Evaluation 5, 6 and 7

How did you attract/address your audience?

Firstly to attract my audience i had to do research as to what my reader genre and target audience would be interessted in. This was successful when doing my mood boards for audience that would read my magazine. On flickr I have uploaded my front cover, contents and double page spread and added notes to show why i used certain colours, layouts and styles. These notes highlight what i included on my magazine pages to address and attract my audience. These links should direct to a web page on flickr that show my final pages annotated with notes. On this website I also uploaded and annotated my magazine pages before feedback, these will have on information that is still maintained on the final pages, please bare this in mind when seeing my notes on the final pages.

front cover: http://www.flickr.com/photos/87597586@N04/8698521010/in/photostream


contents page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/87597586@N04/8697398227/in/photostream/



double page spread:http://www.flickr.com/photos/87597586@N04/8692985546/

Evaluation 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?My greatest learning throughout producing a music magazine has been how technologies are crucial for the production, for instance if I did not have the use of photoshop I would not have been able to construct the magazine pages

The use of Adobe Photoshop 7.0 allowed me to edit, crop and rotate my photos on to the layers of my magazine pages. Meaning the overall appearance was smarter, I felt my product was able to look more professional by using a software which made merging layers and duplicating layers so much easily than what it would have been on a different software.. I learnt a great deal from photoshop as I am not too familiar with it, the drop shadow effects I used on the headings on my front cover which enabled it to be more eye catching. Technologies such as this one have made the process of constructing this product to be faster, cheaper and easier.

I used my own camera for the front cover and double page spread shots, this meant I could take the shots outside of sixthform, with this flexibility I was able to change locations to suit my shot plans and to ensure I could get the natural lighting or correct background. Once again, the technology of this made the process faster as I could take up to five or six shots and then work with what I had on Photoshop to see which shot suited the page best. For two or three of my contents page and front cover smaller images I had taken those shots in sixth form, I used the school camera which had the same features as my own, this was easy to work and fast as I knew how I could get the best shot from within school, by using a digital camera it meant I could be on the move, changing angles and lighting as well as settings on the camera to capture the shot I was aiming for.

The software Blogger was where I uploaded my work to, to get it onto my blog. Really useful piece of technology as it was specific to what I was using it for, with a simple layout that was easy to work with. As I have not made or used a blog before I learnt how useful blogs can be for recording the useful information, such as ‘constructing a music magazine’ as an extra I put this onto my blog as I felt it was appropriate to show the process of how my magazine was constructed, the blog was a suitable place for this to be uploaded to.

Flickr was a new programme that I had never heard of, however since using uploading my photos to it and being able to annotate and add notes to them it is certainly a technology that I will be using in future. Simply because I feel the technologies it includes it really effective for breaking down a large set of information and explaining it. Flickr is a smart website so when I direct readers from my blog to flickr to see my analysis im confident that they will be directed to a smart effective website which will support my hard work by presenting it professionally

Evaluation 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?
The first thing I notice when comparing my school magazine to my music magazine is how empty the school magazine was, the texts were too varied on the school magazine with the colours being over used and not as thought out the school magazine looks like a product that would not sell. For instance the front cover does not sell or attract, the front cover image is very bland and boring it shows my model holding a planner, at the time I thought this was very suitable and appropriate to the magazine to indirectly make readers aware of what the magazine was about. However, now I see this image has no appeal to a wider audience or even to the target audience of the students, as they would probably respond by not buying a magazine that is showing them what they’re seeing everyday. Therefore when I planned my front cover I knew I would prefer the shot to be taken outside of school to give it a difference. I kept in mind my target audience when making these plans to make sure I didn’t take an easier option and use a shot that I liked, rather than a shot than my target audience would like. I changed models this time by using three friends that I could comfortably work facial expressions with. Although I like the smiling positive face on my school magazine I feel although the more stern expressions on my music magazine have the ability to attract and sell to an audience.

The photograb shows the comparison between my preliminary task and the final magazine front cover

When producing both magazines it was in fact the contents page that consumed the must of my time and effort. As I crucially needed the layout to create realism rather than be plain and simple.However, this still shows on the school magazine as I thought too much about the placement of the headings and images that there is a wide area of blank canvas where I had absolutely nothing to fill the gaps. I wouldn’t be confident or pleased if the school magazine was to be produced because I would be ashamed of the contents page being so blank. Therefore when I constructed my music magazine contents page I added in one or two sentences under each page numbers sub heading to fill the page with information, this also looked more realistic when I had added in the extra information as it made the page more readable and easier to locate certain features

The photograb shows the comparison between my preliminary task and the final contents pages

 

For the preliminary task we did not do a double page spread, as I have never constructed  one before I was anxious about my final product, however on reflection im pleased with the result for my first time. I made changes that were necessary and maintained house style. I included the typical conventions expected and maintained the standard that I had used on the previous two pages. 

I learnt a great deal when looking back at the preliminary task to the overall music magazine. When I began my school magazine I had never created a magazine before, I didn’t quite know the conventions to include, I just knew the basics. Although my final music magazine wouldn’t be able to compete with a big seller such as Kerrang, I am pleased with the overall result I feel the power point I created and added to my blog ‘Producing a music magazine’ certainly highlights this in the production process as I began with layers and pages that were similar to the school magazine which gradually improved as I gained more knowledge of the technologies I was using, as I worked harder for longer on the pages by using independent research to add more style, different layouts and to make my final product look like a music magazine, rather than the unprofessional very basic preliminary task I began with.