Front Cover, Contents Page and Double Page Spread

Evaluation Q1

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

Conventions Followed: Front Cover

Conventions Followed: Contents page

Conventions Followed: Double Page Spread

Evaluation Q2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Evaluation Q3

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

Evaluation Q4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation Q5

How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation Q6

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

Products;

Camera- Nikon Coolpix L820, product details-

• Product dimensions: 8.5 x 11.1 x 7.6 cm ; 427g
• Boxed-product weight: 962g
• Batteries: 4 AA batteries required

I used the above camera to take the photos of my model in my magazine. Due to using a high quality camera I was able to produce high quality pictures that are good enough to be published in a professional magazine.

Prezi- is a cloud-based presentation software and story telling tool for presenting ideas on virtual canvas.

I have used Prezi throughout my work to present work and ideas.

Blogger-.a publishing tool to allow me to share text, photos and videos

Throughout the course I have used blogger to showcase and organise my work. Using blogger has various advantages as it allows me to present my work in all different types of media forms.

Slideshare- I used Slideshare as a digital software that allows me to upload PowerPoint presentations to blogger.

Evaluation Q7

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

Preliminary task- College magazine         Final product- My music magazine

                          

My Preliminary Task

For my preliminary task I had to create a college magazine front cover, the basis of this task was mainly in preparation for my final product on creating a front cover, contents page and double page spread for a music magazine. Additionally the preliminary task also developed my skills and gain experience using Photoshop. The image below shows the certain aspects I have learned from the preliminary task and the skills that i have continued to develop whilst still creating my product.

Preliminary Task continued...

The follow context shows a brief breakdown of my preliminary college magazine front cover compared to my final music magazine front cover. The benefits of doing the preliminary task helped me understand the key conventions that needed to be applied to a magazine front cover to make it effective to the target audience, as I found from my preliminary task it illustrated how unconventional it appeared and the mistakes I had made. For example it comes to my notice that my college magazine did not conventionally follow the code. Through doing research for my music magazine , it came to my attention that from looking at existing magazines that when it came to planning I had to take into account the colour scheme, masthead, bar code, skyline, sell lines and I also learnt of the different types of shots that are conventionally used on the front cover of magazines.

Comparing My Products

Comparative Table

From the table above it is clear that the difference between my preliminary task and actual product is obvious, as I have developed my skills from producing the college magazine to including key codes and conventions in my actual music magazine which where significantly lacking in my college magazine.

Construcion of double page spread

I have decided to create my double page spread article text in Publisher because when it comes to writing my article it will be easier to place the text in columns and also its easy to wrap text around images and other text. However I will be editing my images on Photoshop as I believe its one of the best software to edit images and completing the final page all together.

New page

 

 

First of all I opened up publisher as seen on image 1. After opening up a document I wanted to name and save the document so I can find the file easily when i'm making changes to do this I selected 'file' tab which was located in the top left corner. Image 2 is what was shown after selecting file. I then selected 'save as' (image 3) and image 4 was what was shown after selecting this option. After this I selected 'browse' (image 5) so that I could save the document in an appropriate file. I saved the document on my memory stick so I am able to carry on or make changes to the page in different locations ie home and school. This document was also named 'Rhythmix double page spread' because this is what the document is, this is shown in image 6.

Double page

 

A double page spread includes 2 pages hence the 'double' therefore I needed to add 2 pages to do this I right clicked the page allocated on the left hand side and selected 'insert page..' as seen in image 1. Next I changed the 'number of pages' to 2 as seen in image 2 then selected 'okay'. Next the layout of the pages needed to me changed so that the pages were together, to do this right select one of the pages and select 'view two page spread' as shown in image 3. Image 4 shows us what the pages look like after making these changes.

Article text

 

Too add text I used the 'draw text box' tool as you can see from image 1. Next I inserted the information/article as seen in image 2. After writing the text I then wanted to place the text in columns to do this look at image 3, image 4 shows us what the text looks like after placing it in columns. 

Pull quotes

  

  

Next I added pull quotes to the article text as its conventional to have these on a double page spread, so firstly I used the draw text box tool as shown in image 1. Next I inserted the appropriate information and I made the text central as again this is conventional for pull quotes, take make text central look at image 2. Then I changed the font colour to pink to do so look at image 3. Image 4 shows us the first pull quote after these changes. I did all this again for my second pull quote as seen on image 5. Next I just dragged these pieces of text, placed them where I thought was appropriate, image 6 shows us this. I am now happy with the way the article text looks so next I saved the text as an image to do so I right selected the text and selected 'save as picture' as seen in image 7.

Editing Main image

  

I decided to use the first image above for my main image, this image was taken for my front cover but I decided to use the image for my double page spread because I love how flawless the model/actress looks and how much her make-up is well defined. Although this image is an medium close up is is conventional to have this type of shot on an R&B magazine just like seen on image 2 (article from VIBE magazine). 

    

I decided to edit the image in Photoshop because I believe that it is one of the best editing software and also I believe its easy to use. Firstly  opened up the image to do so look at image 1. Next I wanted to change the brightness and contrast of the image to do to this look at image 2. next I changed the brightness to 6 and the contrast to 25 this was the appropriate adjustment I believed so the photo still looks real and not fake meaning her face looking plastic. Image 4 shows us the photo after the brightness and contrast adjustment. Next I wanted to change the Hue/Saturation to do this look at image 5. Image 6 are the changes I made within this, image 7 is how the image looks after all of theses changes. I like the way the image looks and I'm happy I made the hue/saturation changes as now the image will stand out on the page due to the hair on the model looking bold.

Double page spread page

  

Firstly I opened up Photoshop programme. Next I wanted to make a new file so to do this look at image 1. Next I changed the name to something appropriate, set the 'present' at 'international pages, this is all seen on image 2. Image 3 shows us the page after these decisions.

Adding image to double page spread

 

Adding my image was pretty simple as all I needed to do was open my image as shown in image 1. Next I scaled the image so that it fit half the page, to scale an image look at image 2. While scaling my image I showed the grid so that the picture would be in the middle accurately to do this look at image 3. Image 4 shows us what the image looks like after being added and scaled.

Adding article text to double page spread

     

This stage was just more a less the same as when 'adding image to double page spread. Firstly I opened my article image as shown in image 1. Next I scaled the image so that it fit a quarter of the page,  to scale an image look at image 2. While scaling my image I showed the grid so that the picture would be in the middle accurately to do this look at image 3. Image 4 shows us what the article image looks like after being added and scaled.

Title

  

Firstly I opened up a new layer to do this look at image 1,  I named the layer 'title' therefore in the future if I have to make any changes I can find the layer easily. next by using the 'Horizontal type tool' shown on image 2 then I typed 'Amy's back better than ever'  I changed the 'Amy's' font size to 150  along with changing it to black font and I changed the 'back better then ever' font to 50 and I changed the colour to the red that's been used throughout the cover this shows that continuity has been used throughout the magazine. Image 3 shows us the font and image 4 shows us the font on the magazine.

Opening paragraph

 

This is one of the main conventions that is on a double page spread as it introduces the readers to the article they are about to read. Firstly I opened up a new a layer to do this look at image 1. Next by using the 'horizontal type tool' as shown in image I typed the appropriate information then when I was done I changed the font colour to the same red that has been used throughout the magazine this creates continuity throughout the magazine. image 3 shows us the text and image 4 shows us the text on the magazine.

Photographers name, website and date

 

All of these conventions where added in the same way firstly I opened up a new layer for each of the aspect named them appropriately to fit there title this has been done so that if I need to make any adjustments in the future regarding any of these I can find the layer easily. Next I used the 'Horizontal type tool' as shown on image 2. All text was needed to be black so I changed the colour to black in the colour palette located on the left hand side of the programme. Image 3 shows us the text of the photographers name and the interviewers name, image 4 shows us the website font and image 5 shows us the date font. Image 6 shows us all of these conventions on the page.