Question 1A Skills Evaluation

	Name	What you did with it	Pros/Strengths	Cons/Weaknesses
Hardware	Digital Camera	Took photos for my magazine print products	I could take lots of different photos for my magazine print products and play around with the features of the camera, so I knew which button did what and could help me in making my photos look more professional	I should have been more creative with my photos to make them look like professional products and make the model look more like a pop star. I would also take more photos to give myself more options and experiment.
Software	Adobe Fireworks	To put production elements together	I could edit my work and create my print products.	I wasn’t familiar with the tools so it took me a while to get used to them.
	PowerPoint	To put presentations together for evaluations
Online	Blogger	To create a blog to log my coursework	I could present my work in an organised way	I need internet access to use it so if that’s down I can’t use it
	Prezi	To present my evaluation work in a creative way	I could present my work using new technologies rather than boring PowerPoint	I need internet access to use it so if that’s down I can’t use it
	Flickr	To store and edit my photos	I could enhance my photos to make them look more professional	I need internet access to use it so if that’s down I can’t use it, I also preferred the effects I could use on Fireworks
	Emaze	To present my evaluation work in a creative way	I could present my work in an interesting way, using new technologies.	I need internet access to use it so if that’s down I can’t use it
	Google	To research existing products and find inspiration for mine	I could research existing products and take inspiration from these to use in my work.	I need internet access to use it so if that’s down I can’t use it
	Padlet	To present my evaluation work in a creative way	I could present my evaluation questions in a creative way using new technologies.	I need internet access to use it so if that’s down I can’t use it. I didn’t like the layout of padlet and wasn’t familiar on how to use it. I also didn’t like that you couldn’t see the whole work document when I embed it on to my blog.
	Thinglink	To analyse existing products	I liked thinglink because it allowed me to analyse existing products easily	I need internet access to use it so if that’s down I can’t use it
	PicMonkey	For photo manipulating	I liked picmonkey because I could enhance my photos and make them look more professional for my magazine print products.	I need internet access to use it so if that’s down I can’t use it
	Survey Monkey	To create surveys and gather audience feedback from them	I could gather feedback from my audience so I know what they want from a magazine and what I can do to improve my print products.	I need internet access to use it so if that’s down I can’t use it
	Sound Cloud	To record and upload my audience feedback responses	I could record my audience feedback so I knew what was good about my magazine and what I could change to improve it	I need internet access to use it so if that’s down I can’t use it
	Dafont.com	To look for fonts to use on my magazine print products.	I could take fonts from the website to use on my print products.	I need internet access to use it so if that’s down I can’t use it

2 – Creativity

I think I was creative in the choices with the decisions made in my coursework as I took inspiration from existing magazines but then made the products my own. I played around with different fonts and colours to make my magazine look more professional. However, I think I could have been more creative when taking my photos as I didn’t experiment as much and would have had more choice and variety in my work. I also think I could have been more creative when making my model look like a pop artist in terms of her hair, make-up, costume and props. I think technology such as Fireworks enhanced my creativity as I could experiment with the tools and use different features to make my work better. I also think the camera enhanced my photos and my coursework overall as I could use different buttons on the camera to achieve what I wanted to. The stylistic techniques I used were the fonts, how I positioned the images, the colour scheme and the layout of my print products. I used a classic font so it was easy for my target audience to read. I made sure it was bold and capitalized so that it stood out and immediately caught the reader’s attention. I used a simplistic colour scheme of white, black and red which was consistent throughout my print products. I chose this colour scheme because red is stereotypically aimed at women and has connotations of love and warmth which was inviting to my audience.

I also changed the transparency on some of the red fonts to make it pink which is associated and stereotypically aimed at women, in particular teenage girls and young women. My final products were influenced by my interests as I like pop magazines and read them myself. The cover lines advertising different artists are also influenced by my interests as I like to listen to pop artists such as Ed Sheeran, Beyoncé and The 1975. I took inspiration from original pop magazines, but when I created my products, I added something extra. I did this to make my products appeal more to the target audience and give them something different. I would take creative skills such as editing and camera work forward into other projects because these helped me to make my products look better and give the audience what they wanted. I would also take these skills further into my A2 coursework and I will consider being more creative with my photos, to give myself more choice and creative opportunities and I will also consider shooting locations and taking pictures on the set of where I film to enhance my print products.

3 – Research and Planning

From my AS coursework, I carried out the following research and planning tasks:

·         Conventions of exiting print products

·         Magazine language

·         Analysis of existing print products

·         Photo Planning

·         Rule of thirds

·         Moodboard 

·         Representation

·         Target Audience and feedback from them (questionnaires on survey monkey)

·         Ideology

·         Brand identity and values for my magazine

·         Layout sketches

Task	What you did	Pros/Strengths	Cons/Weaknesses
Conventions	Researched the codes and conventions of existing music magazines	I could take inspiration from these as they’re popular with my target audience	I could have taken more inspiration from the conventions of existing pop magazines to make my products look more like one by using pugs, puffs, taglines, straplines and others.
Magazine Language	To look at what I need to include in my magazine	I could create a checklist for what I needed to include in my magazine	I could have included more features on my magazine print products such as main images, smaller images, cover lines and taglines to accompany them
Analysis of print products	Analysed existing products to see what mine should look like	I could look at an existing professional magazine and take inspiration from these	I wanted to make my products different from existing ones but keep them slightly similar
Photo Planning	Planned when and where I was going to take my photos	I could plan what photos I was going to take and when so I wasn’t rushed and had plenty of time to play around with shots and locations.	I could have been more creative with my photos to enhance my products. I could have done this by experimenting with angles, costumes and make-up.
Rule of thirds	Research how to take good quality photos	I could use it to make sure my photos look professional and of a good quality	I could have applied this more to my photos, so they looked more magazine ready.
Mood board	Research existing products and take inspiration from them	I could take inspiration for my products	I could have researched more products to make mine a bit different from existing ones
Representation	I could look at how my models should be represented in a pop magazine	I knew what costume, mise-en-scene and lighting to use to represent my models	I could have considered this more when taking my photos so they looked more like pop artists. I could have done this by using different settings and locations.
Target Audience (and feedback)	Research what my audience wanted and how I could improve my products to please them	I could find out what my audience wanted and how to improve my products	My target audience wanted features from existing magazines and I wanted to make mine slightly different
Ideology	Research what my magazine should look like	I knew what to include in my magazine	I would consider this more when editing my final products
Brand Identity and Values	Research the values of my magazine and what the audience want from it	I knew what my magazine should look like to appeal to the audience	I would consider this more when aiming my magazine at the audience
Layout Sketches	To plan how my magazine print products should look	I could plan my products so I wasn’t stuck for ideas when creating them	I could have made these more creative to further enhance my products

4 – Post-production

Front Cover Analysis

Strengths:

·    - My front cover looks like a real pop magazine and follows the conventions of a typical music magazine    

       - My house style is consistent throughout and fits around the main image well

Weaknesses:

·         - I could have been more creative with my photos and given myself more options to enhance my magazine front cover. I could have been more creative by experimenting with the angles and lengths of my camera shots and by using various costumes and make-up to make models look more like pop stars.

·         - I could have experimented with different costumes and makeup of the model so that she looked more like a pop artist.

Contents Page Analysis

Strengths:

·         - My contents page clearly lays out the contents of the magazine and is clear for the audience

·         - The house style and colour scheme is consistent throughout and matches that of the front cover

Weaknesses:

·         - I could have considered and experimented more with the lighting of my image page so that it stands out more to the audience and so that you can’t see the shadow of the model in the background

·        -  I could have again experimented more with the images and tried out different stylistic and creative techniques to make my model look more like a pop artist, by taking inspiration from existing magazines

Double Page Spread Analysis

Strengths:

·         - My double page spread looks like a real article from a pop magazine

·         - The house style is consistent throughout my magazine and I have followed the conventions of a DPS to make it look more professional

Weaknesses:

·        -  I could have experimented with the angles and poses of the model so that the images were different from the ones on the contents page, as they are fairly similar

·         - I could have played around more with the effects of the image on the left as it looks quite dark, aside from the red guitar standing out

5 – Using conventions of real media texts

Magazines follow strict codes and conventions which make their product look professional.

Without these codes and conventions, the magazine may not look very good and it may not sell.

These conventions are:

- a bold masthead which is short, catchy and familiar for the audience

- a bold headline which stands out and immediately catches the reader’s attention

- cover lines to attract the reader and give them a sneak peak of what's featured inside the magazine

- pull quotes to again give the reader a sneak peek of the contents of the magazine

- features/articles within the magazine

- a banner which advertises something to the reader. For example "win tickets to..."

- a colour scheme which is consistent throughout the magazine

- a consistent house style, so that it's familiar for the audience of the magazine

- one main image which stands out and engages the reader with a direct mode of address so it looks like she's looking directly at them

- a pug which stands out and catches the reader's attention. For example "the 50th issue"

I looked at music magazine front covers from Billboard Magazine, Q Magazine and NME Magazine, as they focus on the same genre as music as I am focusing on in my music magazine. They are all quite different as they use different artists, posing in different ways. They all have unique colour schemes and all of the images used have a direct mode of address. They have followed the typical codes and conventions of a music magazine and therefore look like professional products. I have taken inspiration from all of these music magazines and used some of their ideas on my own front cover.

Front Cover

My front cover follows most of the codes and conventions of a typical music magazine. I wanted to make my product look professional and as much like a real product as possible. If I didn't follow these codes and conventions then my product wouldn't look like a real music magazine and it probably wouldn't sell. My magazine front cover mainly conforms to the conventions of a typical music magazine front cover, as it uses the same forms and features, such as a bold masthead, a main image of the artist and cover lines which give the reader a 'sneak peek' of what's included in the magazine.

Contents Page

Magazines follow strict codes and conventions for a contents page too. This again makes their product look more professional.

These conventions are:

- a bold masthead that reads 'contents' so it stands out to the audience

- page numbers that guide the reader to the articles featured in the magazine

- pull quotes from the articles featured inside the magazine

- images and captions of the artists or bands featured within the magazine

- issue date and number of the magazine

- structured in columns to guide the reader down the page

- a blurb to give an indication of the contents for that article

- a 'features' section

- a consistent colour scheme which matches the front cover - red, black and white

My contents page follows the codes and conventions of a typical music magazine. I followed the codes and conventions in order to make my product look more professional and realistic. My music magazine contents page conforms to the conventions of typical magazine as it uses the same forms and features, such as a large main image, a large title 'contents', a recognizable colour scheme and font throughout. I have used the same style banner at the top of the page as on my front cover, so it's familiar for the audience.

Double Page Spread

Most magazine double page spreads have:

- A large image of the artist(s) who is featured in the article
- Pull quotes or songs quotes from the artist themselves 
- Large, bold mastheads and headlines 
- Drop capitals to introduce the article or a specific bit of text
- Text columns - guiding the reader down the page
- Colour scheme - relevant to the rest of the magazine (front cover and contents page)

My front cover follows most of the conventions of a double page spread as it has a large image, pull quotes, large title. However my double page spread challenges the typical conventions of a double page spread as it doesn't have a drop capital and it looks slightly different from a real music magazine front cover. I did follow most of the codes and conventions of a double page spread in order to make it look like a real product and look professional.