Question 7 Looking back at the perliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progession from it to a full product?

My perlimery task was to make a college magazine front page and contents page. I think I gained more experience with this task than I had for my last task. Having been familiar with photoshop before I started my perliminary task gave me more time to plan out my ideas and what id like to do. With gaining more knowledge gave me the opptunity to create any idea that I had with no restrictions.

Since I started the task I tried to stick to all deadlines that were given to me but some tasks took longer to do than others. For example the actual putting together of the magazine took longer than any of the tasks that I was given.
To try to keep to my deadline I had to work around my friends time because they couldn't stay after college so I had to book a camera to take with me so I can take photos outside of college and borrow my friends cameras who do photography so I can do my work in there our free periods.
I was able to use professional cameras for all of my photos taken because of this.
I took alot of photos in many places and I used the best ones that would fit into my magazine. As you can see from earlier the photos I took of the girl when I first took photos weren't used for my magazine because I took better ones which were used for my magazine. I only wanted the best for my magazine to appeal to my audience.

Using the camera was easy as most of its functions were automatic like the LCD flash would come up if there was low lighting and the photos would usually focus themselves so I wouldn't have to. What I had to do was find good locations with sufficient lighting so I could take my photos so they can come out in the best possible  quality for the editing stage where I can take out anything that I don't like.

I also found out about websites for fonts to find and how to download them. This was very useful for me because I wanted the best possible fonts for my magazine but I didn't know where to look or where to find them.

The strengths of my magazine is that my friends and my teacher likes it and I am very happy with my work I have done and the experience I have gained using photoshop. I am also pleased with how organised I have been and that I have met most of my dead lines and added more interesting features to my work such as a real life interview with a band member.

My weaknesses would definitely be that I used the colour red to much for my front cover. I also a slight blemish with my models hair where there's a white bit in his hair that suppose to be in line with the background.
I could have kept up with all my deadlines but some were hard to keep with as there was alot of work to do to get it done as I needed to do research as I didn't no anything about any publishing companies and I didn't no much about the publishing industry until now.
When I look back at my first task I definitely see where I have improved with my photoshop skills and research skills and knowing what the my target audience wants out of a magazine.

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

In this unit I got to use  different websites and technologies of some I havn't used before. Blogger was fairly easy to use unless I was trying to move a photo around right to left which was very difficult to do as it doesn't move around freely it automatically moves where it wants to when you try to move it.

The cameras were fairly easy to use as I used auto focus to take my photos so the camera wasn't hard to use but light was an issue sometimes but I didn't have any professional lights to do my photos as there wasn't enough time to do it in the class room.

I used the internet for my research. I used google and weekipedia for my research on the publishing house to find out more about it and I also used the acutal website aswell.

I also used weekipedia to find out kerrangs demographic and other information which was needed to my research.

The only software I used was photoshop. I used photoshop to make my magazines front cover, double page spread and contents page.

The images weren't very easy to edit. The first photo I edited was my double page spread where I used the poylgonal lasso tool to cut around his hair and then copied part of his head and placed it infront of the masthead which font I from dafonts.com. I had to lasso round his head because I was using the background from the actual photo and not cutting his whole body and putting it on another background like other magazine covers. After I did that I then flattened  the image so I wouldn't have any problems if I accidently moved it because with my past experience of photoshop that happend alot. I found the photo I took very dull looking and I thought for a front page picture didnt have alot of colour and wouldnt catch anyones eye who was walking past so I changed the contrast and lightness of the photo to make it look more appealing.

To make his hair longer I used the warp tool in transform also patch, healing brush tool and spot healing brush as there were alot of white patches in the photo and lots of faults which I had to cover up.

When I finished my photo I put all my coverlines in and I got my fonts from dafonts.com and urbanfonts.co.uk.

My double page spread was the easiest to do. I took two photos for my double page spread, I took one of the wall at my college and a picture of my friend with a guitar borrowed from the music room. I made the photo by using the polygonal lasso to cut around my friend then I pasted it onto the photo of the photo I took of the wall. I used the perspective tool in transform to make the photo of my model look like his part of the wall. I then cut around his shirt and used hue-saturation and colour balance to change the colour of his shirt. To give him the drawn on wall look I went to filter and used an artistic brush. I then added my interview I did with the silver fox guitarist.

I then did my contents page which was fairly easy to do. I took a photo of my friend cut around him using the same lasso tool like I did for my other photos as I found it works best unlike magic wand tool or any other lasso. I then cut around a photo of a gas mask and put it on his face using the same lasso tool then used transformation and warp to fix it onto his face.
For the black and white look I gave him I used filter and brush strokes.
The background of my contents page was easy to do as I only used a downloaded brush to make scratch affects.

Question 5 How did you attract/address your audience?

I-Rock will attract its readers by there online website, application and magazine because what the audience want a magazine which is loyal to there readers and can get them information even when there waiting for the next issue to come out. The way my magazine will show its loyalty to the readers is by getting them the news, reviews, interviews and gossip as soon as it comes out.
I wrote this on my editors letter on my contents page because if the reader thinks were dedicated to getting them what they want my magazine will get more attention.

I used standard english for my coverlines, other text on contents page and for my interview on my double page spread. I did this because most bands don't use slang in there music.

The person who I used for my front cover is 17 years old. I used him because he is what on average my reader dresses and looks like.
The accessories I asked him to wear were headphones because alot of people have started wearing them as a casual accessorie so appeals to my target audience.
I also asked him to wear a checked shirt with another t-shirt underneath because thats what my target audience are more familiar with i discussed checked shirts in question 1 and that it is a very familiar piece of clothing in rock.

The person I picked for my front cover is male so will attract a male audience because a male audience can relate and understand a male band featured on the front cover. He will also attract a female audience because hes not fat or ugly and he has cool hair which a female audience will be attracted to.

I also edited his hair on photoshop to make it appeal more to my target audience.
Listers of rock usually try to be very creative with their hair and put highlights in it or spike it up to make themselves look unique and to basically show people what sort of person they are.

I changed my models hair to a more lighter colour I wanted to be more of a red colour because it appeals to my audience and it is a more striking colour than just a bland brown colour. With the colour I changed his hair to it makes the magazine more appealing and matches the coverlines and masthead of the front cover.

My contents page and double page spread I used guitars to attract musicians to my magazine. Not only can it tell people whats on offer from the band and what instruments they can play but musicans reading would be looking for tips because there playing the same instrument as someone who is famous and featured in a magazine so they could be looking for a way to improve there skills by reading a guitarists interview.
The colour of my magazine is mostly based on reds, blacks and whites but I didn't keep to the same colours for my contents page and double page spread I wanted my other each of my other pages to look unique and different because I wanted each page to appeal to different kinds of audiences.

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

My magazines audience will be 16-24 year sold from America to England where rock music is very popular. Also other rock magazines have done really well in these countries.
From my mood board you can see what kind of audience I am trying to attract.
I-Rock magazine will appeal to teenagers and young adults because I-Rock magazine will have the articles which follow stars who live the rock n roll life style so the articles will be interesting to read because of the genre of music I am covering there will be out of control musicians who follow the life style of the stenotype rock star which involves sex, drugs rock n roll.

My magazine will also target the young adult audience because of the articles and interviews by the bands featured in the magazine. An older audience respects the artist more than the music most of the time and is interested in what kind of person they are and what they did to get to the top.

I think my readership will be similar to that of Kerrang! espically because of the issue ive made which only has males on the magazine. Kerrang! has 60% male readers and 40% female readers my magazine will try to attract a similar type audience.
The ethnicity of my readers will be mostly white because Rock has been a mostly dominated by white bands and listeners for centuries but as you can see what i said in question 3 that is changing as rock music is becoming more diverse with its listeners because of cross overs into other genres and collaborations of musicians such as Halley Willams from Paramore and B.O.B.

Also depending on advertising can influence my audience for my media product because advertising leading towards a more female readers will make male readers think if this magazine is more women so if I mix up advertising and target males and females my audience for my magazine would grow.

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

The publishing house I have decided to publish my magazine with is Conde Nast who currently do not feature any music magazines in there publishing house.

Conde Nast is a world wide publishing company. Condé Nast is run by S.I. Newhouse Jr, and is a division of Advance Publications, who has owned the company since 1959.

Most of conde nasts magazines focus on fashion and I think my music magazine will fit in really well with the magazines they currently have because music influences fashion. Rock music has influenced what its listeners wear for centuries and rock music is very controversial and this contrasts though the cloths. Conde Nast will benefit because they will be branching out into new territory and could get a wider audience than just fashion readers.

Condé Nast was one of the first British publishers on the Internet and has carved itself a reputation for being among the very best. I have my own website for my magazine like all the other magazines at Conde Naste which is why I think my magazine should be published by Conde Naste. Further more I am making an app and Conde Naste and apple already have ties with each other.

Rock is becomming more popular these days and the demand for it gets higher and higher every time a celebrity decides to reinvent themself or try the rock star look. Rock is a ever growing genre as celebrities such as Rhianna have changed her looks from pop to rock but now moved more to her Barbarian roots.

This is a photo of Rhianna dressed as slash. Rhianna has a huge fan base and some will follow her change in genre which has gives rock a bigger fan base.

Not just Rhianna has seen the protenual in change other stars have seen it aswell which is why i believe that Conde Nast can benefit from having a magazine based on a genre of music which is very popular for reinvention of stars.

Conde Nast would also benefit from adding my magazine to there publishing house because the magazine I made also has a website which will encouage people to subscribe to the magazine. My magazine also has an app they which will remind people to subscribe to my magazine.

With subscribers you get a loyal fan base which is good for a magazines image because the more people subscribe the more money you get and you start to understand what your readers want if your subscribers go up after a certain article is published.

My magazine could be distributed in all corner shops and typical places to find magazines such as WHSmiths, supermarkets and shop stands at stations.

I would also like my magazine to be sold in topshop because thats where my target audience are more likely to shop so having my magazine at topshop would mean it will most likely get brought.

I also think that my magazine would sell well in the apple stores because of my name. I made the name of my magazine I-Rock because the letter 'I' has a modern feel to it because of apples I range products such as I-pod, I-mac, I-pad and I-phone and because my magazine has 'I' in the title it will fit in well in the apple stores and on my front cover I am advertising my own application for mobile phones.

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

My magazine is similar to kerrang! featuring all sub genres of rock because I am trying to target a similar reader like kerrang, I found out there audience because mine should be similar to there's. The reader of kerrang! is mostly white british and the age group is 16-24. Kerrangs readers are also 60% male and 40% female this is probably due down to advertisement which mostly aimed at the male readers.

In my magazine I designed the pages after sub genres of rock. The front page is more of a alternative rock look because of the main images costume and the way I edited his hair. 

My contents page has a more heavy metal feel to it because its dark and looks rough. 

The double page spread has a more of an indie rock feel because its colourful and has a creative feel to it.

The costume used by my model and the singer in this photo both have checked shirts. Checked shirts use to be patterns Scottish men wore on there cloths but found its way onto punk rock bands in the 1970s and todays R n B and pop singers have also started wearing checked shirts making checked shirts a diverse piece of clothing but depending on how its worn it can portray what sort of genre of music your trying to portray. So I looked at Kerrang! front cover featuring 30 second to Mars and saw that the lead singer in the middle has a shirt on the inside of his checked shirt, so I asked my model to do the same sort of thing.
It looks casual but fashionable and is recognisable to the readers.

My contents page design would appeal to heavy metal listeners because its dark and the gas mask represents rebellion in teenagers because hes not dressed in battle gear hes just wearing the gas mask he is dressed as a teenager with a guitar whose wearing a gas mask which represents rebellion within teenagers.
The background looks like scratches on the wall which shows anger and quite a few lyrics in heavy metal music represent anger, love and loss.

Question 1 Double Page Spread

The article I chose to do for my double page spread is an interview from a real life band member from the 'Silver Foxes' I decided to do an interview because people who read rock magazines are usually trying to start up bands themselves and look for inspiration from signed bands and they look for advise on what to do to get there band signed to a record label. The readers who are not in a band just like to follow up on what there favourite bands are doing and there struggles and life stories which are most of the time felt by the listeners in there lyrics.
Most music magazines do interviews with bands because of this.

My double page spread consists of a title which says silver foxes, main image and a article which spreads out into two pages aswell as the main image which does the same. This kind of layout is very common in any kind of magazine and it is familiar to the reader which is why I decided to do a layout like that.

Question 1 Contents Page

My contents page has a similar design to other magazines. The word contents page is at the top of the page where ive seen other magazines have located the word contents page for example for example Q magazine has the word contents page at the top of the page aswell. I put the word contents page on top so my readers no what page they are on even though magazines put there contents page in the first few pages there are also advertisements which most people flick though quickly so havnt the word contents page clear on the page will make it easier for the reader to locate in the magazine.

I made my magazines contents page look rustic with the background and I put the article titles at and edge to make it appeal to my audience. This connotes rebellion because its not straight and looks roughly put together which is what designs most rock musicians and magazine designs go for.

I broke the convention of not having images to illustrate some articles. Instead I use one image of a my model jumping with a guitar and a gas mask.
This draws more attention to that article. I also made the page numbers next to that image larger to make the readers want to read it more. Some magazines do this but it's rarely done because readers like to see more images than text on the contents page.

Question 1 Front Page

My magazine does follow the rules of convention by the way it is layed out. My magazine has a very similar layout to the tradional magazine covers because the mast head is on top of the page and is the first text that will catch the readers eye not only because it is bigger than any other text on the page but because its text is more unique because i only use it once to show that it is the mast head and to seperate it from any other text on the page.

Under my mast head is the website for the magazine which is also found in other magazines for example. Empire magazine. Magazines usually do this so their readers can become familiar with the website if they read the magazine often because it is right under the mast head.
I decided to do the same because not only is it a good way to keep your readers interested with other information your magazine has to offer but its a good way to keep the reader interested in the magazine until the next issue is realised.

The coverlines are spread evenly though out the magazine and i made sure not to use to much or to little because with some magazines it makes it look to crowded if there are to many coverlines. The colour of the coverlines are very consistent with the colour of the main image and other text and images on the page because I didn't want to use to much other colours incase the magazine started to look tacky.
Having only a few colour changes with in a magazine is common but affective because it makes the magazine look professional and sometimes its to build a theme for the magazine or to make the colour that is repeated for that magazine more recognziable for the reader the next time they pick it up.

Not alot of magazines decide to make one coverline a completely different colour than the rest. Where it says 'Silver Foxes' the coverline is a silver grey to show that the band im featuring in the magazine is more unique than the bands under the word 'Starring'. Most magazines would have it the same colour as all the other coverlines unless the band that they were featuring was part of the masthead. I decided to make 'Silver foxes' coverline a different colour to give it a more unique look because I wanted the audience to think that there are two articles in my magazine that are of more importance than the rest of the articles because of main coverlines the reader just goes straight to it because its linked to the main image and it has a bigger text and catches the readers eye but with another coverline a different colour but not as big as the main coverline (so it doesnt confuse the audience) will still catch the readers eye because its different and looks important makes my audience more interested in other articles in my magazine. By doing this I made my  magazine more appealing because it makes my magazine look like it has more interesting articles.

The main coverline is the biggest piece of text on the page and it catches the readers eye. I used a technique other magazines use alot with their coverlines, main coverlines and mast head of having the masthead go behind the models head and the coverlines over their body. For example Kerrang! have done the same thing and this gives the magazine a 3 dimensional feel to it and makes the coverline stand out more because you can see the whole text. Even though the mast head is important the audience are picking up the magazine to read it not to look at the mast heads name if the bands that are featured in it not displayed probably the reader will not pay much attention and put the magazine back down.

My main image is a medium close up of a teenage male with long hair, this kind of close up is used alot in magazines of just the torso and up to the head because it lets to see how the model is dressed and any particular brands they may be wearing but also lets you clearly see any face expressions. The models hair was originally shorter than his hair in this magazine but I made his hair longer useing photoshop because a large portion of my audience have long hair and style it to suit the genre of music they listen to. The readers im trying to target of those of Kerrang! and readers of kerrang usually have fringes and or long hair which can sometimes be dyed.

I have also broke conventions by using the orignal background not much magazines use the orginal background for there photos they usually take out the background and put a pattern or a blank background. I decided to keep my original background because it should appeal to some of my readers because the location is the skating park at southbank. Alot of my target audience should be familar with the place which is why I picked it to take my photos

Other aspects of my magazine such the barcode and price are located where other magazines barcode and prices are located.