Final Note.

Hello Moderator,

Below, beginning from the month September, you will find my "Research and Planning" posts for my magazine. After that you will find my Evaluation Posts (questions 1 - 7), and my completed music magazine. 

I have attempted to present my blog in a nice and clear fashion so it is easy for you to understand and navigate through. 

Hope you have fun scrolling through my blog!

Thanks, Annalise.

Evaluation: Foundation Portfolio, Question 7.

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

Starting from September, I produced a College Magazine and then a Music Magazine. In the early stages of my preliminary task I had a very limited understanding of using a camera. Which resulted in a low quality image on my college magazine. Since then, I have gained more skills with using the canon DSLR camera, testing out features of the camera such as "AutoFocus" to experiment in how to take the best HD image. The difference between the image on my college magazine front cover and my music magazine front cover is clear and shows that my knowledge of using a camera has improved. 

I already had a lot of experience with using Photoshop before making both of my magazines and found it easy to colour my images, yet my skills still have improved in regard to colour the images as the image on my music magazine is clearly a lot clearer and brighter to attract my target audience. One skill I improved on a lot via Photoshop is with cutting my images, as you can see the image in my college magazine has very messy lines and easily indicates that I have cut my image. However, on my music magazine the image looks like that is exactly how it was taken and does not indicate that previously there was a background behind the model. 

Looking at both magazines, I can see that since completing my collage magazine I have improved on things such as great colour schemes and appropriate fonts to suit my target audience better. My music magazine shows much more design and more thought and skills has gone into its creation, while my college magazine looks quite bare which is seen as unprofessional.

My target audience has become much clearer in my music magazine and demonstrates that my creativity has flourished since creating my college magazine back in the early stages of production. 

Evaluation: Foundation Portfolio, Question 6.

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

During the production of my music magazine, I used a number of technologies to create my product. Some of these I improved my skills on and other were new to me and I had to learn how to use the technologies.

I used a Canon DSLR camera (shown above) to take my photos for my music magazine. The camera has various settings which I was not familiar with as I had not used this camera before the production of my music magazine. I took me a couple of attempts at testing out the different settings of the camera for me to become used to using it. I found that the "Flash" on the camera was better turned on as, without it and considering the lighting where I took my photos, the images came out a bit too dark to use for my magazine. Also, I thought the setting "AutoFocus" was beneficial as I have quiet unsteady hands and this allowed me to reach more high quality photographs.

I also used the program "IShowU" to show how I used different technology software like Photoshop, Indesign, Blogger and iPhoto.

Other platforms I used for my magazine are Flicker, PowerPoint Presentation and Slide share.

Evaluation: Foundation Portfolio, Question 5.

Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

http://www.slideshare.net/annalisehardman/question-5-evaluation-47876564

here is a link to slide share showing my response to question 5.

Evaluation: Foundation Portfolio, Question 4.

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

Here is a drawing I did of the stereotypical person who would purchase my magazine and showing my target audience.

The drawing shows a 15 year old teenager named Lily who is dressed in a simple flowing skirt, tank top, cardigan, trainers, a headband placed on her head and wearing a necklace. These clothes are fashionable among teenagers and are not very expensive as my target audience are teenagers and would not have the money to buy expensive clothes, such as products from Selfridges which are mostly designer.

Lily likes to listen to music from artists such as Taylor Swift, Katy Perry and Justin Timberlake. Since she is passionate about there music, she loves to read about there personal life, relationships they have and opinions they have on a range of issues/topics.

She would like to be an actress when she is older and possibly become a new pop artist as well. When she is older enough she wishes to attend auditions for small roles to start her acting career but also audition for The X Factor.

Also, Lily loves animals - she has a dog named TayTay, after the artist Taylor Swift. Lily's favourite thing to do is take her dog out for walks in the Spring time - her favourite season - and volunteer at animal shelters to help take care of the animals.

Lily is a "White-British" female and is fairly slim, has dark brunette hair and hazel eyes. This is consider to be a stereotype for both a leading actress and a Pop singer - such as Megan Fox and Katy Perry.

She takes care when applying her make-up and often browses YouTube on tutorials for new hairstyles and make-up tips to improve her look and experiment in both departments, demonstrating she takes pride in her looks which is true for any celebrity. She has a fairly large group of friends who she hangs out with most of the weekend, and week-days when attending School. Her favourite subjects in school are English, Art and Drama.

Evaluation: Foundation Portfolio, Question 3.

Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/132207366@N04/17405975621/in/photostream/

here is a link to my answer for question 3.

Evaluation: Foundation Portfolio, Question 2.

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The female model on Top of the Pops and my model both are pulling the same facial expression. They are smiling slightly and showing a subtle confidence in their pose. My target audience are young individuals searching for happiness. The colours on the model support this as well. Both the models are also young adults, similar ages to my audience which means the audience can relate to the models.

The smaller images around the main model on the front cover all show the models happy and smiling. Some of the photos show a medium close up, allowing the audience to see their happiness written across their faces. The free poster on my magazine has a background which matches the people's pose in the photo, showing they are having a lot of fun and exploring their new found adulthood. This relates to my audience as they are young individuals who are very soon in the future going to be exploring by themselves and the magazines showcase that even though that is a scary thought, you can have a lot of fun in introducing yourself to the world.

Evaluation: Foundation Portfolio, Question 1

Question 1: In what ways does your magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?


SlideShare - Question 1 Evaluation

here is a link to slide share which shows my evaluation question 1.

Research & Planning: Complete Double Page Spread.

I have added the remaining questions and answers to the page in three columns. I also added a large yellow box in the right corner to include a big quote from Bella - the model - about her views on fashion. Relating it back to her music.

Research & Planning: Complete Contents Page.

I have added two images, one of a skirt and one of a pair of heels accompanied with a small box and text which shows which page in the magazine these items can be found. I have added small text next to the page numbers which indicates where these articles can be found within the magazine, and a small bit about what the particular article is about - categorized beneath the correct categories.

Research & Planning: Complete Front Cover of Music Magazine.

I have finished the front cover of my magazine by adding the images to it, placing them strategically. I have added a small yellow box at the top to show that free posters are included with the magazine and it matches where I have shown the Taylor Swift tickets that are to be won.

Reasearch & Planning: Music Magazine Progress 8.

Here I have added a smaller image and added a border which matches the colour scheme of my magazine - blue. I have also added another question and answer, as well as a quote from the artist in a larger font, to be place in between questions, which I have seen many other pop magazines do.

Research & Planning: Music Magazine Progress 7.

Here I have added my main image for the double page spread and started to form columns with my interview questions and the answers my model gave me. I used small purple hearts to show the number of questions.

Research & Planning: Colouring Images.

Here is how I decided to colour my images that are featured in the front cover, contents page and double page spread.

I thought that using a range of blue hues - which is the colour I previously chose for the background to my front cover, would work well with both the images that were taken and the other colours in my scheme which are: yellow, purple and pink. I chose to stick to the brighter blues to keep in with the theme of bright colours in my colour scheme.

I experimented with other colours on the images too: pink, yellow and purple. This was to see which colour would best fit with the image and with the rest of the page. These colours didn't turn out as good as the blue colours did to fit with the overall look of the front cover, contents page and double page spread.

I used the tools curves, brightness and contrast, selective colour and vibrance when editing and determining the colours to my images.

Research & Planning: Photos Chosen To Use For Magazine

Research & Planning: Model Photos Taken

Research & Planning: Shooting Schedule.

Here is the document  to show the booked and complete shooting that took places during the production of the magazine.

Research & Planning: Music Magazine Progress 6.

I have added 2 blue boxes to create a colourful and creative space to add my tag line and have rearranged my text to show the artists name - Bella Grey, and the rest of the text which introduces the main article feature.

Research & Planning: Music Magazine Progress 5.

I have added 3 more headings on my contents page and numbers which represent pages within the magazine. Also, I began making my double page spread, experimenting with tag lines and headings.