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

Front Cover

Looking at my preliminary front cover straight away you can see lots of space and lots of flat generic colour when you compare it to my music magazine. In the preliminary piece there are large areas of purple and green that don't have anything on top and it leaves a huge space where as on my music magazine I have a lot of black background but it's got details on top of it wether it be a list of articles, the social media plugs or the masthead. The music magazine has more conventions of a real media product such as the barcode and the price tag however my preliminary piece does have the issue number but it doesn't give a date like my music magazine does. The typography is better chosen on the music magazine, especially the construction of the masthead; it's detailed and visually more impressive than plain text underlined like that of the preliminary. The badge on the music magazine is a good detail that just adds more professionalism and a clear difference between the two is the amount of effort and care taken in the layout and piecing together all the components of the front cover. It's easier to see a house style on the music magazine; you have the masthead section cut off by a red bar and the bottom section cut off by the vinyl and red bar whereas on the preliminary it doesn't look like you could replicate the style and yet change the contents.

Contents

Looking back at my preliminary contents page, it was very flat and lacked depth. It also lacked detail where as I believe my music contents page is a more realistic design. The music magazine I believe is more in line with the brief where as the preliminary doesn't seem to portray the correct theme. The music contents page has more thought behind the design as it resembles a music festival lineup where as the preliminary just seems thrown together with minimal editing. My music magazine looks much more like a real magazine with the subscription offer however my contents page from my preliminary could be in a leaflet, a book any real media product, it doesn't have a sense of belonging.

Photos

My preliminary task photos were taken using my smartphone; HTC One V whereas for my main task I used a Canon 7D DSLR Camera for much higher quality photos and the DSLR also allowed me to shoot different photos and gave me more flexibility. Also I only took 5 photos for my preliminary and didn't think much about the location, props or gestures the model was making however for the main task I took over 50 photos in a planned location (the subway) with specific clothing on the model and doing specific poses to tie in with the target audience. The actual editing of the photo was a process which took more time on the music magazine as I had more of an idea of what I was doing and what I wanted to produce where as for the preliminary I cut out the background and then changed the saturation slightly, I certainly learnt more about photo manipulation.

Conclusion

Overall I feel that what I produced for the music magazine was leagues above over what I produced for the preliminary, with a clearer theme and a better replication of real media products the music magazine shows more skill, time and precision in production and is more complex and developed as a result. Some of the feedback I got here http://jackgirvinasmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/preliminary-task-peer-evaluation.html on my preliminary task is that it didn't really do the purpose that it required whereas I feel my music magazine is much more reflective of a real music magazine.

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

Equipment
I got my Canon 7D during the process of constructing this product and had never used a DSLR before the photoshoot for my main task, I shot the photos of my preliminary on my smart phone. I learnt to tweak all the different picture styles and aperture to create more developed photos.


Software
I used photoshop to construct my magazine pages, before doing the product I didn't know much at all about photo manipulation but did know my way around photoshop where as now I know how to change; saturation, brightness, contrast, light curves and more.


Websites
I'd had no previous experience with blogger and now I've used it to present my foundation portfolio online and also flikr which I used to upload my photoshoot to. I used YouTube too to upload a peer evaluation of my preliminary task.  I also used slideshare to embed my powerpoint presentations within my blog, it means I can have variety in how I present information, I had never previously used slideshare. I also Prezi as an alternative to slideshare, it's a more dynamic version of slideshare that presents using zooming in and out of "slides" rather than the traditional powerpoint presentation, Prezi was much harder to master but gives a better end product and was fun to learn.

How did you attract/address your audience?

The front cover colours scheme of red and black is quite striking which draws you in. The large photo of the subject with his hood down facing the ground is quite mysterious and draws you in to find out what his story is and who he is. A brief list of the main articles on the front page will also draw the reader in if they see an artist they recognise on the front cover, it also gives the reader an indication of the genre of music this magazine is aimed towards. The social media plugins helps to drive traffic towards the "Pulse" brand by building a larger community behind the magazine. The badge on the left indicates that is a well established magazine as it says it's been going for 5 years, this would draw in new readers as it shows a prestigious reputation.

The contents page is very clear and makes it easy for the reader to find the page number of an article and it also makes readers interested in the other articles. The subscription offer of a 50% saving is very appealing and will drive the viewer to visit the website, call the number or text the number to subscribe. The "And More" is a teaser into the whole magazine and invites curious readers to actively read through the content available.

The photo on the double page spread is quite comical and it also instantly draws your attention to the quote which is quite inspiring and interesting which then in turn draws the reader to read the whole article. The use of 5 photos on the double page spread also makes it quite appealing on the eye as there is little text to read too, so it's a quick article that is very appealing. The diagonal separations between the photos are dynamic and draw you in. The subtitle of the article also is a small reveal into what the article is going to be about and acts as a teaser for the readers. The main photo is looking into the camera which draws the reader in and also establishes a connection, a key convention in a magazine structure. Photos pull the viewer in more than a block of text which is why I made the decision to include 5 photos on the double page spread and allocate a small amount to the article.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

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

Firstly, I'll be referring to the research into institutions I did here: http://jackgirvinasmedia.blogspot.com/2013/01/main-task-research-into-institutions.html

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

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

On my front cover I implemented a bar code  price and Issue number all into the bottom right hand corner. Two out of the three music magazines I analysed included a bar code with the price tag just above the bar code. Also if you search Google images for music magazine front covers you can see that the majority of them have bar codes in either the bottom right or bottom left hand corners. This is another way how my music magazine follows the conventions and themes of real media products.

One way that I challenged the conventions of real media products is that I incorporated social media onto the front cover, I did not notice this on most real media products however I felt that because of the coming of age, new technology and the dominance in social media and its use for marketing I thought it would be an appropriate inclusion on the front cover. I also showed my focus on the digital age with the use of a website address above the masthead.

My masthead follows real media themes and conventions as most music magazine publications are single "impact" words. You can read how I came up with "Pulse" here:  http://jackgirvinasmedia.blogspot.com/2013/01/main-task-discovering-magazine-name.html 
Combining the word pulse and linking it to the beat of a song similar to a heartbeat, I used a fractal image in the background to make it look like the flow of blood (Also the article header on my double page spread refers to "Young Blood"). I've also made the word bold and used a font that is wide as most real media products do so that it spreads the width of the page.

On my contents page I included this offer which I found in my research of other music magazines. Two out of the three contents pages I analysed had an offer which promoted the subscription to the magazine on their contents page. Therefore I thought it would be absolutely essential to include it in my own contents page to make it follow the conventions of real media products.
I challenged conventions of real media products with my contents page which you can read up on here: http://jackgirvinasmedia.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/main-task-contents-page.html

On my double page spread I placed a large quote on the photo, I did this because during my research I noticed that most articles have quotes that are very visible, it draws the reader in with an interesting quote so that they then decide to continue reading the whole article. Also relating to the main article it is a single column which is quite common for magazines to be dominated by photos and then a small amount of text.

I have a page number in the bottom left of the double page spread which is an obvious feature that is included in every magazine. I followed the same house style colours that I've used throughout my pages; black and red.







For the photos I dressed the model in a hoodie and tracksuit trousers. The location was also in a subway. These two components to the mise-en-scene of the images helped to create an urban, underground movement style magazine piece and also helps to identify a clear target audience; the young, modern individual. 

My music magazine conforms to how they suggest the genre of music with the content. The broken vinyl represents DJs, the hoodie and trackies of the subject on the front cover shows underground and urban which already has now ruled out many genres of music. Then the use of artists names on the front cover so people can identify the type of music that the music magazine focuses on. The black and red colour scheme also shows it's quite modern and informal. The use of social media; Facebook; Twitter and Google+ on the front cover combined with a QR code and a website this all targets towards a younger, modern audience that is aware of new technologies which complements the genre of choice; Electro / Dubstep which is very much a modern genre that is produced, in some circumstances on laptops in people's bedrooms. Double page spreads often are largely dominated by a feature photo and then a small selection of the 2 pages is used for the article, my double page spread also features a small article and is mainly comprised of photos to follow such convention.

Main Task: Double page spread

Main Task: Front Cover

Main Task: Contents Page

 For my music magazine contents page, the main inspiration for the design was a festival lineup. I wanted to created a contents page that looked similar to a lineup of artists and musicians. 
 Once I had done a column of the artists in my magazine, I re sized them all to be the same width. I then duplicated a layer from my front cover with the broken vinyl to add some continuity to the contents page so it would be recognized as from the same magazine.
 Adding the page numbers was a bit more complicated as I had to ensure you could still read the artists names and also easily see the page numbers, otherwise the contents page would be rendered pointless.
 Lastly, I noticed from my research that often contents pages have offers on their subscriptions to their magazines so I decided to do my own version of an offer with the same inclusions as the real magazines (website, phone in, text). Features like this make the magazine seem more real and professional.

Here is an example festival lineups: