thought it was to bold to be used as it didn't make the main image stand out as much and lost its impact. I need to use a lighter background in order for the main image to draw the most attention and grab the target audience's interest.