Ruby Rhodes AS Media Studies Blog

Looking back at your preliminary task (the school magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

PHOTOS:
I set specific days for both tasks for when I wanted to get the photos. With the school magazine, I was able to take the photos within lesson time, lunch or after school. I found this an easier set of photos to take as I knew that I needed to feature photos of students in the natural school environment therefore it was an easier set up rather than with my music magazine (where the photos would have to be taken in free time). To send out a good message of the school I had to ensure that my model looked smart (especially with their costume) rather than scruffy. The costume was easy to create as the model could just wear what they wore to school that day, I didn't really have a choice to what they wore. When I went into the prelim task I had not given much thought into the setting, the pose of the model and the overall look I was aiming for. I feel that from the preliminary task that I have learnt to not rush the process of taking the photos as the perfect one will come along eventually even if it means changing settings if one wasn't as suitable. This happened when I wanted to take a photo outside however the sunlight was reflecting on the models therefore leading me to taking my photos inside (for example the cover photo is situated in the library). Another issue with taking a photo with outside meant that the location could not be clear that it was a school (therefore questioning the intentions of the magazine) therefore I decided to add a prop of a book. The book connotes a school environment as eager students are learning. I was impressed and happy with the photos for my preliminary task especially because they were taken with a camera phone (iPhone 4S which has 8 megapixels). My preliminary task was the main basis of my work on Abode Photoshop, I was only introduced to this software a few weeks before where I had time to play around with the different tools and I learnt to do things such as changing the eye colour and covering blemishes. A particular skill of which I learnt and then used in my preliminary task was how I took my front cover photo in colour but then changed it to black and white then using Photoshop I was able to make the model in colour so that they stood out and looked dominant. Whilst getting to grips with Photoshop I knew that I had to try and understand all the features fairly quickly as I didn't want to spend too much time on my preliminary task as I was eager to see the finished product and then start my main task. With the prelim task photos I barely touched the photos, I just played around with simple features such as the brightness and contrast.

My music magazine photo planning took much more effort when I was choosing how to arrange my photos. From the research that I done I found that the photos are stylised, shot in a studio setting with conventional poses and and costumes which I investigated. With my music magazine it was harder to set a date with my models and to find a suitable setting which would constitute all the features I was after; these included basics such as good lighting and a plain background. The setting was found to be commonly a plain background, I found this out from the research stage of the existing media. This meant that my preliminary task background would be more exciting than the music magazine. With this photo I knew that I needed to have an idea to what I was looking for instead of just going straight into taking photos and hoping for the best. I was able to get an idea from following the conventions of a pop magazine; I found this out during the research stage where I compared the different looks and poses from different genres of music so that I could make sure that my magazine would fit in. I gave myself a suitable amount of time in which to complete the research and planning process therefore I would have enough time to complete my product to a reasonable standard. The research and planning defiantly had a huge impact of my understanding of how magazines have their photos and layouts organised. Another thing I learnt from my research was the costume; I took notes on the style as well as making sure that the outfits weren't skimpy and raunchy of which would make them inappropriate for my target market as I didn't want to give them the idea that they should aspire to be like that. I knew that I had to get an amazing photo for the cover and double page spread; I feel that my photos were pretty average this is partly due to the fact of my photography skills being poor as I know nothing about it and didn't use the camera to its full potential.

Key features which I learnt from the preliminary task:
TECHNOLOGY:
How to use Photoshop (this was an important stage) with all the layers required to create the various cover lines etc. I developed my skills and understanding of the software which led to my music magazine looking more professional. As my understanding with the software grew I went through the process of trial and error to see what looks good and coordinates with conventions, an example of this would be finding a font of which fitted my genre.

IMPORTANT FEATURES:
With my preliminary task I successfully created house style by the yellow and blue colour scheme of which comes from the Wilmington badge. This was used continuously on my cover and onto the contents. However, I feel that this colour scheme was boring and repetitive, a larger variety of colours may have been a better idea. Despite this, the colour co-ordination goes well with only black, yellow and blue being used, an improvement could be adding something which is white. The layout of my cover is simple, but squashed. The way in which I positioned the text was poor; all the cover lines are cramped into the bottom half of the page making them look like one big paragraph. Whilst writing this text I wasn't taking any notice of the spacial awareness that I should've had because originally I had the title being enormous if it was printed out on paper. I have a large amount of white space on the top half of the page which makes it look empty; a look of sophistication can be achieved via white space however the positioning of the text has disallowed this. In order to improve this I feel that I should've added a couple more cover lines and spread them out across the whole page. This means that I would have to get the balance of it looking full of content but not too busy and messy. Whilst creating my music magazine I took into account this problem and tried to avoid it from happening again. An error of which I made was by using only two different fonts on the cover of which made it look boring; most magazines consist of around 6 different fonts as this number allows variety but yet not looking too different i.e. not including an elegant font then having a crazy chaotic font underneath. By having the fonts that I did use as sans serif, it made them clear and easy to read.

I achieved house style by using white, pink, black and yellow mostly. I used these colours throughout the three pages of my magazine. These colours compliment eachother as a combination of these colours are widely used e.g. pink and white, pink and black, black and yellow. House style was one of my main challenges of which I knew had to be overcome otherwise the work would not correspond and work simultaneously. I kept the house style theme simple by having it just as the colours used instead of using fonts or design elements to create it. The layout of the cover was something of which I struggled with majorly as it led me to having to recreate the look of my cover as the current one was not working. For my final cover I feel that the line which advertises 'Shona' is more bold and stands out more than the previous one did. My aim was for the cover to be symmetrical and have an ordered feel rather than a messy one of which would look childish, I feel that I have successfully managed to do so. I am happy with the overall layout of the contents as it looks neat and is easy to navigate, however I am unhappy with the amount of white space that there is. A reason for the amount of white space is that when I experimented by adding more content it looked out of place therefore I thought it would be best just to leave it. I felt by using the same colours for the different sections would make the reader recognise features of the magazine i.e. the page numbers are all in one colour. By positioning 'Downloading content' at the top of the page it meant that it dominated the page due to its size so that it would be clear to the reader what page it actually was. The last piece of the magazine that I created was the double page spread, this is my favourite page as I feel content with the layout, I feel that I have made a good use of space especially where I had room at the end of the article. At this point I had to decide whether or not I should either add to the article by asking a couple more questions or if I should do a quick fire questions section. I decided with the quick fire questions because I felt that they were more fun and quicker to read rather than more of an essay based Q&A. I really like the text positioning of the title on this page; an issue a faced was whether or not it should extend onto the second page. In the end, after trying it, I decided against it because it looked too spaced out so when I made the font bigger it took too much room. Also I had to position it so that none of the text was affected by the bend on the page.

IMPORTANCE OF DRAFTING:
With my preliminary task despite me drafting (see below) I didn't follow the draft as well as I should have as my cover ended up with all the cover lines pushed and squashed at the bottom of the page. I changed certain aspects such as the title of the magazine because 'Sixth Form Insider' was too long therefore it would have to be in a small font in order to fit onto the page.

When planning the layout for my music magazine I knew that I had to take many aspects into consideration. Therefore, to make sure that I could have all these aspects in place such as the punchy cover lines and the design elements I had to make more than one draft so if one idea didn't work out then I had another one to fall back on. In the end I did resort to doing another plan after I had created most of my product, I done this because I felt that the layout did not look right and wasn't suitable. In addition, I also drafted my double page spread article a few times so that I could fix it so that it did sound like a real character. Problems I came across were that it was slightly too informal, I also had to improve my introduction and create a more concluding conclusion.

DECISIONS:
Magazine title - after coming up with a variety of names which I felt fitted in well with the pop genre, I took to doing my own research by asking members of my target audience their favorite title.This enabled me to get a title of which fitted their tastes so that they would buy it.
Photos - when taking photos I had to see if I should use a tripod or free hand; I was able to use one in the prelim but not in music as I don't have one at home. A tripod is arguably better as it enables the photo to be clear and still which avoids any risks of blurs. However, I done all my photos freehand and I am happy with the outcome of them.
Costume - I had to find a costume of which was suitable for the pop genre, but one that enabled the balance being not too dressy but not too casual.
Timing - I wasn't sure of how long each page from my music magazine would take therefore I didn't want to start too late so that I wouldn't finish; for this reason I knew I had to conduct thorough research at a relatively fast pace. By using my preliminary task timings as a guideline I knew how much time it would roughly take me, however I had to take into account that the preliminary task was worth 0 marks whereas my music product was worth 60. As the music magazine also included another page (double page spread) I knew that I would have to allow myself more time. To my surprise, the DPS didn't take that long to construct after I had the final draft and the image cut out.

The lad mags magazines and music magazine industry have their circulation figures dropping at a rapid pace year on year. The music magazine industry is a tough place to be due to the proliferation of titles (this one of the reasons to why lads mags began to close) with so many similar titles offering the same content. Also in the digital era, it is free to go on the internet to find the information offered by magazines such as tour dates.

With Q magazine (published by Bauer Media Group), it is now currently the worst performer in the industry with 20% sales decline each year. This personally puts me off going with this publisher because if a well known magazine is failing, it makes me worry to how successful my magazine will be with getting off the ground. Despite this one magazine dropping in figures, other magazines of which are produced by Bauer such as Kerrang! has a steady downfall rate of 4%, this is worrying but with all the technology at peoples fingertips it's to be expected. The fact that another Bauer published magazine MoJo is doing fair better with only losing 2.4% off their circulation figures gives me the idea that this magazine has something about it that keeps readers interested; this may be the content or the style/genre of music it offers.

Within IPC Media, NME is also suffering heavy losses with its circulation figures being down 13% year on year. This brings wonder to why Loaded would be planning to launch a new weekly women's title in 2013. Their justification to the matter is that it will not have the content of which causes the proliferation of titles. It also argues that it fits the gap in the market by offering content which isn't similar to Heat (celeb obsessed), an iPhone version and by having its target audience being 18-25 year olds. This magazine gives me confidence that my music magazine could be launched successfully.