FINAL DESIGNS

Audience Feedback On Varied Front Covers

Notes From Looking At Others Blogs

Claudia Carr AS Media Blog

• Labels different parts of the evaluation in separate blogs
• A mixture of of different media e.g. video, writing, prezi
• DON'T DO 'DEATH BY PREZI!'
• Try out different front covers (drafts), making them different, then evaluate which works best
• If making a video with writing, make sure the slides are timed long enough to read
• Compare and give both images of the prelim task and the drafts of the music magazine before showing the final magazine
• Insert some images of sections of the magazines that show which parts you believe have progressed the most
• Time management? How well did I cope?

How did you attract your audience?

• The Masthead and Tag line - add images
• The positioning of these
• Conventional themes?
• Sell lines and Bursts (there to attract an audience) (promotional offers)
• Describe your target audience (what you said in previous blog)
• The main image
• Double page spread
• Enigma code (makes the audience question whats going on)
• Pull quote (maybe add this to the double page spread?)
• Conclusion

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

• Macs/laptops (don't just have a picture of a Mac - boring, maybe me working at a Mac?
• Pixlr/ Adobe Photoshop
• Talk about things that have gone wrong, how did I solve them?
• Safari
• Blogger
• Prezi (explain why you have never used it before, was it difficult?)
• My camera  Canon DSLR/school camera
• Did i enjoy it?

Who would be the audience for my product?

• Socio-economic group
• Age (picture of friend?)
• Gender (NRS website?)
• Ethnicity
• Lifestyle (how they socialise)
• Who isn't? (images?)

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

• Definition
• Gender
• Style model (Q)
• Colour scheme? Why did you chose that colour?
• Age - how is it represented? Negative stereo types of young people? Do I go against that?
• Ethnicity (people more likely to listen to a similar ethnicity as them?)
• Class (price on the front?) (free tickets to get other classes involved)
• Lifestyle (model representing the age and lifestyle)

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

• Who I want to distribute and where do I want it to be sold?

In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms...

• The front cover style models (Q)
• Contents page (follows conventions? Colour scheme kept?)
• Double page spread

Double Page Spread Construction

After asking my target audience which image they preferred from the selection I gave them in the previous post, many of them picked this image to the left. This image works well because of the background and the fact that the artist is holding an acoustic instrument (tenor ukulele). The clothing the artist is wearing also fits in with the genre of music my magazine is going for and the genre of music The Yellow Pioneers. This image is also well photographed as I have used the rule of thirds to produce an image where the artist only takes up half the of the photo, which will allow me to add a snippet of writing like I have previously done in my prototype of my double page spread. Lastly, what is also good about this image is that it has good lighting. Some images that are taken inside or not with a natural light source can look dark or unprofessional. This image however was taken outside for natural light and was taken on a day that was sunny, which is good as I want the connotation of the image to be happy and sun usually reflects happiness or joy.

I then went on to editing the photos, I used Pixlr as I felt I wouldn't need to do anything to drastic to the image, such as removing the entire background. I first started with blurring the background. Pixlr gives an editing tool to blur the background in either a circle or a straight line. I chose the circle option as it gave a good gradual fade and I believe it looked better with this option than the other. Then looking at the colour and lighting of the photo I went on to editing this. The lighting was slightly too sharp, so I dulled it down a little, but not so much that it looks like it was cloudy. After that I went onto 'Effects' an added a few layers to give it a more vintage look. The first layer was slightly blue, then I added a more golden colour over the top but changed the transparency so it wasn't too noticeable but gave a even and subtle effect to the lighting. 

Next I zoomed right into his face so I could cover up any blemishes and smooth his skin slightly as it would then give continuity to the front cover and the photograph on the contents page.

What I now notice however is that he isn't wearing the same hat through out. On the front cover he is wearing a different hat 

AND a different shirt. On the contents page he is wearing the same hat as the one I am editing here but is then wearing the same shirt on the front cover. And now editing this photo he is wearing the same hat as the one on the contents page but a jumper. Whether the continuity with this is a problem or not I don't know yet, but I will ask my target market later on to ask them whether they like it or not.

Next I added layers on to the image to give some 'light leaks'. I have used these previously on an image I used for the contents page and thought it would give a little more colour to the image as it was just one block of green scenery. It also gives it a vintage look, which is ideal for the photos i have taken and placed throughout the magazine. I used 3 light leaks for this photograph, the first being the small blue as I thought it went well with the lighting of the photo as sun and a blue sky give off the connotation of a happiness. The next light leak I added was a red strip. I added this one as it tied in well with the red jumper he is wearing in the image. And finally I added a dim white light leak, then rotated it so it wasn't over his face but down in the corner.

I then took an old photo, rotated it onto its side, turned the brightness up to get it to become my background, then added my edited image on top. I had to crop the image for it to fit half way across the double page spread, but this didn't matter too much as the artist was still half way across the photograph its self.

Then, taking the layout of my prototype double page spread I created, I made up a snippet of what the artist says somewhere through out the interview and placed it on top of the photo. This makes the image more full and gives it more purpose other than it giving a visual of who the artist is. I made the quotation the same as the one I had used with Passenger as a few members of my target audience said that they liked that certain inspirational quote. I did, however, changed the layout of the writing to make certain words alone on one line. I did this to make these certain words stand out and they are the most powerful words in the quotation. Finally with the quotation I added the lines above and below it to section it off from the rest of the image and to state that this is it for the quotation and that if the reader wants to know more they need to read the article. I had previously on my prototype made the writing green to carry on the house style colour, but when I tried out the green on the back ground the words became confusing to read and became lost, so I changed the writing to white for it to stand out more. 

There isn't any green placed on to my double page spread but there is green within the photograph and this helps tie in the colour theme through out.

The other side of the double page spread I used the same layout as I did for my prototype and the similar layout of Q's double page spread. The layout involves a large letter (usually one that is the name of the band) behind the writing, a bold title, then the writing in two or 3 columns. I didn't use the first letter of 'The Yellow Pioneers' nor the second but used the third with 'P', I used with with Passenger and it fitted nicely on the page. I had tried the Y but it looked unprofessional even with all the different fonts that I had tested with, so I decided to go with the 'P' as I had previously tried this out and it worked well with the size of the page. I also decided to go with two columns of writing as 3 columns can look too busy on a page and then put people off from reading it, which isn't what I want from my music magazine.

After creating an interview with my artist I took his answers from his real musical life and then tweaked them a little so they related to as if he were a band and not a solo artist. If I were to now change anything I would change the size of the left column because I gave it too much room, therefore leaving little room for the right column and so making the writing smaller. I also do realise now that there are a few minor spelling and grammar mistakes in the main text, so it will have to be rewritten at some point.

Final Double page spread

Interview Questions?

For the interview for my music magazine I need a good amount of text to make it look professional. The only ways to get this information is to either ask a lot of questions OR ask questions which doesn't give the artist any choice but to reply to them in a long and in depth answer. Therefore the questions cannot be 'yes or no' questions, they must be questions asking for detail but still relevant to the artist or that musical genre. Having writers block almost all the time, I set out to work on finding the best possible questions for my magazine online through the power of Google. The believe the following questions are suitable and will possibly be used for my interview.

Which famous musicians do you admire and why?

Do you or have you ever gotten nervous before a gig? If so, which ones?

What instruments do you play? Or are you just a singer? (can change this to bassist)

Do you teach yourself to play said instruments?

What are your fondest musical memories?

Have you every been so moved by a song that you've cried? If so which one?

Who would you want to duet with? (Dead or alive)

Best advice every given?

Where would be the best place to perform and why?

What genres of music do you hate and why?

What are your hidden talents? Why haven't we heard of these before?

What do you want from the future?

I believe these questions will give a clear insite to the musicians personality and will therefore connect to the target audience more so than if different questions were used that weren't so personal.

Images for the Double Page Spread

Contents Page Consturction

When first creating my content magazine I wanted it look as professional as possible. To do this I decided to take the look from one of Q magazine's contents pages. This contents page involved a 'main image' of the artist that was featuring on the front cover of the music magazine. I took this idea as I believed it was good for a music magazine and set to work on deciding and editing an image. The image was chosen by my target audience from the movie before hand with all the images I had taken. The majority agreed that this image was the best for a contents page. When I asked why they gave me reasons such as 'the composition works well with the image' and 'the props used, such as the hat, go well with the genre of the magazine'.

After finding the right image to use I needed to edit this image. Within the Q contents page, the image was cropped so it was a 1:1 image (square). I wanted to create a neat contents page in which all images are the same size. By making them all 1:1 images they can then easily fit onto the magazine without difficulty.

To the left are the photos during the process of editing them. Every time I made an adjustment to the image I would save it as a different file to then see the progress of the photograph.

The first major edit I used on the image was cropping down the the size I needed and liked. The 1:1 size looks neat whilst still being able to keep a composition that works well with the original image. The rule of thirds can be lost in 1:1 photos if you get too close to the subject or person, with this image I made his hand keep within the the sections as well as parts of his face. Within this photo as well I also changed the lighting by adding a layer on Pixlr. The layer came under one of the vintage collections, which kind of goes with the house style and genre of my music.

I then decided to remove the blemishes from the artists face as when you look at photos of other artists and on music magazines they are always smooth skinned and blemish free.

I then played around with different layers in the vintage collection to try and get the right look to the image before placing it onto my contents page.

I finally decided on this look to the photo to the left. The image isn't too blue nor yellow, which is what other layers gave to the photo. It also portrays a vintage feel which is a part, mostly, with the house style of photographs.
 

I then went about placing this image onto a white background and creating a masthead. To create the white background I used an old image from the photo shoot, then made the brightness of the photo as high as it would go. This made the background of my contents page not only white but of a large size, so when I come round to blowing it up to the correct size it wont become distorted or fuzzy. Next I looked back at the Q contents page and used my theme colour and logo instead of theirs. I also decided to place my slogan underneath my title in the theme colour to make it slightly more full. An issue I needed to get past was the thinness of the lines around the title and above the image. On Pixlr it doesn't give you the option to just draw a line so to get around this problem I went to the text box and used a large 'l', then turned it on its side. Because of its size I then needed to make it thinner. To do this I used another 'l', turned it on its side, lined it up underneath and then made it white to match the background. This then created the thin lines I use throughout the contents page.

The font I use throughout the contents page are the same or sections, so for the masthead and the subtitles I used a larger, bolder font. Where as for the smaller writing I used a thinner font as the detailed writing doesn't need to catch the eye, only the title which is what initially draws them in.

I next added a second image. This second image is very conventional as it involves a guitar. The way the photo has been taken as well is also very conventional as it is looking down the guitar whilst the artist is playing it. I used this image as I believed it went with the genres of my music magazine well and that it was an interesting image. I also wanted to try and make it not look like the main artist on the front cover and to the image next to it as I wanted a different image. But because I hadn't taken any more images of anyother people to use as artists for my magazine I had to try and crop the photo to get most of his face out of it. A reminder for next time would be for me to bring more people along to take images of and then I would have more options to chose from.

After I completed this I added a small title underneath and a large title of the band name underneath the image. I also added page numbers on top of the images so the audience know exactly which page to turn to without looking too hard. I got this idea from the Q contents page as I and others found it useful.

 

Next I added more snippets of information about certain pages which I believe would be most interesting. I have kept the colour scheme running through this contents page to give it more colour. Previously, members of my target audience said that they didn't like the fact that there wan't much colour on the front cover, so I took this, applied it to the front cover but also the contents page as well to keep the house style I have chosen.

With the titles in bold next to the numbers, I chose artists that related to the genre of the magazine and also to the artists that were mentions in snippets (sell lines) on the front cover e.g. Coldplay.

Lastly, at this stage I added a mouse cursor. A similar thing was used within the Q contents page. I thought it connected well with the title underneath as music is now usually downloaded and the hand cursor relates to this well. It also makes the contents page slightly more interesting to look at as it goes against the neat and simple layout of the page.

 

I then went about adding images along the bottom of the main image to give it more colour and make the entire page look more interesting. Before hand I had taken these images after I realised I would need different artists for the contents page and not just other images I had taken of my main artist. When editing then I cropped both first so they were 1:1, then went to layers to make them seem more vintage and fit with my theme with the photos more.

The girl standing in the feild was just edited by applying different layers from the vintage collection to give it a more interesting look from the original. The girl leaning against the tree however took a little bit more editing to make it interesting. I first applied a layer which made the image more blue in colour. I then went on to apply different overlays to the image. As I have previously used Pixlr, I knew that within these overlays are some 'light leaks' which you can apply to an image to make it look old, but also add some more colour. I went with a red and white light leak as it is a contrasting colour to green and the red went well with the orange and red leaves in the background of the image.

I added these two images to the contents page, making sure they were both the same sizes.

Finally, I added a few more snippets down the side of the magazine, changes the page numbers and added a page number along the bottom. I had to change the page numbers as I thought it would be better if the snippets down the side would relate to the images, otherwise people don't know who the article is about if they aren't well known. I also added a date and year along the bottom as many magzines, inclding Q, included this. Noticing on the Q contents page that there was a webpage to subscribe to for the magazine, I went about adding a small piece of information along the bottom for people to subscribe to the magazine and be kept up to date with all the latest information. This goes well with audience pleasures and it will make my target audience feel more a part of the magazine community and feel like they are being given to.