Finished Pulse Magazine

Dear moderator,

My name is Sophie Harten, and my candidate number is 8215.

I have completed my Front cover, Contents page, Double page spread and Evaluation for Pulse magazine and I have comepleted my Pliminary task of a school magazine.

I have moved these all to the top of my blog so you can see them easily, hope you enjoy marking my work :)

Pulse Evaluation

Here is my evaluation which i have used prezzi to present it on


http://prezi.com/pubvc1876yfm/edit/?auth_key=hz8hs4d&follow=h-qxjs5esokh

Final Front Cover

This is my final page for my magazine.

I decided to use the colours black, grey, red and white throughout my magazine and I felt by using the red it really stood out.
I made sure that the name of my magazine was in white and bold at the top so that it stood out to the consumers. I also put 'Dynamite' in red underneath and in italics so that it was different from the other normal text as it was the main focus to this magazine. I put 'The Sexy Issue' at the bottom by the barcode because I thought this was appropriate as the girls commented in the interview that they were on a 'sexy photo-shoot'.
I only had one image for my front cover as i thought this was better as you could see who the main focus to the magazine would be. Also the magazine i had been looking at only had one image.

I also made sure that i included the issue numer, price and date as this is information that customers need to know.


 

Final Double Page Spread

This is my final double page spread.
I decided to do my interview as quetions and answers as I thought this was better way to interview a celebrity. Also imterviews i had looked up were all question and answer based.
I kept to my colour scheme grey, black and red. However i decided not to use white as it didn't stand out as well which may give the reader difficulty when reading. I included 3 images of the girls. One of each of them on their own and one together. Although I didnt use same background as i did for my front cover and contents page i can tell that this double page spread is from Pulse.

Final Contents Page

I have now finished putting my contents page together.

I decided to have my contents page under the subheadings Features, Fashion and & More. I thought this was more appropriate as it meant that the reader was able to look at that specific category to find what they were looking for.

I only put one image on my contents page as I didn't want it to be too crowded and I thought it was more effective this way. The magazine that i had looked at to help with my music magazine only had one image also.

 

 

Front cover of prospectus

This is my school prospectus for my preliminary task. This is aimed at pupils who are looking to continue on their studies at this school. This school prospectus will help parents and the children have a better knowledge of what the sixth form has to offer for them.

Final contents page

This was my final design for my contents page. I decided to change the content listing so that they were all in line with other so that this way it looked professional. I made sure that topics were all coloured red so that it clearly indicated where each new category started. The stories that are beneath the headings are all related to what the headings are about. I thought this was a good idea as then it would be easier for customers to find what they are looking for easily.
My teacher suggested to me to change the colour of the main story which is my double page spread so to do this i ensured that i changed it to white and also made it larger so that it stood out even more to the consumer.
The image of the girl worked well for my contents page i thought as it has her looking towards the features of the contents page. I decided to do a long shot as i wanted to get in my models outfit in to also show the fashion side to the magazine.
I also made sure that the page number and the name of the magazine was included next to one another so that it clearly showed that magazine.

Second contents page design

This was my second design for my contents page and is what i intend on sticking with for my final contents page. When i spoke to my teacher about this contents page she told me to change celebrity stories to Features and then to make "Dynamite Interview" bigger as this is the main story that will be featuring in my magazine.
My teacher had seen my original contents page she helped me to make the decisions that I needed in order to make my magazine look professional. I changed my image to a different girl as I had included the main girls throughout.
I also put the pages that would be included in my magazine into the categories Celebrity Stories, Fashion and & More. I thought this broke the contents up a bit and also it would make it easier for the consumer to find what they were looking for when they are reading my magazine.
My teacher also reminded me to put the page numbers on the magazine with the name of the magazine next to it which i included on the contents and my double page spread. I think the colour that i used worked really well with the background as it stood out so that it would be easy for consumers to read. I also changed the amount of pages I had in my magazine and went up to 41. Although i didn't include every single page that would be included i focused on the main ones that would attract customers to buy the magazine to find out more.

New contents picture

I spoke to my media teacher and she said that it was worth me changing my contents page so I took a picture of a girl from my dance school outside. I decided to use her as i had used Hannah and Chloe throughout my magazine and it was better to show that i was using variety.
Miss also said to me that my original picture may be a bit risky so i thought this was more appropriate for my contents page.
I thought this picture was good as it shows the girl has good fashion sense and this also applys to my magazine as i intend on having a fashion section.

First contents deisgn

This is my original contents page and I got my inspiration from the VIBE magazine. This was my first attempt at my contents page and my teacher liked it although it could be a bit risky for the audience that I am targeting at and it was also the same girl that featured throughout the magazine so when i redone my magazine i made sure that i included a different girl so that it was more of a variety. She also commented on how i needed to allign the text so that it had more of a flow to it and also the "chance to win £50 voucher.." how it was randomly placed on the page. With these comments it helped me to get a better idea on what my magazine should be like.

Finished front cover

This is my finished front cover. I made sure that I included a barcode so that it looked professional and also every product must have a barcode so that it can be purchased by customers. I also made sure that I put celebrities names on the front about what stories they will be in e.g. Chris Brown, Rihanna, Drake and Usher. I added 'The sexy issue' as this is what was on one of VIBE magazines and i thought it was appropriate for my magazine as i had two pretty girls on my front cover and also on the double page spread there are two images of the girls on their 'sexy' photo-shoot.
I liked the girls outfits in this image as it nicer that they aren't in the same outfit this time and shows variation. It looks very natural as the other images are all posed specifically to how I wanted them to be.
The background is black graduated down to grey which is the same as my contents page which shows consistency through my magazine. I didnt keep it the same on my double page spread as when you go through magazines they background to pages usually change whereas front covers and contents pages are generally the same kind of design.

Barcode

When creating my front cover i realised that i would need a barcode as every product needs one and it is a products individual number. I got this image from Google and had it placed in the bottom left of my front cover. If i wasn't to have this it would make my magazine seem unprofessional.

Finished double page spread

This is my finished double page spread for my music magazine. I thought my finished music magazine was a success.
The questions I included in my interview were:
"So girls, when are you thinking of doing your next tour?"
"What is your next album called?"
"How was the sexy photo-shoot?"
"Any celebrity crushes?"
"Who would you most like to collaborate with?"
and "Do you get nervous before performing".
I looked up interviews with other singers to get ideas of what questions I should include within my interview and the ones that I chose were the most popular with all the magazines.
When including my questions in i made sure that i put the questions in red so that you could clearly see where they are. Where the girls are answering the questions i put their names in bold so that it was more defined and stood out to the reader.
I included two images that were from the girls on their 'sexy photo-shoot' and as this magazine is aimed at young adults to late 20 year olds this could be seen as a selling point by having attractive girls in the magazine. The other image was of the two girls of the walking with their jackets over their shoulders, I really like this image as it is something different to the others. On one of the images I chose to put a caption from part of the interview i got this idea from VIBE magazine and i have also seen it being done in other magazines.

Starting double page spread

This is my double page spread where I interviewed Dynamite the band. I included the picture of the girls walking with the coats over their shoulders in the bottom center of the page so that it broke the writing up in the page a bit. I included the questions "when are you thinking of touring again", "what is your next album called?" "how was the sexy photoshoot" and "any celebrity crushes then". I am only half way through my double page spread I will include more questions. I will add more images into the centre of the page so that it doesn't look all text based.

Questions for my double page spread

So girls, when are you thinking of doing your next tour?
Hannah: We are just finishing off our last album at the moment and then we will be announcing the tour dates at the end of June.
Chloe: We’ve got our last two songs to record and the album will be out on the 31^st April.

What is your next album called?

Chloe: We decided to call our next album ‘fierce’ as this is what we describe ourselves as... haha! It was so much fun doing this album as it was different to our first album ‘obsessed’ as fierce is more upbeat and also more meaningful to us as a band. It will be ready to download on itunes on the 31^st April which will be exciting to hear what others think.

How was the sexy photo-shoot?

Hannah: The sexy photo-shoot was the best thing we had done together as band so far and we did want our first sexy photo-shoot together! We loved all the posing on our own and together it was really different to all our other photo-shoots as we were told what to do and were put in fixed positions. But with this, it was more fun and our own individual input rather than being told which we enjoyed more.

Any celebrity crushes then girls?

Chloe: haha, well we do think Justin Bieber is soo cute! But other than that my celebrity crush will always be Usher as I’ve always liked him since I was little.
Hannah: Yeah, we do love Justin Bieber but I would have to say my celebrity crush would be Bruno Mars, he’s soo small and cute, but he’s lovely.

Who would you most like to collaborate with?

Hannah: one hundred percent Beyonce or Rihanna as I think they are so inspiring and amazing singers! Although we would love to collaborate with Justin Bieber and do a slow love song haha! Oops my soft side for Justin is coming out.

Analysis of my photo's

This is the image that i want to use for my contents page as this is something i looked into when i was looking at genre's to choose. The reason i took this photo was because this is what VIBE's contents page is like the girl is situated in the bottom left and then the listing of what is in the magazine is on the right hand side. I thought this image worked well as it was exactly how i wanted it ot be and was exactly like the VIBE magazine which is what i wanted and i will be using this image on the contents page.






This is also from the photo-shoot i did.
This image I felt didnt really work as you couldnt see her face properly and it she also looked like she was positioned awkwardly.
I think it would have worked better if i had maybe taken the picture at a different angle.
However I don't think that i will be using this image for my final magazine although it was good to try out different positions.





Here is another image that i used on my double page spread. She was dressed in the same kind of outfit as Chloe which is black and 'sexy'. I also used the chair for hannah to sit on as i thought it was something good to work with. I had them both posing differently as it would'nt be normal for them to pose the same on a photo-shoot. With Hannah as she has long legs we did a variety of poses until we got the right one that would fit in the camera frame. This was the one that worked best as it still showed the length of her legs but was also different to Chloe's pose. This image also helped with showing what style i wanted to get across.

I made the girls go outside on my drive for this picture as i though the brick effect looked good. I like this image as i think it looks nice that they are both using the same feet and both their legs are crossed. It is also different as it isn't as posed and they dont have to do anything specifically with their faces. There wasn't any image that specifically inspired me to do this image as i thought it was different from the other two. This image will be on my double page spready with the other images of the girls both on the chairs.

This image is a high angle/birds eye view. I liked this image of the girls as i thought it was different and it was nicer of the two girls from a different angle. I edited this photo on my phone and changed it to black and white as i thought it looked better and it shows variety as all the other images that i chose were in colour. This image would also be done for 'the sexy photo-shoot' as the girls are close together and are relatively in the same clothes.

This is one of the images that i intend to use for my double page spread. I made sure that the girl was all in black and was dressed 'sexy' as this was something that i had looked at when i was researching magazines. The sugababes had done a sexy photo-shoot for a magazine and this helped to get ideas ready for my magazine. I also did a quote on the image which is something that was from the interview which was "We wanted to do our first sexy photo-shoot together! It was so much fun!". I edited the photo so that it had a nice effect to it. When taking the pictures I tested her looking at her shoulder, at the camera and looking towards her feet. I chose this image as I thought it was different and it looked better for the style that i wanted to show.

Photo ideas

The ideas of images i would like to take and include in my magazine are:
1. The 2 girls standing together with arms round each other facing slightly inwards.
2. Girls walking away from the camera so their feet are crossed.
3. One girl sitting sidewards on the chair with leg bent with foot on the wall.
4. Other girl leaning backwards with left leg stretched out and right leg bent.
5. Using a chair with head and hair leaning over the seat
6. Girl lying on her back with legs up vertically with feet flexed

Thinking about my Evaluation

The questions that i intend to use for my evaluation are:
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups
3. What kind of media institutions might distribute your media product and why?
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
5. How did your attract/address your audience
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
7. Looking back at the preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full task.

I will answer these questions using prezi and will add in images so that i can relate to them.

Asking my friends to be my models

Tonight I text my friends Hannah and Chlo to be my artists for my magazine. They both said yes which was great as they are both blonde so would look well together. I explained to them what they would need to bring to my house on saturday to do the photos which was black clothing, suspender tights, dresses, leggings, long socks and jackets. I am quite excited for this as I have a lot of ideas that I want to be including.

Analysis of VIBE front cover

This is the magazine cover that inspired me to change my genre of music from Pop to RnB. This is because I liked how basic the front cover was yet they were really eye catching to the consumer.
I then analysed the front cover of VIBE magazine and it showed me that i needed to have one main large image that would attract consumers to read it. This front cover certainly does this as it has the well known artist Nicki Minaj on the front to draw peoples attention. Around the main image are titles that are going to be included in the magazine such as "why is drake so angry?" and "Kanye's kilt", these are good as it gives people an idea of what is going to be inside and whether they are likely to be interested in the story. VIBE magazine changes the colours of their headings in order to fit the image that is going to be on the front cover. This is an example of another VIBE magazine and thecolours of the magazine have changed in order to suit the magazine. This is good as it shows that the magazine varies and changes every time that is released which keeps peoples attention. They also always have popular artists in the centre of the magazine as they are well known and the public like them and their music

Unlike the pop magazine that i orginally wanted to use this magazine doesnt have any other images on the front cover which is good as it could seem a bit crowded and as it is for a different target audience this could look childish. The background for the magazine that i am analysing is white with orange, black and white text. It is well presented as you are able to see all of the writing clearly and it isnt as cluttered as the Pop magazine. Overall i feel that this magazine would appeal to teenagers to young adults as it has the singers that they aspire to be and also has stories which will be intriguing for this specific target audience.

Contents page analysis

This contents page is from the magazine VIBE which is a RnB magazine that has helped me to gain ideas for my own music magazine.
For my magazine i will have a girl doing the same pose however i will have the girls foot flexed with the C and O balanced on the top of her feet. However this will need to be tested as i cant have her feet too far apart if i am positioning C and O on the feet. This is something i will need to look at when using photoshop.
The contents list will then be listed down her leg but not in a straight line it will be done with the contents going down her leg.
I liked this content page as i thought it was different and as it would also catch peoples attention especially if it is a good looking girl posed as this.

Pitching my idea

In class today my teacher gave out these basic plans which we were able to fill in to help us to get the idea of our magazine started.

Genre: RnB
I will be publishing my magazine weekly at £1.99
The target audience for my music magazine are 15-25 year olds.
Audience Profile: They like RnB music and have interest in the singers taht feature in the magazines.
Name: Pulse
House Style: Black background, white and yellow writing, arial, bold
I will be using my two close friends to be my artists as they are both blonde and look good together. I will have them posing on the front with their arms round one another. Use of chair with leg bent with foot on wal on the contents page and other different images.
For my double page spread: I will be doing a question and answer interview with the girls taking it turn who answers and also variating who answers.
Inducements: I decided to give  40% off token in Topshop/Topman to win as this would keep my target audience interested in my magazine if they know that my magazine has good competitions to enter.
USP: There aren't many RnB magazines so this is good for me as I won't have as many competitors.

Top of The Pops analysis - chosen genre

I  analysed a top of the pops magazine cover as this was what originally wanted my genre to be in the style of. After anaylzing this magazine it showed that it needed to be crowded with images of young girls favourite pop bands and celebrities as this is what would grab their attention the most. They have quotes from some of the celebrities so that it will make them want to find out about them and get the latest 'gossip'. This magazine also has a large image in the centre of a good looking boy which young girls love so that it will make them want to buy this magazine as their favourite artist is on it.
They have a real like story on the front saying 'Hooked on alcohol... age 13!', this is good as children who buy the magazine will read it and it will make them realise that is not something they want to happen to them. Having all of the images of the latest boy bands attracts young girls as they are likely to cut out the pictures and keep them. There is also a section on the front cover with '12 star looks to steal' this is by cheryl cole who some girls may see as their idol as she is stylish so will want to read this so that  they can be like her. The background to this magazine is bright pink which is good as it is targeted at girls and pink is normally a girls favourite colour. Overall i think this magazine is very appealing to young girls as it has images that will target that specific audience and also stories which will be intriguing for girls.

Kerrang analysis

This is my analysis of the KERRANG magazine. It used bold writing for the masterhead so that customers will see the title straight away. There is a large image of two men which shows the audience that they will be the main target within this magazine. There are also quotes on the front page so that you know there is likely to be an interview inside with the singers that are photographed on the front. There are images at the bottom of the front cover so that you will see there are posters and attract customers to buying it. There is also the date by the barcode so that the customers know what issue they are buying.

Finished school prospectus

This is my school prospectus  for St.Marks sixth form. I made sure that i stated it was for the sixth form so that students coming to the school would know that it would be for them. I made sure that i had the business and enterprise logo on the cover of the school prospectus so that that new students know this is what the school specialises in. I had an image of an establishing shot of the front of the school so that new students coming to the school will recognise it when they come to st.marks. I also took a picture of the new sixth form block which is an establishing shot to show where the students will be situated and will study. I had a medium close up shot of a student using the tools in graphics to show the new students what they could do and it shows what the students do at St.Marks. I also made sure that i got a quote from ofsted so that parents will see the good feedback on the school and this means that the parents know what they are sending their child to. I didn't think my design for my prospectus was that bad for my first time properly using photoshop. However, i am hoping that when i do my music magazine my photoshop skills will improve.

Finishing our prospectus

Today was our last day to finish off our prospectus but luckily i had been working on my prospectus in my free time. However i didnt save my prospectus as a JPEG so i was unable to print it off so i will need to get a technician in to help me next lesson. Overall i think my prospectus went really well especially as it was my first time using photoshop.
Hopefully when i design my music magazine my photoshop skills will be a lot better.

We are on photoshop again and my prospectus is starting to get better. I have changed my background, added the schools name and also added in a few pictures and edited them as they were too light and they needed to look more professional.
I was getting really frustated as i couldnt work out how to use the layers and ended it up deleting some things so i had to ask some of my friends for help.

Sophie Harten.

Todays lesson we uploaded our pictures onto photoshop and i found it so hard to use and i didnt know how to use some of the software. I was getting really frustrated and barely got anything done where i had to keep starting again as i was getting things wrong but this also helped me to learn whilst doing it.
Hopefully fridays lesson will be better and more successful.

Sophie Harten.

Today we went out and took photos for the prospectus that we are designing. In my group there was me, Ricky Lawrence, Jack Halliday, Daniel Munden, Bradley Stokes and Maxwell Mbofana. We managed to take all of the pictures that we wanted. The pictures that i needed for my prospectus were the front office and it has recently been refurbished and the St.Marks sign is new. I also took a picture of the new sixth form block so that children coming to the school would know what the sixth form lookes like as impressions are a main thing. I also took pictures of school children working so that it shows that the sixth form is a good atmosphere.

Miss Breen handed out pieces of A3 paper to the class so that we were able to brainstorm ideas about our prospectus. This helped me as i came up with various ideas that i could use and after i had finished that i had a clear idea what i wanted my prospectus to look like.
I then designed the front cover of my prospectus on the other side of the paper where i positioned where i wanted everything to be. I had to decide what pictures i would want and specify what camera angles i would be using. The main things that i needed to include were the school name and also if it was to be a sixth form prospectus or not. I thought i planned the front cover of my prospectus well and it was all very detailed as it included the pictures and camera angles, name of school and also the logo of what the school is specialised for and also a quote from ofsted.

In todays media lesson Miss Breen brought up some of the school prospectus' that the school use. Miss also showed a variety of school prospectus' off of the internet so this helped us when thinking about planning our own.
We then discussed the target audience, images, language, content, attracting the audience, format, iconography and the house style. Looking at the schools prospectus made it a lot easier when thinking about planning my own. After having a class discussion about the schools prospectus Miss then asked us to design briefly what we would like our prospectus to look like which we could then build on when designing it properly.

Sophie Harten.

This is our second lesson of media today and we are getting a tutorial on photoshop. Its so hard as i haven't used photoshop properly before and I didn't really understand. The technician gave us the tutorial and i thought he went too quick so I got lost and had to ask Jack Halliday and Alex Sodimu.
The main skills we were shown were lasso, text, paint bucket tool and eraser.
We had a go at lassoing random pictures so we could test out some of the tools and get used to using them.After the technician had finished the tutorial it was near the end of the lesson so I didn't get to ask the questions that i wanted to.

Sophie Harten.

In our media lesson today we were told about the preliminary task we would be doing which is to deisgn a front page of a magazine of any type of music genre that we wanted. Miss explained to us that we would need to use our own photos and ideas, she also showed us some examples of last years music magazines designs which helped us to think of what we would want to do.
After lunch we are going to have a tutorial on photoshop.

Sophie Harten.