Media Evaluation Questions

Media Evaluation questions

For my preliminary task i created a front cover for a college magazine. Throughout designing the magazine, i had many ideas and not just one main idea in particular, which made it harder. I wanted my magazine to represent my college (Wyke Sixth form) because it contains the similar conventions of a typical college magazine. However, My magazine has no chosen theme to it, because I didn't just want it to represent one course, but a range of subjects that would suite everyone. By making this possible i needed too use a model student  preferably (female) because the target audience are more females as they are the ones who read more magazines than men. This means my subheadings don’t have to be based on one subjects i.e. Theater studies so in a result my cover lines can be anything related to college. 

 My college magazine has the common conventions; masthead, date, bar code, and cover lines. My magazine targets college students and represents the college as a whole. By targeting a wide range of people and not just a category the magazine has a bigger audience. So to attract them  i used a range of cover lines and text that would appeal to them. Things to relate to them like NUS cards, and Frat party. I also tried to use the color scheme of blue and black because these colors are appealing to the young audience as blue is a bright color and black stands out against other magazines. 

  My main visual image shows a young student wearing trendy clothes we automatically assume she is a student, therefore we know that she is in the same position as us which is relatable to the target audience.  shot is conventional therefore I used it as it appeals to the audience.  which reflects the magazine and what its purpose is, to attract young students. I have used this picture because even though the model is a student she also looks sophisticated reflecting the magazine of have a more mature side for young adults or students. The image is very clear so you can see the models facial expressions and body language (medium close up). However, I found that my chosen picture was more of a medium long shot than a medium close up. Also, because the model doesn't have a happy facial expression to show how students also have to take college seriously as well as enjoying it.

When using Photoshop, i didn't really no how to use it properly. First of all I wanted to edit my main image because i wanted the image to have a different background and to do this I had to use the polygon cut out tool to cut the model from the background, onto a plain black one that gradient tool is used to combine both black and blue. I didn't want the magazine to look  natural because that would just be like similar magazines and  students are anything but normal. As this is a college magazine they is no need to edit the model etc. because its not a fashion magazine, my image is just a very natural image. The only tools i used on Photoshop was the tool that makes the image bigger. i also used the text tool to create my masthead and cover lines. 

Overall, one main thing I could have improved was the overall layout of the magazine because it the subheadings were not located in the right place. And I wasn't pleased with my final image as I believe I could have done it better. For one the camera was out of focus a little bit and the image I took was a medium long shot instead of a medium close up. But having said that seem as it was my first main task on Photoshop i am pleased with my final magazine design.

How have I used Technology?

For this task I used a range of technology to help me create my magazine was the mac computers. I used these particular computers for Photoshop and to upload my pictures. Another thing I used was Photoshop; this was my main program because I made my magazine on Photoshop, and everything I uploaded was on Photoshop like my images. I had to edit and remove the background to make my magazine seem more appealing if I cut out my model and stuck her on a different background.

What Conventions have I used?

One main convention I have used is a box draft, because this gave me an idea of how to set out my college magazine and shows me were everything should be located. For instance the box draft shows were the masthead should be located on the front cover. Another main convention is my chosen pictures as they are an important convention because that’s what’s going to attract and sell my magazine.  The subheadings was another important convention because it shows the audience what should be featured in the magazine, as this is the key thing on a magazine cover to intrigue the target audience into buying it.

My College magazine

This shows my College magazine and features everything that should be featured on it.From the subheadings to the Main visual image.

Contents page

This is my draft contents page. It shows everything that would be featured on a contents page including the number of pages and the issue of the magazine. Also it shows images relating to the audience.

Photoshop screenshot progress

 This shows my progress through Photoshop and the changes i made to my magazine without writing a thousand words to explain my progress. i made a few mistakes using Photoshop including my mistake with the contents page on landscape.

Screenshot

Box draft of Magazine cover

This box draft shows me were everything will go on my magazine. It gives me a rough idea were to place my subheading, cover stories and Masthead. It also shows me how to set it out according to other magazines. The plug Is at the top and circled to to stand out and show me what it is.

Mood Board

This is my mood board for ideas to be featured on my magazine cover. These pictures  reflect student life at college i.e. NUS cards are featured because most students have them for discounts. Also I pads and other images are used to atract the audience.

Similar College Magazines

Semiotics (Pirates of the Caribbean)

Semiotics

Pirates of the Caribbean

We were looking at the film poster from Pirates of the Caribbean: The curse of the black pool. And all the semiotics of the poster and what made this particular poster, appealing to the market market audience. I.e. color, font, image and the layout.

The poster shows the four main characters of the film. Shown in order of importance. From the Center of the page to the smaller image, behind the others. It tells us who the main character is without even watching the film. This shows Johnny Depp directly in the Center of the poster. Which implies he is the main character in the film. He is looking very serious holding his weapons, also painting an image of mystery. Because of his appearance i.e. his bandanna. This suggests he is playing a pirate role, which reflects the film genre and what it is about. Which is about pirates. Also the film title gives the film away Pirates of the Caribbean. This is important because it attracts the film and tells the audience what the film is about and the genre without even watching it. Also, it shows the roles of which the characters play and the darker more serious side of the film.

On the far left, is a picture of a female (Keira Knightly) looking very seductive with her chest out looking very serious. Her position on the poster is at the far back which represents her impotence in the film. This shows that it is a man dominated film because there are three men on the poster more important than her because they’re in front of her. This shows that she is only there because she’s pretty, which in a result will attract an older male audience to watch the film. Furthermore, she is looking very serious directly at the camera to connect to the audience because it intrigues them to watch the film, which is effective. Because of her sex appeal look on the poster, her role in the film suggests there are a romantic love side of the film, as well as a dark side.   

The title is appealing because it’s placed on an old tattered scroll, showing it flits with the theme of pirates and the time period of the film. The font is very old and looks handwritten which is appealing because it stands out from other movie poster competition and looks more appealing. Moreover, the films genre is more recognizable because of the films logo, which is a skull and cross bones with two old swords begin the rotten skull, with a bandanna, which gives a comparison to Johnny Depp because he is wearing the same bandanna.             

At the bottom of the poster, is an image of a pirate ship in front of a glowing sun. The holes in the ships sales are visible and blacked out but highlighted, which gives a dark image to suggest there’s a mystery of the ship. This also, connotes that the ship has a key role to the film before even watching it. This attracts the audience because it looks appealing and intrigues them into watching the film.

The poster has no set color scheme however; warmly colors such as orange and yellow are used to create a warmly humor feel to the film. Also because these colors contrast with the black color to make it look appealing and to attract a wider audience. 

Masthead Design (names and ideas)

 These are some of my magazine name ideas and also different fonts.

I like the name Wyke sixth form Freshers because it reflects the magazines target audience which are wyke college students. Also, i like the color orange because it suggests that the magazine is upbeat and bright.
Another name i like is College Vibe because its a simple but cool name that also shows who the target market are.

However, i don`t like the font as its too bright and doesn't suite the name of the magazine. So as a result, this is one thing i could change if i chose this font type.

Another name i like is Younger s because its fresh and simple. I like the font as well because it reflects the the name and the magazine.

Introduction to Photoshop

I have never really used Photoshop before, although my secondary school had it i have only ever used the basics of Photoshop briefly.

The first thing i did when opening Photoshop was setting up a file and changing the  picture sizes of our four images (Eiffel Tower, Sand dune, Astronaut and Bear) to 800 x 1000 pixels to dpj 72.

 Firstly, i started with my chosen image of the sand dune for the background. It had to be a good quality image or it would be fuzzy and look unprofessional. Once i did this i had to download the image and save it to my media file. When this is complete, i then opened my file with my chosen picture. I dragged the picture down by clicking and holding the mouse and dragging down to a new layer that needed to be correctly scaled.
I did this by clicking Edit >transform>scale and holding down the shift key then drag the corner points of the image down to the correct size.

Secondly, i wanted to open a new layer for the Eiffel tower, which i found tricky finding the right image as they were all low quality images. Once i found my correct image i used the polygon selection tool to outline the the image and delete the background.

After that, i wanted to upload the picture of my bear scaling the Eiffel tower. To do this was a tricky process because the images of bears on Google were all in awkward positions to cut around. Also, the bear would be harder to cut around because the bear is hairy and i wouldn't be able to cut in great detail around the spiky bits. But after searching how to cut around animals i found that if i changed the feathering pixels to 2 or 3 instead of 0 it would help me cut around the bear and blend the fur into the background without any bits sticking up. I used the polygon selection tool to cut the background out so i could place my bear on the Eiffel tower.

The last image to upload was the picture of the Astronaut.This was the last one because it proved to be the hardest one to cut out and the longest with the polygon selection tool. But once i did this i placed the astronaut in front of the sand dune and the Eiffel tower.

To say it was my first time using Photoshop without a teacher standing by me step by step telling me what to do i was pleased with it but it wasn't my best attempt overall. because the images wasn't very good quality.

Preliminary Task

To produce a front cover for a new school/ college magazine and mock up of the lay out for the contents page and double page spread.