Audience feedback

After completing my magazine I decided to create a group chat where I asked my peers what they thought about my magazine. theses are the comments:

My complete music magazine

Working progress - contents page

For today's lesson i focused on the contents page. i have added an editor review that contains a signature to give the contents page a more professional look. Also, by adding an editors review it will give the reader an idea on what the whole magazine is about in the perspective of  someone who's already read the magazine. furthermore, i added social media icons and links to distribute my magazine onto different media platforms.

front cover

For my front cover i have added a scrap line just below the masthead. a scrap line is a phrase line that the magazine goes by.

CONTENTS PAGE

in this lesson i decided that I wanted to add a editor review. I done this because i wanted to avoid having any empty space and i didn't want to many picture. Also, i have added a few of my location pictures nut i think i may need to take some more because i want some of the photos have a clear visual of the theme of the magazine. For example, i may take a picture of someone playing an instrument which will clearly connote that the magazine is about music.

Quadruple page spread

for my quadruple page spread i have nearly finished my Q&A interview. whilst looking at examples of other magazine double page spreads, I decided to change the layout of my first DPS in that the artists name is more bolder to standout more. Also, although I have placed the introduction paragraph in a placed in a unconventional way but is still appopriate.

Working progress - contents and front cover

Working Progress

For today's lesson i have been working on my front cover and contents page.

Contents Page info

I've written all the info for my contents page

•  Be a winner - a chance to win tickets to the hottest music events and other prizes.
• MOBO awards – full review of the 2016 MOBO Awards.
• Angelic – voice of 2016 – this years IT artist, discuss her past, music and what’s to come.
• Wat’s popping – meet the newest up & coming artist of the year.
• Lady leshur – my music – UK female rapper lady leshur talks about her mixtape “queen speech” and
• 10 top tracks –  a list of this month’s top track.
• For the world to see- we expose this year talented and undiscovered hip hop artists.
• Tink – we talk with Tink about her debut album “winters diary 4” and thoughts on winning the title
• Best colab – best music collaboration chosen by you.
• Westrn – MOBO Awards – Westrn’s reaction on receiving a MOBO award and their thoughts on the recent comments.
• Hip hop music moguls - we have a chat with hip hop icons Snoop Dogg, Jermaine Dupri and Damon Dash about their new show and what it takes to stay on top.
• Old school Hip Hop – where it all started – we take it back to the good old days where hip hop al started.
• The roots to hip hop – get to know your history with 5 new facts on the hip hop culture.
• Who’s on tour – find out your favourite artists next location for their upcoming concerts.

Incomplete magazine

                                               

This an completely unfinished version of my magazine. i will be changing the whole layout of my context page. Also for my DPS i am doing a quadruple page spread which i basically wo double page spreads

My Photo Shoot Expierence

Whilst taking the photo for the shoot i came across a few bad ones as it took us some time getting use to, from getting the right lighting to placing the camera in a position where it only capture the model and back drop. However, as we continued to take more shots the picture developed and i was able to get some good picture that i can use for my magazine.

Through this photo shoot i had to keep in mind the codes and conventions of a typical hip hop artist in which i would present in the photo. this meant taking pictures that gave a more serious mood, that in some way showcased a sort of accessory and uniqueness that showed their individual personality (in this case was the artists style). However, to create a USP i decided to capture moments where the artists was smiling, dancing and having fun. This may create a counter-type in that it goes against the stereotypical idea of Hip Hop artist but it makes the artist seem more approachable.

Photos

Photography Studio Induction

work in progress - front cover

This is my draft for my front cover. Through making this front cover i have had to make a few changes, starting off with the colour scheme. Originally, the colour scheme for my magazine was black, white and red, however, due to the background being grey. This meant that i had to be specific on the shade of red i need to use because i did not want the red to be to bright nor to dark. Furthermore, one thing i could say that i'm struggling with at the moment is the arrangements of the cover lines. 

Work in Progress - Q&A questions

For today lesson are main we focused on the journalism of the magazine for the DPS. we first analysed two different DPS in which we looked at the layout, language and the type of questions/answers that were presented. We then went on to doing a little role play. To do this will had to plan out 10 questions that we would then ask our pair to answer in order to get an idea on how the question maybe answered.

These are the questions i came up with that are based around my artist.

1. My first question to you is, who is Angelic Francis?
2. Is there anything you fans may not know about you that you don’t mind sharing? 
3. Given that you first started your career as a dancer for wildebeest, what was it about dance that you loved?
4. Moving on to your music, I would like to say congratulations for not only making it to no.1 on iTunes but also being voice of 2016. How has this experience been and your thoughts?
5. I have to say “love don’t die” is one of my favorite songs from you album. What was the inspiration or story behind the song?
6. Is there anything or anyone that inspired you musically?
7. With artist like Lady Leshur, Chipmunk and Tink, who are all featured in your album, which one would you say is you favourite person to collaborate with?
8. Who would you like to collaborate with in the near future?
9. From what I see/seen you seem to have a very 80s-90s inspired fashion look. Is that something that has been a big influence on not only your look but your music too?
10. Where do you see yourself in the next 5-10 years?
11. Many people struggle to make it in the music industry and to where you are today.  How did you do it and is there any advice for those trying to achieve what you have achieved already?

Work in progress - DPS

For my DPS i have now decided to do a quadruple page spread. This will create a USP as not alot of magazine do this. The two images show the layout of how this page will be organised from both the position of the images to the text as well as the pull out quotes.

photography call sheet

This is a handout that will be given to everyone who will be involved in the shoot (both models and helpers). This is so they knows what they need to bring and briefly what they will be doing during the shoot.

music magazine flat plan

Pitch

From my class feedback I was able to ask my class mates a question on which masthead name they preferred and a majority thought that 'ruthless' was a good idea. This is because it's meaning behind it suited the hip hop genre, in that it is a type of music where people can express them self and are "ruthless" with what they saying through their lyrics. Also, some people thought that the name 'Artistry' relates more toward art (painting) than music which may confuse my target audience on what type of magazine this actually is. However, for "defro" even though I was inspired by the name a hip hop record label and tried to make it my own by changing the spelling, some people thought it would create more a niche audience because only some people would know the inspiration behind the name whereas others wouldn't and maybe confused on it's meaning.

Overall, through the feedback that was given I know now that the masthead title of my magazine will be "Ruthless".

Media Propsal

MASTHEAD MAKING

MASTHEAD PRACTISE MAKING

Today, we learnt how to create a masthead using illustrator. Firstly, we wrote either the name of our magazines or anything we could think of if we had not already had a masthead name. this was then manipulated using a two techniques.


TECHNIQUE 1

• Using the black mose we created an outline by pressing right click then selecting "create outline". 
• Once that was done, we zoomed in and checked on the corners of the letters where it showed "anchor" in red. 
• Checking on the anchors we moved the corners of the letters to form a new shape for the letter.

 TECHNIQUES 2

• Using the masthead name again, we then replicated the name by checked on it holding "Alt" and dragged it down.
• With the replicated version we placed it on a textured image of our choice.
• Then going on "object" we clicked compound path and then make. this made the outline of the the texture only visible 
• First select the image and text
• Then again clicking on "object" we used clipping mask and selected make. This changed the texture of the masthead.

Magazine Newsstand Task

Magazine Newsstand

This is newsstand in WHSmith. From this image we can see that this is the music magazine section as WHSmith mostly stocks classics and rock magazines such as ‘kerrang’, .Q’ and ‘classic rock’. However, when buying the magazines for my textual analysis I know that WHSmith also sells magazine of a Hip Hop genre like ‘XXL’.

The magazines in WHSmith are organised in sections according to the genre of the magazine. For example, the music magazines are sectioned at the front. These music magazines are also sectioned within themselves depending on the music genre. Furthermore, from the image we can see how the magazines are displayed in a structured order, titles like ‘Q’ magazine which are well known have been provide with their own entire section. This is because these are the magazines that are the most popular in that they bring in the most buyers and so giving them their own section makes them easier for the buyer to spot.

The overall organisations of the magazines are that they overlay each other in rows. They are overplayed in a way where you can see the top right half of the magazine, in other words, you can see the masthead of each type of magazine. The reason they are arranged from left to right is because in the western countries people automatically read from left to right. Therefore, the masthead would be the first thing the reader would notice. Also, for magazine that are not well known (low readership) tend to showcase the full front cover of the cover star. This may draw in the customers as even though they may not be familiar with the magazine, they may recognise the cover star, giving them a reason to buy it.

Magazine Distribution

Evaluation Presentation

College Magazine Evaluation

College magazine evaluation

For my evaluation I will be doing a brief analysis of my college magazine. This will contain both my view and those of my class mates on what went well, what didn’t go so well and the improvement I could have made to make my magazine better.

The reason we done a college magazine is so that we could get an idea on how it will be when making our music magazine. This practice allowed us to develop our skills when using Photoshop and InDesign as well as take in the feedback that we gave each other to make improvements  when making our music magazine so it can be better.

What went well?

For my college magazine I used a colour scheme of black, blue and white. This is because I wanted it to go with the actual school logo colours in order for it to be recognisable for not only the school logo but for its trademark colours. This was a success as many people thought that the colour scheme was nice. One person commented that “the colours suited the college theme” because they were not too bright and colourful, giving the magazine a professional look. In addition, I think that even though the colours black and white are very simple colours, the blue gives the magazine a playful feel which relates to the students who would read the magazine as they are young and full of life.

Another thing that went well on my magazine was the focal image. The denotation of a student smiling is a typical convention for a college magazine. This is because it shows a positive view of the school and gives an impression that the student/students are enjoying their college life. Also, the use of natural lighting (which is not usually used in a college magazine) makes the magazine look more realistic. This to me makes the image look more believable to the reader and so they will think less of it being staged.

Lastly, for my college magazine people thought that the layout of my context pages was really well done. This is because for the page numbers, subheadings and brief descriptions I organised them by colour and font size. This is so they can all standout from each other making it easier for the reader to search for what they are looking for quicker.  Also, the layout of the context page overall went well because I think even though there was quite a lot of text, there’s was not too much to make it look confusing to the reader.

My peers also thought that the mode of address (direct) was a success because the student is looking directly at the camera. This helps catch the reader’s attention as it seems as the student in the photo is looking directly at them. This also to me creates a connection between the image of the student and the reader because they say “when someone smiles at you, you can’t help to smile back” which is true.

What didn’t go well?

With my front cover some of the cover lines like would fade into the background image making it unreadable. This is because the some of the text was either too thin or the colour was not bold enough for it to stand out from the background colours. This is something I would have to look out for when making my music magazine so that they text on the font cover is clear and bold either for the reader to see.

The magazine logo I thought was a bit too big for the magazine that it made the word “success” standout from the rest on the masthead, especially since it was the only part in blue. This was said to be a bit confusing because people were not sure whether “success” was the title or it was just part of the logo. Also, because there was no background colour for the masthead of the magazine it did not standout enough from the other text that was featured on the magazine for people to clearly identify the name of the magazine. Furthermore, the fact that I didn’t use a plain background when taking the  image used on the front cover, it made my magazine look a bit busy and unprofessional. It is also the reason why some of the text didn’t standout.  

I think the images I put for my contexts page where not that good. This is because even though I used pictures of the school and students, I didn’t think they linked with the information provided on the contents page. This makes it hard for the reader to have an idea on what certain subjects, events or activities etc. are like visually. Also, the lack of images makes the writing look as it there is too which could disinterest the reader because people tend to look over things that look as if there is a lot of text to read.

Improvements

To improve this magazine I would….

• add a page number on the contents page.
• Give the main image on the front cover a plain background to avoid the cover line and masthead from blending in.
• Use bolder shade of blue so the text stands out enough for the reader to clearly see it.
• Make an invisible board line so everything is centered and to avoid the cover lines and masthead from leaking to the ends of the page if my magazine was to be printed on a physical hard copy.
• Use better images on the contents page that relate to the information.
•  For the masthead I would add a white background to make it standout more.

My college magazine (front cover and contents page)

College magazine plan

Practise magazine excersize

Today i have learnt how to use Photoshop to create this magazine. First, i learnt how to increase the size of the image without it losing its equal position. This was done by pressing the "shift" and dragging one corner of the image to make it bigger. Another thing i learnt was how to make the masthead look as if it is behind the artist. I done this by zooming into the page and then used the rubber tool to erase parts of the masthead that was placed in front of the artist.

Textual analysis for XXL and RWD magazine

Flat plan for college magazine

COLLEGE MAGAZINE EXAMPLE

tThis college magazine contains the main conventions like a masthead, barcode, coverlines and a focal image. Also, the magazine consists of three colours - blue, black and gold. These colour are very simplistic, giving off a professional appeal. However, the difference between a college magazine and a conventional magazine is that the student that is featured in it is presented as happy and studious. This is to help promote the idea that school is good and can be enjoyable. Furthermore, coverlines are all to do with education and situation that you might get into when iN college. This suggests the magazine is more about educating and informing.

Magazine brief analysis

• Reggae artist Nature
• The use of the colours red and yellow connotes  it was influenced by the caribbean colours which are red, green, black and yellow.
• Masthead is not covered connoting it may not be as well established
• 
  
• The contents has be located on the top left of the bag and is quite smaller then a usual one. this makes it less noticeable which could suggest that they want more people to actually read the whole magazine in order for the reade to get to know more about the magazine
• The font colours of the contents page is in two shades of grey dark and light. this connotes that maybe the dark grey text is the main features of the magazine and more important parts.
•  The only iconography is the actually front cover.
• The double spread is a biography of the artist. this connotes that the artist is not well known and the double page spread is a way for the reader to get to know the artist to have an understanding.

class analysis of Usher in "Vibe" magazine

• Mid-long shot (MLS)
• The denotation of the airplane and usher wearing a pilot connotes it might be related to the film "topcoat".
• masculine look
• His ray band glasses and rolex connotes he has money
• how he looks is a contrast between what he is (musician)
• high key lighting
• colour scheme: black, yellow and khaki.
• even though he is not conventionally dressed as a RnB, the expensive accessories connote the genre which is RnB.
• Masthead "vibe" conventions to place usher (the satar) in front of the letter 'b', this tells us that the magazine is well established because people will immediately recognise it even though the masthead my be covered.

• Plus sign (+) is a puff to say there is more.
• skyline- name of the artists featured in the magazine
• there is a QR code and barcode 
• usher is using lower case to reinforce his brand whereas 's' and 'b' are capitalised in the name soulja boy.

WHAT IS RnB?

WHAT IS RNB? 

RnB originally stands for rhythm and blues, however, the genre of music i will be looking into is contemporary RnB (new version) which has combined elements of soul, RnB, hip hop and dance. In the beginning RnB was solely about guitar sounds and deep vocalising.  It was known as an African - American sound that evolved  from Jazz And blues. During the 1940s it became very popular because of its dance ability.                                                   Today, RnB is still popular for it dance abilities but it has become a mainstream genre of music that everyone listens to makes from slow jams to funky upbeat ones. It different style has allowed artists like Chris Brown, Beyoncé  and others to create one of the most legendary songs of all times.

Production schedule

Introduction

My name is Jordanah Mbabazi and I will be studying AS Media. In secondary school i studied media and is the reason i will be continue with it this year. This is because i found it is something that allowed me to express my creativity within designing things like DVD covers, tour posters and making a film trailer. Also, i very interested in photography which will be a main aspect in this course.

finished magazine

Incomplete induction article