The Time I Evaluated My Work

Question One:

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

Question Two:

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

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Answer to Question 2 (click)


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

Question 4:
Who would be the audience for your media product?

Question Five:
How did you attract/address your audience?

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Answer to Question 5 (click)


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

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

Looking back, I can honestly say my preliminary task looked awful in terms of layout and editing. As i was only teaching myself how to edit images, I was not confident in using Photo Shop for everything, hence using PowerPoint to copy and paste text and shapes. I have learnt how to make my content look more realistic by viewing other magazines and analyzing different genres with their pro's and con's.  Overall my progress has increased dramatically from my preliminary task to my final product, from the color scheme, editing, layout and general aesthetics

CLOSING STATEMENT:

I would like to firstly thank my media teacher for enabling me to learn how to master software's that will be useful for me in the future. I have thoroughly enjoyed this process and will definitely continue this as an A2 course. Thank you sir/madame examiner for taking the time to read my blog. I hope you like my end product as much as I do. Thank you.

TASNEEM AHMED

The Time I Gained Audience Feedback

As I have completed my magazine, I decided to print out my work and gain audience feedback in order to see what potential improvements can be made. I asked 2 females and 2 males due to the limited amount of available students in the sixth form area of the school. 

Overall, I think they liked my magazine a lot, mostly the males due to the masculine theme across the pages i.e. colour scheme. Most improvements lay with the females as they thought my background for my contents page and front cover was too 'dark'. In addition, the females felt there were more improvements to be made rather than the males, connoting that the magazine appealed better to the males. I will make minor improvements such as the size of the '+' on the front cover, slightly changing the opacity of the quote on the contents page, removing the 'U' on the contents page and changing the last paragraph of the article on the double page spread. 

The Time I Finalized Things

I had shown my teacher my 'finalized' magazine and received a few points in order to achieve the highest grade. Firstly, I printed off my double page spread to see what it would look like and my teacher addressed a few things I had to change. 

On this page, I have to change:
- The positioning of the photography credit on the top left and replace it with 'Jay G's' social media
- Insert the flash, 'What you smiling at Jay?' in box
- Move the photography credit on the lower right side
- Insert 'In the spotlight' on the top strip

On this page, I have to change:
- Spacing in 'hip hop artist to'
- Change the intro underneath Jay G
- Make the drop capital be only for the letter 'T'
- Remove the top right quote and add promotion for Jay G's album instead

With my contents page, I have added an additional image, (taken from here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/staticarchive/3fea19d1eb035ae1f26dd37d7abfddca2d370b77.jpg) I have also added a 'win' section that allows readers to go straighT to the page of competitions. 

This is what my finalized and changed product looks like...

The Time I Switched Things Up (Front Cover)

As I had nearly completed my whole magazine, I decided to tweak certain elements of my front cover, and contents page as a result of audience research. The first element I changed was the background of my front cover. I changed this to black as I did not want a reoccurring aspect of gradient backgrounds, especially as it looked stronger on my double page spread. 

I then decided to change the shape background of my additional image from black to grey, changing the image also so it does not look like the model is 'floating'. The image I have chosen gives off a more hip hop vibe, due to the clothing. In addition, the 'lakers' logo matches well with the masthead, coincidentally. 

Finally, I enlarged the main image to make 'Jay G' be the main focus.

The Time I Almost Completed My Magazine

This is my double page spread article that I have done so far.

The Time I Changed The Gradient

As a result of asking my fellow peers, I decided to change the gradient background of my front cover. This is so that the top left of my magazine gives off a 'cleaner finish'.

Below is the final product.

The Time I Finalized My Front Cover

As I have now completed my front cover, I asked my teacher her opinion. The only element of my front cover that she wanted me to change was the size of the barcode, which is what i have now done. Below, I have placed a green arrow in the current reduced size of the barcode. 

I have decreased it and my magazine now looks complete. I will now write my article in Microsoft Word for my double page spread.

The Time I Made Changes Part 2

With my previous front cover, I was concerned about the top left corner of it as it seemed 'bulky' with cover lines. This is how it looked previously. 

Here under 'Exclusive', there are two lines underneath which seems to create an overcrowded effect. I have now taken out 'Exclusive' with the Hard Kaur and 50 Cent cover line. I then moved all the artists upwards and played around with the layout of the additional image of Rachel. After, I placed the Hard Kaur cover line beneath it so it looked in proportion with the rest of the content. Below is my current and changed front cover.

The Time You Saw My Changes Part 1

These are the changes that I have made so far with my front cover and contents page.

In my contents page, I have switched the layout of where my editors letter was and have placed convergent media too. Additionally, I have added more articles underneath the cover story section.

In my front cover, I have zoomed the front image so there is more emphasis to his face. I have also added additional images and placed my cover lines differently. 

This is my final product so far, however, I will continue to make small changes as I make my double page spread. 

The Time I Added Images

I have made many changes to my front cover so far and this is what it looks like:

In addition, I have added an image of actual artists: Mickey Singh and Waseem Stark. Below is the image I added along with the webpage of where I found it.

http://www.browngirlmagazine.com/2014/07/mickey-singh-talks-new-albummickstape/

The Time I Was Critiqued

Due to the fact that I finished both my front cover and contents page, I asked my Media teacher to critique my work. Below is the list of changed I should make in order to achieve a stronger grade for my magazine.

I will begin to make these changes and document them on my blog as I progress. 

The Time I Placed A +

One small change that I have placed in my magazine is changing one of the " -- " to a "+" sign as this is used in many magazines. I find this feature to be very distinctive and different than having multiple hyphens placed. I have circled where I have made this change.

The Time I Finished My Front Cover

As stated in my previous blog, I decided to add a gradient background to my front cover in order to look more aesthetically pleasing as a plain white background would not entice anyone in to reading it. 

This is my finalized front cover. As I continue to make my magazine, any changes will be documented in my blog

The Time I Experimented

As my initial choice for my background colour of my front cover was white, as i continued to add cover lines, it came to my attention that the background looked very plain. This made me experiment with different gradient tools in order to take into consideration what my front cover would look like with a gradient background. This is what I came up with...

This is my cover so far without a gradient

This is a very subtle gradient background 

I like this background. I will change the colour of the word "interview" and "hunterz"

I also like this due to its simplicity. 

I will continue to experiment and will post my front cover background choice in my next blog post

The Time I Started My Front Cover

As I have completed creating my contents page, I have decided to start my front cover. This is what it looks like so far...

Double click to enlarge

I want the background for my front cover to be white due to the fact that my contents page is black. I think that personally, the orange looks better against a white background, especially as my model's t-shirt is white. I may make changes to the background once I've placed all my cover lines etc so then I can make a final decision. The changes that I make will be documented on my blogs.

The Time I Created My Contents Page

Due to timing issues with my models, I decided to create my contents page first to experiment the tools of Photoshop and increase my knowledge of the software. This is my completed contents page.

Double click to enlarge

As I continue to make my magazine I will make changes and document them in my blog, however, in the mean time I will continue creating my magazine by moving onto my front cover.

The Time I Made My 7th Diary

As a result of technical issues and stress, I had not made consistent production diaries in the past couple of weeks. I decided to sum up everything I had accomplished within these 2 weeks and produce a diary. 

I shall now continue to create my magazine and will keep updating my every change(s) towards the magazine.

The Time I Visioned My Front Cover

The model I am going to use for my front cover and double page spread is called Joyel and I have named him 'Jay G' - a play on words from both artists Jay Sean and Jay Z. Due to Joyel's availability, I initially planned to take his photos first but couldn't. This meant that I had to start editing my contents page. However, now that I have taken his photographs, I have narrowed them down completely. 

Below is the photograph I am going to use for my front cover

This is the image I am going to use for my double page spread..

The Time I Started Making A Magazine

With my lowered knowledge of how to use the software Photoshop, I first watched many tutorials on YouTube. However, I discovered that the art of photoshop was to explore the different tools and features for yourself in order to build your knowledge of the software. I decided to start creating my contents page. The reason for this was because I had not yet taken photographs of my main cover star, Joyel, so I did not want to decrease my work pace. 

This is what I have accomplished so far. I am positively keeping my colour scheme and I personally think that the colours look aesthetically pleasing when together. 

I wanted to make my contents page background black so that my front cover could be white. I realized that the orange/yellow colour was the boldest out of my colour palette so I am going to use this to title my pages. White and grey are very appealing highlight colours that I can use to place behind my dark blue texts. Overall, I feel that my contents page is coming together very well and I am hoping that I take my other photoshoot very soon.  

The Time I Chose My Pictures

I have finished narrowing down Rachel's photographs due to technical issues with the memory card off the camera.

Below is the image that I am going to select for my contents page.

The Time I Planned My Photoshoot

I used one of my models from the school magazine photoshoot, Rachel, to be the star of my contents page. Because my magazine is subverting the stereotype of Hip Hop, Rachel had the qualities I was looking for: fierceness, confidence and beauty. I wanted my magazine to consist of a rival so I decided I would create the artist "Raeanna" - a play on words by existing artist Rihanna, and create a rivalry between her and Jay G (Joyel). The photographs below are the sort of poses that I would like Rachel to do.

As my front cover star's availability is limited, I am going to take Rachel's photoshoot first and create my contents page. Joyel is aesthetically suitable to be my front cover star because of his overall look and personality. Joyel carries Hip Hop traits such as the way he dresses and the confidence he has. In addition, Joyel is the only Asian male student in my year that I think is suitable. I plan to present him in a stereotypical pose for the front cover but less serious in the double page spread. Below are the types of poses I would like Joyel to do. 

The Time I Analysed 6 Magazines

In order to mind map the different poses and content I could potentially post on my magazine about my Hip Hop artist, I decided to analyse 6 magazines altogether - 4 genres different to Hip Hop and the rest Hip Hop magazines. I used the artist Rihanna, and showcased how she was portrayed in different genres of music magazines. 

Rolling Stone is a hugely successful magazine that specifies in different genre's of music. The masthead itself uses a masculine "rock and roll" type font and the colour red makes it stand out. Due to the unique formatting of the masthead, this could potentially be the main reason as to why Rolling Stone is popular. Rihanna's pose is quite provocative and is essentially aimed towards a male audience. Her promiscuity entices the intended audience as she is a well known RnB artist. The background colour is white so this makes the masthead stand out even further. Her clothing is simple so overall, her pose is the most dominant aspect of this front cover, creating a huge impact towards the type of audience that Rolling Stone are aiming towards in this issue. 

NME stands for New Musical Express and is a widely recognized magazine. Their genre also caters to many genres but is generally known to showcase indie and alternate artists. In this case, however, they have used Rihanna with the intention of widening their audience to allow new readers to buy their magazine. The masthead's font is very basic, with all attention leading to the main image (usually for all NME magazine covers). Rihanna wears a completely different type of outfit from what her usual style is (borderline hip hop). Her eccentric makeup allows the 'indie' aspect of the magazine to come into play, however, Rihanna's dominance (as always) shines through. Although she appears to look more modest than usual, the attention goes directly towards the prop used on her shoulder, giving the magazine more edge. Overall, the simplicity of the magazine in terms of colours and font is something I would like to take on board whilst creating my magazine. 

Billboard magazine is arguably the most popular music magazine worldwide, as it showcases all different types of musical artists. Billboard is intended for music professionals, such as record label executives, artists, music retailers, and radio DJs. On this cover, Rihanna is dressed in a cropped top but her makeup and hair styling indicates a more feminine side to her style rather than her usual edgy-hip hop look. Her red hair matches with Billboard's masthead and compliments each other very well, whilst at the same time, the colour not becoming too overpowering. In addition, her pose is not as promiscuous as other front covers she has done previously. Overall, the most dominating aspect of this cover is her hair, as the cover line indicates a 'reinvention' of her look, style and development as an artist. 

'We <3 Pop' is arguably one of the most successful pop magazines today. The magazine tends to use the same colour scheme throughout all of their issues: pink, black, white and yellow. The colours connote femininity as the target audience is aimed towards young females aged 10 and above, possibly lower. In this photograph, Rihanna's facial expression shows happiness and a carefree attitude. Her red hair also displays a feminine side to her as well, highlighting that she is not always serious. The image of Rihanna takes up the space of the magazine which signifies her importance. Overall, this cover is the least serious that Rihanna has taken a part in and symbolizes femininity.   

I will now begin to analyse two Hip Hop magazines.

Vibe is a very popular Hip Hop magazine which showcases many different Hip Hop artists. In this issue, Eminem is the cover star. His simplistic attire is not washed out by the gradient background colour which is very positive as it contrasts well with his skin colour. The masthead is also of a gradient format but does not consist of many colours. The dominant colours on the front cover are black and red. The red cover lines highlight the importance of each article. The way Eminem is posing infers his high status and popularity. Overall, this magazine is the type of style that I am hoping my magazine would look like.

This Hip Hop Magazine is called XXL and is hugely recognized, which leads onto the point of the masthead being cut off behind 50 cent's head. This is a popular method which many magazines use. I personally think that magazines with huge recognition should use this method which is why this issue is very appealing. The fact that 50 cent's head is covering part of the masthead suggests his importance towards the Hip Hop world. I may potentially use this method for my magazine but not completely cut off a whole letter like this front cover. Overall, this front cover uses a similar colour scheme to the Vibe magazine which indicates that these colours are most effective.