MARIA'S MEDIA COURSEWORK 4013

EVALUATION
Media Coursework
School Magazine

Our very first task was to create a school magazine including a contents page and a front cover, remembering the codes and convention of a normal school magazine. Tostart of we done some research on different music magazines. We had to review twoschool magazines from two different schools. We had to look at and compare what were the similarities and the differences of the magazines we picked out.

After we done our research, basing my front cover from the Canon Palmer school magazine, we then started to create our own school magazine using the programme Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0. I added a red background using the tool fill to create a different vibe from any normal school magazine. I then went off to take pictures of students around the school. Out of all the pictures I took I had to look at which one was the best quality. I picked out a picture of a student boy studying as it would send a great message to other students who will read the magazine, and also I picked this out because the picture was very bright which will look good as the main picture of my magazine. After I have placed my picture to where I wanted it, I added the title of my magazine, which I decided to call it ‘Palmer Pages’, this is simply because my school is called ‘Canon Palmer’ and the world ‘pages’ straight away relates to information and what the magazine would be about. After I completed this, I then went on to continue working on the headlines around the front cover. I added such headlines as ‘On Point or Easily Distracted?’ to attract the readers – students to read the rest of the magazine. I then added other headlines at the bottom of the page to show that there are more stories to read about apart from the main story. After this, I went on the internet to search for the logos added to the original school magazine and attached these logos to my front cover at the bottom of the page.

I have change the colour scheme to black and red as I did not want it to be similar as other school magazines – using white, black. I wanted to make the colour stand out and made sure it was bright to make it different. I also did not add typical fonts for the text such as Arial, Times New Roman etc, because I wanted a modern type of school magazine.

I think overall, I have produced my front cover well for my school magazine. I have made my front cover different from the typical school magazine but however I still remembered the codes and conventions. If I was to change anything, I would have added the school logo somewhere on the page but I was not able to do this because I couldn’t find a clear version of the logo. I also had trouble using the programme as I am not familiar with all the different tools, but with help from my teacher and other students I was able to produce my own unique school magazine.

After I produced my school magazine front cover, I then continued to work on my contents page. I wanted to make my contents very simple so I just kept the same colour scheme and added the title ‘CONTENTS’ at the top of the page and then went on to adding headlines in one column and in line with the page numbers. I kept the contents simple but I also wanted it to be different. I think I have also produced a good contents page but however I think I could have done better with it. If I was to change anything about my school magazine, I would have just added the school logo somewhere either on the front cover or the contents page, but I think I created a front cover and contents page well.

EVALUATION
Media Coursework
Music Magazine

Our task was to create a music magazine including a front cover, a double page article and a contents page remembering the codes and conventions that are used in a music magazine. We had to start off by doing some preliminary work; this includes creating a school magazine to prepare our self with how the programme works and to experiment with the set of tools. We also had to do some research of different front covers of a music magazine to compare the differences and the similarities. When we finished with our research and finding out the codes and conventions used in a music magazine. We were able to start with our front cover.

For my music magazine, I have picked the genre of a Hip Hop Magazine as I am very familiar with how this type of magazine looks like so it would be easy for me to create. I started off by searching different magazines and I picked two different magazines Vibe and Blender, I compared the similarities the two magazines had including the picture that is added on which is most likely to be an artist, also the header and the subtitles around the page. I also looked at the colours they used in the front cover and I realized that they try and keep it simple but bright to catch the audience eyes. I also compared the differences of the magazines including the different fonts they use, the shape and form of the picture used in the front cover and I have also looked at the uniqueness of the magazine.

After I have finished my research I started working on my front cover, firstly I lay out roughly where I wanted the header, subtitles, picture and barcode goes. After I have done this, I chose my background colour and I picked the colour red blending into white because I wanted to keep it simple and I wanted to make the surroundings bright. Then I started to make the header, I went onto www.graffiticreator.com to create my header. I wanted to design my own header to show uniqueness compare to other magazines. I have picked ‘RMX’ as the title of my music magazine, only because it relates to music straight away. I did not choose to make it ‘REMIX’ as it is simply common and I wanted to make it different. It took me a while to sort out a photo shoot for my picture but however I was able to get my friend to do it for me. We took 70 shots in total and within those shots; I got her to put on different outfits and accessories so that I have a range of different shots to chose from. My picture for my front cover, I had to crop the pink background to be able to place it into my red/white blend background. I used the eraser brush tool to rub out the pink background I had in the picture, this took me a while to do but after a while I was able to place my picture into my actual front cover magazine, I made my picture in the middle because as most other magazines the main attraction is in the middle, I also made the picture cover the header just like some other magazines. After I placed where I wanted my picture, I started to place subheadings around my front cover. As you can see at the side of the page I have titles such as ‘NEW BOX FRESH’, ‘BIG LOVE’ and so on. I made sure to not add too many subheadings around the page as it might look tight and it might be too much. I kept the colours to mainly black, white, red and yellow. I did not want to make it to many different colours as I wanted to keep it simple but bright.

I also added the barcode right at the bottom corner of the page just like in other magazines you wouldn’t see a barcode in the middle of the page. I have done this to follow the codes and conventions of a music magazine. I have also included the big headline which is ‘CASSIE – SHE’S BACK AND EVEN HOTTER’, I made sure that this is in big bold writing comparing to the other sub-headings so for the audience this is the first thing they read. I also added other story lines at the bottom of the page to make my magazine a bit more interesting.

After I have finished my front cover, I moved on to completing my contents page. I have picked another picture from the 70 shots I took, I added this picture to the page but wanted to make it different so I didn’t add the whole picture but only include half of it and added this at the side of my page. I also wanted to make it different by adding ‘CONTENTS’ in different levels of the page. I also added a big letter ‘R’ behind ‘Contents’ to represent the title of the magazine which is ‘RMX’. I then added different stories row after row including the pages and made the main stories a font bigger than the others. I made the background of this page creamy to make it different, I didn’t want to make it dark but I also did not want to make this boring and stick with white, I stuck to the theme of colours white, black and grey to show the scale and make the colours blend together.

After completing my contents page, I was able to start working on my double page article, which I created using the programme Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 because unlike everyone else I found the programme Apple Works difficult and more confusing to use. When I started this, I changed the page resolution to make the page landscaped, to create the double page. After this, I chose another picture from the 70 shots that I took and placed it on the left side of the page. The background of this actual picture is only my wall in my room, which is the colour pink, to make it less difficult, I just decided to blend and colour the right side of the page with a colour pink, choosing from the paint bucket the closest pink possible to the background wall of the picture. I then carried on adding the headlines at the top of the page, and to make it more of an article I included a star on top of the letter ‘I’, which I think added extra effect to the article. I then placed other headlines at the side of the picture so that the left side of the page does not look too boring compared to the right side. I then added on the page numbers including the name ‘CASSIE’, I got this idea from an article I found in a music magazine that I had at home. After I included all the graphics and titles around the page, I then moved on to the actual writing part of the article, and I decided to make it an interview, so that it is more interesting to read.I made the colours of the font different so that the readers would know who is the interviewer and who is the person being interviewed. The font for the introduction of the article is more bold and bigger to show that this is the introduction. Like in every other interview in an article, I have included a big bold quote from one of the answers so when this catches the reader’s eyes, they will be interested straight away on reading the rest of the article. To bring the readers in, as part of my research I read interviews in different music magazines to get an idea of how to write the questions and answers, to make it sound like a professional article. I think overall this task, I have produced my article the best as I have put the most effort in this and also I think that it looks like a proper music double page article.I have stuck on with three to four different colours in this article because I did not want it to be too bright and not to plain. I made sure that all fonts are attractive to look at and also made sure everything about the article catches the audience eyes.

At the start of this project, I found using the programme Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 difficult to use because there were so many different set of tools to use, but with help from my teachers and fellow students I was able to work on it and come up with my own front cover magazine.I think my main targeted audience is teenagers as in this generation hip hop is most likely to be listened by teenagers. I think I have aimed well at my audience as I did not add anything overrated and also I made sure that the use of language is understandable by them.I have picked different range of colours and fonts to add attraction to my front cover, like other magazines you will see the blend of colours. I have also added a catchy heading to show the main storylines used in my article. Overall, I think I have produced my front cover, contents and double paged article well as I have shown different styles but also remaining to keep the codes and conventions of a music magazine. I think that with coming along the difficulty at the start with the programme, I was able to learn and explore on how to use Adobe Photoshop. I came across with time problems, as I feel we should have got more time to produce and work on our music magazine, I feel that I tried my best with coming up with a music magazine but some parts of it was not made from the best of my ability. I should have maybe focused more on the important things rather than focusing on such things as the designing of the fonts etc. If I was to change anything in my music magazine, I maybe would have thought more about the headings that I used in them, especially in my contents page, I should have added more interesting stories to read and also added more time to the deadline. But apart from that I am very pleased with what I have produced.I have researched some media institutions like EMAP and BAUER. As my final publisher I have chosen to pick BAUER who also has published of KERRANG, MOJO Etc. I have chosen this publisher as their brand is very well known and as I have researched they are the number one consumer magazine publisher with the U.K. They are a very well known and successful brand so this is the reason why I have chosen this brand, which makes me feel if I was to chose them for mypublisher they would sell my magazine and partly make my magazine successful.Looking back on my school magazine as my preliminary task, I think thatproducing my school magazine helped me to create my music magazine as I was able to explore around the programme with the different types of tools to help me produce my music magazine. Looking back on my school magazine, I think that I was able to start my work roughly and also it helped me because I was able to create my music magazine with knowing the type of tools to use. As having background experience from using different photo shops programmes, I was able to work on my school magazine and music magazine with what I know from before I started on these tasks. I learnt how to use the tools and how to create the magazines with remembering the different codes and conventions of different types of magazines. I thought it would be important for me to make the codes and conventions clear to make my music magazine similar and familiar to the other Hip Hop Magazines so that my intended audience would be familiarized to my work. I think I have produced a very well music magazine which reflects back to the codes and conventions of music magazines.