Three Front Cover Analyses

ROCKSOUND Front Cover
Originally uploaded by Beth Thurtell

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nmecover
Originally uploaded by Beth Thurtell

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heatcover
Originally uploaded by Beth Thurtell

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

Since producing my preliminary task, I have exlpored more features of photoshop to make my magazine front cover look its best. For example, I used the feature that allowed me to adjust the lighting and contrast. Using this made my pictures look more glossy and realistic. I also used a soft eraser to go around the edges of all the pictures to make it not look so harsh against the background and other pictures. I used the ruler to put lines on my work to make sure everything was inline to make it look proffessional and authentic. I used the Magic Wand Tool to erase the background of my pictures. This is a more quicker and efficient way, which doesn't involve alot of effort. Using this gave me alot more time to edit the pictures and make them look how i want them to. I also used the Lasso Tool, which made it easier for me to select a bit of a picture that i wanted to move or adjust without it taking too long to select the image perfectly around the edges. I have learnt that I need to take up more space on my front cover to make it as interesting and eye catching as possible. For example, I have filled up space in my music magazine front cover by putting a sticker on the front, making the images bigger and featuring more subjects around the edges of the cover. Having different layers on Photoshop makes everything a lot easier. With these layers I am able to edit separate things on separate layers so that the editing wont effect any other part of the magazine. This makes it much easier to pay attention to detail, as I can edit small parts of the cover by putting them on other layers. I separated each person in my main image onto their own layer so that I could completely change the image and make it more, my own. I changed the lighting and contrast on each person and also positioned them closer in and placed two of them behind the masthead, and two in front to give it more variety. My preliminary task was less successful than my main products as I didn't have so much knowledge on how to use the Photoshop features. I also didn't have very many ideas and because I couldn't work Photoshop very well, so this also limited my idea's from developing. My skills with Photoshop, I feel, improved during the research and planning process, as I got lots more ideas and worked out how to develop these ideas using Photoshop.

I based the idea of the layout on two different issues of "ROCKSOUND". I used features from both. I got the idea of the composition of my photo from the issue on the left and on the cover on the right there are bands featured down the left hand side. There is also a cover line on the issue on the right which has a scruffy box around the writing, which is what I used when featuring bands on my cover. Both of these layouts are similar and are also very similar to mine. I needed to research other texts from magazine articles to know what sort of language I needed to use to target my audience and maintain the readers interest. I also needed to seek feedback from those within my target audience to see where I could approve in certain areas.

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

While constructing these products I have used a few different programmes, some online and some offline, to gain my full potential. Blogger, Flickr and Photoshop are the main programmes that i used, but i also used Microsoft Word to produce my article.

I have learnt alot from using Photoshop, especially in learning how to use the software. There are lots of advantages of using this programme, as there are lots of different things you can do to images which are impossible on simple softwares. I have learnt that when taking my own photos for photoshop, the best thing to do is make sure it has a white background. This makes it alot easier to work with on photoshop. It involves less work and therefore, more time to edit it. For example, changing the lighting, colouring and tone of the image. The only disadvantage of using photoshop, would be that there is alot of little things that you can do to images, but it is hard to learn all of these in a small space of time.

From blogger, I have learnt that it is very easy to put your ideas acorss the internet, which is the main advantage of this programme. There are a few disadvantage's of blogger, as you are limited to the amount of different layouts.

Fickr has enabled me to analyse my work alot clearer and easier. From Flickr, I have learnt that it is easy to show the analysis process of my own products and its clear to show how my ideas work.













I used survey monkey to produce a questionnaire online which was easier for me to retrieve information about my friends interests in
magazines.The advantages of using this website are that it is quick and i can get the information I need and that information will come straight back to me. The only disadvantage of using this is that I cannot see who has answered my questionnaire, so if someone who doesn't fit the stereotype of my target audience answers my questionnaire, the results may not be correct to what I need.

 I also advertised my SurveryMonkey questionnaire on facebook, so that it was easily accessible by lots of my friends online. This also made it fast and easy for me to get my results from my target audience.







I feel that using web 2.0 in an educational environment is very convenient and useful, as the work I do is easily accessible by teachers and it is easy for me to update my information as and when I wish. Using web 2.0 is a lot easier than writing an essay, especially for this task as I am able to post pictures with my work and change the layout to show my creative skills. Writing this task in an essay would waste a lot of time and effort and using the web means I can easily correct my work without having to start writing it again.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

My magazine targets my audience by using colours, pictures and words that would attract them to my magazine. The colours of my magazine relate to girls and the font of the words attract girls that enjoy rock music and the font suggests that the magazine is messy and focus's more on the music inside, rather than presentation, which could be a factor about the readers of the magazine, which is why someone would want to buy it, to express this about themselves, to show that they relate to the magazine.  I tried to to make my magazine speak in the language of the reader. I didn't use any complex sentences or words and tried to make everything as clear as possible. I didn't use any colloquialisms as my magazine is quite serious. It takes female bands seriously and doesn't show them to be a joke.

Front Cover
Originally uploaded by Beth Thurtell

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Double Page Spread
Originally uploaded by Beth Thurtell

   Click On The Image To See My Flickr Analysis

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

This image is a representative of my target audience. Girls aged from teens upwards, who dress with their style and enjoy lots of different types of music but are mainly interested in rock music. This type of person would shop in various shops such as newlook, Topshop, River Island and Miss Selfridge. I would advertise products from these shops in my magazine to entice the audience into buying the magazine. I think that this person would enjoy films that are about music, for example 'The Boat That Rocked' and 'Rock n Rolla".

I think this type of person would buy my magazine because it has alot of things in it that would attract them, such as the clothes and especially the music. My magazine specialises in rock music but covers other genre's of music within rock and some pop music. The bright colours and images will attract my audience as I think they would lead a very exciting and colourful life style and this magazine would help them portray that factor.

Someone who would buy this magazine, would be a middle class person and that they would have enough disposable income to potentially buy products that are advertised in my magazine.

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

 There are lots of big publishing companies, for example IPC which publishes magazines such as 'NME', 'LOOK' and 'Photographer'.



'NME' is a music magazine which is similar to mine, it covers a range of  different styles of music but mainly comes across as an indie magazine. IPC published alot of different magazines, so I think that my magazine should be published by a smaller company, such as 'Sonic Publishing' which publishes 'ROCKSOUND' which is the magazine I have based my products on.

As the magazine 'ROCKSOUND' is aimed at Males, I feel that because my magazine is aimed at females that 'Sonic Publishing' would be perfect for my magazine, as it will then give them a balance of different genders within their audience and will also be getting more of an audience as a whole as they will have more magazines which appeal to more people.

Advantages and Disadvantages of publishing with a big company

The main advantage of publishing with a big company would be that they would be able to advertise the product more effectively and on a wider scale and they will be able to suggest adverts for the magazine in order to get a bigger income. A disadvantage would be that it would cost alot for the big company to advertise, and the manufacturer of the magazine would not get alot of the profit as they would have to pay alot of it back to the company to publish it in the first place. The company may also make the magazine pay more attention to the advertisers as well as the audience which would involve alot more time, effort and money.


I would like WHSmith to distribute my magazine as it is a very big company and my magazine would be able to get to the reader more easily.

       

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

MyImage                                                                                                                        "ROCKSOUND"Image

The main image of my magazine front cover has some similarities to an image from the magazine "ROCKSOUND". The lead singer in both of these images are at the front and are the main focus point of the image. The other band members in the images are positioned behind the main person to show less importance. The image from "ROCKSOUND" has shadowing to portray the effect of their songs, so for my image I used bright lighting to show that the bands songs are uplifting and exciting.


My image challenges a few gender stereotypes. As a lot of rock bands are all male, and mine is a all girl band which challenges the stereotype. The picture was also taken from a low angle and some of them have an aggressive expression on their face which challenges a lot of stereotypes, as it means that females have power.