EvaluationJasmine Holmes-Parker

Writing the copy When writing my interview I had to take into account the audiences personality to make it successful and appealing to them. My target audience are represented as youthful and having musical interest, they could also be seen as possible consumers as my magazine “Unison” is promoting bands, and artists.I also had to think about my institution “Unison” and what they will promote to the readers. I ensured the magazine constructed a positive representation of my main artist, as well as making sure the magazine was portrayed in a good way to ensure our readers would still have passion for the magazine each month.

Journalism Analysed

Journalism continued

Front cover analysis

The different font shows that it’s the main cover story, and as the copy is purple it shows a link as it’s the same colour

as the artist’s jacket

This puff persuades readers to buy it, it’s big on the page and

the red contrasts with the black making it stand out more.

The artist is represented as relaxed and casual with her leg positioned on the wall, in a long shot, her eyes looking down instead of at the camera make her look more shy and vulnerable

The cover lines in capital letters and left aligned make the magazine seem more realistic

In this cover line I have put the band name in red as this is significant and underlined

“exclusive” as this makes the magazine even more successful

and this lets the target audience know that the magazine are still

taking in their needs of excitement from a magazine

(Richard Dyer)

This is where I put necessary information such as the cover price and date, aswell as a website to offer our target audience addition platforms

The masthead has an eroded look and is in sans serif capital

letters, which is common in magazines, we chose Unison as

our title as it means harmony also making it musical, it is also

very edgy and unique

This slogan is also good as it refers to musical language by using the word “tuned” making it clear to other viewers what genre of magazine this is

Using a barcode, and issue number assures I am following the conventions of a magazine

Forms and conventionsOn my front cover I have included a series of conventions to make my magazine seem more realistic and alike other magazines. For example:

•MASTHEAD large uppercase sans serif font clearly states the magazine title

•STRAPLINE (“Keeping you tuned in”), which was significant as it makes it memorable and clearly states the brand’s values of keeping their readers up to date with the latest musical trends;

•PUFF I used the word exclusive to represent my magazine as good and getting the best musical news for them over any other magazines

•GRAPHIC entices people to buy the magazine as the round black and red shape attracts the eye

•COVERLINES I used cover lines as it’s a common and essential feature included in successful magazines

•ISSUE DETAILS (Bar code, issue, price) these conventional features are essential for the readers and retailers

Contents page analysis

Page numbers by photos, I did this as it makes the magazine look more modern and up- to date which fits in with our target audience of 16-25 year olds

I have included an editor’s column with a photo of the editor, which is very conventional as other magazines such as Kerrang include editors columns

I used a simple sans serif font for the contents as it looks good and clear and doesn’t over crowd the main features of the page

I used a 2 column layout for my contents page as it looks more professional and is common in most magazines

For the editor’s column I put a handwritten font on for his signature this gave it a more friendly and personal mode of address to the readers

For the contents page I adopted a look consisting of more photos than text, to show off the main features in the magazine

Cover story image used on contents as it’s a main story

This photo represents an indie band clearly due to their style as their facial expressions and body language shows them as moody and casual, it also has a depth of field

Represents the magazine as fun

I used a gradient tool for my background, which went from black to light grey as it contrasts with the white text and red dividers.

Forms and conventionsOn my contents page I have also included a series of conventions to make my magazine seem realistic. These are:

•ORGANISATION OF STORIES my stories are organised numerically making it clear for readers, I also put the numbers in red as it contrasts with the white page information

•COLUMN LAYOUT I have used a two column layout, as I didn’t want to overcrowd the page with text so I just included main pages. I mainly filled my page with images as it represents it as more lively and modern

•HEADLINES I included headlines by the page numbers so it informs them briefly on the information on certain pages

•EDITORS LETTER I included an editor’s letter as it represents him as appreciative towards his readers

•PAGE NUMBERS CAPTIONS I put page numbers on top of my images so the audience can look back at the content or go straight to that page, this is common convention used in magazines

Double page analysis

On my double page spread I put a main image across half of it as I felt the photo I took was strong and portrayed her as fun and loving through her facial expression and I wanted the target audience to see this

I used a 3 column layout for my interview as there was a lot of copy to fit in, this also meant I was following the conventions of a magazine

I put a brief description of the interview in a textbox to follow the conventions of magazines, it also helps to emphasise her success and career

I included a pull quote to engage readers into the interview and to also follow the conventions

On my page number I also included the website and month, I put it on the right hand bottom side of the page so it’s out of the way but is clear to see also as it’s not on the picture it doesn’t take the focus of it

This picture in the corner shows the artists old career and shows her as vulnerable, which is the opposite to the main image, this shows the target audience how much she has grown and how happy and confident she is

The title Is in white which contrasts with the natural background, the font is big and in capitals representing Prothero as the next thing thing/star

I used the word “girl” as it represents the artist as being youthful which will make her young audience relate to her

Forms and conventionsOn my double page spread I have included a series of conventions to make this page seem realistic. These are:

•COPY My interview layout is very conventional as I separated the questions and answers.

•COLUMNS I used a 3 column layout as this seemed common in most music magazine pages and clear for the questions to be read

•HEADLINE – I included a double decker upper case title with sans serif font as it’s clear communication for the target audience

•DROP CAPITAL The drop capital at the beginning of the article is a convention in magazine publishing

•CAPTION I added a pink box over my photograph with a brief introduction into the interview which gradually draws readers in to the main interview

•PULL QUOTE The pull quote is very conventional and is also musical lexis as it states another band

•PAGE NUMBER/WEBSITE ADD/P NO. My page number is at the bottom right hand corner so it’s neat, I also included a website so it advertises additional platforms to our audience

From preliminary to Final Production

From preliminary to Final Production

My photography skills have increased highly as I now look at the mise-en-scene much more, such as the background and jewellery and how it represented my artist. I also looked at different types 0f shots and camera angles and how they portrayed my artist e.g. High angle showing vulnerability and low angle showing power. I have improved my skills in constructing the preferred meaning within photographs.

My skills have developed a lot since my newsletter, as I have used different programs (Adobe Photoshop instead of Microsoft word) and worked a lot harder on my final magazine and looked into detail at successful existing media magazines such as Kerrang, and NME.

My journalism skills had to be good and practical for the magazine to be tremendous. In my interview I asked questions that you would find in a magazine, and I used detailed language to emphasise the passion my artist “Prothero” had for music. Overall I think my journalism skills have improved as I have learned to adapt certain tones to the different individuals in the interview, which makes it seem more realistic and creates a more appropriate mode of address.

From preliminary to Final Production

For my music magazine I used a program called Photoshop to edit my pictures, add copy and anything else that needed to be included. At first I wasn’t entirely sure how to use it, but now I have gained knowledge on it and can use the program quite well and have a clear understanding of the tools and controls.

I think looking at magazines and doing radial analysis of them before starting my magazine helped me gain certain skills like photography, and I learned that it’s important to plan your idea before starting so you have a full understanding of your product.

My use of technologyIn Photoshop I learnt how to layer items “stack” so you could move individual items around alone. This made it easier for me to achieve a good magazine

I cut my editor’s figure out from the background using the “Magnetic Lasso Tool”. This tool really helped me as the original image wasn’t very effective as the background looks messy on the edges, now it looks much more professional.

Photoshop toolbar

I used the eye-dropper tool to make sure the purple colour scheme remained the same on my front cover.

The “T” item allows you to write text on parts of your image, I used this regularly on all of my pages

This is the gradient tool which I used on my contents page, when I put on my background it slightly lightens toward one end of the page

This allowed me to change between two colours that I used regularly

Photography When taking my photos, I had to look at the

lighting, where it came from and looked most professional. The tools that helped me get a skilled looking light on my photos were the brightness and contrast tools. They let me adjust this easily, so I tried a variation of looks.

Low brightness + contrast

High brightness + medium low contrast

Final image

Internet sourcesThe fonts I used on my magazine were downloaded from a particular website http://www.dafont.com/ , this offered me a much wider variety rather than using regular fonts. These are the stages you have to proceed when downloading a font:

1. Click download, then open.

2. Click file, Extract All.

3. Click Next then Browse, and save it onto your home drive or memory stick.

4. Click Next again, then Finish.

5. Go on My Computer and click Help, then Help and Support Centre.

6. Search “Installing fonts” and click “Add a new font to your Computer”.

7. When it loads, click the highlighted Fonts button.

8. When it opens, click File, then Install New Font.

Find where you saved your font and then click the font name at the top. Untick the box at the bottom and click OK. A message will come up just click Yes.

BlogSpot was another internet source we used to upload our projects onto so our teachers could advise us. It is also far more professional as it has a correlation to the subject (media), rather than using paper