Audience Feedback

For my audience feedback I asked 10 people who are Christians and between the age of 16-25. Below are a few responses of what they thought of Revelation Magazine and the features it contained:



1. What does the title 'Revelation' suggest to you?

"Something new and exciting, something where you learn something new"
"Suggests an up and coming phenomenon"
"The title suggests to me that God is a revelation"
"The title of the magazine instantly suggests a Christianity related theme, (the book of revelations). Not only is this a superb way of targeting the audience the magazine is aimed at, it also makes non-Christians question the magazines context, assisting in drawing in new readers"





2. What genre/type of music does the magazine focus on and how do you know this?

"RnB because by the contents page, featuring a picture of someone who looks like they enjoy RnB"
"Focuses on r n b music etc because of the colours and pics giving off stereotypical conventions of that genre"
"Indie music because of the bands for the sub title play indie kind of music (florence/noisettes) and also the mention of a twist of indie"
"The Magazine focuses on Christian music, more directly in this edition, modern upcoming music sung by MiMi - "a new sensation" amongst Christians. Instantly upon reading the front cover, the side header indicating the magazine contains a page spread on the "top 50 Christian artists" made is easy for me to identify the music focused on by the magazine"




3. What makes the pages look professional and what stops them from looking professional?

"The consistent background and style of the pages"
"The way it has been set out with colours and fonts looks professional but the lack of edited images makes it look slightly underworked"
"colour scheme"
"The style and layout of the magazine is very suiting in comparison to many of todays magazines on sale. The layout is captivating and draws in the reader, the use of slanted text draws the readers eyes towards the subheadings. I particularly like the way the pictures overlap on the contents page. The use of "Faith.Music.Lifestyle" is very catchy and helps the seriousness of the magazine shine through"


4. Does my front cover look genuine, could you see it on a popular music magazine?




"Yes, i think so. your cover model looks well styled and the font and layout is dead cool"
"The front cover looks genuine because of the same theme throughout so i could see it on a front cover"
"Looks genuine as it has a catchy name with catchy headlines"
"I could most definately see this front cover on a popular music magazine. The target audience for music magazines can be anywhere from 12 to 30, I really can see no issues in the attraction of the magazine towards people of those ages"





5. Does the contents page simply inform or does it also manage to interest you in reading the rest of the magazine?



"Interests me in reading the rest, the little bits under the headings are interesting and intriguing, like the one about prison, gangs drugs...christ"
"I think the contents tries too hard to engage the reader, it is meant to be factual but not over powering"
"Informing, the contents page also entertains due to the good use of pictures and word art"
"The contents page makes me want to turn over and begin reading! The use of various colours, captions under page headings and the images used all contribute towards a sound reading"


6. Does the article sound like a piece of journalism? If not what bits don’t sound right?



"Yes it definitely does"
"I like the way it is set out informally"
"Sounds like a piece of journalism due to the questions asked and the way it is set out, using a different font/colour for the questions that also goes well with the overall appearance of the magazine"
"Through great use of English devices, such as a quick snappy introduction to the basic plot of the story and the question and answer technique, the article helps the reader to imagine the situation and sympathise with the interviewee as well as feeling joyous on their behalf for the success of the music artist"



7. Does the article layout make you want to read it? If not, why?


" Yeah, it looks spaced out and easy to read"
"The layout is good because the text is in small blocks making it easy to read"
"Yes, as it contains pictures and is set out well"
"The article layout really does make me want to read on, by seperating the main text with questions and short headings the page is split into sections and helps get the facts across to the reader very quickly. The title of the article is superb, "the new EDGE" instantly gets me as a reader questioning as to why this new and upcoming singer/song writer is a cut above the rest"









 

Final Feature Article

Above is my double page spread feature article.

Final Contents Page

Above is my final contents page for my music magazine.

Final Front Cover

Above is my final front cover for my music magazine. 

Coursework Development

For the past few weeks I have been creating my front cover, contents page and feature article... and nearly finished!! At first I found it stressful to produce an image and idea of how I wanted my music magazine to look, I had ideas of how it would look in my head, but actaully putting it into practice was a struggle. But with my sense of creativity (: I can continue aiming to produce a professional looking, edgy music magazine pages that will appeal to my target audience.

Using Photoshop continuously for me actually isn't that dificult because I have experience with it in other subjects. However InDesign is tougher, im getting easily stressed when I can't do simple things such as text wrapping... but by looking at tutorials my teacher has provided, I can simply adapt the same techinques and continue to produce an AMAZING magazine.

 I'm also finding this 'blogging' difficult because producing the actual magazine is so time consuming and then writing up your work and production on here is more work piled up. So I'm not lazy, just unorganised - my target till the deadline is to be more organised and prepared!

Mock up of Feature Article

Drawing up a mock up for my feature article gives me a vague idea of how I will be placing texts and images in an interesting way. I will have a large title at the top of the page to introduce the feature article and possibly have a strapline that will complement the title.

By adding anecdotes to the feature article, readers who flick through pages may see an interesting quote they find shocking or humourous and may then read the entire feature article which will also include promotional information  and other news about about the artist. In addition, I will also add images to break up the text and like anecdotes: persuade 'flickers' to stop and read the feature article.

Mock up of Contents Page

Contents pages are used to show the reader page references of stories, articles, news etc within the magazine. So by drawing a mock up of how I want my contents page to look, it shows I have taken into account how I will place my images and texts effectivley. I have included the title 'contents...' at the top of the magazine to tell readers what page they are looking at and I will also add images of various 'made up artists' and their page references for readers to flick easier to that certain page.

Mock up of Front Cover

Drawing a mock up of the way I want my magazine to look will give me a vague idea of how it will turn out in the end. By previously researching on current magazines of all genre's, it's obvious to see that the main image of the artist/model is set in the middle, therefore by doing the same I will be achieving the conventions of a music magazine. In addition, I have also drawn a strapline, subheadings, a mast head, barcode etc that I will add to my front cover to give of the feel and look of any magazine. By making each of the features interesting to read such  using lexical words like 'exclusive interview' for a subheading will persuade readers to purchase my music magazine because it will seem like there's no other!

Edits of Several Images

By editing some of my favourite images that I will use in my music magazine on Photoshop, they will begin to look more professional and appealing to the eye.

With these 3 identical images I have altered them slightly to see which is most appropriate for my feature article. By layering the image and changing Mimi into black and white or the background itself to black and white. It makes hr stand out from it. I think that this technique could be effective because it will make her 'pop out' from the magazine pages and be recognised even more.

A glimpse of how my front cover will look... I can't wait for the final product!

I will possibly be using this image of Mimi in the train station, this is probably my favourite image, I enjoyed editng it & applying layers and filters to it. I think that it would work well in my feature article because it not only looks professional, but the model herself stands out from the background and passer by's, to make it link to my article, I could possibly create a caption/anecdote for it so that readers will remember the image.


And for the rest of the images, I shall continue to edit them and select which I will apply in my magazine!

Analysis of Raw Shots

The location I chose was the busy streets of Manchester and the 'urban' scene: train station and back alleys. I chose these particular scenes because I feel by choosing an industrial scene with graffiti it would realate to my target audience... like my muscian, it's all about an edgy style, standing out and 'keeping the faith'.


Below are reasons why they are effective or not.

This image I took here is a medium close up of my model/musician, this can be used for my front cover because I think with the MOD, readers will think they will 'get to know her', therefore possibly find it more persuasive to buy the magazine. However, I feel the image will look better if I filter some colour for the graffiti so it stands out, and also altering the brightness and contrast because of her dark hair, she seems to be disapearing in the background. After all that tweeking on photoshop, this image will look pretty good for a front cover!

 

I love the fact I took this image by mistake. Photo's such as these make models/muscians look friendly, approachable and 'real'. I will not be using it for my front cover because of the lack of MOD I i will definetly be using it in my feature article. With a little tweeking on photo shop, this image will stand out and look effortless!

Compared to the other images I took, this picture was actually planned and has always been in my head since the beginning of the project. I love how my musican 'stands out' from the crowd, this is exactally I i want to potray her as. By editing this image in photshop, wow.. its going to look even better. 

Photoshoot

Over the Febuary half term, I met my artist in the streets on manchester and took images of her that I will be using for my Front cover, contents page and feature article. Hopefully, these images will convey a message to the reader - giving them a sense of opinion and style of my artist.

Below, are a few raw shots...

Risk Assessment Form

Here is a risk assessment for my photo shoot in Manchester Piccadilly.

Teachers Comments

There is some excellent research and planning here. You have a very clear idea of a specific target audience and how you will appeal to them through the design of your magazine.

Remember to keep blogging during the production process and show on your blog what new skills you are learning and how you have overcome and difficulties or how your idea has evolved.

Keep us the hard work. Well done!

Mr Birtwell