Final Post

Guys, it's over, I've handed in my final cut of my front cover, contents page and double page spread and I've finished my evaluation which is the previous post. So this road has came to an end, this is goodbye. Thank you to everyone who supported me and this journey.

Media Evaluation

Video for my evaluation

This is the video under question 5 'How did you attract/address your audience?' and how they reacted to my rough cut of my magazine

Using The Studio

Over the course of time, I've used the studio multiple times. I've used the for the preliminary and rough cut for all my photos. On the first time I used the I really didn't use the lighting opportunity available, making me photo shop the model out of photo and onto a coloured back ground.

While the second time for my rough cut, I used light box to make the photo better as it makes sharper for pictures taken especially for the double page spread and the front cover.

During the shoot for my final cut I experimented with lighting by having one on and the other off and play with the lighting opportunities. This caused great effects compared to the pictures with both lights on instead.

rough cut vs preliminary task contents

As we see there is a major difference such as content and images seen.

Having more pictures on the rough cut and having better font on the contents pages.

That the rough cut contents page is much more clear as the writing all starts at the same point unlike the preliminary task.


Also filling space on the contents on the rough cut as the rough cut just looks empty full of space that could of been used.

rough cut vs final cut D.P.S

The last and final page of my magazine pages is my double page spread which there is a massive comparison.

Let's start with the photo. It's a 'on  location' image compared to the rough cut, studio shot. This shows diversion as no other shot is 'on location' to make the image on my double page spread image stand out from the rest.

Also placing the article on the other side of the spread is definitely the second biggest change as it goes against the conventions of a normal magazine by having it on the left than on the right. Also having the change of the black to white to make it easier to stand out from the background of the location.

I also changed the band name location to be more condensed together which fits the page perfectly and the removal of the massive purple under bar, which I only had to fill space as I didn't have an 'on location' shot as it was studio but with an 'on location' I let the background fill the spread.

Overall I believe the change and decision of the development of my double page spread it really shows the quality multiplying to make it a high standard.   

  

Rough cut vs Preliminary task

Here is my rough cut and preliminary task and I just want to compare them as this stage I finished my final cut of my media product.

As you can see the image is a long shot while the preliminary is a close up shot. Along with the point that they're both studio shots but one hasn't been photo shopped and placed it with a dark blue background.

Comparing them you can see the quality of the task and rough cut is doubled the amount.

Full Article

Here is my full article:

   Q: First of all, how are the three of you?

Eleanor:  I’m great!

Bree: I’m fine thank you!

Romy; I’m also great!

Q; How are you feeling about the positive response with the promo/teaser of your new single called ‘Refresh’?

Eleanor: Personally I’m very grateful that our fans are still loving the music we’re making especially that it’s in a different direction than the last album but I hope the not only the single but the next one and the album gets the response the promo for the new single coming out on Sunday which it’s already on pre-order

      and so many people already bought it, it amazes me.

Bree: I totally agree with Eleanor that it flows onto the next single and eventually the album which is coming out in May.

Romy: I knew the response would be great as we’ve received so far.

Q; What was the inspiration of this album since it’s in a different direction from your debut album ‘WHY?’

Eleanor: Well this album was more fun to make as with the success of the first album we can create music more tailored for us and the fans as we’ve been given more creative freedom.

Bree; Yeah as when I look at the first album it’s not as daring as the new album, we’ve got a stronger attachment to this album than the first album.

Romy: There are some tracks that are weak on the first album but all the new tracks are strong with a powerful meaning unlike the first album.

Q; Overall what do you want for your ultimate goal as a group?

Eleanor: I would love our songs to be used for a musical, either a musical film or a West-End/Broadway production.

Bree: I think doing the Bond Theme would also be the thing we could do as a group.

Romy: That we get placed into the hall of rock and roll.   

Q; Will there be a following tour?

Eleanor: definitely performing is what we live for hence why we are performers

Bree: Since we couldn’t with the first album it would be god’s gift if we could tour.

 Romy: Why wouldn’t we, it’s our passion to perform.

Q; You three have been keeping your project very secretive, are there any tracks to look out for on the album?

Eleanor: like we said it’s a secret so I’m not saying anything.

Bree: We want to surprise you guys so you’ll have to wait till May to listen to it, so be patient.

Romy: what’s the point of telling, we want to hype the album up so it’s under lock and key, sorry.

Q; Have you enjoyed your time in the spotlight so far?

Eleanor: It’s been great, the experience I’ve gained from this career we’ve made.

Bree: definitely

Romy: yeah man even though the press

 can be irritating.    

Q; Is there any tracks featuring artists?

Eleanor:Yeah there are a few tracks featuring other artists...

Bree: these are the tracks to look out for.

Romy:The people who we had the opportunity to work with has been a blessing.

Q; So who do you think are the biggest competition to you three as an artist?

Eleanor: Most likely Little Mix as there great performers.      

Bree: I guess if not little mix, most likely Fifth Harmony, as you don’t see much girl groups these days.

Romy:If not girl groups like us, most likely Zara Larson or MØ, as our album has similar sounds and instruments.

Q; In a previous question you said there will be a tour supporting the new album, will the tour contain previous tracks from the last album?

Eleanor: Of course the tracks on there is the reason we can make the second album.

Bree: Obviously we will have the singles in the sets but the tour is more for the new album.

Romy:  If we do I think we’ll have a small section for album tracks that aren’t singles but the singles most likely will span throughout the show.

Unfortunately we had to end the interview there, as the girl power group had to leave for the shoot of their music video for their new single ‘Refresh’. Which is available on iTunes 7th of March.  Along with their new album out on the 5th of May. 

Article Questions

Here are the questions fro my article:  

 Q: First of all, how are the three of you?

 Q; How are you feeling about the positive response with the promo/teaser of your new single called  ‘Refresh’?

  Q; What was the inspiration of this album since it’s in a different direction from your debut album      ‘WHY?’

  Q; Overall what do you want for your ultimate goal as a group?

  Q; Will there be a following tour?

  Q; You three have been keeping your project very secretive, are there any tracks to look out for on    the album?

Q; Have you enjoyed your time in the spotlight so far?

Q; Is there any tracks featuring artists?

 Q; So who do you think are the biggest competition to you three as an artist? 

Q; In a previous question you said there will be a tour supporting the new album, will the tour contain previous tracks from the last album?

Media Evaluation Questions

These are the questions we have to answer for our media evaluation:

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

So we are going to have to look at our products and compare who we followed or did something different than the normal conventions on all three pages.

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

This makes us look at our content and do we think it represents certain social groups well and if it's presentable to the audience of them groups.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product?

So we have to research and see what distribution company would be suitable and see what type of magazines distribute similar magazine as our magazines.

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

We have to be specific about about the audience and not generic so we have to go into deep detail about the audience which are our readers.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

We analyse our magazines and what draws the audience in and I have a video for a response on my rough cut which made an effect towards my final cut.

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

Looking at the tools we learned from the start and how we used them to produce our final cut of the magazine.

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

We compare the final cut and preliminary task between them and see how much the final cut has developed from the preliminary and see if there are any traits still there.    

Final Hand In, D.P.S

The double page spread (D.P.S) has always been a mixed bag but my final double page spread, I love it. Compared to the rough cut as it's an on location image and not studio making it look even better than before.

Final Hand In, Contents

Here is my final Hand in for my contents page of my music magazine. Through out the development creating this page, I hate the other two consisting of the preliminary task and the rough cut.

Final Hand In, Front Cover

Here is my final hand in of my magazine front cover, I've really came a long way of developing my front cover from the start of the preliminary.

Font 5

This is one of my favourite fonts I used so I used it for my artist. I was inspired by the 'Rolling Stones' magazine with 'Madonna' on their cover and it just inspired me to use something similar as it gave the new retro vibe which is very popular, and I'm doing a pop music magazine so I knew I had to do it. It brings this vibe that pop is just more than new and up to date but this retro knowledge, showing the old is the new.

Font 4

The reason why I used this font was to contrast with the other title fonts on my contents page. It contrasts with the subtitles from being thin and the main title of the contents page joint up and more complicated than this font so it stands out in its own way compared to the bigger stand off fonts.


                                                                                                                                             

Font 3

 This font is called 'fabulous personal use' I used this for my contents page. The reason I used this font as it stood out and it brought some difference to my magazine. It gives it a more sophistication feeling towards the pop magazine genre towards the bubbly style of what is commonly used in this genre.

Font 2

 This is the font I used for my cover as it's a lot bolder and contrasting to the font used for my logo and masthead. It also stands out on the cover especially when I used this for the red wording.  

     
 

Font 1

                       

This Font was used for my Masthead, I chose this as it was a simple and clear font to read. The style of the font stands out from the over cover font as it's more striking and bold compared to the thinness of this font. Along with the use of this font for the other titles on the contents page of 'regulars', 'out of this world' and 'monthly contributors' to also counter balance the font on the contents page. It is useful for the small logo I used on my double page spread of 'FMS'.   

Rough Cut vs Final Cut Contents

Here is my final cut of my contents page above the rough cut and there are massive differences between each version.

I'll start with the structure of my contents page. I split the list of contents that would be in the magazine into the 'REGULARS' and 'OUT OF THIS WORLD' as the one of articles than the original where it was just listed which looks terrible compared to final cut. Along with adding a 'MONTHLY CONTRIBUTORS' section as well.  

Another major difference with the structure of photo placement and the addition of photos, along with better and clearer images. I decided with the two models as the popstars to show the double power of women in the music industry.

Another change there is, the use of a better font as the font used on the rough cut didn't have the opportunity to lower case. Along with having the key words in red such as my front cover on a certain story to keep it effective and have the house style flowing through the magazine. As well having it back to black instead of the pink and purple as it looks awful with the blue.

I also changed the page colour with it being blue to white as it looks much better with the black and red wording making it easier to read than struggling with similar shade of purple with the blue background.

The parts what I kept the same is the title font of the page, and the shade of pink but I defined the shape and placing of the pink bars which came from the underline of the page title. This was to make the sections easier to define.

Overall I believe this my weakest page but I'm satisfied on how this page has turned out.        

Rough Cut vs Final Cut Cover

 On the top there is my final cut of my cover and on the bottom there is my rough cut.

As you can see there is a major difference with the front cover containing more stories from 4 stories to 7 stories to go with the convention of having multiple stories than a few.

I also changed the image on my front cover as my photo was not the quality standard i wanted it to be, so I retook the photos I needed. I also assigned a colour to each member of my group to make them each stand out.

I also added a barcode which I made in Photo Shop.

However they're are a few things I kept the same such as they blue dividers and the white colour for trinity. Along with have the same key words in red to stand out. Along with keeping the masthead the same but only bigger than the rough cut compared to the final.  

I'm very proud of my development of my cover and how polished it looks.    

Final Contents Page Draft

This is the final draft of my contents page complete, with images and stories.

I added the story about an artist "gone bad" which is seen in artists such as "Zayn" when he left "One Direction". So I wanted to portray it with the use of the leather jacket in the picture on the right she has the leather jacket to embody the image of a biker chick who is hard as nails.

Along with images of the model in the top right I wanted a close up and then a long shop with different expressions to show the attitude of pop stars and how they believe they're better than anyone else.

Monthly Contributers Pictures

 On Friday 31st of March I got some pictures of some friends to be my monthly contributors. I went with a close up/mid shot for the photo to keep it looking professional as they're 'writers' of an article or 'photographer' of a photo shoot.

New D.P.S

This is the new Double Page Spread (D.P.S) its based of the original it's just moving the text further to the right to avoid the centre line so it isn't cut off.

Along with the opportunity to get on location pictures as I only have studio shots.

New Content Page

I knew I had to make a whole new contents page but I kept the title and the colour used. I wanted a more blockier theme than what I had previously.

I changed the contents list font as it was only in capitals and didn't have the option of lowercase letters. Along with having more stories having the font small than the previous one.

I added another section called 'out of this world' where it's one off topics or an article which is different from the regular features. Another section I added was the monthly contributors as 'MOJO' and 'Q' both have them and they're my main research magazine.

New Front Cover

With the critiques given I decided to make a whole new front cover.

I added new stories onto the front covers as I needed more stories so it doesn't look empty with the space left I had with the way I placed them.

I also changed the image, as the previous image was blurry, so I used this one to show their face as you couldn't see them in the previous one.

front cover improvement

Here is an update I made on my front cover based of the focus group comments. 

I moved the band name onto the image of the band members to make it easier to tell the difference with the masthead.

I changed the masthead to it's abbreviation so it's 'FMS' so it looks more of a magazine with the full name underneath. Having it white as well to  make the band name easier to read.

Additional Cover Research 4

The final extra cover research is an issue of the music magazine 'Top of The Pops' featuring 'Girls Aloud'.

The first thing that stands out is the attire of 'Girls Aloud' with the black leather contrasting with the pink background and white writing, so it makes 'Girls Aloud' more demanding for attention.

With the facial expression of the middle member of the group have her tongue sticking out showing some tongue and cheek, giving this tomboy flare.

What I'll take from this cover is the smirky, tongue and cheek attitude to help appeal from my age market which is teenagers.

Additional Cover Research 3

The third cover of my extra research is an issue of 'Rolling Stones' featuring the 90s power group the 'Spice Girls'.

What is great about this cover is the transformation of the 'Spice Girls' from the bubble gum pop to a rock n roll image, making them look more powerful as a girl group that is regularly meant to look sweet but look badass.

I love how they placed all the names of the other artists on the cover pushed to the back and to the side so the spice girls can stand out more from their iconic era of fame and domination in the music industry.

Along with the using of the colour pink typically labelled a girl colour and with the 'Spice Girls' fame they brought the 90s 'Girl Power' so the use of pink makes it look like they are taking over the magazine completely.

So what I'm going to take from this cover is the dominance of the band pushing all the artists name out of the way. To make them the whole reason to buy the magazine and that reason alone as the other artists are just extras to the magazine.   

Additional Cover Research 2

For my additional cover research, this is a cover of 'THE SOURCE' featuring girl group TLC.

This cover sticks out to me as they aren't all dressed up but they have this vibe of unity and charm on the cover showing personality and attitude.

They all showcase a different sense of style, the girl on the bottom shows to have a style of grace, while the one in the centre in red has a more casual urban style compared to the last member on the right has a more wacky avant-garde style.

What I'm going to take from this cover is to have my group to have a portrayal of their sense of style and personality portray through the cover.  

Additional Cover Research 1

Here is a front cover of an issue of the rolling stones featuring the 80s pop group 'The GO-GO's'.

 What I like about this cover is the use of colour branding for each member. Especially with the double colour on the twins and that they are bookmarks. Then have the others members in diffrent colours to stand out individually.

Along with the outfits which is simple with the colourful jumpers and contrast to black pants and colourful socks. It creates colour diversity along with blackground being white it makes them jump off the page and creates attention towards them.

Along with the writing on the cover matching the colour of the jumpers of the girls in the middle.

What I'm going to take from this is the colour of each member to have a specific colour just like this cover.

Additional Cover Magazine Research

Since I'm doing a girl group for my artist in my Music Magazine, and the Music magazines I've looked at didn't have any girl groups on the cover so I'm doing extra research. 

focus group response to D.P.S

What people liked;
-Good title.
-Changed colour of text for questions.
-Good photo of the group.

What could be improved;
-Give the D.P.S a title and not band name.
-Move the name of the band members.
-Move text and image away from centre line as they'll get cut off.
-Font 't' and 'i' looks too similar.

focus group response on contents page

What people liked;

-Good studio shots and various type of shots.
-Good title font.
-The contrast of colours.

What could be improved;

-Different back grounds for models to show variety.
-Get more consistence with the amount written for each story on the contents page.
-Have a section to credit the photographer

focus group response on my front cover

What people liked;

-People liked the red in the headlines what makes important parts stand out.
-They said that my front cover image looked good.
-That they found the title a suiting music magazine title.

What could be improved;

-The photo could be moved to the centre.
- Get a different image as the image is blurred at the models faces.
- To rearrange the magazine masthead and band name as it was hard to tell the difference.
- That the front cover was empty so I could place more stories on the cover.

Photo Shop Photo on D.P.S rough cut

Here is a cropped section of my rough cut double page spread and I'm presenting the photo I used for the rough cut. I didn't like the background so I used the Photo Shop soft ware to crop them out.

I was able to crop them out of the image using the lasso tool by going around the models so I could do that to make a mask. After I went around and made the mask, then I could start removing spots and fix out the cropping of the lasso.

So I used the magic wand tool to remove additional image to the photo. However as we can see that it didn't go that well as there is blurring on the right model. We can also see blurring between the central model and left model from trying to remove pieces of their hair.

rough cut double page spread (D.P.S)

double page spread rough cut

contents page rough cut

This is my rough cut contents page.

Rough cut Front cover

Here is my rough cut version of my magazine front cover.

contents page improvement

During the period of time before we had a focus group response I edited my contents page. So I added a bar underneath the title to make it underlined and separate the title from the contents list, along with having the purple text in a box to make it look professional.

audience research survey response question 3

This was my final question 'What do you want to be featured in an article about a pop group?' the most popular answer was a tie between an interview and their story on how they got to where they are. The second popular option was an album review.

audience research survey response question 2

This is the response to my second question 'What style should the colours be?' the most popular option was a tie between matte colours or metallic colours and the least popular option was pastel colours.

I found these results surprising that metallic was that popular compared to the other options such as beating pastel and tying with matte.

Audience research survey response question 1

This is the result of the first question, 'what colour scheme should I use for my cover?'. The most popular option is gold, silver and black/white. Then the second popular option was a tie between 'purple, blue and pink' and 'black, white and pink'. Then one person had something different which is the image below the graph.

This answer was 'Have a block colour colour so white or black and then use a 2 stroke colour scheme so you could have a primary colour as a base so red blue green and then a variant of that for your finer details. Remember to use this colour scheme for everything... ??.'

Now this has me thinking as I never thought of having a base colour with a primary colour and giving advice to have the scheme consistent throughout all of the magazine. This person seems like they've been studying or be working in media.

D.P.S 5

My final double page spread is an NME issue of Lana Del Ray and it still has the convention of three columns of text but they styled the second and third column to connect.

I also like how they broke it up with a blue divider with statistics of how many records she's sold as it gives details to her success.

Along with the title as she's succeeded 'mission Accomplished' as the article is about her career and what she's achieved being it in gold as if she's in first as if she won the Olympics of music.

What I might take from this is the statistic column to show how successful my artist are in the music business showing that they're worth to check out.   

D.P.S 4

   This is another D.P.S from Q, continuing the red scheme from the logo which makes the red 'L' making it stand out bringing attention to the article making us want to read the article. Along with the 'L' matching the artists first letter of their name such as 'lady gaga', making her look even more important in the article since it's about her.

What is also effective is how the image is exclusively on the left and not two thirds of the page like other magazines but keeping the barrier of the split as if Lady GaGa is bigger and better than the interview and the magazine is something less significant.

What I'll take from the D.P.S is the bold letter such as the 'L' of my artists name as it makes my magazine dramatic and look larger than life for a magazine.

D.P.S 3

Here's another one from 'MOJO' to see if they have differences on these types of articles and they follow the same colour scheme to brand these type of D.P.S in their magazine, however in this article more of the image is showing but they still position it in the same place.

D.P.S 2

This D.P.S contains a five column article as four of them are shortened down to accommodate the image of the band which is in black and white which contrasts with the other image below which is colour from one of their gigs. This shows the difference from a fixed pose to the colourful "true selfs" when performing.

It has a bold Drop capital letter in a red panel which matches with the magazine logo of 'Q', showing a coherent theme throughout the whole magazine.

What I'll take from this is to have something coherent from the cover to the D.P.S such as a font or drop capital, as it shows branding of the magazine. 

D.P.S 1

This is a double page spread from an issue of 'MOJO' where it features the title of the page spread 'what goes on' where it's an article on recent adventures of artists or even up and coming artists.

They haven't followed the convention of the rule of thirds since the image is taking up most of the double page spread. The page spread doesn't use three columns but five to fit more content of the article and the corresponding colour scheme of yellow and red with the red parting between the fourth and fifth column.

What I like about this and what i'm going to take from this D.P.S is the corresponding colour scheme but of my own palette of colour. 

Contents page 5

As you see this is another issue of 'Q' following the same format of taking advantage of the pull factor of the artists showing another use of following the same format to build the brand they have created to this day.

Contents page 4

This a contents page from 'Q' which their contents page goes to the next page showing how much they've packed into one magazine to impress the buyer of how much they can offer us on the lastesy music news.

They've placed the images at the top and all their articles and page numbers at the bottom so they let us know what celebrities are going to be in it before we see what stories they're going to be in bringing the pull factor of buying the magazine which is a clever tactic.

Along with the two colour scheme with the text on the two pages of red and white continueing the theme from the cover and that the logo contains red and black being basic text colour makes it pop with the white background.

What I love from this magazine contents page is how it makes us think  about the placement of it all and how it gives me the idea to pace the images of the artists at the top so it has that pull factor 'Q' does with this contents page. 

Contents page 3

This contents page is from an issue from 'NME' where they have images with the a bit of information of the story with the page number in the corner, while having a column of page numbers with what band/artist is on.

They most likely did this so the fans of the artists can find them directly instead of flickering through the magazine and struggle finding it showing that they care about the audience and buyers of their magazines.

What I like about this contents page is that it follows a similar approach as 'MOJO' but more relaxed most likely cause it's more of an indie scene magazine so they probably do this to tend to their preference which I like as it shows that they care about the audience. 

Contents page 2

Another contents page from another issue of 'mojo' where we can point out that their contents page is following the same format, so this shows that I should follow with the same format for each issue of the magazine.

So this can be a starting point of research to see the most popular contents page design they like, so I could do a poll/questionnaire about the situation as they have to the same but with different images and stories (obviously)

Contents page 1

This is a contents page form mojo. I love the how the page looks as it looks busy but clear, making it look really professional. As if the page isn't clear then people won't know what others stories there are in the magazine except the ones told on the front cover.

Another way the contents page looks good is how these page is split into thirds, one third being all images, then the second third being the contents list with mini paragraphs under certain stories and then monthly contributions.

The use of the blue, red and yellow as title panels so we know what is each section, example the mojo filter having it be about new albums and reviews, then under the red title is the articles such as the ones written on the front page.

What I'll take from this contents page is that even though it's busy, there is a way to keep it clear and professional. Having this format will make it more appealing as imagery is very important for music magazines as it helps showcase music acts.