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

Since creating my school magazine, my knowledge of magazine layouts and content has increased considerably. My school magazine cover was incredibly bare, dull and boring, whereas my music magazine cover is brightly coloured, eye-catching and is filled with some writing to explain what the content is about. The fonts i used on my preliminary task are extremely boring, whereas the fonts i have used for WOBBLE's front page (downloaded from dafont.com) are unique and fun. I only used Pages when creating my preliminary task, whereas i used both pages and photoshop to create my final pieces. I had only ever edited photos in photoshop before (not used text) - during this project i learned how to create and edit text onto a background image. I also learned how to use 'layers' in photoshop more effectively because i had to use lots. My school magazine is has neither a price, bar code or date - after doing research, i now know that these are all essential parts to a magazine. 
Overall, my understanding of software has improved throughout the project and i have produced a professional looking magazine.

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

Before doing media AS level, i had never had a blog of my own - only a facebook and twitter account. i used blogspot.com to post all of my research, planning, photo shoots, my final magazine and evaluation.

all of the work i have produced has been done on either my own apple macbook pro or the school's apple mac. I prefer mac software to windows 

i used iphoto to edit and my photographs. it allowed me to make my photographs professional. i edited all of my photos in iphoto even if it was just a simple crop or balance of colour contrast. 

to take all my photos i used my fujifilm finepix s2000HD camera. for my shoot i used a slow shutter speed so that i could capture the movement of lights. i think by using this effect it has made my images a lot more exciting and 'live'. 

i had had some previous experience with photoshop because i used it when doing GCSE photography. i used this knowledge to apply it to my magazine work.

to transfer work from my macbook to the school's (and vice vera) i used a a 2gb fujifilm memory stick.

dafont.com is a website with thousands of free downloadable fonts available to anyone. my teacher told me about this website. all of my title fonts i have used are from this website.

I had never used pages before this project. i used it to re-size my work properly so that it was the right size to print onto A3 paper.

i used photovisi to create a collage of images when researching photographs to inspire me for my shoot.  i had never used photovisi before. i found out about it by simply googling 'photo collage maker'. it sets out the photos in a creative and eye-catching way.

Who would be the audience for your media product? How did you attract/address your audience?

WOBBLE magazine is aimed at an audience ranging between ages roughly 18-30. I say that readers start at age 18 because 18 is the legal age limit to go to clubs, so any younger readers probably wouldn't have much interest in reading about clubs that they can't go to. However younger readers, especially young electronic musicians may want to hear about other upcoming artists and see photographs of the clubs etc. I think WOBBLE would immediately attract younger people rather than elder even at a first glance because of its use of images, bright colour and swirly lights on the front page. I think by having a website, facebook and twitter page, groups who are involved with social networking (young people especially) will be more encouraged to look online to get more information about WOBBLE even if they aren't prepared to buy a copy. To promote WOBBLE, a good idea would be to give club photographers little cards with WOBBLE's website on to people that get their photos taken (or just to general people in a venue) so that they can find their photos online. This would encourage people to log onto WOBBLE's website, which may also lead them to buying a copy in the future. 

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

Venue is the premier arts, entertainment and leisure guide for Bristol and Bath and is described as an 'essential part of the cultural mix that makes the area so popular'. It is a weekly magazine that has been published since 1982. it is both authoritative and humorous - this ensures a wide and loyal readership. Venue reaches a significant audience of young, intelligent, hip, active, urban adults who use the magazine each week to plan their leisure time. The magazine distributor is Simon Butler. 

The magazine is sold through traditional retail outlets as well as numerous bars and art centres and is often polybagged with one of Venue’s annual supplements. The picture on the right shows the the supplements. 'Inside Out', for example, is a lifestyle magazine which includes information about things like furnishings and antiques in the area. The 'Folio' and 'Eating Out West' magazines are about fine cuisine and where to eat in Bristol/Bath.

I think there is a gap within Venue's distribution for WOBBLE. They don't distribute a magazine which purely concentrates on electronically produced music. 

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The photo on the left is the May 2012 Contents Page photo for NITELIFE magazine. It is very similar to the photo i have used for my contents page (on the right). The boys are making almost the same hand jesters, there are people in the background and the photo is in black and white. I think the elements of these photos represent a young, fun 'party-animal' social group and my magazine reflects this throughout - all the people photographed in it all look like they are having a fun time and share a love music. 

In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions for real media products?

Throughout my project i have referred to and researched to real media products such as NITELIFE and NME magazines. Out of the two, i think the most influential and the one i concentrated most upon was NITELIFE. Like NITELIFE, i used their idea of it being a local music magazine (Bristol) when thinking of my ideas for WOBBLE. I developed on their idea of the magazine being an month events diary, and so as well WOBBLE being this, it also includes two 'upcoming artists' each month. WOBBLE however challenges the conventions of both NITELIFE, NME and a lot of other magazines because it is only specifically based on electronically produced music rather than a range of genres. This could be seen as a risk but electronically produced music, for example dubstep and house, but is becoming increasingly popular over the past few years and more and more people are becoming involved with it.

Final Magazine

Advice From a Professional

I was lucky enough be be given advice and feedback from a professional magazine editor/creator called Phil from UWE. He said he really liked the idea of my magazine and that it was unique. He said the colour scheme works really well (red white and black) and the neon green writing for all the online references makes them stand out and that my photography was excellent.

Things he told me i could edit/improve on:

• i need to check my spelling on my DPS and underline a bit i've forgot to underline.
• i should credit the photographs on the 'Thekla' page.
• to separate the bit about photographers at events at the bottom of the "Thekla' page, because it looks like part of the paragraph above.
• try to add more words to the end of the description of Thekla because the last line only has one word.
• try to make the list of pages on the contents into two neat columns, not one and a half. 

Contents Page: 1st Draft

The idea of a contents page is to provide a ‘taster’, giving potential buyers of the magazine an insight into the content on the magazine. 
i have used the same fonts on the contents page as the DPS and the front cover so they look like theyre from the same magazine. the "WOBBLE" logo is at printed at the top of the page, like on the front cover. i have included the facebook and twitter links for "WOBBLE" on this page - they are in neon green writing to match the website address on the front cover, so that all of the online references to "WOBBLE" are in the same colour.
the text on this page respects the character, and he is pointing at the camera which makes it looks like he is involving the audience, and perhaps inviting them to read the magazine.

Pricing My Magazine

Pricing your magazine correctly can depend on whether it is successful or not. if priced wrongly, hardly any copies may be sold, whereas if priced correctly, lots of copies may be sold. consumers want to feel that they are getting their "moneys worth" so under or over-pricing can have a disastrous impact on your magazine sales. 
Knowing your customer:
readers of "WOBBLE" will generally be of interest to people aged between 18-30 because it is at this age that people go out to clubs and venues the most. students who are on tight budgets and may not be able to afford expensive magazines will probably be interested in reading "WOBBLE". I think £1.60 is a respectable price for this magazine. If i could, i would make this magazine a free copy for people to pick up in shops (like "NITELIFE") but unfortunately that would mean i would loose money by printing the magazine. 

Contents Page Research: NME

 

this is a contents page from a normal 'NME' magazine (not special edition).
the contents page each week has the same format - "NME THIS WEEK" printed in bold at the top with text down either side and the bottom of the page and a photo in the middle. the date of the magazine is printed underneath the title. the text at the bottom is always a main story about a popular band - the top story of the magazine.
The use of sub-headings puts each piece of content into easier and clearer categories, making the magazine make sense and clearer. 
The colours red, black and white feature all over the page, with a bit of bright yellow which stands out at the bottom. the use of use of ‘subscribe today’ is a sly way of easily persuading readers how they can get the magazine on a regular occasion and save money (which would be ideal for regular readers in today's economic climate).
The layout is also very consistent which gives the magazine a clear structure and easy for readers to know whereabouts things in the magazine are. The band index gives the reader and precise showing of what bands will be in the magazine. This may give the readers more purpose to buy the magazine as maybe there could be a feature on their favourite band. 

Contents Page Research: NITELIFE

this is the contents page for January's 'NITELIFE' magazine. This contents page is unusual because it doesn't have page numbers. the pages are arranged in alphabetical order of the name of the venue. this page is all black and white - there is no colour at all. at the bottom are a list of photographers who's images feature in the magazine and contact information. the magazine's logo is printed at the top of (like on the front cover) and a photograph takes up 1/2 of the page. 

Double Page Spread: Second Draft

i have edited the block of text about "FLUX" because it was to much like a block paragraph and not easy to read. people reading magazines want something which isnt too hefty to read. i have changed it into an 'artist profile' type thing because they seem to be quite popular in music magazines, including NME. 

on photoshop i added the swirly effect to the arrow pointing to "FLUX". this matches the effect of the swirly lights in most of my photographs.  

Double Page Spread: First Draft

i have split my DPS into a page about the upcoming artist, "FLUX", and a page dedicated to "THEKLA, a music venue in Bristol. The pages link because FLUX will be playing at THEKLA during February. to make my DPS i used photoshop. the pages follow the theme of black white and red.

to create the effect on the background of the left hand side page, i used layers and an eraser tool on photoshop to feed some light through the black and white. i then reduced the opacity of the image so that it isn't too bold and images/text could be placed on top of it. The text i have written about flux is very block and boring to look at. after getting feedback from peers and when creating a second draft i will look to change that. 

i have done the right hand page in the style of "NITELIFE"'s venue pages. my photographs are laid out in a way that they are easy to look at and the white background makes the text easy to read. the font i have used for "THEKLA" also features my front page.

Double Page Spread Ideas

this is a flat plan that i've drawn as an idea for my DPS. because my magazine is about the different venues in Bristol and upcoming & local electronic music artists, on the left hand side is would be information about an upcoming artist, then on the right hand side a page about a venue in Bristol. DPS's are usually linked so I would link these two pages together by writing that the artist on the left would be playing at the venue on the right sometime during the month. 

Double Page Spreads: 'NITELIFE'

these are two examples of the double page spreads in 'NITELIFE' magazine.
each venue has its own double page spread. the pictures on each spread are extremely colourful and show people having a good time - this persuades people to go to that venue. it has listings of all the events which are happening at that venue during the month, with posters on the right hand side. each venue name has it's own individual logo/font, but the font of event information is mutual for all the venues.

Double Page Spread: 'NME'

Double page spread:

the photo of Lily Allen fils up most of the right hand page. the colour scheme is just black white and red. these colours compliment each other and also connote to Lily's outfit in the picture and her style of music. Her outfit connotes to the British indie scene. Her clothes support her quote about not being an attention seeker because she is wearing no revealing or 'attention seeking' clothes. NME have used reversed print for a quote of Lily's which takes up most of the left hand page. the contrast of white print on a black background is extremely eye-catching. the massive letters are look exiting and punk-like looking like a cut-out letters from a news paper. letters are of diffrent sizes and overlap the image a little which adds to the sense of chaos - perhaps representing Lily's personality. in contrast, the text at the bottom of the right hand page is very neat and much smaller. the fold in the centre doesn't interfere with the images or text.

Front Page: Second Draft

this is a second draft for my front page - i have changed the colour of the text on the right to white because i think it stands out better. the date of the issue, "February 2012" wasn't very clear so i have made that bigger and put it at the space at the left top corner under the title. i added a website address to the bottom of the page - on this website, readers can view photographs which are featured in the magazine from current and previous months, extra photos from electronic based music venues in Bristol, and information & details about upcoming events. Flat plans of "WOBBLE" will be released the month after the issue comes out, so readers will have to pick up a copy of the magazine to see the full current issue. the font i have used for the text on the page are fonts that i'm going to use throughout my magazine - so they will link.

Front Page: First Draft

using photoshop, i created my first draft for the front cover of 'WOBBLE'. i decided to use this photo for my front cover because it has an interesting composition, is really colourful, and represents the genre of electronic music well. because i used a slow shutter speed on my camera, you can see the movement of the lights which has a cool effect. i think the image would appeal to young adults who are likely to read "WOBBLE". from google i copied a picture of a bar code onto my front page. i havent actually decided that my magazine will cost £1.60 yet - i just put that in so i know what it will look like when i add a price there. to the title, i added circle shapes with an effect inside where the holes in the letters should be. i think they fit well because they look like the inside of a big bass speaker - which compliments the electronic music genre. the text compliments the characters in the photo. 

Square Pages

i have decided i am going to make my magazine have square pages rather than the usual rectangular pages. 'NITELIFe' magazine has square pages and i think they work really well. this is a print screen on me cropping my front page image into a square.

Title Font Experimentations

(from left to right)

1. 'ABLATTIVE'

2. 'AERO DYNAMIC'

3. 'FLIGHT STERWADESS'

4. 'HOSTIL GRADIENT'

5. 'THE 2K12'

i asked four people in sixth form (ages 16/17/18) (two girls and two boys) which font they preferred and why. Tom said he preferred 'FLIGHT STERWADESS' because it suits the genre of music 'WOBBLE' represents and it is abstract, modern, unique. 

Kaide said he preferred 'HOSTIL GRADIENT' but said it should be bolder because it too thin. especially when on a magazine shelf and from a distance, it would be hard to read.

Sim said she liked 'FLIGHT STERWADESS' because the letters are creative shapes, it is bold and stands out. Like Kaide, she said she would love 'HOSTIL GRADIENT' if it was bolder.

Emily said she preferred 'FLIGHT STERWADESS' because it is different, clear, bold and easy to read.

the most popular fonts were number 3 and 4. my favourite is font 3 because of the letter's creative shapes. i will use the other four fonts as subtitles/text in different parts of my magazine. i think font 1 will be good for subtitles.

this effect is suitable because it sort of matches the genre music that 'wobble' is about, in a sense that it is urban and generally more popular with younger generations.

Magazine Fonts

after glancing at some fonts of magazine titles in shops, i have noticed that the simpler the font, the easier it is to read. bigger and more bold fonts stand out better, but bubble writing and too many colours in the title is too hard to read so your eyes just ignore it.

I am going to product my magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread (DPS) on photoshop (rather than pages like i did with my preliminary task) because it is a lot more advanced. http://www.dafont.com/ is a website with thousands of downloadable fonts. i have downloaded about 15 fonts which i can use to experiment with my magazine prints. when downloading the fonts i thought about my title and subtitles. on photo shop i will experiment with the different fonts i've downloaded with my front cover, contents page and DPS.

Front Cover Ideas

this is a quick sketch of an idea for a front cover for my music magazine. i used a scanner to upload this image onto my computer. the name of my magazine reflects the genre of music which the magazine is about. 


the colours red and black contrast and go really well together. this is a possible colour scheme for my magazine, depending on how my photographs turn out. 


the title 'wobble' in bubble writing isn't that clear to read, so when i come to creating my front cover on pages i will make it more easy to read. 


text would go on the left hand side of this cover because thats where the space is. 

Women In Media

Whilst researching, i listened to this podcast which discusses why women are still so under-represented in the media industry. some of the statistics shocked me (in the average month):

• 78% of news articles are written by men
• 72% of question time contributors are men
• 84% of radio reporters and guests on radio 4's 'today show' are men
• less then 10% of sport journalist are women
• less then 5% of sport coverage are done by women

These statistics show that there are very little (and decreasing) women in the media nowadays. The hours which people are required to work in the media are very un-family-friendly and are one of the reasons why women are leaving their jobs. When they have children (aprox age 30), and once their children are more grown up, they themselves are 'too old' or 'past it' to re-join the industry. 


I think if more females were involved in media it would give younger girls inspiration to get involved themselves. Annie Mac is a DJ and radio presenter who hosts a number of shows on Radio 1. Her main show, Annie Mac's Mash Up, airs 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm on Friday nights. She has featured on 'the culture show', 'never mind the buzzcocks', co-presented 'top of the pops' in june 2006 and more. I think Annie is real inspiration for aspiring females who are interested in the music media.


The front page of my my magazine features both a male and female. I have purposely done this so that potential buyers can feel like WOBBLE is suitable for either gender.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/audio/2011/dec/09/media-talk-podcast-women-in-the-media

The Impact Of Technology On Magazines

By 2020, media commentators predict that only 10% of magazine reading will be from hard copies on paper. Magazine markets are still quite traditional. They are old fashioned media sectors - e.g. very gender specific as the success of Zoo and Nuts of Glamour and Cosmopolitan confirms. Many magazines offer a free online download of their magazine. an example of this is Bristol's NITELIFE magazine, which i have researched before. http://www.nitelifeonline.com/12nitelife_jan.pdf this is the link to the January 2012 issue.

My Shoot

1)

the posters in the background of this photo advertise some of the venue where i took this. if i decide to use this image for my magazine then i need to decide on whether to keep them there or hide them.


2)

this would be a good photo for the background of my double page spread of my magazine because the the whole composition is filled. i edited it into black and white because the composition is busy so the colour doesn't need to be bright.
3)

i could crop out the right hand side of this photo because it is someones hand holding a drink - which is irrelevant and confusing. it draws eyes to that rather than the actual purpose of the picture (the two people).

4)

this is not that interesting so wouldn't be good for a front cover. the pixals arn't clear. it would be good for a small print in the corner of my double page spread/contents page.

5)

because this photo is landscape, it would be good for a front cover or contents page. the colours are really interesting and bright. it represents the electronic genre of music well because the tuning decks are clearly in view. i would easily be able to inset text onto this picture - there is a large space at the top for a title, the right hand side is free for text and so is the left bottom corner.

6)

this photo shows movement of the DJs. the effect is really interesting and unusual.

7)

because this photo is landscape it would be good for my front cover/contents page. the

8)

this photo shows people having a good time. even though the two boys take up little space, i wouldn't crop this because the light effect on the left and along the top is unusual.

9)

the lighting wasn't that good in this photo so i made it black and white. i could crop out the right hand side because it is just blank space.

10)

this photo shows the DJ clearly with some interesting light effects. if i was to use this photo as a main print, then i would crop out/draw over the phone in the bottom right corner, and i would also draw over the "pioneer" on the DJ's decks.

11)

the black in the top left corner contrasts well with the bright red lights streaming across the top of the image. this photo is similar to the one before.

12)

this photo shows the light moving really well. i don't think it could be cropped because there are faint images in the background which show movement of the character.


i took these pictures at Thekla - a music venue and club in Bristol. i used a slow shutter speed on my Fujifilm, Finepix S2000HD camera so that i could capture movement of the lights in my images to give them a special effect.  the colours in the images are bright and eye-catching - great for my front cover. i am really pleased with my photographs. 

editing


on iphoto i edited all of my images to enhance the colours and add effects. on most of them i adjusted the contrast to higher, increased dark tones and definition. on some of them i added the black & white effect.