Question 3: So… How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
Question 2: So… How does your product engage with audiences and how would it bedistributed as a real media text?
Question 1: So… How does your product use or challenge conventionsand how does it represent social groups or issues?
Adverts
I also need to include 2 adverts that would be suitable for my selected genre of music, and that would appeal to my target audience. I have to think of adverts that are appealing to my audience as they have a preferred style of reading and have specific tastes in what they like. I chose the following adverts because they suit my genre well and I believe that my target audience would like them.
I think that the first advert would appeal to my target audience, as Calvin Harris is a well known electric-pop artists currently. Although his target audience are slightly older then mine, nevertheless my audience are still able to appreciate his music and enjoy listening to his songs. I decided to use Calvin for my advert due to his specific colour scheme he has used in this tour poster, Calvin has gone for blues, red and purples which is very similar to my colour scheme throughout my magazine.
The second advert I chose was a tour poster for Shawn Mendes, I chose to look at Shawn Mendes’s tour poster as she is a big inspiration to her audience, in addition to that she has a similar target audience to my target audience. Although the colour scheme isn’t the same as mine, I am sure my target audience will enjoy seeing the poster as it features one of their favourite artists. The advert doesn’t overload the reader with tones of information which is good. Shawn has gone for a simplistic air to his poster.
Overall I am pleased with the two adverts I have selected for my music magazine. They both fit the genre of pop very well. In addition to that they both feature big artists currently in the pop world. The artists are relevant and current to my target audience, which will attract them to take a closer look into the adverts I have chosen.
A New Improved Complete Magazine Draft
In order for me to make my music magazine a success, I have obtained some final feedback on my front page, double page spread and my content page from my teacher. This will tell me what I need to do in order for me to make my music magazine a success for my target audience. Below is the feedback given to me by my teacher:
Final Teacher Feedback:
Front Page Feedback:
- Add graphics on the pug as it is very plain
- Plug – overlap it onto the masthead a little more
- Cover line- ‘Tommy tells all!’ shift so its underneath the main cover line ‘Tommy’
- Change the word ‘Featuring’ from Blue to white
Double Page Spread Feedback:
- Check column size widths
- Check alignment of columns
- Change the black opaque banner for a red opaque banner (The cover line banner)
- Make Amelia and Amber bigger
- Try having the questions in upper case
Content Page Feedback:
- Double check font size
- Check spelling ‘split’ not ‘spilt’
- Width of white outline
- Blake’s Big Break should be on two seperate lines
- Amelia and Amber move to the white empty space
A New Improved Complete Magazine Draft
Here is my second complete draft of my music magazine, I have made a lot of changes to mainly the front cover and the contents page. Alongside additional minor changes to the double page spread.
What did I change on the front cover?:
- I firstly moved ‘Tommy’ into the center of the page so he is more of the main focus
- I moved the barcode and price from the left hand side of the page to the right hand side of the page
- I lowered the price of the magazine from £7.99 to £5.99, as this would appeal more to my audience as it isn’t as expensive
- My masthead was changed from a pastel blue to a bright and bold red as I needed more colour in my theme then different shades of blue.
- In the masthead originally the font was black but as it was changed it red I felt that the text would be more suited in white.
- In addition to that I changed the pug with ‘exclusive tour poster’ from blue to red, and then changed it to ‘Exclusive Double A Tour Poster!’ I made the words Exlcusive Double A are in white, while Tour Poster is still in black.
- In the featuring section I got rid of Ariana Grande’s name and added Little Mix and One Direction in instead.
(I am aware that the image of my main cover star is pixelated, it is being fixed during editing!)
What did I change on the double page spread?:
- I played around with the line spacing of the columns, I moved the writer and photographer to the bottom of the page
- When using quotation marks instead of them being blue and white, I changed them to be red and white.
- I added a caption underneath the girls, so my target audience can get an understanding as to where Double A got their start in the music industry. It says ‘Meet Double A! The Hottest Duo From X Factor!’
- Finally I enlarged the image of the girls to make them stand out more.
What I did change on the contents page?:
- I changed the triangles with Double A in red to go along with the theme of red and blue
- I added the name Amelia and Amber on the girls to show who the girls were
- I made the social handles smaller as it was taking too much attention away from the catchy captions
- I changed the @ handles from blue to red
- I made Tommy be the background for one of the triangles as the previous placement of the image didn’t showcase him enough
- I removed the hyphen after each number as it was becoming difficult to make all of the text inline
- With the page numbers I made the outlining of them white
- For every other catchy caption such as ‘tells all’ and ‘take over’ I made them in white text as I felt as if it would stand out more
- I removed ‘The real reason’ in the caption: “One direction Split up!”
So…How’s it going?
What new transferable skills have you learnt? What went well and even better if…
What is a transferable skill?:
A transferable skill is an ability or expertise which may be used in a variety of roles or occupations. Examples include communication, problem-solving and self-control.
With this information in mind, I have learnt a lot of of new skills. Below are some examples of transferable skills I have used:
- Communication: I have been able to speak to new peers in my class and get their feedback on my music magazine
- Different forms of communication: I have spoken to people in person, I have sent them instructions via social media platforms and in addition to that I used the blog league for comments on how I can improve and act upon my work.
- Critical Analysis: I’ve had to receive feedback on my work, and then act upon the feedback in order to make my work better.
- Research: I’ve had to research certain topics in order for me to understand and process what is being taught to me, then transfer the knowledge to my work to make it even better.
- Teamwork: I have been involved with group projects, and this has helped me to understand a task from another persons point of view and that there is always more then one way to go about a task.
What Went Well?:
In my opinion I believe that in the whole project so far I have done the best I possibly can, however some of the things that stand out the most for me are:
- Contents Page
- Photoshoot outcome
- Research about the music genre
Here is my favourite photo from my most recent photoshoot:
Even Better If:
Even though I think positively of my work, I believe that there is always room for improvement. I believe my improvement if I were to do this project again would be:
- Music Magazine front cover
- Masthead designs
- Feature Article
Complete Magazine Draft
Click here to fully view my Front cover, Double Page spread and Contents page:
My teacher has given me feedback using screen cast, overall she is impressed with the quality of my work and can see I have put a lot of time and effort into producing my music magazine.
Here is a summary of what she said:
- I need to add some more colours into my theme, as it is very simple at the moment.
- Make sure all of the social handles are the same way
- Add a catchy headlines underneath my photo of Amelia and Amber to attract my target audience
- Make sure all of line spacing is correct in the Double Page Spread
- There is the same house style throughout
- The use of blue is overused
- Move the plug and masthead up
- In the content page, to attract the reader make some of the key words bold, like ‘Little Mix’ and ‘Underrated Artists.’
A New Improved Contents Page
Click here to preview my second draft of my contents page:
What has changed:
- I have added in more catchy captions to draw my target audience in
- Added the social handles for a variety of platforms
- Added a photo of ‘Tommy‘ so the viewers understand who I am speaking about
- I made the fonts for the captions smaller and not in block capitals
- I have added lines between the captions to split them up
What Can I improve on?:
- Fixing the lines between the captions so they don’t go out of the triangle
- Make the numbers on the bottom section in bold as I haven’t done this yet
In the audio clip above is verbal feedback given to me by one of my fellow peers, I have asked them the following questions:
- How does the contents page work in tandem with the front cover?
- Is the font/typeface consistent with the front cover?
- What genre of music is the contents page featuring?
- Describe the images of the stars using adjectives.
- Which cover-lines tempt the audience to read on and which ones stand out and why?
- How do the cover-lines reflect a music magazine? If they don’t, which ones need to be adapted?
- What aspects do you consider conventional or unconventional (page numbers, inserts, captions, catchy cover lines, editors comment?)
Summary of the feedback given:
- The blue colour scheme works throughout and has a housetyle
- The captions are the same as the cover lines which provide a housestyle
- Most of them reflect the genre of Pop, however ‘How to improve your twitter feed’ isn’t music based. To improve this add a celebrity such as Ariana Grande saying how you can improve your feed.
- The social media logos need to be smaller, as they are taking focus away from the catchy captions
- The layout of the content pages is unconventional