Production Process

i used photoshop to edit all of the photographs used in my media text, the tools i used the most were, the polygon lasoo tool, to take away the background of some of the photographs, the auto colour, auto brightness and auto contrast, to make the photographs look like they belong in the desired genre of rock/punk. i also used photoshop to make all of my falshes, puffs and other additional things that were added to my cover, contents page and double page spread. I also used photoshop to make my masthead for the cover of my magazine, i had a number of attempts at different mastheads,and i finally decided on the one i used because i liked the effect it had with the rest of the cover and the photographs. i found the use of photoshop easy to get used to all the tools,options,layers etc.

an example of something from my contents page that i created in photoshop:

I created this by using a plain sans serif font and then removing the background so that the writing was the only thing on the layer, i then used the rubber on a high oppasitiy to make it look aged, or like it had been stamped onto the page, this effect is used alot in 'Kerrang!' magazine, so i used it my work as a referance back to the studied magazine. I used this effect numerous times in my work so that the rock/punk theme went through my whole media text.

I used InDesign to put all my work together, again using layers, but this time i used different frames for different things such as, background, central image, masthead, featured articles, puffs and banners. I found InDesign easy enough to use, the frames and layers made it really easy to handle and keep track of where things are/ should be on the document.

Production Process for Cover:

I started by looking at a number of kerrang magazines, i looked at all the techniques used to make the cover more appealing to an audience and made a note of them so i could use them in my work,
Also while i was working i'd have these example open on the screen so i could make comparisons to be sure my cover looked professional and eye catching.

The first part of my cover that i did was the background:

This was my original colour scheme idea for the background, i created it using frames to make the background and used the fill tool to give them the colours.



i chose not to use this masthead becuase i thought it looked really plain and not very eye catching and professional. I also don't think it fits very well with the rock genre as it is very bright and happy looking.

I then decided to add something to it to see if i could improve it, i came to the conclusion that it was too bold and has no effect to it to make it eye catching and i think it looks really unprofessional and still doesn't fit with the rock genre, I could see this because it doesn't look like the masthead on any of my studied magazine covers. 

My final masthead, In my opinion the plain San Serif text looks really effective now that i've added a drop shaddow and made it look three dimentional, this will make it more eye catching and more likely to sell. It looks professional and neat, unlike my first two mastheads that look dull and unprofessional and don't match the Gothic genre magazines that I'd looked at for inspiration..

Once i'd Chosen my masthead i went back to the background that i'd designed and added it to it, i also added the frames i'd need for photographs and other copy

I also added the barcode and price because it was the smallest part on the page and i didnt want to forget about it because its one of the key parts on the cover. I used InDesign to put all of the frames in the positions I wanted them for my photographs and other copy for the cover.

I then started editing the images to put on the cover, I used photoshop to edit all of my photographs

Final Cover-

Once I'd Photo shopped and added my photographs onto the cover, I compared my work so far to the other 'Kerang!' magazines I was using for inspiration and didn't think the colour scheme fit the genre very well, therefore I came to the decision of changing it to black red and white, with little bits of blue to compliment the other colours by contrasting with them. The connotations of these colours fit well with my chosen genre, red connotes and danger or stop, black connotes as dark, death, spooky and Gothic, clearly fitting with the rock genre. The white however contrast with all of the other colours as it connotes as black or empty.

Final Cover-

I'm really happy with how my cover turned out, In my opinion it looks really professional and neat, I think that if it were a really published magazine that it would have a good selling rate. 

Like the magazine covers that I studied I decided to analyse my own cover, showing all of the techniques i used, taken from my inspired covers.

Contents page production process-

I looked at a number of contents pages from other magazines and looked at the different layouts, colour schemes and techniques used on them.
I noticed that the contents pages aren't very busy, showing that its more informative than made to attract the audience's attention

 I then looked at 'Kerrang!' magazine contents pages as this was the main magazine I got my inspiration from,
I've notice that unlike the other contents pages I'd looked at, the Kerrang! ones are very busy and upbeat, this is a representation of the rock/punk social group, showing the energetic, upbeat nature of them.

I made my contents page using InDesign, in the same way I made my cover, I used Photoshop to edit all of my photographs and then used InDesign to add the pictures to the background, again using frames to keep my work organised.

My final contents page turned out to look a lot like the ones I studied which I'm very pleased with.
I carried on the colour palette used on my Cover, I used several techniques used on the contents pages that I'd studied, for example, I used the split page and had a photograph across the whole top half of the page, along with the 'Contents' title and a featured article, I also used the technique of having a box with the name of my magazine and 'THIS WEEK' which was used on the Kerrang contents pages that I studied. I used polariod style photographs to create the effect that things had been stuck onto the page, much like the peeling sticker I used on my cover.

Double Page Spread Production Process-

I looked at a number of double page spreads from different magazines to see what the different magazines did, i notice that there is usually a lot of photographs and the title usually takes up the whole top part of one page with the text below it and then images on the other page, this makes it look really appealing because it looks like there's not a lot of text and it can be read easily, i also noticed that the first letter of the text it much bigger and in a different colour than the rest of the text on the page.

I'm really happy with how my double page spread turned out, I used several techniques used in the double page spread that I looked at, which means I used techniques used in non rock/punk magazines, I did this to give it a girly feel because the person in the interview seems very girly, therefore making it easy to tell just by looking at the cover. I also carried on using the technique of making things look like they're stuck on the page, i did this with two polariod photographs at the top of the page and a post-it note at the bottom of the page with i little bit of extra information that wasn't mentioned in the interview.
The interview was inspired by an interview of Taylor Momsen in 'Sugar' magazine which is a very girly magazine, i chose to do a girly interview to countertype with what people assume  the rock/punk social group to be, therefore showing it through my work that there's more to them than you think.

Design Process

Mood boards-

I made a couple of inspirational mood boards to make it easier to compare my magazine/ photographs to ones taken specifically for the rock/punk genre,

I looked at photographs of band/band members of the rock genre for ideas for the photographs in my cover/contents page/double page spread.
i noticed that a lot of the photographs are in direct address to the audience, this being a technique to use in my work.
Also they're all very expressive and full of energy and bounce, I will use this in my own photographs.
This also shows that the rock/punk social group is represented as very confident and outgoing.
The photographs are also very bright and colourful, also counter-typing the stereotypical views on the rock/punk social group, people usually think that people that are rock/punk are very rebellious, loud and disruptive, but if you read through a rock/punk magazine you'd see that they're not.

I then looked as some different rock/punk magazines and inspirational ideas for my magazine. I looked at two different magazines, 'Kerrang!' and 'Rocksound'.

I then decided I'd look further at the Kerrang! magazine because i like the look of it and i can buy it easy at is is released weekly and will be good to compare with my own work. I made a mood board of several Kerrang! magazines to see the variations of the central image, masthead, featured articles and puffs and flashes. 

I then drew up a couple  mock ups of what I's like my cover to look like using the inspired covers and photographs of bands/band members. 

i used the different techniques used on the covers that I'd studied, such as, peeling stickers as puffs, featured articles going down the side and along the bottom of the cover, the price being in a corner really small, using a direct address photograph for the central image. 

I didn't add and featured articles to the mock up because I wanted to make it simple enough to build up gradually.

The industry

History of magazines-

Magazines didn't look like what they do now until after World War II,  The first magazines in the 1700s, looked like....books. They were produced on magazine printing presses rather than printers which are used nowadays. 

The Gentleman's Magazine was first published in 1731, is considered to have been the first general-interest magazine. Edward Cave, who edited The Gentleman's Magazine was the first to use the term "magazine"
The oldest consumer magazine that is still in print now is The Scots Magazine, which was first published in 1739, although it had  multiple changes in ownership and gaps in publication totaling over 90 years weaken the claim that it's been the longest running magazine that's still around.
















History of music magazines-

The New Musical Express (better known as the NME) is a popular music magazine in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It was the first British paper to include a singles chart, in the 14 November 1952 edition. In the 1970s it became the best-selling British music magazine. During the period 1972 to 1976 it was particularly associated with gonzo journalism, then became closely associated with punk rock through the writing of Tony Parsons and Julie Burchill.(taken from wikipedia)

History of Kerrang! magazine-

The image on the right is of  issue 4 with German heavy metal guitarist Michael Schenker on the cover. Below is the 6 August 2008 cover this shows how much the magazine has changed since it was first released in 1952. 

Spotlight Publications released Kerrang Weekly.

In  June 1981- Kerrang! started out as a relation to Sounds magazine before being launched as it's own title of Kerrang! title. 

In 1991, it was sold to Emap (which was taken over by Bauer in 2008)

Emap launched Kerrang! as a national digital radio station in 2000 and there is also a TV channel.Kerrang! now claims to be the world's biggest-selling rock weekly, having competed with NME for the top-selling UK position since 2002. There are also Australian and Spanish versions of Kerrang!

Parts of a magazine cover-

the different parts of the cover serve a particular purpose;

masthead- 

the masthead is basically the name of the magazine and is mostly the biggest feature on the cover of the magazine.

Central Image- 

the central image is used to draw the audiences attention to the magazine, it does this by being in indirect or direct address, indirect address is where the person/people in the photograph are looking away from the audience, whether its the whole body or just the eyes. A direct address photograph is where the person is looking directly out to the audience, as I've found from my research into different magazines, the most common used address is direct because its more eye catching. 

puffs-

 puffs are little pictures or boxed words on the page giving the audience a better idea of what they'll find in the magazine.

Featured articles-

Featured articles are often along a certain strip on the page, they are used to give the reader an idea of what's inside the magazine without having to open it. they are often supported with photographs which also makes the magazine more attention grabbing. 

Price and magazine information-

this information is usually in a corner very small so that it's not one of the first thing the audience see's, this is done because the price is obviously quite high otherwise it would be used as an attention grabbing technique like on the covers of TV magazines, which are often very low price. 

Producers and distribution-

Kerrang magazine is produced and distributed by a number of people working together...

• Nichola Browne (editor)
• Daniel J. Lane (deputy editor, podcasts)
• Caroline Fish (art editor)
• Lucy Williams (production editor)
• Simon Young (news and introducings editor, podcasts)
• Nick Ruskell (reviews editor)
• Scarlet Borg (picture editor)
• Alex Shellim (junior designer)
• Bobbie Lane (sub editor/editorial assistant)
• Phil Alexander (editor in chief)
• Rimi Atwal (publishing director)--Wikipedia.

Preliminary Task

Cover and Contents page mock up

On the cover i wanted to show that six form is a good choice for when leaving school, i did this by putting a picture of two people laughing and looking like they're having a good time. i also added the school cover which makes it eye catching if it were to be on a shop shelf. the bright colours also give it a happy feel to the magazine, which could reflect on the school.

On the contents page i continued to use the happy pictures and the bright colours, to carry out the happy feel through the magazine.

after doing the mock up of the magazine i did an actual cover with photographs, using indesign to put it all together, and photoshop to edit the photographs and make them fit in with the theme of the cover.

i changed the colour scheme slightly to make it more bright than the mock up, i also  changed a few of the featured articles to make it more appealing to readers. the changed colour scheme makes it much more eye catching and fits in more with the colours on the school badge than the colours i originally used in the mock up. 

Post Production Evaluation

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



My media products of a magazine cover, contents page and double paged spread Develop and challenge the conventions of real media products in different way. 


Cover-

I used a direct address central image on my cover as a convention used in the Kerrang magazines that i looked at, making it fit with the genre of magazine i was aiming for, i also used a similar colour palette to the chosen studied covers, therefore also sticking to the conventions of other rock/punk magazines. Most of the magazines i looked at had used colours such as, black, red, yellow and white. All of these colours connote to fit in with the rock/punk genre,




RED-
is often used on stop signs or warning signs, these signs are usually 'do not' signs, showing it is a very attention catching colour and will help to make the cover more attractive to an audience. Red is also used on traffic lights as the 'stop' colour and is also used as the 'don't walk' red man for pedestrians, again showing it's an eye catching colour. Red also connotes with blood which is often classed as very Gothic as it is very vampire related. 

BLACK-
black is known as a very mysterious colour and is often associated with fear and the unknown, for example black holes. It is usually known as a very negative colour, and people connote with negative things such as, blacklist, black hole, black death. I have notice that people in the rock/punk genre often wear black clothing and have black hair and black eye make-up, this is why i used black in my work because people often associate black with emo's or goths, of the rock/punk genre.
a few examples of the rock punk genre associating with black (emo's & goth's)

YELLOW-
Yellow is often used on caution signs therefore showing it is also a very eye catching colour, they're often used to show that something may be dangerous, which fits in with the rock/punk genre because people usually associate, rock/punk people as being very rebellious therefore more likely to get into a dangerous situation. 
However it also connotes as sunshine and happiness, which shows a second side to the rock/ punk genre, yes people in this group may be rebellious but at the same time they're showing that they're happy with who they are. 
Also yellow sticks out in any surroundings much like the emo's and goths of the rock/punk genre. 

WHITE-
white is often associated with a number of positive things such as, light, goodness, innocence and purity (this is why brides traditionally wear white, because they were supposed to be pure ( a virgin) before marriage). however it can also connote with emptiness and blankness, this fits in with the Gothic genre because people assume that the rock/punk social group tend to be very cold hearted and empty, and not caring for anything and hating everything. The fact that this colour connotes with very positive things suggests that the rock/ punk social group isn't what people would expect, this colour with all of the other colours shows difference as it connotes as very positive, unlike the other colours.

I also used a similar way of presenting my featured articles, i put them all in a strip down one side of the page, this has been used on several other magazine covers of this genre, a few examples of where this technique has been used-

All of these covers have the featured articles in some kind of strip down the side of the page, however they are all on the left hand side of the page, and the strip of articles on my cover run down the left side. 

Another way I made my cover like the ones i studied would be that I made my title for the main article go across and anchorage with the central image, this is used a lot on magazine covers because it shows the audience what the main article in the magazine is, I also used a lifted quote from the article below the name of the person that the main article is about, giving the audience an idea of what the article will be like. 


Another thing a lot of the magazines do is add a flash that looks like a stamp or a sticker,

i used this technique on my magazine cover by adding the blue sticker, i chose to use blue for my sticker because i knew it would stand out from the other colours on the page as it doesn't fit with the colour palette of my cover. 

Another thing the magazines it studied do, is they have banners advertising winning things and free posters, therefore I decided to use both of these things in my work to make it a very appealing magazine, my banner advertising the posters was a bit like a flash as well as being a banner because I used the red stamp like sticker I'd created in photoshop as and addition to the banner to make it more eye catching and professional.


Contents Page-

On my contents page I continued using the Red, black and white colour palette that i used on the cover, I did this so it's consistent and looks like it's all from the same magazine.


Much like the contents pages i looked at my contents page looks like it's been split in half, one half being the 'contents' title and a large image with a flash and some photographs.
this is done on a number of other magazine contents pages by Kerrang!

 Another technique i used from the contents pages that I'd studied was having a banner through the middle of the page with the magazine title and 'THIS WEEK' written on it, it think this is an effective thing to have on my cover as it makes it really clear that it's the contents page, which tells you what's in the issue. 

 Above is an image of a Kerrang magazine and my own magazine contents page, this shows the use of the 'THISS WEEK' banner and also the split cover technique. 


I also used the Banners off my cover on the contents page, this technique of repetition makes it stay in the readers head, therefore further persuading them to buy the magazine, and also making them remember it more and making them feel they're getting more than just a magazine as there are two posters and a chance to win some concert tickets.

I put the two banners together, making them more eye-catching as a pair and also so it can be on the same part of the page. 
Much like the studied covers I put all of the featured articles in the bottom half of the page, this looks really tidy and organised, making it easier to find what you want to read. 


Double paged spread-

On my double page spread i also continued using the same colour palette as used on my cover and contents page. I also continued using the technique of making things look like they've been stuck onto the page.

 I did this with a post it note with a bit of extra information that's not mentioned in the article, this also adds a three dimensional effect to the page, making it look more exciting and upbeat, this reflects on 'Lola Rose' whom the article is about. 

I also used this technique with two photographs that I'd make to look like polaroids, this gives a good effect by not only has it added more photographs but it also makes the article seem exciting and upbeat, making the reader more likely to read it. 

However, my double page spread has been made quite girly by using girly, cute poses in the photographs, rather than the expressive upbeat photographs on the cover and the contents page, they are also very natural and she's not got loads of black eye make-up on, this challenges the conventions of the existing media texts by making a really girly article in a rock/punk magazine, I decided to do this so it shows the audience there can be two sides to people, the side we see and the side that only they see, as my article is a Q&A I made the photographs reflect the things she was saying, these things being positive, therefore not really fitting in with what people would expect to read in a rock/punk magazine.

 Overall, my cover and my contents page develop the conventions of existing texts by using the same or similar techniques and occasionally adding things or changing the way it would look on a published magazine, whereas my double paged spread almost completely challenges the convention by being the complete opposite of what you'd stereotypically expect to see in a rock/punk magazine.






How does your media product represent particular social groups?-


My media product represents the rock/punk/emo/goth social group, however it can also attract people that you wouldn't expect to listen to the music of the singers/bands/groups featured in the magazine.


 the cover represents this particular social group as being very upbeat and confident.

The central image is very girly cute, counter typing against the assumptions people make of the rock/punk social group, this shows the fact that people who don't look/act like they're in this particular social group might well be, but the way the present doesn't make it obvious. However, the image is still a direct address image, representing confidence, showing off who they are, this shows that the social group is independent and unique

with the direct address central image , and also the featured article images show this social group to be very sociable and expressive with the spaced out poses with people reaching out and doing silly poses rather than just doing a normal, clothes model pose. this shows that they're independent and don't care what other people think of them. 

the circled photographs on the cover of my magazine are quite vampire like, representing the Gothic part of the genre of my media product. This also adds to the group being represented as upbeat and confident.


The contents page continues using the same representations as the cover as most of the images from the cover are also on the contents page, the contents page continues representing the social group as upbeat and unique.

The main image on the contents page is of a young girl with red hair, the red hair represents the uniqueness of this social group, it also add the representation that people in this social group like to stand out from the crowd by being different from everyone else. 

The ringed photograph shows someone sat leaning slightly forward on a photograph this shows the confidence and the dark colours hair and clothing represents the emo social group, showing them to be, quite confident, but she looks quite shy at the same time as she's got her arms and legs quite close together, showing she's keeping herself to herself.


The double page spread represents the social group the magazine was aimed at in a much different way than the cover and contents page. 

The most obvious part of the double paged spread that represents the social group differently from the cover and the contents page would be the main photograph, she's smiling in it and is very natural and not wearing all black with really dark make-up, instead she's got quite pink lips, this represents the girly side of people from this social group. It acts as a counter type to what people would expect a punk/rock/emo girl to be like, showing that you cant tell what social group someone's in just by looking at them, unless it's really obvious. 

Another thing that represents the social group in a different way would be the post it note, the writing on it it very girly with a heart to dot the eye, representing her as loving and girly, it also says the things she likes which shows she isn't miserable and lonely like people assume people in this social group are. 


Overall my media texts represent the social group to be not only upbeat, confident, unique and expressive, like people would assume due to stereotypes but also, occasionally  shy and sometimes girly and cute, my media texts show that stereotypes aren't always used in music magazines, counter types are often used to show the reader how different someone could be than what you assume they are from the social group they're in. 




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


The institution I'd get to distribute my magazine would be, i chose this institution as is is Europe's largest private owned publishing group, that offer over 300 magazines in 15 countries as well as online and is also the distributer of Kerrang!, my studied magazine.

However, the fact it's Europe's largest private owned publishing group, could be a problem, if loads of magazines are being distributed by them, that means there's going to be a large number of magazines from the same genre as my own, meaning I'd have to compete for publishing and selling rates. 
But, also the fact it distributes over 300 magazines in over 15 countries shows that it's an excellent choice of distributor, if my magazine was published by this institution people would think "wow its published by Bauer, it must be worth publishing" which would help sell rates. 


Who would be the audience for your media product?-


The audience for my Media product would be, older teens as they are the most likely group of people to read this kind of magazine, the magazine is about rock/punk music, i've notice that most people in the higher years of secondary school and in sixth form/ college, the majority of people listen to this genre of music.


Another reson to support why it'd be aimed at this group would be from the results i got from the ten questionairres i handed out, alot of them came back with results supporting the idea that my magazine would be aimed at older teens/young adults. 








How did you attract/address your auidence?-


I used a number of techniques to attract the audience on my cover, contents page and double page spread, i used the colour scheme as a technique to attract people to my magazine as it was really bright, bold and not very subtle, therefore making it more likely to stand out from the rest of the magazines in the store, i also made the colour scheme repeat on all of the texts, the cover, contents page and the double page spread. 
Another way i attracted the audience to my media text would be the drop shadows used on the flashes to make them look like they'd been stuck onto the cover, and also giving it a three dimensional effect. 
The banners would also attract peoples attention as they say that you can get extra as well as just the magazine, the posters and the potential of winning tickets to a concert, the fact you could get something extra will always attract people to buying something as they feel like they're getting more for their money. 


The central image is in direct address therefore its addressing the audience and making it feel like its aimed at them, which makes it quite personal, also this will make it more likely that they will take the time to look at the cover and take in all that's being offered. 
with the free poster, interviews, the potential to win tickets and festival line-ups, this gives the audience a lot of reasons to consider purchasing the magazine.










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


During the process of producing my three media texts i have learnt how to use photoshop and InDesign, i've learnt how to use all of the different tools and how they make certain things easier, neater and more proffesional. 

In photoshop i have learnt how to make my photographs look more proffesional by using the different tools provided to fix colours, brightness and contrasts of the photographs. 
I've also learnt how to use the polygon lasso tool to take out the background of a photograph to add it onto InDesign looking really professional, another thing I learnt to do on photoshop would be using the different brushes to create my own stamps in the same way existing media texts make theirs. 

In InDesign I learnt how to use frames to organise my work, also I've learnt how you can change the shape of the frame to fit the image so a drop shadow, outer glow, inner glow or other 'fx' can be added, but using the 'fx' tool at the top of the page. 


Out of the two programmes i found InDesign much easier to use, i find it simpler and less complicated, however photoshop does more than InDesign as you can edit and arrange your work in photoshop. 




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


looking back at my preliminary task, i never would have thought i'd be able to produce a piece of working looking as professional as the work i've produced, i feel like i've achieved more than i expected to.
During the process of my work i had to change my idea several times from the one i'd originally drawn up for a number of reasons such as, there wasn't enough room, it wouldn't give the right effect, i couldn't get hold of certain things i needed (clothing/props/etc) 
I had to change my masthead several times as I didn't think it fit with the genre very well one it was made up in photoshop and added to the background in InDesign, this shows that the ideas could be great, but the won't always work the way you want them to when you put it all together. 
overall the process of my work went well and i got my texts done in a reasonable amount of time and i'm really proud of the work i've produced. 
I feel i've learnt a lot during the process of producing my final media texts as i've learnt how to use two programmes i'd never really used before and produced a good piece of work from it, this makes me feel like i've succeeded in producing a professional looking media text and i also now know how to use photoshop and InDesign which before I started using them both i'd only ever heard of photoshop.