Preliminary Task - Evaluation - Question 7

Looking forward towards your main task, what do you feel you have learnt about the production process that will help as you approach the full product?

From finally completing this task I have discovered that I can’t leave work right to the last minute, I need to organise my time sensibly as it is clear to anyone who views my work that certain sections have been rushed and don’t look as professional as the rest of my work. I feel that the first reason for needing to rush my work is because I took too long planning the designs for both the magazine cover page and contents page. Even looking at my cover page and contents page I can see that I have rushed my contents designs.

My cover page is on the left as you can see I have spent a lot of time drawing and colouring the shapes in specific colours. I also thought a lot on how to attract the target audience. My contents is on the right, here you can see that I was starting to get a bit rushed for time and the level of my work decreased.

I feel that the photographs I took were appropriate for the type of magazine I was producing. My magazine is a sports magazine therefore I took photographs of my brother playing football at one of his matches, however next time I will know to take more photographs as it gives me a wider variety to choose from.

When approaching the main task in this project I am going to create a schedule so I have tasks done about  a week before the deadline therefore I will be able to calmly look through my work and make changes to it if needs be.

Preliminary Task - Evaluation - Question 6

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Once I had finished my final versions of my cover page and contents page I went round the school asking students of various ages “who they though my target audience is” and “why” I feel that this will help me in future projects. I designed this magazine for teenagers, if the students I ask say that they feel this magazine is aim at teenagers then I feel that I would have used the right shapes, colours, images and fonts therefore attracting the write target audience. However if the student I ask say a different target audience to what I had made the magazine for I will know that somewhere during the processing stage of this magazine I have made a mistake.

I will show you the results from asking various students by using Prezi.
http://prezi.com/trbylkzayyjj/edit/#4

Preliminary Task - Evaluation - Question 5

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

I have been studying Media Studies since year 10 at GCSE level, through this I have gained a good level of experience on Photoshop. However for this project I had to use programs such as Illustrator and Indesign, with these programs I don’t have much experience when using the tools, as I have never used these programs before. To help me complete my work using Illustrator and Indesign I went to “Google” and "You Tube "to learn how to use these programs. These are the site I look at :-

These links are for using Illustrator

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VEQHcJTolo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKWgtn_axTY

These links are for using InDesign

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY16m7QcFj4&feature=related#

http://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-Use-Adobe-InDesign-CS3-Lesson-1-38334267

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBIiLHDDhIs&feature=player_embedded

Through learning how to use Illustrator and Indesign I learnt how make certain shapes that would attract my target audience. Learning how to download an image of Google and place it in my work in a style that is attractive to my target audience which is teenagers.  

Preliminary Task - Evaluation - Question 4

How did you attract/address your audience?

I asked other students within year 12 and 13 (my target audience) to comment on my final versions of my magazine cover page and contents page. They wrote about what caught their attention and what attracted them to my magazine cover page and contents page. 

Quotes from my target audience.

Clear, Bold, Professional, Good Photograph, readable text, Good Contrast of Colours.

With my magazine cover page to attract my target audience I have stuck to using two main colours within my magazine cover page. With my masthead and sub heading I have placed a bold red line around each letter; I feel that this makes the entire word stand out fully from the rest of the magazine.

with the main image being of two students playing football, I feel that this image stands out as it has a "invisible frame" as there is text just underneath the two students, cover lines on the right side of the two students and a tag line just above the two students this draws the attention of the audiences eyes towards the two students playing football. This gives the photograph an "invisible Frame". The student more to the right on the cover page is wearing the school PE kit this represents the genre of the magazine being sport. 

Even though the two students playing football are both male this will attract both male and female audience, as boys will want to be playing football like them and girls will want to meet and be friends with them.

All the colours I have used with this magazine are all bright, vibrant colours this attract the target audience and shows them that this is an interesting magazine.

With my magazine contents page I have kept too the codes and conventions of using red and yellow for the text, as I feel these two colours contrast well, the red line around each letter makes the entire word stand out from the rest of the contents page. I have used a pale yellow colour as a background colour as I feel that any bold colour will contrast well with the pale yellow.

The main image is of the "Student of the Month" I feel this will make student perform better at school as they know if they try hard enough they will get there photograph in the school magazine where everyone will see them. 

For every heading that I have mentioned within the contents page is in bold red, this will catch my target audience’s eye therefore leading them onto looking and reading the page I have mentioned.

Preliminary Task - Evaluation - Question 3

What kind of institution might distribute your product and why?

The magazine that I have designed is targeted at active teenagers. This magazine could be distributed at Secondary School, which concentrates on sport, Sports Academies, Leisure Centres and Local corner shops. These are all places where my target audience will go or hang out. My main image is of two young teenagers playing football; this attracts an audience of roughly the same age. This image shows the audience that this school takes there students out to other school grounds to play football, this can encourage more of my target audience to buy and read the magazine. The young boy in the front of the main image has the schools logo on the football shirt that the school provides for them, therefore when this magazine is distributed to my target audience they know exactly what school the magazine has come from. 

Preliminary Task - Evaluation - Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups? 

Below is a link that will direct you to my Prezi Presentation. This presentation will show my final versions of my cover page and contents page. I will be explaining how I have used certain texts, fonts and images to attract the target audience.

http://prezi.com/gkuegegl6jer/evaluation-question-2/

Preliminary Task - Evaluation - Question 1

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

Below I have shown two annotated magazine covers and content pages. I have labelled the code and conventions within the magazine cover and contents pages, the make it clearer I have used arrows to show what I am talking about. When writing about the codes and conventions I have highlighted media terms.

Magazine Covers

Magazine Content Pages

Preliminary Task - Changes to Final Versions

From reading through the comments that my target audience had made I have made a few changes to my work:

·         On the cover page my target audience mentioned that on the right side of my cover there was too much bare space so I added two cover lines. This will take up space within the right side of the magazine page.

·         Within the cover page my target audience also mentioned that the back ground image was blurry. I resized the image trying to make it less blurry.

·         On the contents page my target audience mentioned that the main photo was too blurry and stretched so I resized the image so it didn’t look as stretched and blurry.

·         The boxes around the words “6^TH” and “Coming Up” was mentioned that I should get rid of them as it made the magazine look unprofessional. So I changed the colour of the boxes to yellow the same colour as the background therefore they would blend in and be not be noticeable

 

Preliminary Task - Final Versions

Here are my final designs for my School Magazine front cover and contents page. After I read over the comment I have made a few adjustments to my work.

Fianl Front Cover

Final Contents Page

Preliminary Task - Development - Font cover (draft)

Here is my draft version of my front cover. I am going to ask several students to evaluate my work. Telling me how I could improve my work and what they like about my work.

Rachel Jinks

I like the background colour although the colour is basically the same colour as the text for the word “contents” I still feel that I the background is effective. The main photograph looks too stretched.

I like every photograph apart from the main photograph. I feel every photograph clearly shows the audience what this page will be about e.g. sport, Remembrance Day etc.

I don’t like the back box around “6^TH” and “coming up.

Sophie Ward (Target Audience)

I don’t think the Word “6^th) or “coming up” should have a black box around it. At the top of the contents page there should be a picture or text as it looks bare.

The main photograph look too stretched.

Ife Ahove (Target Audience)

Should get “remembrance day pg 21” all on the same line like the rest of the words on the content page. The main image looks too long and stretched. Underneath the word “Contents” it looks too bare.

I like that the “sports” image is the same image as the background on the front cover.

Preliminary Task - Development - Contents page ( Draft)

This is my Magazine front page. I have asked a few students in year 12 to evaluate my front page to see if I can improve it.

 Rachel Jinks

I like the layout of my front page I feel that everything looks professional, the text size is appropriate, easy to read and the colour stands out well from the background. The main word “success” has a bold red line around each letter; this makes the word stand out more to the audience. The cover line and main title has also got a bold red line around each letter, these will stand out to the audience.

I feel that the background photograph works well with the magazine, the photograph hasn’t got too many colours therefore the audience attention wouldn’t be taken away from the heading of the magazine. As the background photograph hasn’t got many colours, I can use basically any colour for text and it will still stand out from the background.

However I feel that I have too much bare space, this makes the magazine cover less appealing to the audience as the magazine won’t catch their attention straight away.

Sophie Ward (Target Audience)
I like how the main heading and the cover line stands out, with a red line around the word this caught my attention straight away. The background image looks a bit blurry, when you look at the image closely. I like the logo I can tell that this school does a lot of sport as the logo has an image at the bottom of a running person.

Ife Ahove (Target Audience)

Change colour of the shape in the bottom right corner and make it smaller. The background picture is blurry. Right side of the magazine cover looks bare and boring. Red line around the main heading and cover line works well with the yellow and makes the words stand out.

Preliminary Task - Development - Drafts of Contents Page

These are my drafts for my school content pages. From researching school magazine covers I know how to attract my target audience.

Here are my designs that I have created, from researching school magazine content pages I am able to apply images, colour and different font that I no will attract my target audience. From looking back over my designs, i would have liked to change the amount of writing on the content pages. I feel that if a student sees alot of text they won't want to read the page or even the rest of the magazine.

Preliminary Task - Research - Analysis of Magazine Contents

I analysed three content pages from various magazines such as music magazines and teenage girl magazines. I focused on the code and conventions and how to attract the target audience.

After looking at the three various magazine content pages, I can now identify the codes and conventions of a magazine. As I have now analysed these magazine contents pages I can now develop my own designs for my school contents page. Knowing how to attract the target audience.

Development - Preliminary Task - Drafts of Front Covers

These are my drafts for my school magazine front covers. I designed these drafts I analysed the three magazine covers.

These are my three magazine covers that I have design. I have annotated each of my magazine covers, explaining why I used certain colours, or place an image in a certain place and how I feel this will attract the audience.

Research - Preliminary Task - Analysis of Magazine Covers

 I analysed three magazines covers. I focused mainly on audience, identifying the aspects that will attract them, and who the magazine is targeted at.

After looking at the three school magazines I identified the codes and conventions of a school magazine. From analysing these magazine covers I now know the main features that go into a magazine cover. This has now allowed me to start developing my design for my front cover.

First Post

This blog is going to cover my foundation portfolio in Media Studies starting with my prelim task, creating a school magazine.