Evaluation

Evaluation from adam tooley

final magazine

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This week we will start our evaluation and I can say that this will be a good way to round up on my magazine. It allows to see what are strengths were particularly and what we feel we could if added. Overall I am happy with my magazine because I feel it is professional looking and gives off a pop vibe! We will be complete if this after we hand in our final magazine cover 

Drafting and Planning

this is the improvement i had decided to make to my masthead and main cover line so far. i haven't quite finished but i am intending to experiment with typography and size. i have taken direct inspiration from Q magazine

Drafting and planning: Contents Page Altering

i'm going to rearrange my content page's images and content to match those of Q magazine's style which is my primary research After receiving feedback on my final draft, my main concern was to change the photograph of the cover star on the Contents Page as it looked pretty much identical to the photograph on the double page spread, including the pose. This gave me the opportunity to use a different type of camera shot and therefore provide more of a range of photography in the magazine.

this is the kind of layout i am looking to follow for my contents page which also needs improving. 

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Next steps:

• Change the overall layout of my contents page
• change the photography used in my magazine overall 
• I am going to move my Images around to position them better, so a correlation is made between my artist features and my stories for the specific month. I am also going to make two of them smaller to fit the space available. 
• I am going to try and increase my page number count to 50 from 40 (this will only be possible if I change the page drastically enough)
• From looking into my research into similar products, I am hoping to add a editors note section as this is a common feature on contents page for magazines of a similar genre. 
• I have added boxes around each heading and its stories that come with it - this defines them and also separates each section. 

feedback on final draft

1) YES

2) YES

3) NO

4) POP?

5) YES

6) NO

7) YES

8) YES

9) YES

Above is the comments received on my final draft. overall i am pleased with what i got as feedback. however the things i failed on were basic mistakes which can be easily rectified 

1. I have submitted a front cover, contents page and double page spread, so i have met this criteria 
2. I have included 4 images - all use different camera shots
3. I have all of the essential conventions except  Date line
4. My music genre isn't as clear as i would like it to be. My teacher immediately said 'POP' yet put a ? next to it.
5. On my contents page I have a section called 'ON THE COVER' my teacher is unable to link what stories under there to the cover lines on my front cover. 
6. I currently have 40 pages in my magazine and not 38.
7. My double page spread numbers (14 and 15) correspond to what I have put on my contents page.
8. My point size is a suitable size. 
9. I have some syntax, grammar and/or spelling errors which need rectifying.
10. The image on my front cover currently does present a musical artist to teacher. The musical mise-en-scene is not coming across. / I need to add more features to my contents page - for example live reviews and subscription possibilities. / My teacher poses a very good question, which I need to think about. This involves looking at my article and editing accordingly.  

Class General Feedback

below are some of the common errors the class as a wholehave made in our final draft. This is something that everyone needs to improve by the time the final one must be submitted  

• Inconsistency of cover lines from the ones featuring on the front cover to the ones included on the contents page. 
• Contents page information is too much - Long unnecessary sentences/quotes explaining what the story is about. This gives to much insight for the reader, which could lead to them losing interest.
• Sometimes genre is not always obvious.
• Minimum of FOUR original photographs needed - there must also be a difference between them. They cant all be of a medium close up.
• Contents page have a lack of features
• A weekly or monthly magazine will NOT feature an artist promoting a 'new song' or 'new single' 

double page spread

The double page spread wasn't improved on greatly except I added more content to my article which I felt was very successful! Changing some of the typography and improving picture quality and lighting will make my double page spread more interesting and inviting! Could extend more on the article and add more to it. Finally changing the title and typography

Content improvements

I actually made a load of improvements to my contents to which I was most pleased even though I am changing The photography I will keep the style very similar with a few tweaks throughout my entire magazine. The contents it's self I was pleased with as I had made major improvements to it but I feel I could add more and make it look more professional

For my front cover I have decided to change a lot since my final draft for my real thing. I am  changing my photography on my front cover and changing the fronnt cover and logo and typography to make my magazine better. When I get feed back on my final draft I can see if there are any other areas to improve.

It is a risk to change the photography but I feel it is better photography.

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MY NEXT STEPS
for my final draft i'm replacing all of my main images with new ones . i feel the old ones where not that good in terms of their quality and could be simply improved. also there was a lack of musical mise-en-scene which i have now rectified.

create a better contents page by making it have more substance in it.  Change the overall layout of the contents page  I hope a reworking the layout will give me more space to maybe add more features, this will then make it look more professional. 

the double page is pretty much done but just needs more in the way of context in it to fill the page 

colour Scheme

getting the opinions from others and based on my own personal feeling i feel that changing the colour scheme on my magazine would be a good idea as for my genre of music yellow isn't the most suitable colour and i feel i could make my magazine look better if i change the colour scheme entirely. below is the colour scheme i will be looking to create. a red colour which is vibrant and contrasts with the colour black.

final photoshoot

these are the final photos that i have decided to use for my magazine. i have added the guitar in for the use of musical mise - en - scene. these images are much more organised in terms of background because it is a more simple background which i feel is better for the magazine cover. adding the guitar gives a better and more realistic view of the artist and makes it really seem like a music magazine.

progress

i will now start making improvements to my magazine! this may mean changing large areas of my work for example the colour scheme I feel didn't really work and I will have to do a survey to see what people think in general is a good house style and colour scheme for my magazine!

looking at other codes and conventions such as puffs and pugs will be useful for my magazine and wil make my cover more interesting also changing the typography

contents needs more substance because at the moment it is very plain and not much in the way of contents! Also making sure that I put page numbers in my magazine and making sure that the pages correspond to that number

For my double page spread I need to extend my interview vigourasly and watch my size font and typography

I am taking new pictures for my final draft which will be used in the final magazine

drafting and planning: mise - en - scene

this is the guitar i have bought and intend to use for my front cover star! i feel i could make this work well with my cover depending on the changes i make to my house style and colour scheme!

drafting and planning

Here is what my new masthead and cover line will look similar to when i finish my final draft. These are not final designs but drafts themselves. I intend to experiment with typography and do a survey to see what font suits the music genre of pop! one of my improvements was to show my influences and how they reflect my work. The magazine i chose to go ahead and look into was Q magazine.

The specific influence for for this specific main cover line was the Q magazine issue which featured noel Gallagher as their main cover star. "What is Gowsy up to now?" Is clearly influenced by Q magazines Noel Gallagher's issue by how the typography is shaped around noel's head which is something similar to what i intend to do. The Masthead which i used for my first draft wasn't really that good and didn't show any clear influence from Q magazine so i made a draft of a 'possible' masthead 

Changes I'm going to make

-         I am going to make my font smaller on the page and I may add some more stories. However this would mean adding more pages then initially intended. I will look back into my research and will make the decision whether or not to add more pages to the 32 already planned. 

-         I am going to change my font on my double page spread from size 16 to 8. This is a big change and will mean my article will need extending to fill the page, as the smaller font will not even cover half of the page as I have looked into this.

-    Although I was asked to look at my artists looks again, I have decided not to go ahead with changing what my model is wearing, as I believe my choices are appropriate and it is how I want to present my artist. He is laid back and  relatable. 

General feedback

On the 26th of january we were given general feedback on our first draft as a class 

•       We were asked to question are decisions – ‘What are you aiming for?’ This means what I hope to achieve and what I want the final product to look like. We were reminded to look back at previous work on ‘Research into similar products.’ This would help us effectively imitate the already practiced work of published magazines. This would then allow us produce a realistic and professional looking final magazine.
• ·         It was said that on the front cover the main artist should be promoting something substantial and not a ‘New Single being released’ as some had done. Instead the cover line must be rethought and instead promote a new album, a new tour or maybe both of them as some magazines tend to do.
• ·         In some areas musical Mise-en-scene is lacking. This involves lighting, colour scheme, artist look and other features which combine the musical theme together.
• ·         Contents pages currently don’t have enough substance. This can be fixed by adding more stories and features.
• ·         Try to avoid comments like “my fans are the most important things in my life” in double page features, as they are clique comments said by all artists. Use more original comments.
• ·         Double page fonts need to be reduced to font size 8.
• ·        

drafting and planning

From my feedback  the improvements that I am going to make to my first draft are:

• Edit my masthead. i need to redo my masthead so it looks more like the mastheads i have looked into.
• Edit the colour scheme in general because the colours do not work that great in my opinion. 
• Edit my contents page so out has more substance and rearrange the so it looks more organised 
• have more photos on my contents page 
• choose fonts styles more carefully for my music genre 
• write more for double page spread 

Independent post

Last week me and my fellow class mates went to our drama studio to take photos for our magazine drafts. We used the drama studio because it has plain black walls which makes it easier for us to edit our pictures. These photos can be used for our cover and our contents pages 

Personal improvements to first draft

this post is going to look at certain aspects of my first draft on what I feel needs to be inproved from my point of view as the one who made the first draft!

Main image: the image was good however I feel that with the colour scheme that was used it simply was too dull. The colour scheme was yellow and the image had a lot of orange in it. It made the cover not as attractive or eye-catching as previous ones. The colours simply worked too well and didn't really suit the magazine front cover. 

Typography: typography was good throughout most of the magazine. I used appropriate fonts for my masthead from my survey results. However I didn't do a survey for the font for the rest of the magazine. This meant I used fonts for my cover lines etc that perhaps weren't appropriate for the rest of the magazine! 

Codes and conventions: I could of used more codes and conventions such as puffs and pugs in my front cover

Contents page: the contents page was quite basic and was plain. There was much to improve on the contents page. For example the back ground that was used could of carried onto the contents page whichever would of showed a direct link to the cover and the cover star.  The organisation of the page too could of been improved and perhaps made more complex and interesting. 

Interview: interview was a bit short but it was a good start for a first draft! I could analyse other interviews in other magazines which could influence my interview 

Independent post

For my final draft I have decided to use a instrument for my cover star. This helps the ethos of my cover star and the genre of the magazine! The magazine genre is pop and a common instrument for a magazine of this genre is a guitar which I have! This could also help influnce future decisions for my house style depending on the shape and colour of the guitar which is a shade of red. I will be doing another mise - en - scene post in the future to show what my cover star will be wearing. I will include the guitar in this post!

First Draft

Here is my front cover for my magazine! I have stuck to the appropriate colour scheme and house style which i have chosen. however i do feel that the picture used and the overall colour scheme worked too well and didn't really make the cover stand out. overall i feel this is a good first draft. i have clear things to improve on like colour scheme and use of colour. fonts and styles etc but apart from that this is a good place to start.

This is a very basic design for my content page!  however i kept the logo and added it to the top which gives a direct link to the cover. i feel there is much to improve upon and more i can add but its a good place to start with my contents. i could of added a background to my page which would of help in making my page stand out. also the organisation of the page too is something to be improved upon! adding to the colour scheme or changing it a little would help make certain areas of the magazine stand out more, 

 The double page spread uses the appropriate house style and colour scheme. I took inspiration from Q magazine and added the first letter of my work in a large font size and coloured it yellow to go with the colour scheme. An improvement would be to add more text into the interview its self and make the shape of the text more interesting by fitting it around my main cover star instead of having it as a block of text. this would help me fit the text more effectively and use more of the space effectively. another style i could use for my double page would be one that q magazine also did where they put a black and white image on the left and the full article on the right. This makes the article look more effective and organised.

photoshoot

here are a few photos i have taken for my front cover. i am doing another photoshoot this weekend for my double page spread!