Section A 1A question

Describe the ways in which your production was informed by research into real media texts and how your ability to use such research for production developed over time.

At AS level I researched into real media texts by looking into magazines such as Kerrang and NME. They have the same genre as my magazine which helped me to understand what features should be included in a successful magazine that would also attract the targeted audience. These types of magazines, in the style of punk rock, usually contain very few colours and almost always use black as this colour has connotations of being associated with the rock genre. I already had knowledge of these magazines which made my magazine production easier in terms of the model's appearance, the colours and text, and relating them to music. These magazines are quite popular within this genre which is why I chose them as examples and inspiration to get a good idea of what the audience prefers in order to make my magazine professional and successful. For the most part of my main product, the magazine, I was creative in ways such as the name, headline, colour arrangements, and model position. The model on the front has her head facing away from the camera which is not usually seen on a magazine if they are to be 'inviting'. Most of the time they will be looking at the camera to give a direct address to the audience but in my magazine I wanted to create a look of mystery so we don't actually get to see her whole face. She is with a prop, the guitar, which is only rarely found on a magazine and this makes my magazine more original than the other real media texts.

For the double page spread in my music magazine at AS I researched into other double page features such as the ones listed above, NME and Kerrang, they didn't have many double page features to look into but I found some useful pages that consisted of of articles on music that display a good deal of text and images. This helped me understand what a music magazine double page should consist of. I carefully planned the images out so they would fit on the page without looking messy or out of place, by researching into other magazines I have gained knowledge on how to properly position photos in order to make them as professional as possible. 

For my music magazine I used Photoshop in the first half of production. I changed halfway through because I found Photoshop to take a lot of time as I had no skills in that programme. I did learn a few things in it but it was wasting too much time so I edited the images and moved them into Publisher which is when I presented the magazine as a whole, including background, text and colour schemes. The editing skills I learned in Photoshop will be useful in the future, for example, creating another media production such as a poster/magazine etc and using the editing tools and touch ups to make the images look professional. On the other hand, this will take time to do and may be easier and quicker if I was to use programmes such as Publisher, or any other Windows Office programmes.

In post-production for my AS media magazine I changed a few features to make it look more appealing to the target audience. These were factors such as the colour red for the background instead of orange. I chose red as it is more fiery giving the link between the colours and the masthead 'fire'. Red has connotations of being associated with blood, fire, rage, and danger. On the other hand it can also mean passion, romance or love. In the case of my magazine I have paired the colour red with black and white throughout to show that it is reinforcing the 'rock' genre as seen in most magazines of this type. 

In A2 I looked at a range of differing genres such as regional and fashion. My magazine is a combination of both these genres which made it harder to get a real media text example to be inspired by. However, I managed to look at etc magazine and northnews which involved characteristics of each genre. Both concentrating on one key feature, I added parts of each magazine to make mine as original as possible. By doing this I have a one of a kind magazine that can attract two types of audiences that prefer certain genres, for example, my magazine mixes pop culture and indie/rock, only subtly but the audience can still be interested if the themes are kept as equals. I researched into the magazines mentioned above to get an idea of what these types contain and how I can use it to appeal to the same audience as if it were competition. 

I used Pixlr, some Photoshop, and Publisher to do my A2 magazine. These are all the digital technologies I used to create and edit my magazine as well as the internet for research and planning of the initial layout. Pixlr is a simplified version of Photoshop in which I could edit my images in less time but for the same amount of overall quality. It is not as professional as Photoshop but the image kept its quality. This was because I couldn't spend too long on the editing of the images otherwise I would run out of time to get the text and overall presentation done, which is quite a vital part. As explained in AS production, I couldn't use Photoshop for very long as I didn't have the appropriate skills to complete the task solely on that programme, however I did use it for one of the ancillary tasks which boosted my skills in that area a little further. After the magazine was completed I went back to do some post production which was mostly editing the images to make them stand out more, for example, I lightened up most of the photos so that the model would have a soft feminine face as this would appeal to the targeted audience more, they would look up to her and be inspired as well. There wasn't much editing to be done on the magazine because I captured them in natural light which is what I hoped to get in the photos. Since this went well all I had to do was sharpen and lighten up the models face to give her a 'flawless' look. Some colours were too bright and used too often so I took the one brightest colour on each page (excluding the contents page) and scarcely implemented it into the page. This way the text was still readable but the one colour attracts attention over to that area. This part of production helped me to develop my editing skills and further my creativity to produce the best possible outcome I could achieve.