Advert 1

I chose beats as the brand I’m advertising because it is one of the most popular brands of music products. The title ‘unleash the beats’ is a play on words with the model Conor Mcgregor, he is a Mixed Martial Arts fighter who is known for his trash talk and his ruthlessness. A line he often uses to describe his attitude to the sport is ‘unleash the beast’, hence why I changed ‘beast’ to the brand name ‘beats’.

I feel like Conor Mcgregor is a suitable representative for my genre, since he gives off the modern and energetic vibe which is my audience psychographic.

Advert 2

For my second advert I chose to use Spotify, as it is a very popular app, and it’s main appeal are members of my audience. This particular advert uses a similar colour scheme to my magazine, making it fit in better.

The background in this advert is an ongoing house party which is the sort of thing which my audience is interested in.

My audience demographic is young, mixed gender and youthful, and based off of my research Spotify seems to be the platform which everyone is into.

Screen Castify

Now that I have submitted my draft 3 magazine, I must now get some feedback from my teacher, bellow is a short video which outlines the pros and cons of my third draft.

What’s new?

Front cover

• Added special effects to front cover photo
• Made a banner for front cover
• Moved the features out of the way of the model
• Changed the colour of the Model’s name
• Changed the colour of the plug text box to a red and cyan mix

Contents page

• Added similar special effects to and contents page photo
• Rearranged cover lines
• Added a red and cyan mixed background

DPS

• Changed colours of text in DPS
• Cropped out photo of other model since the article wasn’t about her
• Added in another photo with the article

What’s next? (based off screen castify)

Front cover

• ensure that top plug is not cut off.
• Issue number
• Make it ‘funky’ and ‘full of stuff’
• Add something to the cover star’s name
• More coverlines
• Make main star bigger
• Consider smaller boxes for the features
• Move DPS article title away from cover star

Contents Page

• More coverlines
• Make titles of cover lines in bold and capital, and make the descriptions in lowercase.
• Stick to a pattern with page numbers
• Ensure that cover lines are all the same size
• Page number
• Different image to avoid repetition

DPS

• Feels like it’s from a different magazine
• Consider different font for article
• Crop the shoulder from the photo
• Aline the starting text columns
• Play with the photos like done with front cover.

What’s new?

• I added in page numbers.
• I changed the quote in the left page to the quote featured in my article
• I changed the title of the article to make it look more unique.
• I used paragraphs to make it look more like a biography.

What’s next?

• Add in a filter or special effects to both photos
• Use a different text colour for the left hand side
• page numbers need to be higher…and right hand side corner for right hand page
• give the inset a caption and anchor in some border or depth? and perhaps crop a little
• think about main cover photo as it features 2 people and the article is about one
• not sure about the line spacing or font on the main coverline

Bellow is my first draft of my contents page, I added it to make the smaller changes more noticeable.

This is my second draft of my contents page.

What’s new?

I followed the feedback I gave myself in my first draft and used a gradient background to add some meaning to the page, I also spaced out the text so it looked less bunched up, I added in my article for my double page spread, including an image of who my article is about. I moved my model closer to the left to make room for the text and for the other photo.

What’s next?

• Blend in the colours of the background to give it a smoother transition.
• Re-organize the position of the second photo so that none of the text is covered.
• Make the contents positions more unique, rather than just a straight line downwards.
• coverlines smaller line spacing
• dehyphenate
• page number
• he is a bit bluyrry….put an effect on it?
• caption him…who is he?
• main coverlines in capital letters and perahps a differnt colour
• no punctuation in coverlines
• bigger numbers
• caption Amber?
• more coverlines?
• watch repeat of numbers

Here is my first draft of my front cover, I’ve attached this to make it easier to notice what I have changed in my second draft.

Bellow is my second draft.

What’s New?

In this draft I changed the masthead so that it has one half with a red background with white text, and the other half with red text on a white background.

I rearranged the features, adding a red text box, and added in the title of my article of my double page spread. I made my main cover star bigger so the audience knows who it’s all about.

What’s Next?

1. Make the article cover line stand out more.
2. Add/use special effects to give more meaning to the cover.
3. Use a humorous quote from the main cover star to represent that he’s ordinary.
4. Make the name of the main cover star bigger, also add to it to make him seem more energetic and stylish.
5. Use a brighter shade of red to make the colour scheme more exciting.
6. Use less fonts as it makes the front page look too messy.
7. Overlay the pug behind the masthead.
8. Add a banner at the bottom to include features of the magazine.
9. Try without the coloured boxes as it covers up too much of the star.

Now I must make a draft of my Double Page Spread so I have something to work with.

Overall I think that the colours didn’t stand out the way that I imagined they would, however with more time to experiment with colours and fonts I will find something that I would be more happy with. (Unfortunately the quality took a downgrade since it was the only way to export both pages into my blog).

Five targets for improvement

1. Use some sort of shape to split the pages.
2. Add in a solo shot of one of my models into the page where all the text will be.
3. Use more colour to make it look less bland.
4. Have a unique pattern of shapes to add more of an affect to the DPS.
5. Use a large capital letter at the start of the article to make it more conventional.

Based on feedback which I received, I have made some adjustments to my first draft.

I managed to resolve the quality issue, I also decided to only have my photo on one page after looking at examples of Double Page Spreads.

Below is a contact sheet of all the photos which I took for my double page spread in town on Tuesday 8th December.

We tried a few different locations for a background, I had the outside of the old HMV building in mind since it was a very open space and it had loads of areas to use for creativity. We then went to a set of stairs because I had seen some double page spreads with the model(s) on a set of stairs and I thought it suited my genre. We then tried having a few shots overlooking a balcony to add more of a story to the photo.

I think the use of Mis-en-scene could’ve been better, there should’ve been more props to show what the genre is.

I have chosen this photo because I was very happy with the camera angles and the poses that were used, I think it will suite my magazine and it represents my models the way I need them to be represented.

I have also chosen this photo as it shows the relationship between my two models and it fits into my backstory really well.

In order to create a conventional article for my double page spread, I must first plan what I am going to write about, the backstory of my models and how they represent the genre.

The Hook

A hook’ is a treatment for an article. It usually is part of the pitch that a writer or journalist will make to their editor before they are given permission to spend time writing the article.

I will now need to create a hook of my own.

Using my plan and my hook, I have now written my final article. I used the story I had made in my plan, but I used different language which I thought would be more appropriate.

Final Article (After teacher feedback)

My second photo shoot will be on Tuesday 8th of December in town.

I plan to have my models dress like a stereotypical female DJ to fit my genre, and to show what my article is about.

I plan to use the old HMV building as my background, or the outside entrance to fusion nightclub.

For my article analysis, I have chosen to look at a Q&A, and how they have used conventional features of an article. Straight away I noticed that they have used different fonts, sizes and colours to highlight the text that will hook their target audience in most. They have used Gratification Theory to increase their rates of social interaction, social identity, and their use of text for information and entertainment.

This article which I am analysing is called ‘Cash for Questions’, released on July 11th 2018 and written by Paul Stokes, it is a Q&A for a famous indie rock band known as ‘alt j’. Reading this article, I found evidence of the journalistic techniques of the who, what, where, why, when and how.  The book of kells – Trinity College Dublin’s The Long Room is one of the world’s most impressive libraries, it seems a fitting location for alt-J, here to play in the grounds as a part of a summer series of gigs. 

The layout of the article shows how it is a Q&A, it uses the rule of 3’s, the first column being about how the band first met, and all of their achievements as a band, the second column being about popular opinion’s on how the band is represented, including all of the member’s responses to these claims, the third column being the actual Q&A. The questions from the fans are mainly about their music careers, one being about how they spend their money from awards they have won.

I am aware of the presence of a journalist as there is a clear introduction of the band on who they are, how they met and what they’ve won. The journalist also describes what the band have been up to lately, and it adds some context to the photos of them in the actual magazine, by context I mean why they are in a library, how it represents them and it gives some history about the location, majority of the article are words quoted from the band itself.

Overall, at first appearance they seem quite nerdy for a rock band, however after reading the way that they respond to people them calling them nerdy, they sound very casual and laid back.