To the moderator,

 

Thank you for taking your time to read my AS Media Studies blog, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I have creating it. I have learnt a lot throughout the process of creating my final pieces such as, how to use different software and be able to make my work look professional. I have also learnt how the use of different photos and font help to attracted a targeted audience.

Enjoy! 

Reah Norris

Main Task

 

 Media Evaluation

 

 

Main Task

 

My final magazine pages:

 

 

 

 

Main Task

Now that I have finished completing my magazine pages I now need to start thinking of the type of media institution that I want to distribute my media product with. My choices are between:

 

Bauer publishing

Bauer is the largest privately owned publisher in Europe, publishing in Germany, France, Spain, Portugal and the UK. Additionally, Bauer publishes in the USA and Mexico.

The Bauer publishing group has grown from its humble beginnings as a printing house into a worldwide publishing empire comprising 238 magazines worldwide in 15 countries, as well as TV and radio studios.

At the beginning of 2008, Bauer expanded its portfolio further by acquiring emap’s radio and consumer magazines divisions and changed the name of these new UK businesses to Bauer radio and Bauer consumer media.

With the recent addition of the former emap consumer media titles, Bauer is now the largest consumer magazine publishing company in the UK, playing a primary role in the woman’s weekly’s, women interests, women’s lifestyle, TV listings, puzzles, men’s lifestyle, music, films and specialist magazine market.

 

Current titles in music:

• Empire 
• Kerrang
• Mojo
• Q
• smash hits       
• The box
• 4 music
• Magic
• Heat
• Kiss

It has a loyal base and covers a variety on genres of music.

IPC media

IPC Medias portfolio reaches over 70% of UK women and 50% men-over 28 million UK adults.

IPC is owned by time Inc the publishing division of time Warner, the world largest media organisation. The business is split into five distant publishing divisions. IPC connect, inspire, lqnite, Southbank and TX. Alongside these is market force, the UK’s leading magazine distribution business.

Digital properties include NME.com the third largest commercial music website in the UK and housetohome.co.uk, the UK’s first homes portal.IPC boasts its brands are very simply at the heart of the UK’s cultural life.

NME has built on its heritage and credibility to become a truly unique multi-platform media proposition across the magazine. NME TV, NME radio and the bands live events and awards, NME reaches over 1 million music fans every week.

Uncut is the most authorities music and movie magazine every month it celebrates all that is great in rock and film, both new and old, cult and classic.

There website is more businesslike, sophisticated and formal than what Bauer’s is.

IPC focuses on:

· Chat

· Home

· Horse

· Look

· NME

· Now

· Teen now

· Uncut

· Woman

· Pick me up

Known for indie music, celeb fashion and women’s magazines.

From looking at this I have decided that the publishing company that I am going to publish my magazine with is going to be IPC. This is because they reach over 70% of the UK’s women which would suit me as my audience is aimed at female readers. IPC also focus on women’s magazines that contain gossip and fashion which is what ‘GLOSS’ also focuses on. The main reason that I chose IPC is because they currently focus on indie music so if I was to add my pop music magazine into the mix my magazine would stand out amongst the over’s which could be a good thing as it would attract people to it.

Main Task

As you can see from the screen shots below I uploaded all of my polaroid photos onto Photoshop and also the photo that I took of the positioning that I wanted my photos to be in so that I could copy them and get them postitioned how I originally planned. Once I got them in the order that I liked I deleted my plan and then continued with the rest of my double page spread.

Main Task

 

 

When comparing my final design to my draft you can see that I have followed it near enough the whole way through. The only changes that I made was that I added a red bar at the bottom of the page that has the magazines website and page numbers on. I also added in a quote in the centre of the first page of the double page spread as I had seen it in a number of professional magazines and I thought that it looked effective and helped to attract the readers into reading the whole double page spread.

Main Task

 

I have now finished creating my double page spread using Photoshop as you can see below.

 

 

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While I was starting to create my double page spread on photo shop I struggled to lay my photos out as if they had just been scattered across the page as I was making them look too organised and neat. So to help me I printed of the Polaroid photos that I am going to use on my double page spread and scattered them across a page roughly so that I could copy the unprepared but effective look onto my computer version.

Main Task

Now that I know what layout I like and the photos that I am going to be using I have started to plan some of the interview questions and answers with my made up artist Lalana:

 

 

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Outcome of the polaroid webiste:

Above are some of the final photos that I am going to be using on my double page spread. These photos have an added red tint to them which I personally think makes them look more interesting than just being black and white and also gives them a more of a unique affect. Although I knew that I like the added red tint I still experimented with an added black tint to make sure that I didn’t like it better and it turn out that I didn’t. Below I have posted a screen shot of the rough experimenting I done on paint.

 

Main Task

I have taken a screen shot from Google images to show the style of photos that I am aiming to achieve:

In order to get this style I have done some research and found a website that allows you to transform modern photos into polaroid styled photos. Here is a screen shot of the research and the website that I have found:

 

 

 

 

Main Task

As I like my the idea that I have previously discussed I have continued to work on it to make it look better and improve my idea. I chose some photos from the photo shoot that I did previously:

 

Chosen photos:

 

I have edited them so that they are in black and white so that they also have the old fashioned look as I am planning on giving them the polaroid effect later on.

 

Evidence:

Below I have posted some pictures to show that I have edited these pictures and what apps that I used to do so...

 

Apps used:

 

 

Main Task

Below I have posted a picture that I made on paint of the new idea that I have come up with for my double page spread. It isn't very neat as I have only roughly jotted down my idea.

Although this illustration isn’t very clear it is meant to show that using the photos that I have already taken of 'Lalana' I thought that I could edit them so that they looked like they were taken on a Polaroid camera and shattered over 3 quarters of one of the pages so that they look like they have just been dropped rather than neatly positioned. I am more satisfied with this idea as it is my own and I have never seen a double page spread with this look before.

Main Task

 

Potential ideas so far for my double page spread in rough form:

 

Once I created my potential double page spreads I realised that I could make it look more professional and original if I came up with another idea that was my own and not influenced by any other magazine that I’ve ever seen. So I then went on to changing my idea once again.

 

Main Task

I then went on to changing the 'hue' of the photos so that it made them have more of an Andy Warhol influenced affect on them.

 

Andy Warhol's work:

 

My work:

 

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Here are the photos that I edited and changed the hair colour's and then placed in the collage position like the Q magazine's double page spread that I have seen before.

 

Here is the evidence of me experimenting with this app:

 

 

 

 

Main Task

Process that I went through changing hair colours:

First of all I heard of an app that you could get on Iphones that changes hair colours, so I downloaded it and had a play around with it.

The app:

 

I first experimented with a photo that I took of myself so that I could figue out how to work it and I did manage to change my blonde hair into pink and purple:

 

 

But I then faced problems when I tried to change 'Lalana's' hair colour on this app as her hair was to dark for the bright colours to show up, so I had to download a different app that worked better with her hair colour but didnt look as realistic.

The app:

 

 

 

 

Main Task

 I thought about the collage of photos further and I started to play around and put some of my own photos together to try and create my own version of this.

When doing this I thought of the pop artist- Andy Warhol as he collages some of his art work in this way and he also uses bright colours which is something that I said I liked previously on my blog.

If you remember back to the start of my main task work, I said that female artists usually tend to have brightly coloured and unusual styled hair and this is something that I said interested me and maybe something that I would consider. On my next blog you will be able to see me taking the brightly coloured hair into consideration.

 

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Main Task

Now that I have created my front cover and the contents page for my music magazine, I now need to start the prep work leading up to my double page spread.

I have already decided that my double page spread is going to be based on my made up artist 'Lanana' and that it is going to be a 'Get to know' interview asking the artist lots of interesting questions that the readers will wont to know about her.

I have done some research any way just to get an even clearer idea of what a double page spread is expected to look like.

Below I have posted some photo's that I have taken of some of the double page spreads that I found in Q magazine.

I like this double page spread above as they have asked similar questions to Dappy that I wanted to ask in my interview on my double page spread so I could use this example to help me.

I also liked this double page spread as I liked the idea of having a collage of four photos on one page as it looks professional and a bit different compared to your typical one picture per page.

For example...

 

 

Main Task

I decided to add a scan code to my magazine as I had seen them on a number of different magazines and I thought it was very effective for me as a reader. As I found it effective as a reader I thought it would be good on my mgazine and have the same affect for my readers as it will give them a chance to get more involved in my magazine and shows that I was thinking about other medias within my magazine.

Below I have posted some pictures that I have taken myself from professional magazines of scan codes:

Main Task

I have made a few improvements to my contents page as I thought that I could make it even more effective for my readers. Below I have posted a picture of my final draft of my contents page that has had the final touches to it.

 

As you can see I have added a red bar at the bottom of the page so that I could add the magazines website and the page number of the contents. I have also added a scan code so that it helps the readers to get more involved with the magazine.

 

Main Task

 

Above I have posted a picture of both my draft copy and my final contents page. As you can see I didn’t change much when I came to creating my contents page as I wasn’t faced with a lot of issues. The only thing that I added onto my contents page was the coloured boxes behind two of my cover story photos so that they stood out more against the main photo and also created more of a house style as they are the same colours as I have used on my front cover of my music magazine.

Main Task

 Below I have posted a picture of my final contents page that I created on photo shop:

 

Below I have posted some screen shots that I have taken throughout the process of making my contents page..

The photo above shows that I used the magnetic tool on photo shop to cut the girls out from the background so that I could  then place them onto a plain background as it will make it look more professional.

 

This photo is evidence that I edited the colours and brighness of my photo on photo shop.

This screen shot shows me again cutting the model out from the background on photo shop so that I can place her onto my contents page as just the single image without any background.

Then finally this is the last screen shot that I took to prove that I made my contents page using photo shop.

Main Task

The last thing that I need to do before I start to make my contents page is to take the photos that are going to be on it.

Below I have posted my Prezi to show these photos that I have taken:

Now that I have the font, colours, layout and photos planned for my contents page my next step is to start creating it on Photoshop

Main Task

 

Now that I have an idea of the type of contents page I am aiming to create, I created quick draft on Microsoft word so that I could plan how many photos I will need to take and where I will need to place them.

 

 

I have used the same three made up artists as I have mentioned on my front cover which are 'Lalana, James Sharp and Rhythmix's' to be featured on my contents page as they are going to be the main stories inside my magazine.

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Below I have posted a screen shot of a diagram I made on Microsoft word showing all of the colours and fonts that I used on the front cover of my magazine. This is so that when I come to making my contents page and double page spread I will be able to use the same colours and fonts to help create a house style throughout.

 

Main Task

After creating my previous Prezi I have decided that my favourite layout for a contents page is both NME and Kerrang's:

These two are my favourite and the contents pages that I am going to use to help influence my work because I like the layout and how clear they are to follow. Most other contents pages have one large image and then really small images around it, but these two have one larger image surrounded by a few other large images that are only a little smaller which makes them easier to look at and to see detail. I also like that they both have large page numbers next to each image so the reader can be easily lead to the story that they have the most interest in.