What do you feel you have learnt in the progression from your preliminary task to the full product?

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What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Who would be the audience for your media product?

What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?

How did you attract/address your audience?

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real music magazines?

Photoshoot 2 Planning

To plan out my second photoshoot I did some rough sketches of how I want the images to turn out. I drew my models Sara and Safwana and wrote down some quick notes of the shot type/location etc.

Plugged Music Magazine

Final Double Spread

For my final double-spread I decided to make the article longer so it would keep my audience more entertained and they would know a lot more about Forsaken. I added 2 big pull quotes within the article to attract people's attention as its an important message to the audience. I also added a small strip of 3 images beneath the big image of Forsaken because I wanted to balance out the page otherwise it would have been too plain. I think most rock magazines crowd their pages a lot with big fonts and images to make it more exciting, so I decided to do the same. I also added a quote which Forsaken have said so its another big pull quote which will make the audience want to read on to the article.

Double Spread Page Developments

For my double-spread page I used the image of my models from my photoshoot and I thought this image would look very good for my double-spread because on the left side there was a lot of space which I thought I'd use for my article. On the left side it was a mid-shot picture of them both in which they look a bit intimidating which is how they look in the majority of their pictures. I used a black and white image because it looks very dark and I like the colour scheme of black/white/grey all together because it really gives it a rock-like vibe. I used the same font (Plane Crash) for the masthead and the 'Plugged/Cover Story' because its the house style I chose. The article is based around Forsaken's career in music so I wrote a lot about how they managed to be successful within the industry, and some other personal details about themselves to make it seem realistic.

Final contents page

Contents page developments

I've developed my contents pages even further. Firstly, I finished writing up the article titles and page numbers. The reason why it's quite crowded is because I've noticed that in a lot of rock music magazines, the contents pages tend to be filled up with a lot of text, so I thought I would do the same. I also added a 'subscription' box with an image of the front cover to show the audience that they can subscribe and get a lot more issues, which is also something a lot of magazines in general seem to do. Secondly, I've used my new photoshoot images to indicate that there are more artists featured in the magazine. The page numbers are over the images and they also have article headlines within the contents page so it feels like a real magazine where they can follow through easily. The images are edited with a similar colour scheme as my front cover - they're faded/muted down a lot to give it a much more grunge/rock feel.

Photoshoot 2

 For this photoshoot I've used 2 different models (Sara and Safwana). The images are quite bright and I've used the colour red as its very suitable for a rock magazine. I'm going to edit these images and mute the tones of the colours because I want it to suit my front cover which also has a lot of muted tones, but there is still a splash of colour to it. For Safwana (My first model) I took pictures by a building which I really thought would suit my magazine because it is slightly scruffy looking. Her makeup is dark which is what I did for my first photoshoot, and she's wearing a band t-shirt so it shows that she is into music as well as being a musician in my magazine. For Sara (My second model) I took pictures in the school building by the stairs because the cage in-between the staircase looked very old and also scruffy so I thought it would also suit my magazine. She's also wearing dark lipstick and has a red plaid shirt on with a black shirt on the inside which again, suits the style of my magazine and the things my target audience would like to wear (A lot of red/black, simple everyday clothing).

The images above are the edited images I used for my contents page. I cropped the images as well as playing around with the colours so the image of Sara focuses on her facial expression - she looks serious - and Safwana's is a midshot so it shows the building, her clothing and her face to give it a feel of the atmosphere in the photoshoot.

Double page spreads - Inspiration from other magazines

I like this double page spread because the font used for the title is similar to the font I used on my cover/contents page. I also like how simple the layout is for all the text as it makes it easy to read, and the 3 columns make it much more organised. The small text box on the left hand corner is very similar to how I organised my text in my magazine, so its good that I found a page that I can relate my magazine to. The portrait image of the band is quite striking because they all have very strong postures which makes them look a lot more interesting, especially with the waves hitting against their legs which makes them look even stronger.

This double spread page is similar to the first as its from the same magazine. Instead, they've put an extra image of their photoshoot on the top left corner which I like because it doesn't make the text look too crowded. The fact that they've used a different colour for the questions makes it much more organised, so I'm considering doing this for my magazine. There's more than 1 page for their interview, as on the first page they have a big image which covers 3/4 of the 2 pages, and they have a small column on the right to briefly say who the band is and their tour dates. However, I will only be using one double spread rather than 2 as I want it to be more concise and quicker to read.

Despite being from the same magazine of the other 2 double spreads, this one is very different to the other ones. I like that the image is on the left as opposed to the right, and that the right hand side layout of the interview is much more simple, and there's a lot more white space so its not as crowded. There are no pull quotes on this double spread but there is a stand first paragraph which briefly introduces the singer which is very useful.

Contents page developments 3

I used 'Q' magazines contents page as an inspiration to develop my front cover. I've decided to change the top half of the contents page as my first one was too similar to Kerrang's contents page. I put a black frame on the left hand side which is where photos from my new photoshoot will go. I put a black and white picture on the right of 'Forsaken' to show that its this magazine issue's cover story.

Contents page developments 2

To develop my contents page I've started to add articles below the main image. I used the same house style (fonts) as before. I carried on using the kerrang contents page as an inspiration because it fits my genre and the layout/style works well for my contents page. I need to develop this even further with a lot more articles, images and editors notes.

Contents page developments

For my contents page I have taken inspiration from Kerrang magazines contents page. I've used the same fonts/design as my front cover because I wanted to keep the house style consistent. I've used another image from my photoshoot and adjusted the tones to fit the colours of the image of my front cover. The white space at the bottom of my contents page is where all the articles, page numbers, editors notes and extra images will go. I've also left a space below where it says 'Get ready to rock' because I am going to have a picture of the doublespread page which features 'Forsaken' (the models-band in the image) and I've already done the mini banner with the band name and page number to direct the readers to that page.

Final front cover

It is quite similar to the first cover because of the layout and fonts but I have made a few changes. Firstly, I decided to change the image because the black and white image I used for my previous cover didn't fit too well with what was expected of a rock music magazine. I decided to go with a coloured image, but I played around with the colours of the image. The tones of the image isn't too bright, instead they're quite muted and grey looking. I like this aspect of my front cover as it captures the essence of the magazine itself - that the magazine is  serious and mature as opposed to rock magazines that can be quite immature and have a teen-like manner. The fact that the models' lips stands out and makes the cover less dull shows its more targeted towards a female audience as makeup is something a lot of women enjoy (especially stereotypical goth-like women that wear a lot of dark makeup).

The colours of the text boxes and text itself is kept the same because I think it really suits the colours of the image, but they still stand out. I made the grey text boxes slightly darker so they can stand out a bit more. I also tilted the 'Forsaken' text box and the two headlines around it so the magazine's articles weren't too structured and gave the layout some edge. As an extra I also added a barcode in the bottom left corner and a date/issue number on the top left corner to give it a feel of a real magazine.

New front cover developments

I decided to change my front cover image as I realised that a lot of music magazines have coloured images on them. I used an image from my photo shoot which I thought was suitable for my cover as the image is a portrait of the models and is a midshot. This gave enough space for me to write my text on the top and left/right sides (I didn't have to change the layout a lot). The text around the models also add a nice frame so it makes their faces the main focus. I also tried to make the text red which is the same colour as the lipstick of the models, but I didn't think it suited my magazine a lot because red tends to be used in a lot more rock/metal magazines as its a bold colour. Also the black/white font colours were much more bold and stood out, especially over the grey and black text boxes. My magazine is more gothic-rock so darker colours are better.