Final Words...

To the examiner,

I hope that you have enjoyed looking though my blog and seeing my journey that I've taken to produce my final magazine cover, contents and double page spread. All my posts have labels added to them which will make it easy to navigate around my blog (left) and there is also a blog archive which lists my post from when I began this task. The mixpod on the left sets a mood for the genre of my magazine as it gives an idea of the music featured in my magazine and the genre it's aiming for.
I've put a lot of work and hours into my blog and I hope that you can see that through my posts. It's been a pleasure carrying out this task as I feel like I've learnt a lot since I started. I feel that since my preliminary task I've progressed in the range of software and technologies I've used throughout, especially with Photoshop in which I've picked up a range of skills. Once again it's been a pleasure and I hope that you can see how my magazine ties in with my blog.

Enjoy marking!
Mohini Bhatt x

Final Magazine (Re-Post)

1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of music magazines)

For the masthead of my magazine I used the font ‘Sketch Block’ which I had found on the website www.dafont.com. I decided to use this as it stands out from the rest of the text on the front cover of my magazine. I wanted the masthead to stretch across the top of the page – which is a typical convention of rock and classic rock magazines – but also have a different aspect to it so it stood out compared to regular magazine mastheads.

I researched magazines such as ‘Revolver’ and ‘Rolling Stones’ that all have a plain masthead that stretch across the top of the magazine where is where I got my inspiration from to place my masthead where it is.

 

I feel that my masthead challenges some typical conventions of regular magazines as yes it does stretch across like the magazines I was researching, but the man beating down the ‘E’ adds a quirky individual take on it. I feel this is what makes the masthead stand out making it eye catching and noticeable to the audience. 

As a template I looked at various magazines where I got inspiration from for my layout. I mainly used ‘Classic Rock’ magazine for a template as it was similar to what I was trying to achieve when creating my magazine. It matched the type and genre I was going for but although I used ‘Classic Rock’ I also used ‘Rolling Stone’ for ideas when looking at the contents page. I feel that the layout I’ve chosen for my magazine has a simple, formal look to it which attracts the target audience. It also relates to the genre in a more sophisticated way even though it has similar aspects to magazines which are currently in the market.

 

The costume and props that are used throughout my magazine are all conventional and all relate to the genre. For example my model wore a ‘New York Doll’s’ t-shirt as it’s a band who he looks up to and a band that has relation to the genre of classic/punk rock. This typically challenges conventions of current magazines as usually models wear clothes that are plain or the text on the shirt has random text on instead of band names etc.
My model also used a guitar and in some of the photos he has alcohol bottles and records around him to symbolise the theme of rock ‘n’ roll. These props and costumes are typically found in magazines such as classic rock etc. as it relates to the theme well and are examples of the ‘rock star’ image. This is a way in which my media product uses some conventions of real music magazines as some pictures are taken with more of a set to them.

 

When taking the photos I used a range of sets, there was one created that gave across the rock image and there was another where a plain blank wall was used. When making the images look work on Photoshop I used a various range of tools. For example the photo on the cover of my magazine was taken and then cut and placed on a black background, I then ‘de-saturated’ the colour of the picture and using the ‘history art brush’ tool on Photoshop re-stored original colour to the guitar which the artist is holding – visible at the bottom of the photo – I previously tried this out with different photos seeing where would be the best place to restore colour and finally I decided at the bottom would be the right place to. The guitar the artist was holding was red so when I tested out a range of colours with black and white I saw that as the guitar is red the colour scheme would look better black, white and red so it looks more efficient and smooth.

 

All text on the cover is places in a straight line which is conventional in regular magazines. But I’ve used various fonts to attract audience attention such as the cover line. I feel that if the cover line ‘Sun Circus’ is different from the rest of the text it attracts more audiences and the cover line is the biggest text on the page. I looked at some different ‘Classic Rock’ magazines to see how they challenged this using different colours and fonts to attract audiences. Also the text and colours used relate to my genre well and also connect to my target audiences. Although the text is very conventional in how its placed it also has some unconventional aspects to it such as the man beating down the ‘E’ on the masthead as most magazines have a plain masthead that is not diagonal or different just straight and plain across the top of the magazine.  

 

The genre of my magazine is classic/punk rock which. This is represented well throughout my magazine through use of costume, props and other text on the page. For example using a symbol text I found I used a plectrum on the contents page to act as a paper clip to the two pictures and this is a way in which the rock aspect was coming through in small detail. Also the record which replaces the ‘O’ in ‘Contents’ also is something that represents classic rock in detail, the text also represents the genre as there is references to ‘Download Festival’ which is a rock festival and also recent news stories such as the death of Gary Moore. Having features of actual festivals and real artist feature on the front cover makes it clear to the audience what type of magazine it is. 

The artist is represented in a very unconventional way as he is young which is a shock in classic rock as when you think of classic rock nowadays you think of artists such as Keith Richards and Gary Moore but I feel that having a younger person on the cover of my magazine highlights the fact that my magazine is trying to re-create classic rock and that there is young people out there who have a passion for this type of music. My target audience is between 19 and 40 having a younger person may not appeal to the older audiences but as the artist is headlining on a classic rock magazine it may change their mind and make the magazine more desirable to see why a young person would feature. 

There was many options when trying to find a suitable colour scheme but after my draft I decided to use a black, white and red colour scheme as they are colours that are usually related to the rock genre. There was an ‘Elle’ magazine I found in which the colour scheme was black and white and pink. It worked really well and I felt that if I used the right colours I could make my magazine use a similar colour scheme and make it relate to the genre well, as ‘Elle’ is a fashion magazine not a music magazine I’d have to work really hard at making the colours match my genre and target audience. I also looked at the ‘Classic Rock’ magazine featuring ‘KISS’, the colours were grey, beige and pink but the pink stood out more compared to the rest of the text because of the plain colour scheme and the sudden burst of pink.

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

My intention was to aim for a magazine that would be for a particular genre of classic/punk rock. The magazine would be original and have a certain creativity to it that attracted particular social groups.

The age group for my magazine is aimed at 18 – 40 year olds and I’d say it was for everyone – although I would imagine more male audiences to be interested in it. When creating the magazine I took inspiration from ‘Classic Rock’ ‘Rolling Stones’ and ‘Revolver’ which all cost £3 + some in supermarkets – others in shops such as Borders and WHSmiths.

Although I’ve aimed my magazine for male and female audiences I feel there is a lot more male attention to it and this is possibly to do with the layout, colour scheme etc. Saying this it’s particularly aimed at male and female audiences who are into the genre of classic/punk rock music I managed to add to the unisex aspect by featuring bands such as The Doors and also The Runaways.

The trailer clip from The Runaways gives an idea of what sort of an audience I was aiming for when creating my magazine as the trailerswould only appeal to certain audiences. For example people who are into the genre of hip hop and R&B would be audiences who wouldn’t enjoy watching a film about ‘The Runaways’ but watching a film such as  ‘Notorious’ which focuses around  an artist from the Hip Hop and R&B background.

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

Future PLC is a publishing company who publish magazines such as 'Classic Rock' 'Revolver' and 'Guitar World'. PLC is one of the sixth largest publishing companies since 2006 along with magazines they publish video game, technology, films and photography.
The magazine that PLC publish 'Guitar World' has a leadership position as the worlds biggest guitar magazine. They market magazines by holding events when they've achieved certain goals, for example the magazine 'Guitarist' celebrated a 25th anniversary in 2009 and recorded the highest ever circulation it's ever seen. Also 'Classic Rock' held a 'Rock Icon' special for it's 100th issue and this attracted many audiences and promoted sales of the magazine. Their website attracts an average of 2.5 million views a month and their magazine 'Gutiar World' attracts over 300,000 customers a month.

Using these statistics I would think that Future PLC would be the best company to distribute my magazine as they already promote magazines with this genre and they'd work together to make sure that my magazine is desirable. They would want to distribute my magazine as it is within a similar genre as to the ones they already distribute. Although it's similar and has competition it also has it's own individuality to it. Looking at the magazine I've constructed I believe they'd like it because it has specific target audiences like most of Future PLC's magazines do which would make them have a more unique selling point to the magazine. As my magazine is for a specific audience Future PLC would be able to use that to find areas in which they can sell the magazine and make sure they get the most out of distributing it in these places. 

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

Evaluation Audience

5: How did you attract/address your audience?

Media Evaluation - 5 on Prezi

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

Microsoft  WordI used word to gather information I needed during my research and planning section. Some of the institution profiles and audiences profiles were done on Word. 

Microsoft Publisher
I used publisher to edit some pictures occasionally and save them as JPEG’s  to use.

Microsoft PowerPoint
I used PowerPoint to put together slide shows of some of the things I had found out during the research and planning section of my coursework.

Slideshare
I used Slideshare to put up the presentations I created using PowerPoint so I could share the presentation on my blog by embedding it.

Scribd
I used Scribd to put any documents I had created on word onto Scribd so I could share it on my blog by embedding it.

AnimotoI used Animoto to put together a series of images of magazines, album art, magazine covers, model poses etc. to give me inspiration when creating my magazine.

Mozilla Firefox
My browser was Mozilla as it is the browser I use on my laptop, I used it to access my blog and to access a search engine during my research and planning section of my coursework. 

Google
The search engine I used was Google as it’s easy to use and I know how to navigate myself around it.

Photoshop CS4
To create my product I used Photoshop CS4 Extended. I had used it before but I was able to pick up new skills from it and understand and learn more about this software than I knew. It was enjoyable using Photoshop as I could construct what I wanted easy and carefully whilst being able to keep everything in order. I learnt a lot of different things when using Photoshop as I began to learn how to blend images and background and colours more. It helped me physically see what looked good and what didn't which really helped me when I came to deciding on my final colour scheme and layout for my magazine. My knowledge and understanding of photoshop really improved over the course of this task I learnt about different tools that I had no knowledge of before and some were really simple to use once you knew how to.

Laptop
I used my laptop most of the time, there were only a few occasions in which I used the school computers, this is because I was able to organise my work well and do work at home with Photoshop on my laptop.

Camera
I used my camera to take pictures of my subject for the test shots and the actually shots. I am pretty familiar with this camera as it is mine so I had no trouble using it.

Memory Stick
I used my memory stick to transfer data between school computers and my laptop every so often but I mainly used my memory stick as a back-up in case any of my files became lost or corrupted at any point of my coursework.

Blogger
Finally, I used Blogger to keep all my information on for the duration of my magazine. The research and planning, working towards and my final product are on this blog along with the evaluation. There is also a mix pod and some information about me to bring personality into the blog and all posts are labelled and titled clearly. I learnt how to organise my work more clearly when using this and the labels allowed me to search for research I'd done during the making process so I could always refer back to research when making my magazine so I was sticking to what I learnt during that process in how to address/attract my audience.

7: Looking back at your preliminary task (the school magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Looking back at my preliminary task I've purchased Adobe Photoshop CS4. CS4 has enabled me to produce my coursework and I used many tools that I hadn't used before. I learnt a lot during the research and planning process about magazines and distribution regarding them which I found really interesting. During research and planning I was able to find/view/learn about magazines I hadn't even heard of before and I was able to pick out elements that each magazine focused on and how that made them unique which added to the final product of mine. The preliminary task was pretty simple and basic compared to my final and there is clear knowledge that my final has had a lot of work put into it through the research and planning of my magazine. I feel my knowledge of magazines has improved over the course of the coursework as I was able to pick out elements of magazines and see what/how they use typical conventions to make them unique. I also believe my knowledge in Photoshop has improved as I was able to produce a more professional shelf-looking magazine for my final coursework. My knowledge will stay with me for a long time and I'll be able to put it forward in the future regarding other school work and coursework and jobs if necessary.

Magazine Draft: Front Cover, Contents Page and DPS

New colour scheme ideas

I've decided to use a colour scheme that uses black, white and then a singular colour.I like the two blue ones and the red one, but I prefer the red at the bottom to go with the black and white. When I do create my final piece I will experiment with the colour schemes I like best and use the one I think looks more effective.

Draft Evaluation - My comments

Looking back on my draft I can clearly see what I can change to make my magazine look more professional, neater and make it relate more to the genre. The colour scheme is dull and can do with lifting up to make it look more 'rock' style. The vinyl on the contents is to re create the image of classic rock but this can be re thought about as it may not appeal to certain audiences who I'd like to aim the image at and some of the pictures on the DPS can make it look too busy especially when the subject isn't looking at the camera. I need to work on these aspects and more to make my magazine look better and more professional to reach the grade i would like to and to make it look like the genre chosen fits.

Draft Evaluation - Teachers comments

Cover:
Interesting masthead, well laid out. Font looks a bit too small, lacks impact. Subject isn't looking at the camera which loses the audience interaction element. Colour scheme dull, not like a rock magazine.

Contents:
Polaroid images need word, layout is a bit messy - need tightening up. Why use vinyl in a download age?

DPS:
Best element of three but subject only looks at the camera in one shot, why? Decide on an border for the images for more impact.

Magazine Draft: Front Cover, Contents Page and DPS

DPS Development

The development of my double page spread to achieve my final product.

Contents Page Development

The development of my contents page and how I added small details, changed the font sizes and the font to produce my final product.

Front Cover Development

The development of my front cover for  my magazine draft. Here is different ways in which I changed the font the colours the sizes etc to produce my final product.

Matthew Rolston

Matthew rolston research

View more presentations from mohinibhatt93.

Experimenting with Photoshop.

Here I've taken the same image as before and restored the colour in the guitar and slightly in the ring as well. I really like this, it focuses on the colour of the guitar, it balances out with the black and white aspect of the photo and it looks really neat. On all of the pictures you can see the flash shadow which appeared when I took the photo. I need to work on removing the flash from the picture to make it look more professional and a lot more neater.

Experimenting with Photosho

 

I really like this photo in particular especially in black and white. The guitar is originally red but it looks a lot more sleek in black. Here I've restored the colour in the flesh of the model. I think it looks really neat and edgy and the focus isn't just on the guitar or the model it's on both.

Experimenting with Photoshop.

I've taken this shot which is also a possible for the front of my magazine and restored the colour of the pink on the t-shirt and the red on the guitar. I think it's really nice and simple and creates emphasis to the colour and to the black and white aspect of the photo.

Experimenting with Photoshop.

I'm experimenting with black and white photos and a range of pictures that will possibly be on the front cover of my magazine. I want to show that I can create the black and white photo but do something different to the picture which allows people to see my ability to use photoshop. Here I've taken the picture and made a certain part in colour. This isn't the colour of the t-shirt it's just an experiment of what it would look like in different colours. At first I liked it but now the pink and red look too striking for the photo so I won't be using something like this when I do my final for my magazine.

Draft Article.

Draft Article

Artist Profile + Band Profile.

Artist Name:	Krishan Bhatt
Genre:	Rock
Position:	Rhythm guitarist and lead singer.
Age:	19
Idols:	Keith Richards, Jimmy Thunders, Jim Morrison, Tom Petty, Jimi Hendrix.

Band Name:	Sun Circus
Genre:	Rock
Members:	4 Lead guitarist, Rhythm guitarist/Lead singer, Drummer and Bass Guitarist.
Age Group:	19-21
Age Range:	Not specified at anyone in particular but 16+
Idols:	Keith Richards, Jimmy Thunders, Jim Morrison etc.

Magazine Name.

After some feedback some people have suggested 'Blacklight' doesn't make them think of music that much let alone rock music. I've therefore decided to change my name to 'Blackbeat' which was one of the previous ideas I had. I liked the idea but didn't know if it was really original but some people suggested it had more of a connection than 'Blacklight' therefore I have changed the name of my magazine for 'Blackbeat'.

Front Cover Mock-up.

This is a mock-up of my front cover. I decided to go with the black and white photo and one specific colour similar to the 'Classic Rock' magazine cover I found that inspired me a lot. It's just an experiment as I don't want my magazine to be an exact copy to the one that inspires me because I want mine to be edgy like that but  different as well, although I do think this layout is really nice. Also I can keep the background, if the picture was in colour there would be too much going on in the background so I'd have to re-think the background. I really like the idea of the handwritten text at the front mixed in with standard text. My magazine will be different. The colour pallet will possibly be different and the fonts used but I want to stick with a similar layout so there is hardly any text covering the picture of the artist.

Contents Page Mock-up.

This is a mock version of my contents page. I got the idea of the black blocks from the Goldmine magazine contents page I analysed. When I come to do my final it may not look like this as it's a brief mock-up and the colours may change but I like the idea of it being plain and having a picture of the main cover line artist in the middle. I'm thinking of having a picture of a guitar faded out into the background as well to add the music genre within.

DPS Mock-up.

This is a brief outline of what my double page spread will possibly look like. I won't be using the exact same font on the mock-up and I may have changed my colour pallet by then. But I'm sure that I want to have an image in the middle either a mid shot or a long shot of the artist and the interview or article surrounding the image. There may be a possible close up in the middle but I think the mid shot will look better or perhaps a shot with a guitar in.

Magazine Name.

I've decided to call my magazine 'Blacklight' I like the name and I think it's quite unique and different. When someone initially looks at the magazine they won't relate it to music but I relate it to music through lighting at concerts and gigs etc. I was going to call it 'Backlight' but I think 'Blacklight' links more to the rock genre. I looked at fonts from dafont.com in order to see what font would look better as my masthead. I really like the first one and the fourth one down so I combined them at the bottom to see what it would look like.

Magazine Names.

Barracuda - I thought of this because it's a name of a song by rock band Heart. I think the name is really catchy when you say it. But the meaning of it is to do with tropical fish and it doesn't really connect with a music magazine.

Black Beat - I thought this would be another good name for my magazine. The 'beat' part of  the name links it to music. I would use it but I don't know if I would like to use it. I feel it needs to be a bit more edgy and have a bit more meaning to it.
 

Midnight Music - Midnight music is a song by 'The Runaways' who inspire me quite a lot so I thought the name would be nice to use for my magazine seen as though the band who sang it inspire me. It has a connection to music and is catchy and edgy. I'm not sure if the 'Midnight' part of the name links with my classic rock genre of music but I still think the name is pretty good.

Classic Rock - Magazine Cover.

I came across this magazine cover when looking at Classic Rock covers. I hadn't seen it before when I was analysing covers but when I found it, it caught my eye. I really like the layout of this magazine, I like the picture and I really like the colour scheme. I think the fact that the colour is black and white makes the red colour stand out. I really want to experiment and see if I can come up with something similar if not just experiment to see what it looks like because I really like the fonts as well. I like how there is a range of fonts and because of the colour all the important information stands out and catches the readers attention. You can tell everything on the magazine is thought about and the layout is careful as only the main cover line is across the picture and no other writing.The typical conventions of a magazine are followed here which is evident in the barcode, cover lines, main cover line, masthead etc.
I would really like to see if I can come up with something similar but different to this as I need to make sure that if I do my magazine like this it's different to this one and has a unique selling point in compariston to this one.

Test Shots.

Test shots

View more presentations from mohinibhatt93.

Taking inspiration from the picture of Slash we created the background. It's darker than the Slash one and there is more surrounding him. The bottles, cigarettes and records all somehow reflect the image of Classic Rock artists. These are the photos I selected out of the ones I took because I like them better than the rest and the poses are all similar but different. On the first slide I like the picture on the left and the picture that is bottom right and on the second slide I prefer the one on the left and the second one in from the bottom right. I used flash when taking the photos but I feel I need to experiment with different colours so that I can see if certain pictures will look better in black and white etc.
When we take more test shot photos we're going to experiment with a similiar background and also a plain white background with different outfits just to get a feel of what will look better on the front cover of a magazine.

Institution analysis - Future PLC

Future PLC

Front Cover Ideas.

Front Cover Ideas

I decided to look at pictures that would give me inspiration for my front cover picture. I picked some artists that I am focusing on within my genre and I looked at some pictures of them. In all but one picture the artist has their guitar on them and this shows me that music is their passion so in pictures that are taken of them they would have their guitar to show that to the audience. The pictures are mostly taken when the artists are on stage playing even though the set up won't be like this on my magazine cover it gives me ideas on how the artists pose with their guitars and also gives me knowledge on how I would set up the set if I did want it to be like this, in action. The photo I like the most is the one of Slash lying down with his guitar and his possessions surrounding him. The bottle of whiskey beside him and some photos spread around him are all possessions that in some way define him which I like, also most people in classic rock bands were under the influence of drugs and alcohol so the picture is quite truthful as well in not trying to hide what goes on ‘behind the scenes’. If I were to test this shot I would use a few more objects and also have the model sat up slightly so the focus isn't gone completely and this would add more audience interaction. I also like the one of  Jim Morrison (third one in from the left - bottom) the black and white has more emphasis on the smoke coming out of the cigarette and it brings the picture together because of the stage set he is on. The model I am using also likes the one of Slash lying down and he also has some ideas of his own he would like to share when testing out this pose. I am also going to try and shoot a similar picture to the one that is top right as it's really simple and can be worked around well to create my magazine. Also I'm going to experiment with colour and seeing how changing the colour to black and white can change the look of the magazine.

Evaluation of feedback.

After looking through my feedback given for my 25 word pitch from my peers I've decided that it would be best to change my target audience. Currently my target audience stands at 18-25 buy my peers suggested it would be better to have an older audience as the music genre I've chosen will appeal to an older audience. After taking this into consideration I've decided that I will widen my audience and change it to 18-40 as it will attract more people who are into this genre of music. Right no my magazine targets both men and women and some of my peer's have suggested I keep it that way and others have said to target it to men specifically. Personally I would like my magazine to remain unisex as I feel it will attract men and women who are into this genre of music and this will make it less specific and attracted a wider audience. People were questioning whether or not I should use the punk genre within my magazine but just focus on classic rock completely. I'm still deciding if I would like the genres to be mixed or not but if I do use the punk genre it will be classic punk rock music not modern punk music therefore I will be focusing on artists such as The Doors and Sex Pistols rather than the punk music that's currently around.
I'm still undecided on a title for my magazine but I have a few ideas that I want to put across to people for feedback before I make my final decision.

25 Word Pitch.

Classic rock/punk genre, music enthusiasts, male/female, 18-25, mid/long shot - front cover, article - dps photos/text - contents page, three colours - colour scheme.

Colour Palette.

These are some of the colour palettes i've chosen from colour lovers which is a collection of colour palettes some people have put together. I've tried to stick to dull/bright colours for my magazine as I'm trying to find colours that will compliment the genre of the magazine. With magazines you should usually stick to a three colour palette but the four colour pallete on the page above works really well together as the colours are bright and compliment eachother. I'm finding hard to decide which pallete's out of these I like the most I like the orange/cream/sky-blue one but I feel it may be too colourful when I come to making my magazine but I feel like experimenting with it to see what it will look like. I also like the brown rust/beige/dark grey pallete as looks quite sharp and edgy. Even though I can't decide I think most palletes will link to my magazine genre as long as I make it work and make sure that I don't mix the colours too much.

Fonts.

 

Here is a range of fonts I've gathered from Dafont.com which will inspire me to create my fonts on my magazine [cover, contents and double-page spread]. For the masthead I'm looking for something quite big that stands out that can link to the genre of my magazine being classic rock/punk and then for the other writing something that is still bold but a bit more softer so it doesn't look like big chunky writing all over the magazine. I'm determined to use a font that will give the magazine a fresh, edgy look so it can attract customers to a new magazine. I have to make sure I don't choose fonts that will throw my magazine off balance and off course. It will have to in some way link to my genre that I've chosen to keep the sophisticated, professional look. I'll have to decide which ones I want to use by cutting it down to a small few I like then deciding from them for my magazine.

Audience Profile.

Audience Profiling

Moodboard.

Above is a collection of magazine covers, contents pages and double-page spreads that inspire me in different ways. Each one will help me to come up with a range of ideas when creating my magazine and I'm looking at covers without that much writing on the front to make the magazine look more professional and each of these covers also have a colour scheme I can look and and get inspiration from. I've also included a range of artists that will inspire my classic rock/punk magazine including artists such as AC/DC and Sex Pistols.

Double-page Spread Analysis.

Double-page Spread Analysis

View more presentations from mohinibhatt93.

Contents Page Analysis.

Contents page analysis

View more presentations from mohinibhatt93.

Magazine Front Cover Analysis.

Front Cover Analysis

View more presentations from mohinibhatt93.