Final Media Product

Evaluation...

My FINAL double page spread

My own comments on my double page spread draft

My personal feedback and comments on this draft are that I need to clearly separate the ‘Questions’ and ‘Answers’ on the Interview. I think I will try doing this by having the ‘Question’ text in bold and the ‘Answers’ in just regular text. Another point is that I could try moving the bottom picture of my model up to the top which might look smarter and will free up a lot more space to be able to add in quotations into the middle of the text.

I will now take my own feedback and the comments from my video to produce my final double page spread...

There is no page numbers... needs to say page 44.

Feedback video from my double page spread draft

My double page spread - DRAFT

Another two screenshots from the creating of my double page spread

Now I am cutting and pasting the text for my interview into the InDesign document.

Here I am in the process again of cutting out my model in Photoshop and refining the edge to make sure it doesn't have a ragged edge and looks neat.

Planning the text for my page.. the interview..

 The final interview text...

Planning what to write in my interview...

Screenshot of me creating the top banner of images

Above shows the layers panel of all the different things that I did to this image to get it how I wanted. I firstly put a gradient on the background and then had to cut out each image and place them in and get the sizing right. I then put a drop shadow on all three of the images to make the pictures stand out more. I brightened up all the photos and put a black and white layer on top.

Final double page spread mock up

I had a long think and decided that to get all my many pictures onto the page without it looking unprofessional I will Photoshop them all together with 3 or 4 faces going along the top of the page. Having the page split like this, I will have a lot of space at the bottom to fill with all gossip or an interview. The shape of the space that is left for the writing will work well with having the text in lots of columns which is how newspapers and magazines layout the text as it looks neat and is easy to read. I think I need to get the images and text all in place, so I can see how its going to turn out.

Second improved double page spread mock up

So... I have listened to the feedback that I was given and moved 'Victoria Smith' to the top of the page which already looks better. I prefer the layout although I feel that it now just looks very standard and predictable and like most other magazines. I have added a second image, but the way it overlaps I don’t feel like it looks very professional. I think the way that I am going to get lots of images into the page, without overlapping the photos, is by Photoshoping images together.

Double page spread mock up

This is my first mock up for my double page spread: I showed some people this plan and asked them to write down their comments.. this is what they said..

My FINAL music magazine contents page!

Feedback from my contents page draft

The part that stands out to me that I think you need to look at changing, is the text in the middle of the page where it says about 'Victoria Smiths' Interview and winning the iTunes voucher. The first thing that comes to mind about it is that although the writing is quite 'cool', the practicality of being able to read it isn’t great and I think you should look at changing it into a clearer font and even making the font size a bit bigger just to improve the ability to read it even better. Another point might be that you should look at making the 'sub-headings' in the features panel easier to read as well, but apart from that I think the layout works really well and is very striking. (Abbi Robertson)

One criticism that I would have is that I think it is really hard to be able to read the page numbers on the three images at the top of the page. A good and easy way of resolving this could just be having the numbers in white boxes like the images nearer the bottom of the page do. I really like how the bottom images are cropped slanted!! It looks wacky! (Cameron Day)

The writing about “Festivals” could be bigger????? (Emily Smith)

I don’t really like how the images are in borders because I think it makes it look cheap and they will stand out enough without a border in my opinion! But something that does need to stand out more is the word ‘Features’ as it is like a headline and you want it to be bold. (Ally Robertson)

I think the contents page works really well and is very attention-grabbing, it is really clear with page numbers and it is packed full with information! Also the colour scheme all goes well together.. love it!! (James Hill)


Having some sort of 'puff' could also be a good idea. (Jess Evans)

My one point just to make it seem like it links in more with your front cover would be to use the same gradient background you had on the front cover and have it on the contents page. (Jack Cooper)

My magazine contents page - DRAFT

Screenshots of me creating my contents page!

This is a screenshot of me writing out the text for the features panel in my contents page.

Here is a image showing me making the image slanted to give the photographs a trendy effect on them. This is just to add a bit more style to my contents page which makes it look more interesting.











This is a screenshot of me making the banner that is going at the bottom. It shows the full layers panel which shows all the layers where I have painted the blue and purple and written the text.

The images i've chosen to include in my 'Contents Page'

Final Contents Page Mock Up

After hearing feedback from people and playing around with different places things could go I have produced my FINAL mock up and am now ready to start putting together the contents page draft. I have carefully thought about making sure the contents page links in with the front cover and I have carried through the solid blue line about a quarter of the way down the page. I have also used this line to help make the pictures line up. I decided that to make a really interesting and eye catching page a lot of pictures are needed as they can say a lot more than some random words!

Second Improved Contents Page Mock Up

This time I have tried to make the layout a bit more interesting although I still think that I could improve it again. I have moved the features panel down to the bottom which is very different from most magazines you would see. At the time, I thought that this would be quite a good idea making it unusual but now I think I need to stick with the contents list down one side. This is where you normally see it and it obviously works best looking like a list not a "story". I have also enlarged one image so it draws you in better with a variety of sizes of images not all just one 'boring' size.

First Contents Page Mock Up

This is my first mock up for my contents page. Once I had put it all together I personally felt that it looks way to simple and boring for the trendy style that I am trying to show throughout my magazine. It needs to be much more of an interesting layout and appear to look more eye catching.

My FINAL music magazine front cover!

I just went back to this to improve it one last time. There are two quite major things that I hadn't put on my magazine which someone pointed out to me. I hadn't put a date anywhere and that can be a vital part of someones decision to buy it or not. When you buy a magazine you want be able to know that it is new and current and not one from last month. Another thing that I hadn't done wasn't quite as important but it was to have a 'puff' on the front cover. This is something that most magazines have on them!

My music magazine front cover!

Sum up of the feedback and what I plan to do next...

I have now taken feedback from my Dad in the video (which is my last post) to see what I should change on my magazine front cover, and I will put that all forward and make my final front cover with the advice taken. I agree with everything said in the video, and I also believe that I should place the barcode, Facebook logo etc all together, possibly on the bottom right  hand corner.

Feedback video on my music magazine draft

My music magazine front cover - DRAFT

 Screenshots of me creating my front cover!

This is showing the process of me cutting around the lips and changing the colour of them from red to blue. The reason I have done this is because in my format research I found that editors did the colour of the title bright red to match with the lips which seemed to draw all the page together. I didn't want to copy this completely and thought that blue could look pretty 'cool'.

This screenshot is showing me in the process of cutting out my model so that I didn't have a solid white background behind. In this image you can see me refining the edge of the part I have selected (the model), and making sure that the edges are smooth and cut out in the right place.

This is just showing what the image looked like before and after I have changed it to being cut out, the lips made blue and the whole image brightened up to look more striking and bold.