Evaluation: Question 7

Evaluation: Question 6

Evaluation: Question 5

Evaluation: Question 4

Evaluation: Question 3

Evaluation: Question 2

Evaluation: Question 1

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

As I researched music magazines and deconstructed them I know what conventions to expect and should be included within music magazines; this helped me a lot when creating my media products as I understand what is expected and what conventions I should use and where I should use them etc. For example I know that the masthead should be on the top right had side of the front cover so readers can see it and recognize it when it is on the shelf in the shop. So I took the knowledge that I learnt and applied it to my own work.

tTese are the links to some of my blog posts where I deconstruced some magazines:

http://bethgowland.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/double-page-spread-deconstruction-olly.html

http://bethgowland.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/top-of-pops-contents-page-deconstruction.html

http://bethgowland.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/billboard-front-cover-deconstruction.html

These are my final pieces of work:

 

 

I chose to take inspiration from magazines such as NME, Q and Billboard, and I looked at the conventions that they used and decided which ones would work well in my magazine and which ones I didnt want to use.

For example I included the standard conventions like where you place things like the masthead and essential information on the front cover, but not all music magazines include the UK Top 10 within their magazine as it isn't appropriate to their genre but I chose to include it within mine as my target audience are be interested in it.

Most of the decisions I made regarding conventions were because of influences from other magazines and based on the results that my target audience gave me on my survey. I had an idea of what I wanted my music magazine to look like from the start, but after I learnt about conventions and what my audience were interested in I started to put it together and achieved a result similar to what I envisaged at the start.

I mainly got influences from NME, Q and Billboard magazine. I described what influence I took from these magazines in a blog post:
http://bethgowland.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/influences.html
I started looking at these magazines for inspiration at the beginning of my research stage because they are all such well known and successful magazines. When I was looking at these magazines for inspiration I realised that some of the conventions that they use would also work well in my magazine; as these magazines are so successful I know that the conventions that they use work well and will then in turn work well in my magazine, so I used them as influence.

After creating my own music magazine I now understand that a lot of preparation ad detail goes into a magazine, even before production.
 I have mainly used common conventions that all magazines use when it comes to the layout of my front cover, but because there are so many genres of music that not all generic or optional conventions may apply to each genre.
So because of this I chose colours and fonts that I thought would suit my genre, I also chose features and imagery that I know relate to each other and that suit my genre and in turn all together make the magazine work. Forexample in my contents page I have imagery of gigs and festivals, which relate to my features to do with festivals and live music; also I have kept continuity throughout all of my pieces of work by including images of my model which I featured as one of my artists in the magazine.

Double Page Spread Progress And Final Piece

Contents Page Progress And Final Piece

Influences

Front Cover Progress And Final Piece

Contents Page: Third Draft

This is the third draft of my contents page for my music magazine.

I was again given feedback from my teacher. My teacher told me to add more color to the page, but the overall structure and layout of the page was good. As I was previously told to add more color to my double age spread, and I did so, I decided to take the same blue/turquoise colour and add it to my contents page.

I decided to use the same colour on both my double page dread and my contents page as I want all of my work to look as if it is a part of the same magazine. 

I again added the colour to an area that I wanted to stand out. I added it to tho particular area because I think that it contains important information that I want the readers eyes to be drawn to; I will want as many people as possible to subscribe to buying my magazine.

Double Page Spread: Third Draft

This is the third draft of my double page spread for my music magazine. 

I was given feedback on my last draft from my teacher. My teacher told me to try and integrate more colour into the double page spread; as I am trying to stick to my three colour colour scheme of red, white and black  throughout my magazine I had to try and think carefully of what colour would match and work well with the three colors I am already using and where to place the extra colour.

So I decided to remove the boxes I had surrounding my pull quote and add in brackets stead and make them a blue/turquoise colour. I added the colour here because I want the pull quote to stand out on the page and i though this would help it do so.

I decided on the bracket shape because I have seen it previously in other magazine articles and I think it works quite well.

I also moved the pull quote to the side of the main image on the page because I didn't want the quote to be on the image and I didn't want to ad a white box behind the text to make it visible as I think by doing this it affects the aesthetics of the page.

Double Page Spread: Second Draft

This is the second draft of my double page spread for my music magazine. I have listened to the feedback I was given by my teacher.

To start my improvements I removed the underling from the questions in the article and edited any spelling errors. I also aligned the text columns so the gaps between the columns were roughly equal.
To make the article more interesting I made the subheading snappier and shorter, so it is less like a small explanation of the article.

To improve the overall look of the double page spread I removed the line that I had showing the divide in the page, and I made the SING logo bigger and I added 'exclusive' underneath the logo to both fill more space and make the page look better and more interesting. I added the 'exclusive' underneath the logo to make it appear as if it is an important one off interview with the singer and this will make the magazine look more appealing to consumers.
Again to improve the aesthetics of the page I made the page numbers stand out more by adding the red shape behind them.

To add to the article my teacher suggested adding a pull quote from the article onto the side of the double page spread with the image, so I decided on a quote and I added boxes to the page to make the pull quote stand out from the picture.

Double Page Spread: First Draft

This is the first draft of my Double Page Spread.

I have stuck to the same color scheme as I have throughout the rest of my magazine, I did this because I want my pieces of work to link together so they look like they're part of the same magazine.

I have taken inspiration from Q magazine for my double page spread. I took inspiration from Q because I like the look of their double page spreads and I thought a similar style would look good in my magazine.

I won't exactly copy Q magazine as I don't want to copy Q, however I will use some of the conventions that they use and adapt them to suit my magazine.

Double Page Spread Flat Plan

This is my flat plan for my double page spread for my music magazine.

I have looked at different magazines double page spreads and I have decided which conventions I like and which conventions I didn't really like that they used, and I have decided which ones I would like to try and incorporate within my own double page spread. 

For my double page spread I have taken inspiration from Q magazine, I did this because I like the layout of their double page spreads that they have previously created and I think that it would both look good and suit my magazine. I don't want to exactly copy Q magazine so I will only take some ideas from their double page spreads and make them my own.

I am planning on sticking to the same colour scheme as I have previously within the magazine. I will also be featuring the double page spread on the person that I have featured in my other work for the magazine.

Contents Page Flat Plan

This is the flat plan that I have created for my music magazine's contents page. 

I have taken inspiration for my contents page from NME magazine, I really like the layout and style of their contents pages. I won't be exactly copying from NME but I will be using some of their conventions that I have previously seen and liked. 

I'm not sure if I will stick to this flat plan as I'm not sure if I will be able to fit all of the information on the page that I want to include on my contents page by using this flat plan. 

Contents Page: Second Draft

This is the second draft of the contents page for my music magazine. I have listened to the feedback that I was previously given from my teacher. 

I have taken out the UK's top 10 albums, I did this because that section was taking up too much of the page and there wasn't enough room for images. 
My teacher told me that my images should feature more on the contents page as they were good images and the page looked as if it had to much text on it, so I enlarged the images and repositioned them in the new space that I had created by moving the 'UK's top 10 albums' section of the page.

I also rearranged the contents section of the page so the page numbers stand out from the articles that I have chose. I also made the size of the page numbers bigger to they stand out even more. I have also reduced the text size of the page number and date.

Contents Page: First Draft

This is the first draft of my contents page for my music magazine. 

I have stuck to the same color scheme that I used for my front cover, I have also used the same fonts throughout both pieces of work. I have done this because I want my work to be consistent and look like it is all part of the same magazine. 

For my contents page I have taken inspiration from NME magazine. I took inspiration from NME for the contents page because I like the setup of the page and I think that a similar style would look good in my magazine. 

I also took some inspiration from Billboard magazine. I like that billboard have a section of their contents page for the UK charts, so I thought that since I want a section of my magazine to be about the UK's 'top' music at the moment, then this would be a good idea to try and incorporate into my contents page.

I was given feedback on my first draft of my contents page. My teacher told me to reduce the text size on the page number and the dates, I will do so when I make my second draft of the contents page. I was also told by my teacher to either make the "UK Top 10" section smaller so I have more room for my images, I again will do this when I make my second draft. Finally I was also told to make my page numbers stand out more from the article descriptions. 

Front Cover: Second Draft

This is the second draft of my front cover of my music magazine. I have listened to the feedback that I was previously give from my teacher. 

I have moved the image to the right and made it bigger so I have less 'spare' space. By doing this I think it has helped make the front cover look better and more like a real/professional music magazine. Because I moved the main image to the right of the page it allowed me to move my sell lines to the left of the page so they can be seen more clearly, as before they were on top of the main image and it wasn't very easy to read.

(This is my first draft)

I have also made both the barcode, date and price smaller as they are essential information but they don't need to be taking up as much space on the cover.

Institutions