FRONT COVER

CONTENTS PAGE

DOUBLE PAGED SPREAD

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

In my media product I have used many conventions of a typical rock magazine, I looked at one of the NME magazines to get some ideas on how I should set out and create my work. I chose one main image that would go central on the page and it would be black and white to make the front cover look dramatic and dark to link to the rock genre. All of my text was either in black or red, i chose red as my key colour as I didn't want too much colour, as this could make the magazine look cheap and tacky and not what a rock magazine should look like. My magazine does look like the stereotyped rock magazine, however there is a lot more white to make the pages look bright and less dark.

How does your media product represent social groups?

Our rock magazine, isn’t aimed at any certain social group, anybody who is into rock can buy this magazine. We’ve tried to make it interesting for most ages and both genders. However we have tried to aim it more at the students, with the scrap pieces of paper and funky grunge text the type of things students tend to see and use.

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

IPC Media is a printing company that produces over 60 iconic media brands, reaching almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men – almost 26 million UK adults – and their website has reaches over 20 million users every month. My magazine would be sent to a well known company like IPC, so that it could be dstributed to different companies around the country to sell the product and you can also subscribe to the magazine on the website which would be easier for the consumer.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience we have tried to aim our magazine to would be people from the ages of 15-25 and people that were into the genre of Rock. We chose this as we thought it would be a genre to do as we had lots of different ideas in mind on what we could do to make our magazine look aesthetically pleasing.

How did you address/attract your audience?

To attract the consumer to my magazine, I used a big, bold font that would stand out on the shelf of any shop. The word "Caged" looks like it has been cut out of steel and it attracts the consumers eye, and makes you want to pick up the magazine. If the consumer picks up the magazine and likes what they see, they are more inclined to buy the product and therefore increase sales figures.

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

Throughout constructing this product, I feel that my Photoshop skills have progressed and now I can make something so simple look professional. I now understand the length magazine teams have to go through to make a magazine, and what kind of problems they could come into counter with. Such as computers crashing, photographs not being correct and trying to get the magazine to look exactly how the customer wants it to be.

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

Looking back at the preliminary task, I see that the school magazine didn’t look as professional as the “Caged” Magazine did. I feel this is because of the lack of Photoshop skills I had then and not enough research to get what the target audience wants. In the main task, I did a lot more research and got a good response on what I should do to make my magazine look and be what people wanted and most importantly what they would buy.

The double page spread, would be on Tristan Reed, my made up artist. Therefore I would include an interview which was in columns and a photo of the artist himself. I changed the photo into black and white again to add drama, and around that image I have put quotes from the interview, the consumer would look at these and would be interested in what is happening and therefore would read the rest of the interview. I still used the same colour scheme of black and red to keep the continuety throughout the magazine. I added a grunge effect to the background to add more effect to the page and keep it from looking plain.

After doing the front cover of my magazine, I needed to do the contents page. This would include the main articles in the magazine, such as my double page spread, which I would be creating afterwards. It would also contain the regular articles such as fan pages and competitions. I started by taking a few photos of other people to add to the contents page so that my magazine would headline even more stories and bulk it out. I turned all the photos into black and white and changed the brightness and contrast to add more effect and drama. These were the original photos...

I added photos of scrap paper also, to create a student like effect, this would be continued throughout the whole of the CAGED magazines. This is the final contents page...

I kept my key colours black and red, just like the front page, this will offer continuity throughout the magazine. I added a little caption about each of the main stories to give the readers a brief look into what they will be reading about.

In photoshop I have cut out the image from the background and got rid of the shadow to make this image look professional and like it was taken in front of a white background. I have also changed the image to Black and White and changed the contrast and brightness to make the image look dramatic and more heavy rock. I then added this image to the magazine. Because the image was black and white the text that I had put on the cover was black and therefore couldn't see much of it, so i changed some of the text to red and this would be my key colour from now on. We decided that "Caged" Magazine would have a black and white image all of the time to give it a key characteristic. This is what my final cover looks like.....

After creating the Head mast, I decided I would get the whole of my front cover done whilst I was waiting for my model. This would make it easier when i had taken the photos to stick them straight on to the magazine and it be finished. I added different stories on to the front so the person buying the magazine could see some of the stories that would be in the magazine instead of opening in and reading the contents.
I then took photos of my model Gareth with his electric guitar this would make him look like more of heavy rocker and you can see what he would be doing in a band, and makes him look more musical. The photo I have chose is.....

I would edit this by cutting the image out so it would just be gareth and then i would turn it Black and White and change the contrast and brightness to make it look more dramatic. I would also get rid of the shadow too as it looks unprofessional with it there.

Now we have our data for the magazine, we need to start creating the front cover. To begin with we did 2 drawn drafts, that were to be done for homework, i decided to do two different kinds of magazine covers, one that was very cramped and one that didn't really have much on the front cover and the focus was more on the model in the centre of the page. We then showed the covers to the class and they gave me some feedback on what i could do to improve it and what they also liked about it. I liked the idea of the less crowded front cover so i would use this in my final piece. We then went on to the computers and started to create the Head Mast saying "CAGED" that would go on the top of the magazine cover.