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

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

A video telling you what I learnt to do with the different technologies and what I learnt about them.

Evaluation 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

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

The media institution who would distribute my product would be IPC Media and WHSmiths. The reason why I think that these institutions would do this is because IPC distribute other magazines like mine, for example NME. I would also say that WHSmiths would too as they are very well known for having EVERY variety of magazine in their shop, and with so many mixed genres like mine, I think that they would distribute it from there.

Evaluation 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The particular social groups that my media product represents are people who enjoy Rock/Indie/Alternative/Folk music.

The reason why these are the type of social groups that my product represents is because I was trying to represent those genres for the magazine in general.

The way that it shows these particular social groups is through images, text, colour and layout.

On the front cover, I have quite a large image of an artist who is wearing bright clothes and looks quite different and quirky. This is the way teenagers are if they listen to these genres.
Also, the fonts on the front are all very different and thats how it represents and brings in different types of people and different types of social groups.

Also, the text. The text in the article of my DPS is weird and wacky as some of the answers are funny to represent the social groups which are all my target audience age of 14-30 years old. An example of this is "Glastonbury Pyramid Stage. Every ticket sold... to one person... Tom Felton." This represents different social groups through humour.

The layout, is like a conventional Rock/Indie magazine and so it caters for those social groups.

Evaluation 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

DPS Final

 

The only difference that there is with this DPS to the last one is the font positioning underneath the title 'Chloe Lam'. This is a small change but it looks good and is easier to read.

Front Cover Final

We had to hand in our pages for our teachers to give us feedback on what we should change. Here are the changes.

As you can see, I only had three things I actually had to change; one of which was the bottom line which said 'AN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH CHLOE' this was changed to be above the quote and to say 'CHLOE LAM REVEALS' as her name needed to stand out more on the page, this makes it seem a lot more professional.
The second and third changes were a to do with the font size, the words underneath 'Arctic Monkeys Interview' were too small and the words saying 'Inside look into Bombay Bicycle club's tour' was too big.

DPS final (sort of)

This is my DPS.

Like I said before, it needed changes, for example, the background. I decided to put these lines on it so that it would give it a arty kind of look and not look so plain and boring. The other thing that I did was make the background for the writing, grey. I think that this is also a much better change as the page doesn't look so bland but also, it isn't a colour which is too much e.g orange or blue.

Contents page final

I really like my final contents page, it is simple but it also has a lot of things on it. It doesn’t become messy with its content.

I’ve kept the colour scheme consistent and although it took me a VERY LOOOOOOONG time to get the title ‘Inside’ right, I think that it looks great on the page and it looks better than it would have if it was black writing with a white outline.

The photos also really work with the whole page and bring it together to look like a real magazine.

Changes to my DPS

The photos on my contents page.

I got a lot of people speculating about whether I had taken the photos on my contents page myself.

(The circled images are the ones that I was being asked about)

I wanted to make it clear that they are all my images so here are some more of them to show you.

Problems with InDesign

For our Double Page Spreads, we were advised to use the program called InDesign to make it however I had some problems with it.

The above image is of Photoshop and the one below is of InDesign. In InDesign, I could get the same font as the one above however, I could not to the effect of having darker blue lines outlining so it defines the text a bit more.

This means that I had to printscreen the font that I did on Photoshop and import the image to InDesign in order to have that particular type of font.

When I was uploading the images, I started to realise that they were coming out very blurry and pixellated. (You can see this is you click on the photo below.)

This didn't just happen to my photos but also to my font which I imported from Photoshop. 

In conclusion, I decided not to use InDesign and stick with Photoshop.

Contents Page Gone Wrong

When I first started doing my contents page, it looked like the photo below, I printscreened it while I was still working on it so that I could talk about my progress on the blog; however! The next time I tried to load the file onto Photoshop, it didn't work. This was due to the fact that I had not saved the file in the correct format.

Because of this very annoying fact, I had to restart the whole thing again. The photo below is of the finished product. You can see that there is a slight difference between the words 'INSIDE'. I actually think that the one on the final is so much better and neater than the image above.

Front Cover

 This is my front cover of my magazine, I used picmonkey.com to edit the original image before I uploaded it onto Photoshop where I added my text. Like the silly person that I am, I didn't remember to take any screenshots until I had finished the actualcover.
It took me a while to do the fonts but I think that they look very nice and they work well together.

 Although I have finished my front cover now, it may need some tweaking later on.

Changing The Colours

(Quick thing to say that I am very sorry that I haven't updated)
Okay, that's done! Let's get on with the blog.

So I have been using Picmonkey.com to edit my photos for my magazine because it has better effects than Photoshop in my opinion. This helped me as when I asked my artist to come in to do the photo shoot, she didn't have any clothes that were orange or blue so I used Picmonkey to edit them so that they fitted in with my colour scheme.

Original Image:

Edited Image:

Interview Updated

My teacher and I went through my Interview that I had written, I would have to write an introduction to the interview anyway but I have written it up and put it on here. I also added an extra question which isn't too gossip-y however it is about her personal life so the reader gets more of an insight into her life.

Introduction:
We're sat in an old record shop in north London with chart topping artist, Chloe Lam. Just finished fishing through the stack of Beatles records and now is sitting down, holding the white album on her lap.

Question:
You sound like a very busy lady at work, what do you do in your spare time to relax?

I usually just hang out with friends and I read all manner of books. I do also like to draw; I think that although you can tell a story with music, you can do it with art too. I think that there is something very therapeutic and calming about painting so I try to express myself through that.

Names For My Magazine

Picmonkey

I have been using the website Picmonkey.com to edit my images before I edit them on Photoshop, this is because I want to edit the colours and then use the image that I changed the colours of for the base of my front cover. This will make it easier to edit, also, I am more aware of how to use that website to change the colours of the picture than I am of Photoshop.

 

This is the original image that I used before I edited it.

First, I cropped the image to the size that I wanted.

 

Then I used the 'Exposure' tool to change the brightness, shadows, contrast and highlights on the image so that the white sheets in the background were easier to fade without it looking messy and like I had just drawn around the main image with a paintbrush.

Then because I still could see the faint marks of the sheets in the background, I used the drawing tool to neaten up the outside of the image. This makes it look like the background is all white originally and it looks cleaner and nice, ready for when I put it on my double page spread.

Front Cover Image.

I was originally going to choose this image as my front cover to my magazine.

When I was editing it on photoshop, my teacher came over and said that she didn't like the image because her face looked like she was in pain.

I went through the rest of my images and came to the conclusion that this one was the best out of the rest of them because she doesn't look to smiley or to rigid and uncomfortable.
My teacher still didn't think that this was the right image to chose and asked some other people what they thought. They said that they didn't like her expression that much.

However, I showed them the images of a conventional rock/indie magazine and they had unusual expressions and positions throughout the magazine.

I noticed that in the front covers the artists are not smiling or being boring. This is why I want to choose this image.

This shows that I wasn't just getting her to be weird for no reason, I was sticking to my brief and research.

Interview

Because I was not able to get an actual artist for my magazine, I decided to write the interview myself but I did it in the style of an actual conversation with someone else.
I did ask my friend a few of these questions for example 'If you were on a desert island, what three things (non-survival) would you bring with you and why?' so then it gives it more of a sense that this person has more of their own personality.

Interview:

 

 There has been talk of a new album. Is it true?

Yes, I am not sure if I am allowed to say or not but yeah. I am really excited about it. We have recently been running through the songs for now and next week we are shooting for the album cover which is pretty exciting.

Who is your inspiration?

Hmm... It’s difficult to pick just one. There are so many! I love this band called Branches. They write some beautiful folk/indie music but I also just adore old school rock and roll like Chuck Berry and The Beatles. I have a variety but I guess they are all my inspirations. 

When did you decide that you wanted to be a musician?

When I was about 8 years old, I went to this festival, I can never remember the name of it but, I remember seeing the Kaiser Chiefs playing and they were amazing as ever and the crowd loved them. I wasn’t tall enough to see them play so my mum lifted me up and placed me on the recycling bin, while holding my hand obviously. I was waving so much at the main singer and suddenly he smiled at me and waved back. I was so happy and from what my mum tells me, I was jumping up and down with excitement. From that point on, I wanted to be that person on stage who made people happy with their music, I wanted to be the person who smiled and waved and made people’s day better.
 
If you were on a desert island, what three things (non-survival) would you bring with you and why?
Oooh... That’s a hard one. I would probably say my computer, a dongle for the internet because my life would be over without it and 'Looking for Alaska' by John Green which is just the best book in the entire world. I could re-read that book a million times and never get bored.

How did you get the idea for the song ‘In your arms’?

Well, I am a huge musical geek and so when I went to see Les Miserables, I fell in love with all of the characters and songs. I cried my eyes out when Eponine died. I loved her so much and the idea of dying in the arms of someone who you love but it is unrequited was so upsetting, but she was also inspirational because she did the right thing to give the guy who she loved the letter from the girl that he was in love with. I decided to sing it coming from her point of view and I still think of this amazing heroine when I sing that song.

Favourite song of all time?

Definitely ‘Try This at Home’ by Frank Turner. I just am in love with his music and it always makes me feel so much better. He is so political with his music and this one is always one that I can dance to in my room at home. All my cares go away when I listen to that song so yeah, definitely Mr Turner’s song.

If you could, what artist would you love to collaborate with? (Dead or alive)

John Lennon, bless him. I wish that I could go back and meet him. I would just love to do a song with that man. That would be the most amazing thing if that were to come true. If I could only choose someone who is alive though... well... I would have to say Brandon Flowers or Laura Marling. They are both too good.

Edited Images

On Thursday I had a photo shoot with my friend Chloe. Due to my artist cancelling on me, I asked her if she would be okay with posing for my magazine and she said yes. I am carrying out my interview with her today and I am also posting my favourite images of the original photos that I took with her on Thursday.
I used the website 'picmonkey' to edit my photographs, this is so I can crop, change the contrast and put nice editing touches onto the image easily before I do my photoshop for my main magazine front cover, double page spread and contents page.
These are 6 photos which I have edited in different ways so I can decide on how I might like the image to be in the final coursework ^_^

This is one of my favourites. I love the editing technique and the actual image. I am thinking of using this one for my front cover.

This is the image that I will use for my contents page, it turned out how I wanted it to in the flat plan so this will be the image that I use.

The original of this (above image) is like the image below as the t-shirt is originally red and yellow, however seen as though my colour scheme is blue and orange so I had to change it, this is what I will do for my final piece.