Final Double Page Spread

I decided to make a few changes to my double page spread after I got my audience feedback. I found that I needed to make my introduction stand out a bit more to the rest of the text, therefore I made it bold and italic so it stood out more. I also moved the 'BLAST EXCLUSIVE' to the bottom of the page because this looked more conventional. I also changed the page numbers from 15-16 to 30-31 because I found it was more conventional for the main story of a music magazine to be featured a bit deeper into the magazine, rather than in the first few pages. 

Final Contents Page

After I got my audience research back, I made a few changes to my contents page to suit what my target audience said they would like. For example, I structured it a bit better and sectioned off the regulars and features sections. I also added a few more stories to my contents page to fill it out more and make it look more conventional.

Final Front Cover

I found doing the audience research was very helpful because it helped me realise quite a few things that were not very conventional that I needed to change that would help improve my front cover. So, taking these things into account I made a few changes that may not have been major, however, they still helped improve my front cover and make it look more like a conventional music magazine.

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

 By looking back at our preliminary task (which was to create a college magazine front cover), and in the process from that to my finished music magazine front cover, there are many changes that I made when I made my magazine. 
I have developed by making my magazine look more conventional, rather than just 'poster-like'. I also made the sell lines stand out more in my music magazine because on my college magazine they fade in to the back ground and do not stand out, so if the readers were not attracted by the main cover line then there would be nothing else that would immediately attract them to my magazine.
I also decided to make my masthead bolder, I found this was a convention that all magazines used and on my college magazine I found that, although the colours do go with the rest of the magazine, it is quite a plain and boring font that does not stand out against the rest of the magazine. So when I was making my music magazine I looked up many different fonts that were bold and represented the genre that I want my music magazine to be. By doing this, and making it a different colour to the majority of the other text on the page I managed to make it stand out more and look more conventional. I figured also by doing this, if my magazine was on a stand in a store then people will be able to see this, even if they can only see part of it, as oppose to it not really standing out, which it doesn't on my college magazine. 
If I had the chance to do my college magazine again, I would put the masthead in a much bolder font that was a lot different from the others on the page (but still in keeping with a house style) and I would make the main cover line a lot bolder compared to the rest to make it stand out more. I would put the smaller cover lines in a box to separate them off from the rest of the magazine, and do the sell line that is above the masthead it a colour that stands out more against the black background. I would also try and feature at least one more picture on the front cover because this is a convention of magazines and to just have one image on there is something that is not expected of a magazine. 
It was useful to carry out this preliminary task as it gave me a bit of preparation in making a magazine and provided me background information on the codes and conventions of magazines in general. It was also useful because it meant I could look back on my college magazine to see how I have improved and it also gave me a bit of knowledge about photoshop before I made my actual music magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread. 

I definitely think I have developed in my media skills, especially in photoshop, as you can see in the previous question for my evaluation there are many new things that I learnt since we started this preliminary task back in September. I have developed in making my magazine looking more conventional in order to attract my audience more.
To produce my final music magazine it took a lot of research, which involved finding popular, existing music magazines and looking at their front covers, contents page and double page spreads to see what conventions they used to make their magazine successful and attract their audience.

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

Here is one of my first drafts for my front cover, and to the right is my final front cover. As you can see the main image on the first draft does not look very conventional of music magazine front covers. The lighting is poor and you cannot really see her face, which would not attract the audience because one of the conventions of a music magazine front covers is to have a strong dominant front cover that will attract your audience. 
Also the text on the first draft for the main cover line is quite dark and blends in to the background, which is also not conventional because readers will want it to stand out against the background so they can read it from far away if they spot it out the corner of their eye in a shop. 
Also I needed to make the cover lines in the boxes go together with the rest of the magazine because on the first draft they look more like they should be on a contents page. 
When I asked around on my first draft, many people said they could not tell that it was meant to be a sixties/rock music magazine, and they said many things about it were unconventional and did not really fit in. For example, the lack of a price or slogan were both unconventional and were things that people said needed changing because it does not look like a proper music magazine without these things that most people expect to see on a music magazine front cover.

Here is one of my first contents page drafts. I found that the cutting around the picture does not look very professional and looks quite messy. So when I was using Photoshop I found the 'magic wand' tool, which allows you to get rid of a white background quicker and easier than having to use the polygonal lasso tool that I previously used, as I found the polygonal lasso was a lot messier and took a lot more time than the magic wand tool. 

  Whilst creating my media product I also learnt many different short cuts on Photoshop. Such as 'Ctrl+T' for transforming an image- making it bigger or smaller, and rotating it. 

Whilst I was making my drafts I also learnt about the gradient tool, that creates a gradient background for you in a colour of your choice- as demonstrated in one of my draft contents pages shown above.

Below is a step by step process of one of my drafts that I made...

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted my target audience buy making my music magazine an affordable price for the E demographic category. By making it £2.00 this is a price that students and teenagers can afford and for the number of pages that my magazine includes and the frequency it will be released (every fortnight) I would say it is a reasonable price. 

The special offers I include should attract my target audience, because I found that teenagers enjoy competitions where they can win tickets to concerts and CDs (I discovered this when looking at existing music magazine, for example, 'Kerrang!' (left picture) is a popular rock magazine that teenagers (around the same social group as my target audience) enjoy reading. In the bottom right corner near the barcode there is the big plug saying 'WIN', from this distance you cannot fully see what can be won however, the fact that it is in a bright yellow star that stands out clearly over the black background, this would attract the audience and make them pick it up to see what they could win.
So to attract my audience I thought I would make the 'WIN' bit noticeable but I did not want that to be the main feature of the magazine, I wanted the main coverline to be the main feature of my magazine, however, I did not want that to be the only thing attracting my audience therefore I made the 'WIN' plug on the bottom sell line noticeable so the audience would see that when they pick my magazine up. 
I did a series of questionnaires that I handed out to a group of people that were in my target audience: 


Here are the responses to my questionnaires that I gave out to a group of teenagers to get their feedback on my front cover, contents page and double page spread:

Have I used the conventions of a music magazine successfully?

“Yes, I can see a lot of the conventions throughout the pages”

“Yes” x3

“Yes, it follows them well”

“Yes, especially the masthead. That is very different and stands out”

“Yes- large masthead, structured like music magazines, looks like a genuine double page spread. Sell lines on left side”

“Yes the front cover and double page spread follow conventions very well- however, the contents page could follow conventions more”

Can you identify what my target audience is?

“An audience who enjoys this genre of music, teenagers and young adults”

“Teenagers 16+ pop/rock genre”

“15-25 year olds”

“16+ because of the colours and font”

“15-24”

“I’m not too sure what it is”

“Teenage girls, sixties rock fans. The clothing represents this”

“Pop-rock. Semi Mainstream audience. 15-25”

  If so, does it appeal to the target audience?

“Yes a young, fun font used for the masthead etc. The colours used are bright which will attract the target audience”

“Yes”x3

“Yes, the theme and colour”

“Yes- the colours used appeal”

-

“Yes, large image of girl, represents sixties”

  Can you tell what my genre is?

“Retro music”

“Pop genre”

“Pop-rock”x2

“Pop”

“Pop rock and music from the past”

“60s rock”

“Sixties- dressed sixties, pull quotes. ‘I’m bringing the sixties back’ gives it away”

 Are there any changes you would make to improve it?

“More feature stories on the front page”

“Not fading the edges of the images on the contents page”

“More features”

“Maybe use more images”

“More feature articles”

“Add a price on the front cover”

“Structure contents page a bit more”

“Better contents layout. Price on cover. Outline images to make them clear”

  If there is anything you find unconventional, does it fit in with the rest of the magazine?

“Yes”x3

“Don’t think so”

“The barcode positioning”

-

-

“Sizing of some of the text, it doesn’t fit in very well- makes it look slightly childish in a few aspects”

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

When I was originally planning my target audience, before I finished my final media products and had made final decisions about things such as mise-en-scene, layout, colours, fonts etc. I did a focus group with a group of teenage girls (who are in my target audience) to see what kind of things they would expect from a music magazine and some things that they would enjoy reading and would want to buy. I found doing this focus group was very helpful because it helped me get a wider view of what my target audience wants, and helped me get different ideas that I may not have thought of before. 
When I was creating my media product I wanted to make sure the ideology and iconography would appeal to my target audience, so by referring back to my reader profile I chose certain features that I could feature in the mise-en-scene and location to appeal to my target audience and attract them to my magazine. 
I also conducted secondary audience research with my final front cover, contents page and double page spread, which included a series of questionnaires that I handed out to a group of teenagers and a secondary audience feedback video with my final products.