PRELIMINARY TASK 

FINAL TASK

DEVELOPMENT OF TASK REQUIREMENT 

On top of all I wanted to highlight my decision of challenging the task requirement of four images across front cover, contents page and double page spread. I have followed codes and conventions from variety of magazines and I have justified my decisions across the blog. To highlight the codes and conventions I have placed real magazine examples next to my own media product. I think this gives a clear overview to why I made specific decisions. 

(SINGLE IMAGE)

(SINGLE IMAGE)

(SINGLE IMAGE)

To justified my decisions even further I have developed two versions of the contents page with different amount of images. I have already showed this within my development and I wanted to highlight that both contents pages follow codes and conventions of other magazines. This allowed me to interpret which one will make my product look more professional. To underline this even further I have used peer assessment. I carried out a class survey where I asked my colleagues about their overall opinion of both contents pages. The results were unanimous. The peer assessment showed that the single photograph makes the overall product look more professional and appealing. It also helped me to follow the idea of simplistic composition and layout. In conclusion, I think adding more images to my final outcomes would make them look more crowded and less neat. This is something I was trying to avoid. This way I managed to keep the simplicity. I also obtained a lot of help from magazines such as Mojo and Q, as I was significantly inspired by their product. I think this gives a clear explanation of why I challenged the task requirement. 

EVALUATION - QUESTION VII
LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK, WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO THE FULL PRODUCT?

Looking back at my preliminary task I feel like I've significantly improved my skills. I think the preliminary task gave me a opportunity to prepare for constructing my real media product. Without this task I wouldn't be able to make a magazine is such professional and thoughtful way. I gathered necessary experience which benefited me in many different ways. I learnt and discovered codes and conventions of real magazines but I also developed my creativity and technological skills which I can use in the future.

                     

This was a comparison particularly focused on the front cover and contents page. Besides, from developing my construction skills I also improved my research. In the preliminary task I looked at different school / college magazines however not in such depth comparing to my final task.  My analysis and recognition of codes and conventions was very basic, however these basics were really important once I moved onto my final task as I knew what to identify and how to analyse different elements of the magazines  due to the strong fundamental basics I learnt from my preliminary task. Although, in the preliminary task I looked at totally different magazine theme I managed to apply some knowledge to my final task for example; typography skills which were very significant when choosing correct fonts and applying it to my target audience as well as the magazine genre. Moreover, I learnt how to write product analysis which also helped me when analysing magazines chosen in my main task. It was vital for the analysis to be detailed in order to understand a certain product. This way I could plan my own magazine and different aspect of it including; features, demographic, geographic, psychographic and more. 

I was also introduced to Survey Monkey which allowed me to gather good quality research. From my preliminary task I learnt how to be more specific within the questions in order to get direct and useful information, as looking back at my questionnaire from preliminary task I think I could have gained much more information. This also applied to my planning which was also quite basic. For example; within the shoot for the magazine I didn't plan mise-en-scene. This was quite risky as I didn't think through who's going to be my model and why, what they are going to wear and what props I am going to include. I definitely learnt from this mistake as I planned each element of mise-en-scene before I carried out the photo shoot. I found the planning very vital as this is a process where you put all your research together in order to create something original. You need to keep in mind who is your audience, why your using certain equipment including props and costumes and who your trying to attract. I think I managed to improve those skills and I think I showed my understanding of research and planning in my final outcomes. 

In terms of the time management I also see a big improvement. Within the preliminary task I took much longer to complete the given work but this was mostly because I needed more time to understand the context. This significantly changed within the final task as we were expected to do more in a shorter amount of time. The fundamental basics from preliminary task helped me to expand my understanding and improve my time management. Besides, from that I still took quite long doing my research in the final task as this is vital part of preparation and understanding. This was beneficial as I took much shorter doing the actual construction because I had everything planned out and I had basic skills in programs such as Photoshop, InDesign or Ipiccy whereas in the preliminary task it was more about exploring, learning and trying new skills.

In conclusion, I think I have progressed massively from my preliminary task to my final media product. Although, both magazines are based on different genres, clearly from a quick overview we can see a huge improvement. In my opinion I achieved this through all the hard work which I separated into different stages including research, planning and then finally construction. All the skills that I gained throughout all these stages allowed me to actually create a professional looking magazine, which I am really proud of. I consider this journey as a great and useful experience. I am hoping and willing to use the gained skills next year as well as develop new ones.

EVALUATION - QUESTION VI 
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?

During the process of constructing my music magazine I came across variety of different technologies that significantly helped me to create my final media product as well as build skills and learn new ones. Within some of the stages I used my current knowledge which I used confidently, whereas in other stages I have learnt new techniques which needed more practise. This helped me to improve my skills.

I can confidently start with my strengths as during my production process I have used my own DSLR camera (Nikon D7100 with a 18-105mm lens) for my magazine photographs. I have used my camera for past 2 years, meaning I have a clear and strong understanding of how a digital camera works and what takes to take good photographs. This is also due to the fact that I am studying AS photography. I think I showed the gained skills within my photographs as well as planning as I knew quite well how to manipulate the artificial light lamps and how to set up a camera for different types of shots. This can be seen through my final photographs which I believe are good quality and look quite professional. Within the preliminary task I created a PowerPoint with my classmates in which we shared with the rest of the class our gained knowledge about the use of lighting, shutter speed, camera settings and other accessories. In conclusion, the provided lighting kit and a photographic background allowed me to create a professional working setting, whereas my DSLR camera helped to create a good quality shots. I particularly focused on manipulating the shutter speed to obtain good quality photographs whereas the positioning of artificial lights allowed me to work on the brightness of the images. Although, I felt quite confident with the use of lighting set I found it quite hard to set up the camera manually, as it was hard to set up the aperture (amount of light reaching the camera cadre). This is partly because we didn't have a light measurement. I think this is one of the tools which I could use to improve my images even more.

Furthermore, within my construction I have used few different editing software which allowed me to manipulate the photographs or in order to create graphical content such as logo design. I have mainly focused on three different editing soft wares including: Photoshop, Ipiccy and Photoscape. The Ipiccy and Photoscape program allowed me to manipulate my images in many different ways as they offer variety of tools and filters which I needed for image manipulation for example; brightness/sharpness tools but also vibrancy and black and white filter which I tend to use a lot within my photograph (I have showed these tools and techniques within my image developments found on my blog. Whereas, I used Photoshop software to create a masthead of my magazine due to the options it offered comparing to  Ipiccy or PhotoScape which mainly focuses on image manipulation and not graphical creations. I could comfortably mix fonts, add images and change colours during construction of my logo. Besides, from that I found Photoshop very useful while constructing my media product as it allowed me to use downloaded fonts which I specifically chose for each page of my magazine. Overall, all three softwares were well known to me, meaning I had clear understanding of how to use them however within Photoshop I developed few new skills for example; justifying the text or cropping the a figure from a full photo frame using wound tool. 

Moreover, in order to present my work I used soft-wares including PowerPoint which I have used before within my other subjects. I could comfortably present my work through the use of slides. Besides,I developed my gained skills and I used PowerPoint slides which I then saved in a form of an image. I think this was quite effective as I could work on my page layout creatively and confidently. Furthermore, I created short animations in other to present  my photographs. This made it easier for the viewer to look through my work as they don't have to scroll down, they can simply watch it. Besides, throughout my blog I was uploading my presentations onto Slide share. This website allowed me to upload my work on a open website where other people particularly media students could see my work. This can be seen as a negative thing as they could easily copy my work, but on the other hand they could take it simply as an example. This negative also applies to  Prezi, as it's a website open to other people. Final and most obvious use of technology is the Blogger itself which allowed me to present a continues journey throughout the course.

Another website which I used to present my work was Flicker. I didn't use this website throughout my blog but I decided to explore it within my evaluation. Overall, I think it's a good and quick way of presenting your work. It allows you to manage your time very well as you can access it from your phone whenever you want. I think if I would discover this website before I would use it more often, meaning I would be more familiar with the options and tools they offer. 

Another significant software which I have used throughout the course was the Survey Monkey. I found this website very useful to use as it allowed me to reach wide range of responds in short amount of time. Due to programs like this I could easily improve my time management during research period. For both preliminary task and the final task I used Survey Monkey to find out about what my audience is going to be, what I am going to include within the magazine, what are their interests and what they expect to see. In both magazines I obtained quite a range of responses which made my research more realistic. Using this program allowed me to learnt how to structure open and closed questions in order to gain needed information. Besides, from that Survey Monkey provided me with a variety of options including; multiple choices, drop down answers, text boxes, comment boxes and more. This allowed me to make my questionnaires very professional and realistic. I could repost the link through social media or email in order to gain wider audience or I could also make the questionnaire open meaning that anyone can answer it. This is a definitely good website to use when you need to find information from wide range of people in short period of time. Another reasonable element of Survey Monkey is that is automatically analyses your gathered data. I found this very useful while looking at my results as I could analyse it using graphs that were very clear. I easily saved time during this stage, as after carrying out my paper questionnaire I had to apply the results onto Excel in order to create pie charts which would make my questionnaire easier to read.  

One of the main programs which I have used was a desktop publishing software InDesign. I used this program to construct my front cover, DPS and contents page for both magazines. Looking back at my preliminary task I can say that I was mostly developing and gaining new skills as I haven't used this software before. Overall, I found this program very useful during construction process which allowed me to create margins and grid lines that were extremely helpful when putting the magazine pages together particularly because of the relation to my layout plans. Although I felt more comfortable with using InDesign during my final task I still found some elements challenging. In order to overcome this weakness I watched YouTube tutorials which significantly helped me to understand InDesign tools for example; how to place and format text. This is one of the links which I used - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_YO1-CR6UA. Another problem which I faced was the fact that I had access to InDesign only in school as I couldn't access it on my home laptop. This was a problem for me as it affected my time management. I had to plan out my time during each construction of each page. During this time I took a big advantage of Adobe Photoshop, which I could access at home. I could easily create magazine elements such as masthead, manipulation of images or font change, as I could easily download new fonts which were not accessible on InDesign in school due to the legalisation. I found interfering these two programs very useful in many ways. I could manage my time better, but it also motivated me to develop my skills on both programs rather than one. 

In conclusion, I benefited from all listen above softwares which allowed me to gain new skills as well as to develop my old ones. I am willing to use them later on in life as they all helped me to present the work in many different creative ways. 

EVALUATION - QUESTION V
HOW DID YOU ATTRACT YOUR AUDIENCE/ ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE?

Another vital element within my DPS which would attract the audience is the use of language which I referred back to magazines such as Q or NME. Following the length of the page, the use of word 'EXCLUSIVE' in a large font would definitely attract my audience to stop and look at it especially because it's followed my the artist's name which is written in large and bold font as a wob. This contrast between the font and the background would defiantly bring readers attention. Another very eye catching code and convention which would attract reader's attention is the use of pull out quote which is placed directly within the text. The use of language within the pull out quote ''My whole starting point is that I have nothing to loose'' is very strong and confident. I think this would attract the audience as they would want to find out more about what he is saying in the interview. It makes the readers think he is a strong and confident character, and this is how the audience might want to be viewed. 

Furthermore, within my double page spread and front cover I tried to use personal pronouns as this is a common language technique used to grab reader's attention. For example; 25 festivals to blow YOUR mind' or 'You can't lose yourself'. This would definitely grab reader's attention as the the magazine content is directly aimed at the reader meaning they would feel more engaged with the magazine feeling as if they were part of it. 

Looking back at my contents page I used few other techniques than a photograph which I believe would strongly attract my audience. One of them is the contrasting and simplistic colour scheme which underlines the good aesthetics of the page. At the same time it makes it easier for the audience to read the features, meaning it would attract them to read the page. Another element within the contents is the division of the contents features, which is one of the common codes and conventions found within the contents pages in other magazines. This would definitely attract the audience as again it would allow them quicker and easier reading. They could easily find what they are looking for and under which heading depending on their interest. This is again supported through the large numbers of pages placed on the side of the features, that allows the audience to automatically find a particular feature on a certain page. To make it even more clear I used rich and vibrant red that stood out on a white background around a black font text. 

EVALUATION - QUESTION IV
WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?

Already from the beginning of my research I've been developing the 'image' of my target audience. I have particularly done this by looking at magazines such as Mojo, Q and NME in which I identified different elements of their target audience. This gave me a clear understanding to how my own audience should look like, especially because my final outcome is a combination of codes and conventions found within these products.

Looking back at my questionnaire results I have targeted my audience to be aged between the late teens and their mid twenties. This is quite a range but I believe the content within my product interests variety of age groups as at the end of the day all the readers are aimed to be interested in a specific genre of music. Although my questionnaire results showed my main focus was pop, I also took other genres into consideration which were high within the results range. Furthermore, I wanted to apply some of the knowledge of rock magazines as this was my main focus within the research I decided to create a magazine which will be focusing on people interested in alternative pop and rock which blends contrasting genres and musical styles together, making the music genre quite open to interpret meaning everyone can find something for themselves. I think this is a vital point as I am viewing my audience as people who appreciate the mainstream as well as classic music of rock and pop. This is why the age of the audience is not as significant as their interest and passion. I believe they could be categorised into aspires category who would aim to succeed in life such as presented artists. I can support this through the use of language within my DPS which is full of advises on how to succeed in life. Besides, I can link the idea of my target audience to the theory of uses and gratifications where the audience is aiming to follow a certain life style. This can be reinforced by the fact that my audience is relatively young and it can become easily influenced or inspired. 

Furthermore, my magazine is aimed at both males and females. In this way my magazine becomes open to a wider audience. I decided to focus my magazine on both genres due to the results of my questionnaire, which clearly showed that my target audience was fairly balanced. Besides, most of the magazines which I have analysed as part of my research were open to both genders. I didn't find it as a problem because I learnt how to create a neutral house style design which is aimed at both genders. 

Another way in which I can represent/ portray my target audience is through the choice of images. This includes the mise-en-scene (props and costumes but also hair stylisation). I have touched upon this aspect within the second evaluation question where I discussed my social group. For instance; within the front cover the model is wearing a leather jacket, a white top and a gold chain. Overall, this is a very casual and classical stylisation. I think my audience could easily imitate this look. While looking even closer at relations to the target audience the leather jacket reinforces the idea of their music interest as it's usually associated with people who are interested in rock style music. 

Although these stereotypical associations are fading away the leather jacket is often worn by young people within simplistic stylisations. This can be seen within another two images as  my model is wearing black jeans and black t-shirt. Besides, this is another colour which I assume my audience would like to wear as it's often worn by musicians who particularly focus on rock / pop music. Besides,it's a classical colour which is worn by many artists. Furthermore, I believe my audience is more likely to wear casual and simplistic clothing with dominated colours of black and white and maybe red. I would expect them to wear skinny jeans, converse shoes and a casual leather jacket. By this I can assume they would find interest in brands such as; Top Shop, Top Man, H&M and Footlocker. Although I mostly focused on a male appearance I believe female look would not differ a lot from that. The casual and plain clothing can be easily applied to both genders. I think even in terms of the hair stylisation there wouldn't be much difference, expect the fact that the girls would be more likely to tie their hair or create a fizzy pony tale. This again would empathize a sense of confidence and interest in alternative / rock music. 

In terms of the props I think the microphone and posture of the artist implies connotations about my target audience. I wanted to underline the idea of young people liking to party. I can specifically infer that because already in my questionnaire I collected responses from young people which expected to find out about upcoming events / gigs. This implies that my target audience would enjoy spending time at events such as festivals or concerts. Another prop which could be related to my audience are headphones. This helps us to associate the young audience with music 'maniacs' who like to feel connection with music everywhere they go. Whereas,guitar is a prop which suggests audience's love to instruments as well as acceptance and interest in different music genres as guitar is an instrument which is used wisely across many different genres. 

Last of all, my questionnaire research showed me that my target audience is willing to pay no more than £3.99 for a music magazine. Whereas, the average price which the target audience is willing to pay is £2.00. I came up with a price of £2.50 for my own media product. I think this a right and reasonable price for a magazine comparing to other products such as Q which is worth £3.99 whereas NME is only £2.20. This shows that the price of my magazine is fairly balanced while comparing to the prices within music industry. Another reason for this is the demographic of my target audience, which is based on BCD sectors. This is because the audience is still relatively young, building their experiences and skills. The aim for the price is to make sure the target audience can comfortable afford it every month. 

I wanted to conclude my target audience analysis by adding a brand eye for my music magazine (Stereo Beat) as well as an audience profile:

In addition to that, the MARKET SEGREGATION of my magazine can be found towards the end of question II! 

EVALUATION - QUESTION III

WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND WHY?
 

EVALUATION - QUESTION II
HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUP?

My music magazine represents particular social group through the use of codes and conventions showed within my product. We can automatically infer this from the logo of my magazine which is titled 'Stereo Beat'. The combination of two music symbols creates an image of people who like loud and expressive music. This description matches well the stereotypical description of  young people who are just starting their adult life. This clearly supports my questionnaire results as I targeted my magazine at people 18+ who like to  be aware of the current trends and currently changing hits. Besides, we tend to associate young people with being open to different types of music. This is why my magazine focuses on alternative music, which is balanced with pop sound and touch of rock. I think I am clearly expressing this through the house style of my magazine which is focusing on white, red and black,  Q magazine inspired me to  portray the alternative music through expressiveness or red colour whereas the pop and rock sounds through vintage fonts. 

Another way by which I can describe a social group of my product is through the images. The choice of the model already indicates that I was tying to aim my target audience at 18+. The model himself represents this age group and this can be clearly seen, particularly due to the medium close up which reinforces the facial features. Another element of the image is the hair stylisation which again underlines the person's interest in alternative music or rock. This might also apply to my social group who can be associated with these kind of hair styles. In terms of the clothing, the model is wearing a red leather jacket which again can be associated with rock / pop stars. However, leather jackets can be worn in any age bringing more focus to the genre rather than specific age of the audience. Overall, I think the artist looks quite casual. He is wearing a white t-shit signifying the simplicity and regularity. He is not dressed as a stereotypical celebrity. The clothes are subtle showing that he doesn't differ from others and that the audience is more likely to appear like him. 

Another photograph which says a lot about the social group of my product is the image within the contents page. The model's posture is quite confident and relaxed. I think these associations can be clearly linked to my social group/ target audience. Again the simplicity of the clothing suggests that the magazine is aimed at middle class people, who like to dress casually and classically, as you don't need 

much to look good. However, the microphone prop significantly allowed me to apply the idea of young people loving to party, especially going to gigs and festivals. This can be strongly supported through my research which showed that people aged 17 to 25 want to hear about upcoming events such as festivals or concerts. I supported this perception of young people even further by adding appropriate features within my contents page. 

The last image taken from my double page spread portrays the social group of my product as people who have strong interest in music. This is supported through the use of props. The headphones can be seen as a symbol which is taken around by young people everywhere they go. This is why we tend to stereotypically associate them with music 'maniacs'. Another prop is a guitar which might also indicate young people's love for instruments and interest in classics, as it's an instrument which can be used wisely, across different genres of music. 

Another important element which shows relation to my social group is the use of language. Throughout my front cover, contents page and double page spread I've been underlining the use of language by placing a pull out quote ''My whole starting point is that I have nothing to lose''. I think this is a strong and aspiring quotation which would grab young people's attention. At the same time this could encourage young people to follow his life style, experiences as well as advises which he portrays within the interview. For example; in the DPS I've written 'I think everyone should have a plan B' or 'It's all about to be determined and completely fulfil your goals'. This again could portray the social group as aspires who take Jason Posner as a role model, especially due to the fact that my target audience is quite young meaning they need someone to look up to. 

Within the contents page I've also included features based on my Survey Monkey results. I've established my features on upcoming gigs and events as this was one of the main gathered results. This already tells quite a lot about the social group of my magazine which shows that my audience likes to view new places and be in a community with people with similar interests and passions. The social group could be also interested in 'keeping up' with famous artists lives such as Sam Smith or Ed-Sheeran as the results showed they would want to see and hear about famous artists. This is why I can interpret that they would be more likely to gather inspiration and treat the artist's as role models.

Moreover, the price of my magazine is £2.50. I think this is fairy cheap comparing to other music magazines, for example Q magazine is £3.99 while NME is £2.20. This shows that the price of my magazine isn't too high or two low, specifically while considering my  social group which is less likely to pay more than £3 for a magazine. This can be also linked to research (which was mainly carried out by young people) this showed that people are not willing to pay up to £4 for a magazine as it seems to be too much. Besides, this portrays that the middle class people, male as well as female expect quality for reasonable price of £2.50.

Furthermore, I would consider my social group to be at least partly educated with a high ambition to be an aspire. (They might be included in the BCD sector). Although the features reflect a lot of partying and going out, the text within my magazine shows that there is a balance. You should never give up on your dreams and aim to succeed, but there's nothing wrong with following trends and hits. 

To conclude the evaluation of my social group I came up with 

MARKET SEGREGATION:

DEMOGRAPHIC: As I mentioned above my magazine is aimed towards people around the age of 18/+. I would expect my target audience/ social group to be students or young professionals from a working or lower class with disposable income, who can comfortably afford to pay £2.50 a month of my magazine. In terms of the general registrar scale, they are more likely to be in the BCD sector which focuses around semi-professional jobs. They could be also in part time education but with high interest in alternative pop/rock music. The Stereo Beat magazine is aimed at both males and females, which can be supported through the house style of my magazine, particularly typography and colour scheme. 

GEOGRAPHIC: Stereo Beat magazine is mainly targeted at people living in the UK due to the included features of upcoming gigs and events which are mostly taking place around the UK. However, as I mentioned before I have chosen Bauer Media as my distributor which publishes magazines across 15 countries meaning that my magazine could be targeted at people from other countries. However, my edition of the magazine is particularly aimed at people living around bigger cities of UK such as London. This would be appealing to the audience as they would have easier access to attend upcoming events such as concerts or festivals which tend to be arranged in bigger cities. I can supports this through one of my cover stories titled 'Who? What? Why? Where? UK TOUR'.

PSYCHOGRAPHIC: In terms of the psychographic, my audience will tend to be a mixture of main streamers and aspires, as they will have disposable amount of money to pay £2.50 per month for the magazine. They will tend to gain inspiration from known artists who are willing to pass on their advises and life experiences. They could be considered as main streamers due to the interest in well known artists / bands such as Coldplay, Fall out Boy or Arcade Fire which they could consider as role models due to their fashion style, music taste or other individual interests. They are also more likely to attend live music performances such as gigs and concerts. 

Another way of presenting the social group of my magazine would be through audience profile, which I created in a form of a table:

In conclusion, I have clearly showed variety of methods which I used in order to represent the social group of my media product. I mostly accomplished this through  the mise-en-scene including costumes, props, body language but also other aspects such as hair stylisation. I also taken into consideration the market segregation which helped me to identify even more aspects about the social group of my magazine through demographic, geographic and psychographic sectors.Additionally, I created an audience profile which allowed me to portray different views about my potential social group.  

EVALUATION - QUESTION I
IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCT?

I also want to look back at my criteria grid where I identified other codes and conventions. I found this task very useful during construction as it allowed me to look back at what I need to include, where and why. In this case I will use it as a check list while annotating and identifying the codes and conventions within each page of my magazine. I will use Flicker in order to present my work. The annotations can be found under this link:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/132203275@N02/shares/409g83

https://www.flickr.com/photos/132203275@N02/shares/409g83

From next week (starting from Monday 27th of April) I will be focusing on my evaluation. I already responded and evaluated some of the key information during my research, planning as well as construction process. This will make it easier of me to do a create piece of work where I will be evaluating different aspects learned throughout the course. I am planning to use different ICT skills including PowerPoint, Prezi, Slide-share and more. I am planning to complete my evaluation by Friday the 1st of May.

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD - FINAL OUTCOME
This is final version of my double page spread. I am quite pleased with my the final outcome as I spent reasonable amount of time producing it. I was looking back at my planning as well as the codes and conventions of other music magazines, particularly Q magazine which focuses around a similar house style. I also spent a lot of time editing and choosing appropriate image for my double page spread. At first I planned to locate a portrait shot, however once I looked even further into my research and my own photographs I decided to place a medium long shot. This worked particularly well as I could reinforce the  subject of the interview using props. I could specifically highlight the guitar instrument as well which stood out within the rest of the dark costume. Furthermore, I spent a lot of time reading through different interviews in order to make improvements to my own text. This helped me a lot as I could improve and develop my use of vocabulary as well as the question structure. Overall, I am really happy with the final outcome as I created DPS based on my research that helped me make my final outcome look more professional and accomplished. 

CONSTRUCTING DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD 

I am planning to finish my DPS by next Monday (27th of March). So far I find my time management quite good as I already constructed my interview and made improvements to it. I placed the edited photograph, headings and captions. The only element which I still haven't completed, is typing up the text on Photshop (as I am using font which is not availabe on InDesign). During this process I wasn't sure how to apply 'Justify' option in order to create straight and equal paragraphs. I decided to look at the Photoshop tutorial on Youtube. This helped me a lot, as I solved my problem straight away. The link can be found below the paragraph;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTi69ZMfC-0

This is the  introduction paragraph which I decided to add to my DPS:

I'm sitting in a crowded cafe on the outskirts of London when Jason saunters through the open doors looking dazzlingly charming. When he walks in there is not a flicker of recognition on the faces around us. You guess he likes it that way. He is wearing a leather jacket, lose t-shirt and faded jeans. He's got the look of the pop star, but also a subtle swagger of a rock star. He sits down, gazes up with a striking look 'What shall we start with?' he says. 

CONTENTS PAGE - FINAL OUTCOME

This is final version of my contents page. I am really pleased with the final outcome as the overall page seems to be clear and minimalistic as I planned, I used simple and quite vintage fonts which reinforced the simplistic effect even further. The page doesn't seem to be too busy or overloaded, making it clear to read and more interesting too look at. I also think I made a good decision by not applying the photo collage as this would make the entire page look too 'overloaded', although I could link my contents to various contents topics. Besides, I followed the codes and conventions of other music magazines. I was particularly inspired by the 'Q'  magazine, and I hope this can be seen within my final outcome. Now I am looking forward to construct my DPS. 

Before starting construction of my double page spread I decided to look back at my research. I particularly decided to look at the Q magazine due to a similar colour scheme comparing with  my own magazine. This double page spread mood board will definitely help me in case I will feel stuck especially as I consider these designs as model layouts and I want to create a similar page. 

 

 FRONT COVER - FINAL OUTCOME

This is an image which represents a final outcome of my music magazine front cover. As you can see I have taken into account all the pointed out before improvements. I particularly focused on highlighting the cover stories which used to be blending in with the rest of the text. I decided to clean the inside of the letters in order to make the key stories clearer and more visible. To reinforce this aim even further I used bright, red colour which made the text stand out even more. In further improvements I significantly increased the size of the main artist's name 'Jason Posner'. During this stage I also decided to look at further research. This significantly helped me to make final decisions. Overall, I am quite happy with the final outcome as I managed to follow the codes and conventions of a music (pop/ rock/alternative) magazine. I learnt a lot from my research and I tried to show this within this construction. Now I will be applying my gathered skills to the contents page. 

This week I will be focusing on my contents page which I am going to construct using InDesign program, although I am planning to use Photoshop in order to work on my typography because of the special fonts that I already downloaded and used within my front cover. However, today I've been making my last improvements within my front cover. Here are some of the screen shots which I took during this process, as well as secondary magazine images representing some codes and conventions. 

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD - INTERVIEW DRAFT I

This is my first draft of an interview which I constructed in order to be prepared for next week practical work. Looking back at my layout, I want my interview to cover one A4 page, hopefully this amount of text should be enough however, I am willing to add more if needed. Within the interview I wanted to focus on introducing an upcoming star. I wanted to make the questions quite simple while I tried to develop the content by making it more personal, truthful and 'fresh'. I think this worked quite well. The next step will be based on selecting and manipulating appropriate images for my DPS as well as my contents page. 

FRONT COVER - CONSTRUCTION PROCESS 

FRONT COVER - DRAFT I

This week I am going to be focusing on constructing the front cover of my magazine. I've already developed and manipulated an image which I am going to use for the front cover. I will be looking back at the codes and conventions as well as my layout and feature plans. This will significantly help me to manage my time, as I know what I should be doing.