CLOSED BLOG NOTIFICATION

Centre Name: NORBURY MANOR BEC
Centre Number: 14343
Candidate Name: MARWA SALAMA
Candidate Number: 9539
Unit: G321 

Final Magazine: Cover

Final Magazine: Contents page

Final Magazine: Double Page Spread

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

This slidely was created to show my progression from my prelim task to my final magazine task.


Evaluation Question 7 by Slidely Slideshow

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

I created this presentation through slideshare as one of my evaluation question.

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

This short video clip consists of screenshots which expand on the factors I have included in my magazine to influence further on my audience.


Evaluation Question 5

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

In this Prezi presentation I use the research I have gained earlier in the construction process to expand on who my target audience is and how I have reached my conclusion.

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

I created a glog to show what I have learnt in the distribution side of the media industry and how I have used the knowledge to show which media institution I have chosen.

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

This is a recording using the app SoundCloud. I used the SoundCloud app on my mobile to take the recording as I found it had better sound quality in comparison to the site on Web 2.0. In the clip I explain why I have decided to use this form of media for this evaluation question.

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

One convention of my magazine which is related to those of an official magazine is my colour scheme. My colour scheme is kept consistent throughout my magazine; it consists of black, white, grey and red. I used these colours as this set of colours is known to represent the genre R&B.

A second convention of my magazine which is similar to official magazines is my artist’s style. To make my magazine more like that of an official one, I kept my main artist in the same mise-en-scene to keep the consistency throughout the magazine although I took series of images at different periods of time. Doing this, I also had to re-do my artists make up.

One mistake convention I have missed on my magazine is the barcode, most R&B magazines use the barcode on the front cover of the magazine but I have not completed the task as the work on my front cover crashed therefore giving me less time to complete a new cover.

Using inspiration from Billboard contents pages I used graphics of the outline of a box shape to separate the text from the images. This makes it clearer for the reader to understand what is what and where to find certain pages.

As seen on the left side of the Billboard contents page, you can see the masthead. This is just the name of the magazine as seen on the front cover but smaller which is shown on every page of the magazine. I used this convention to link all my pages together as I feel it sets the style and vibe of my genre more.

           

Comparing my covers

After loosing my magazine cover on the day of our deadline I completed another cover in a substantially shorter period of time I now show the difference between them both and show the comparisons I have made.

DPS: Feedback

Heleni: I like the layout and colour scheme which matches and links to your contents page and cover. The only thing is the main image – which looks a bit weird around the artist. 

Dawn: The colour scheme matches your other pages which is good, the layout of the columns makes your magazine looks more professional and the use of the pullquote is good too.

Jhiniel: I like the position of the pullquote and I especially like the layout of the name and the way you have highlighted the most important parts.

Paula: Your double page spread has a great image and spacing of text. I also like how the layout is set because it pulls everyhitng together.- I can see consistency.

Shari: I like how there are two pull quotes on the double page spread and the colour schemes link on both the contents and double page spread. I like the fact that the artist is smiling on the double page spread as it gives readers a positive vibe of the magazine.

DPS: Links to cover and contents page

This SildeShare presentation gives a rough idea of the links I have made between all three of my pages and why I have made these choices through my magazine.

DPS: Layout

One of the reasons I chose this layout is because during my DPS research I found that it is the most common layout for the majority of music magazines although especially in R&B. I found it in magazines such as Q, Vibe and Billboard which is the main reason I chose it.

DPS: Artists interview

This presentation consists of the final questions and answers which are presented on my double page spread.

DPS: Research interview writing

DPS: Market research

Sharing my initial ideas and thoughts on the similarities and differences in R&B magazines (and music magazines in general) and relating them to my work. 

DPS: Photoshop progess

DPS: Image decisions

I chose the images of my artist for the contents page an double page spread form the same photo session. These are the best options I chose for the potentials of my double page spread artist image as I felt they represented my artists best and would relate to my previous blog posts. In some of the images, I asked my artist to look to the right as if she is looking at the text (interview) on my double page spread as her image is on the left while the text is on the right. In the end, to make sure I made a suitable decision I asked my fellow media students which image they thought would be most appropriate taking all factors into consideration. 

This image was the one which I decided to use featuring on my double page spread. It was the bets option as her facial expression was most appropriate as she is smiling and looking at the interview. 
Although this may have been the best choice, I could have made it even better if I worked on the lighting more during the shoot as there is a shadow which would make it more difficult for me to remove

This image shows my artists laughing which would also have shown her personality and emphasised this through the article but at the time the shot was taken, her eyes were halfway shut which makes the image looks unprofessional. 

This image is a bit blurry which would be a downfall for my whole double page spread if it was used.

This image was a very possible option but like the second picture, the timing was not good enough. 









I liked this image as it was not blurry and seemed to be the most focused. The downfall of this image is my artists' facial expression and shadow due to my photography. 

  
I felt this image represented my artists the most as I liked the colour effect of the background as it matches my colour scheme and my artists was facing the text although this would have been a big risk as it was too blurry and maybe too hard to fix onto the page. 

This image was also very focused and clear, I also liked the effect of the lighting behind my artist. I didn't use this image because of my artists facial expression which I think looks blank and maybe clueless or surprised which was not what I was aiming for.

Contents page: Feedback

Heleni: I like the photos down the side because it’s different. I also like the colour scheme, there’s just something interesting and it pulls me in. Its good, the only thing is there’s quite a bit of room on the right but other than that I like it.
Shari: I like the use of your colour scheme as it links all of your pages together. The layout here is well thought out and gives the idea of a R&B genre and theme.
Paula: This page has a good use of space and images. The colours are clearly linking to your front cover as they fit well together. The font is clear and easy to read making it more professional.  
Jhineil: I like the images used as they all relate to the features on the right, the features with grey backgrounds are good. The subsections extending on features is used well although it would be even better if the alignment was more precise and the images bigger in size.
Dawn: I  like the fact you used a fashion feature because this is what most music magazine of this genre use. I also like the layout because it's easy to read and the subheadings with the grey backgrounds as it makes it stand out more.

Contents page: Colour choices

To gain the initial ideas for the colour scheme of my contents page, I looked at the contents pages of official R&B magazines such as Billboard and Vibe. After doing this, I thought of how I can link the colour scheme (grey and red being popular with R&B) to my contents page while also linking it to my cover.

The colour scheme of my contents page links to those of my front cover and double page spread. For the title of the page(‘contents’), I decided that I would make the colour black instead of grey as I felt that it would look too similar or alike to my cover page. I also felt it was better to use the grey colour for the background of the feature boxes as the lighter font and darker background make it more unique in comparison to other music magazines (of other genres) which attracts he audience’s attention and straight away allows them to find a specific area.

Looking at official R&B magazines, I realise that the colour of the page number and feature next to it are the same colour unlike other genres. To make my magazine give off more of the R&B genre, I used this to my advantage by linking the similarities to official magazines. The flatplan of my contents page shows the use of the tick red line to separate the images from the text and also the title from the text - I used the red colour for this graphic as I used the same colour for the graphics used on my front cover as this colour is also in my colour scheme as well as grey, black and white. The colour scheme is also used with the mise-en-scene of my artist as her clothes and make up match it. 

Contents page: Text/features

This presentation shares the thinking process for the features of the contents page and the reasons why I decided to use some of these features and how they link to my previous research.

Contents page: Image choices

Because the genre of my magazine is R&B, through my research I've learned that R&B magazines usually not only show the music industry through their contents pages but they also show other features such as competitions or fashion through images. On my contents page, I had three spaces where I placed images. The first image was featuring my artist, the second was a fashion feature and the last is a subscription for my magazine. 

The image choices for my artist: These images below were the top ten chosen from all the pictures I took during this period. These images were also the most focused and clear as they also represented my artists image and style. Out of these I asked my peers which they think would be the best option to represent as a feature for my artists interview on my contents page, 8 out 10 of my peers whom I asked chose the first image. Therefore, I used this image on my contents page. 

The image choice for my fashion feature: I created two collages of outfits which share the same style to my artist and the artists used in my artist research. To do this I gained a lot of help from my previous posts. While creating these, I had to keep the factor of the image fitting in with my contents page such as the colour scheme of the outfit (for the feature) matching the colour scheme of my contents page.

Contents page layout

The reason I chose this layout for my magazine contents page is because this layout is either more or less the same or very similar to other contents pages of this genre. It is easy to understand and allows my audience to quickly find a certain feature or page they may be looking for. I think that this page is proportioned well in terms of text size, features and images in order of importance (features taking up the most space). The first magazine I gained the idea for this layout from was Billboard which is also the magazine I use to compare my magazine to as it is of the same genre. 

      

Annotating and deconstructing contents page

This presentation shows the rough and initial points/factors which will lead to giving me ideas for my contents page.

 

What happened

The previous posts based on my music magazine cover are presented to show what I had to do to reach the stage I am at now. After two weeks of constructing my cover together, Photoshop crashed meaning all my work was lost and all I had from this were the screenshots I took during the process. I learnt from this greatly as the only copy I had of my up to date work was on my USB although I was told multiple times by my teachers to continuously save my work in case of this situation. The copy on my USB became corrupt as I was having technical difficulties as I could not open any files on my USB.

Because the deadline of our final cover was due the same afternoon I lost all my work, I was left no choice but to work harder than before and use all my resources to reconstruct my cover. The cover which I had lost comparing to the cover I now created are massively different which is why I blogged the post which will not be counted as my exam piece. Although this left me much less time to complete the task, I gained the advantage of gaining much more feedback on my new and improved cover from my audiences and teachers as it was much more representative of my genre.

My future posts on this  blog will include my new cover and the improvements.

Front cover target audience feedback

The feedback I have gained, like the feedback from my flatplans are all from media students. I decided to only ask media students as they have a better understanding of our specification and know what features make a good magazine cover.

The feedback I gain on my cover will be constructive as it will help me improve my contents page as I will learn from the criticisms from the it.

Sana: I like the use of the colours used in the magazine and the layout is clear. I also like the pullquote used, it makes me want to read more. It looks very appealing and I can tell a lot of work and effort has been out into it.

Maneet: I like the colours and the layout used here, the colour scheme gives off the style of an R&B magazine. Although you could have used a different font for the artists name because this gives off the idea of a different genre of magazine.

Heleni: I like the colours, I think they all work well with each other and they compliment the background colour. I also like the masthead as it's bold and catches the readers attention. I like the effect on it and think it suits your genre. I like it, I think it's good, but I would probably make the graphic a block colour instead of just an outline and make it smaller to be able to move it away form the artists hair.

Kylan: I like the fading effect on the background because it shows your genre more, it relates to the magazine vibe. 

Kaneez:I like the use of the graphic and how the colours all relate and pull together. The layout of the text is also really good but would be even better if you could change the font to make it look more like a magazine of your genre.

Front cover linked to research

This Prezi presentation consists of visual links between my magazine cover and official R&B magazines which I have gained through my previous research and shared on my previous posts, it also contains a few similarities and differences between my magazine and the magazine cover which I chose to analyse.

Front cover features

This presentation shows the stages I carried to complete the main features on the cover of my magazine.  

Masthead and font decisions

This PowerPoint presentation shares the steps which I carried through to create all the fonts used for the text included on the cover for my music magazine This presentation also shares the mistakes I have made and how I will use these to my advantage by learning form them to use in creating my contents page and double page spread. The presentation gives an idea of what I changed on my magazine cover, sharing my improvements through my future posts.

Photograph manipulation

This is the original photo of my cover. To be able to have made this image my cover image, I had to carry out many tasks through Photoshop such as cropping around my artist and attempt adjusting mismatched skin tones in certain areas. Looking back on all my images, I now realise that this image wasn’t the best option as the lighting in the studio wasn’t at my best advantage as her shadow is vivid in the background and the lighting I could have possibly gained could have improved the quality of my artist as the brightness would have ha more of an affect on angle of gaze and her features which are the main attraction of the magazine.

I chose this image because I thought it had the most potential as her facial expression was the same as those of artists on covers of magazine such as Vibe or Billboard, the angle of my artists matches those to official magazines and my flatplan cover image and I was able to manipulate the shot type by cropping it to size. Here we see that I cropped around my artist through Photoshop as I decided to make the background a gradient fill of grey instead of plain white.

In comparison to the original picture, I attempted to get rid of a few flaws on my artists skin such as different coloured  patches on her skin and making the making look sharper as to stand out more to represent her image.

Cover layout/Photoshop

This PowerPoint presentation briefly introduces and explains how I started putting together my cover for my R&B music magazine and why I made the options included.

Mise-en-scene

Here I share the mise-en-scene such as the clothes, make up and props on my artist for the cover of my magazine and why I have decided my choice.

Options for cover

These photos are the options for the cover of my music magazine. I decided to shoot my artist in the studio as this way I had more option to change the lighting with ease. Although these are only my options, they have showed me that I need to improve on the focus of the camera in some of them as I think I could have had some more potential shots but they are blurry which is a downfall. 

Using my shot list, I have kept to my shot types which are mid shot, close up and mid close up and my props as I used the shot list as my guideline to help me take the pictures of my artists with more ease. I have also used various facial expressions with my artist as through my research I have seen that R&B magazines mostly have their artists with their lips slightly parted although sometimes closed with a straight expression or smiling. 

The following picture is an example of which could have been a potential shot for my magazine cover, the problem with this picture is that I did not focus on the eyes or face of my artist. The first thing an audience would concentrate on the most are the eyes of the artist as we can see the angle of gaze which is why it is so important to focus on this better in the future.