Final Pieces

Front Cover

To appeal to my target audience, I haven't used any large or complex words. Since my target audience is teenage boys and young adults (early 20s), teenage boys may be put off by complex words they may not understand. Also, I have made key words in the cover lines stand out. For example, the words "Exclusive" and "Best" have been made bold and are in a larger font size than other text. Finally, I have used a colour scheme that uses bright colours, in yellow and red on white and black. The yellow and red text stands out against the white and black backgrounds. The puffs I used have been made circular, originally, they were going to be star shaped, but then with star shaped puffs, a lot of space is wasted as well as it being difficult to have large amounts of text fit in neatly. In my opinion, the way I used them made them look quite unprofessional. The fonts I used throughout the cover were fonts that I thought would be associated with a rock magazine. I made the masthead black to make it stand out from the white background.

Contents Page

I split the contents page text into two columns with pictures in each column. I added a caption and a page number to the pictures used so that the reader knows what page to find the articles. Also, the titles or categories are a different colour than the text to show that it is a title and clearly separates the different sections of the contents. I have also used small descriptions on the articles to let the reader know what the article is about but to also make them want to read on. I wanted the style of the contents page and the double page spread to be quite simplistic and basic so that it didn't look overloaded or messy.




Double Page Spread

The layout of the double page spread may not be a very common layout, but I wanted to have two pictures. I was going to have to pictures collaged next to each other, but then thought that it might look better if I had them on either side of the text. Regarding the fonts, I have used the same fonts as I had on the cover page and the contents page as it is what is usually seen in magazines. This is also the same with the colour scheme with the contents page. I used language that I think my target audience would use with profanity and shorter words like “sweet” and “alright”. Finally, I also used quotes from the interview to break up the text so that it isn’t just one solid block of writing. I have seen it done on other magazine double page spreads I have looked. I made these quotes a different colour and a larger font size than the interview text to make them stand out more.

* Apologies for the poor quality of the pictures, I have tried to make them as clear as possible and have tried many different ways of doing so.

Double Page Spread Progress

I had two different ideas for a double page spread and I was unsure of what idea I wanted to choose. The first idea I had was a concert review from a concert I went to over the holidays. I took some photos and would choose my favourite ones to use in the double page spread. The other idea I had was to have an interview with the star of the cover. Since the cover of my magazine featured an interview with a singer, I thought it would make sense to do the interview as the double page spread.

Concert Review

This is the other idea I had for a double page spread. I thought about using my favourite pictures and using them in a concert review. I made the title larger than the other text on the page to make it stand out, and I also made the review introduction text red. Again, to make the different text stand out. 

Cover Model Interview

This is one idea I had for my double page spread. I chose to have the questions and responses from the interviewer in red text and the singers answers in yellow text. I also made the title and the article introduction/description a larger font size than the questions and answers so that it stands out more as it is more important. There are still a few changes I will make to this cover. For example, I will probably need to retake the photos when I am wearing different clothes as it is very unlikely that a model wears the same clothes throughout a magazine or photo shoot. I feel as if this idea is better than the concert review so I will develop this into the final double page spread.

This is the finished double page spread. I have rearranged the pictures, retaken some pictures and edited the text. I wanted to rearrange the page to try and fit two pictures into each side of the page. I wanted to do this so that the smaller image in the first draft didn't look to out of placed or squashed. I also changed the clothing I was wearing for one of the images as it is very unlikely that a model would wear the same clothes throughout a whole magazine. Finally, I have made some of the text bolder and larger. I did this as I found that the text may have been to hard to read, so hopefully it is easier to read now. Finally, I made some adjustments to the text, I added some quotes to break up the text, changed the masthead so that it wasn't just "Bad Boy Boaty - Exclusive Interview" and made it so that it doesn't directly give away what the interview is, that is put in the article description. I wanted to use profanity in the interview as I think that is the language that my target audience would use.

Contents Page Progress

The left hand picture is a draft I had made. Before this I had all of my text aligned in the middle with pictures scattered around the sides. After looking at my research, I found that the text is usually separated into clear sections with clearly visible divisions and categories. I think the first draft I made is good, but I thought that I could do better and make it so that the text was in two separate columns. So I made the right hand picture. I think the right hand picture turned out better than the first draft. There are clearly two separated sections with a good spread of pictures throughout the contents page. Also, I changed the text colour to make the text stand out from the background, but I will try and keep the same colour scheme throughout the cover, contents page and double page spread. Finally, for the page numbers, I wanted to have the letter P (short for page number) larger than the page number. Then I needed to get the sizes right to make them fit neatly on the page.

Front Cover Progress

This is a Prezi I have made on the progress of my front cover. I have a first draft, a mid-point and the final cover and have analysed all the different parts of the magazine cover and why I have used them.

Draft Front Cover

This is my final draft cover. There isn't much more I think I can add. It is very different to the earlier draft as I needed a way to make everything fit on the page neatly and for different parts of the magazine to stand out. I placed the masthead at the top of the page because, looking at other magazine covers, that is where they are usually placed. This may be because when magazines are lined up on a shelf, the bottom of the magazine is covered up so it would make sense that the masthead is visible at the top. Continuing, also for the masthead, I used a font that I thought went well with a rock magazine. It wasn't a font style that I included in the questionnaire but then the fonts I did include in the questionnaire probably wouldn't have suited a rock magazine. The colour scheme is slightly different to what I had in mind at the start of making my magazine cover. I wanted to use a black and white colour scheme with maybe a little bit of blue as these were the colours suggested by the questionnaire results. But then I realised, it would have been hard to make things stand out by using these colours. Instead I used a red and yellow colour scheme to make the cover lines stand out but still used a kind of black and white colour scheme with the background and the picture. Also, regarding the picture, I chose to stand in a pose that made the model look quite hard and manly, I tried to do this by standing with my arms crossed to show this but it could also come across as me looking like I don't care at all. Finally, for the puff and some of the cover line descriptions. In the puff, I made the words "free" and "special" bold and in some of the cover line descriptions I made the words "best", "exclusive", "latest", "many" and "hot" bold so that they stand out more to the reader.

My First Media Post

Hello and welcome to my first A level media studies blog post. The main task of the project is to make a music magazine cover a contents page and a two page spread for the magazine. Also, the additional work and planning needs to be recorded in a blog, this blog! I am excited and am looking forward to working on this blog. So far, I love media studies and can't wait to get started with this project. In this blog I will talk about the different tasks completed over the course. Some of the parts involved are planning, the main task itself and the evaluation.

Thanks, Luke B