Final Production of Amplitude

Evaluation Questions: 7 Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Before creating my music magazine I was set a preliminary task of creating a school magazine as you will be able to see in my first couple of posts. Or even below. By doing this it gave me a clear insight to what was up ahead and even though they were quickly drafted up it still took me awhile to get used to the software. Also you can see that the pictures aren't the best photos compared to my final Music Magazine photos but that makes it easier for me to establish the progression I have made in this course. The purpose of this prelim task was to give us an insight to the software's as I've mentioned but also to see how much time and effort that has to be put in to create the best product possible.

Because of the challenge I knew I had ahead I decided to research more into how to use the software's which were InDesign and Photoshop as I wanted my magazine to be the best I could possibly make it so I watched a few videos on YouTube and also checked out a few blogs just so I knew what all the tools were in each program and how I could use them in my creation of my products and it taught me a lot that I wouldn't of known about if I never did it. Another bit of research I did was looking at other competitive magazines in the industry as I wanted to see how they lay their magazines out and how the theme plays into the whole magazine.

 

Another step that I took in progression to create my final outcome was to create many mini drafts for each page that I was creating as this way I could pick out all the parts that I thought would suit my audience and try to play with them all to fit into the whole of my magazine and it also allowed me to make less mistakes with the software's because I had it all planned out and I had a vision of the final product in my head which really enhanced my final outcomes of my magazine.

 

Overall though I believe that I have achieved a lot more than I expected and it is all down to the time and effort that I put into creating it but also the research that I did behind the creation which made the product possible. Creating a magazine is a lot harder than it looks as sometimes what you want doesn't always agree with the software so you can find yourself fighting with the product to do something which I didn't expect but I came across which became very frustrating as I continued to create my magazine. By completing this task though gave me a sense of achievement and has also give me a better over view of Media and also Business which will help me in my other studies and to conclude maybe with a bit more professional help and time put to make the magazine more professional editing the little parts that may not be selling point that I could possibly be able to compete with other competitors within the industry in stores as well as online.



 

Evaluation Questions: 6 What type of media institution might might distribute your media product and why?

For the publisher of my magazine I would like to use IPC Media as according to the media and internet resources they are the leading consumer magazine and digital publisher. Which I believe would be really useful when putting a new magazine into a competitive mass market as they are well established and known by a big variety of audiences. So with the right marketing and advertising I believe that this magazine could be a big hit within the industry.

 

For the distribution part of the production I would like to offer my magazine as both a physical printed copy but also up for a digital download as through my research I have gathered that internet shopping and digital downloads are increasing due to household tablets, phones, laptops etc. able to connect to the computer with broadband speeds getting quicker therefore I would put my products up for both digital downloads and the traditional methods of in-store shopping. Such retailers I would like to put my magazine in are the high class stores such as HMV, Waterstones and WH Smith, these three mainly as they are well known for their mass sales with similar products, and then also supermarkets such as ASDA and Tesco as these stores would have a variety of different audiences coming in and viewing the product which could encourage the sale.
 

To conclude, because of IPC being so well established and being reliable over the many years, I wouldn't be able to choose another company and also they have more than 60 iconic media brands so I would use IPC as a distributer as they are known to create content for multiple platforms. Which would mean I would have to create a digital format copy as well as the physical copy which is what I want to do anyway but this also puts my in the ranks to compete with other music magazine companies as I have a specific audience and it is fresh in the stalls which could be the difference. So by distributing through IPC gives me the chance to publish the magazine in many different buying 'positions' which many people would prefer due to their needs.

 

 

 

Evaluation Questions: 5 In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

When creating my mag I wanted to make sure that I used parts and examples from other magazines to help my create the best magazine possible as well as being able to support and back my ideas up if people where to disagree.

The example to the right shows how I used different products to create and develop my own it is clear that there is a lot of editing that has been put in place to create the effect but without the editing it would of created a photo that could of been extremely stereotyped if I wasn't careful so that's why I am backing it up as I recreation from a photo-shoot done by the one and only Biffy Clyro.

The reason behind me recreating the specific photo is that I wanted to create a front cover photo that can catch my audience eye and by making a photo slightly provocative I believe if this was on a shelf next to a different magazine with the same genre that this magazine will be seen first due to the photo being bold. Another reason for using this photo is that I liked the way the Q magazine presented their magazine and therefore I wanted to do the same to give my mag a sophisticated look rather than a grimy look that some magazines give off.






Overall though my belief of this project was to take on board different magazine products and ideas and also criticism from my fellow peers to create the best product possible. I also believe in a challenge and challenging systems and software's just like Photoshop which helped me recreate this photo you see above but all together in order to create a modern sophisticated looking magazine that would be able to sell in stores as well as to be digitally downloaded by anyone willing to.

Evaluation Questions: 4 What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

One example of technology that I used in the process to create my product is Adobe Photoshop which allowed me to uniquely edit my photos to how I wanted them such steps that I took when editing my photos differed from easy techniques like improving the brightness  to moderately hard techniques like using the clone stamp to remove any imperfections that I didn't want. 

The Photos to the right shows the before and after of my editing within Photoshop that I did to create my front cover photo and as you can see there has been a lot of editing put in place to create the effect I was looking for. I used such tools like the burn tool which allowed me to give the bruise effect on my models because I wanted them to look intimidating rather than three band boys acting up for the camera. Also because of Photoshop I was able to add a police back board through adding a new layer and sending it to the back to add to the overall effect however it made the photo look unrealistic so I decided to add shadows to my three models and edited the whole pictures lighting and contrast so that both the photo and police board would contrast well together.

 

 

Another example of technology that I included in my creation of my magazine is Adobe InDesign which is a professional software that is a widely-used program for page composition, design and production. It is usually used by graphic artists and digital publishers choose InDesign when they want creative control in manipulating page elements, mainly text and images, in single or multipage documents.

Within my work it allowed me to set out all the of magazine to how I wanted it in my mock up so it really contributed to constructing my end magazine product which I wouldn't of been able to do without the software.

The last technology I used to produce my product is Blogger, which allowed me to publish all my magazines production step by step from the beginning not knowing much about software's to the end hopefully producing a high quality product.

If I did not discover these technologies I wouldn't of been able to produce my product and also I wouldn't of been able to learn about the software's and produce a music magazine to a possible professional standard.

Evaluation Questions: 3 How does your media represent particular Social Groups?

When creating my magazine I wanted to stick to my target audience as much as I could possibly because if I went off track I would of just created a magazine with now specific purpose or audience which would cause a lot of confusion as there could of been parts that would of targeted a certain group of people and then others that could of supported a completely different social group. Because of this predicament I could of been in I made a Questionnaire so that I would receive different results that would help me decide what to make my products purpose and audience and so I decided to go and create a magazine with the purpose of attracting Indie/Alternative/Rock lovers therefore I had the job to represent these three possible Social Groups in a certain positive way so that I wouldn't offend them in any way. The techniques I used to represent these Social Groups was I used language that I had found in the NME mag I had researched and also based my interview language and text on the type of language I read in a slightly more sophisticated magazine Q. All in all though I represented my specific social groups in ways that they would be known under like the colours I've used for my tag lines and title as this way it justifies my target audience as well as representing the social groups in such a way that it concludes with helping distinguish my target audience.

Evaluation Questions: 2 How did you attract/address your audience?

As well as including big and bold taglines like 'THE FUTURE IS LEAVING' I also tried to use other techniques such as page folios that would match the theme colour and title of the product I have created as this way it just helps the magazine look more modern and helped me with addressing my audience as my target audience isn't for people who are slightly informal it is for the more modern people out there that like a bit of professionalism.
 

Evaluation Questions: 1 Who would be the audience for you media product?

Why I Chose My Style

Changes that need to be made to my Mock Productions

Contents Page Mock Up

Double Page Spread Mock Up

Mock Magazine Double Page Spreads Page 3

Mock Magazine Double Page Spreads Page 2

Mock Magazine Double Page Spreads Page 1

Mock Magazine Contents Page

Mock Magazine Front Cover

Research and Planning

Initial Ideas: Housestyle

Magazine Drafts

AS Media Music Magazine drafts from callumbirchallmedia

Double Page Spread Write-Up

We were inside the costa coffee shop in Maghull were we caught Kyle Lewis one of The Shades’ leading men. Ordering a caramel macchiato, he was styled to the max, wearing his dilapidated brown boots, blue skinny jeans and his famous shirt that he wore at Glastonbury.  Since the last time we interviewed this rock star, it is clear that he has undergone a clear transformation beyond his distinctive cheek bones and good looks plus an attitude that just doesn’t give a shit. However this time Lewis seems to be more interested in conversation as last time he was the most awkward interviewee I have ever come across talking in broken words and sentences and the most awkward silences when he was trying to think of what to say. We started asking the man of many talents about the new album L31. ‘What will we find on this album then Mr Lewis?’ he says “[laughs] I hate the way people see me different calling me ‘Mr’ or ‘Sir’ I’m just a normal person like everybody else but anyway the album has a mixture of everything we could possibly think of, We wanted to make an album that would be close to us all hence why we named it L31, the album itself though we recorded in Vancouver in Canada with 14th Floor. If you’ve never met the guys and team behind them you should be grateful because they always do a great job and are always supportive in everything that we do.” ‘I didn’t realise how much that touches you and I’m sorry for that!’ he buts in and says “it’s cool, it’s cool” ‘Moving on anyway, it sounds like you and the band are close to the record label 14th floor’ “Yeah we’ve been through a lot with them” ‘yeah I thought so, it’s good that you’re like that because it makes my job easier ha-ha’ “yeah good one” ‘I’m going to ask you about a song on your new album L31 in which I believe you wrote called Driftaway...what was the reason for you writing that song?’

“Driftaway” is one of the songs were I mentioned that they are close to us all however this song is wholly about myself. When you start writing songs it becomes addictive once you have written your first and this song was one of them. I wrote it in July 2009 and the reason for it was that I found myself drifting away from someone who was and still is really important in my life! At first I never really thought I’d have the heart and head to sing it in front of our fans because it is really close to me. The main reason I wrote it is because my mum died and it was the only way I could stay happy as I went through a horrible year, the song though is a quieter one than what we usually write which is what also makes it so important to me, I think that’s enough of that one anyway as I don’t feel so comfortable talking about it” ‘That’s alright don’t worry I can see how much it means to you so it’s cool, how about we move onto another song that is on your new album called Looking at strangers which I believe again you also wrote?’ he replied “Yeah I mean the song says it really but this song is just a bit of banter really and it strangely works well! The song is about Shaun as he is the biggest creep going [laughs] to put It bluntly the lyrics all basically describe him as a person. He is constantly looking at people making judgements and opinions basically being prejudice if I can say that but yeah then he turns proper creepy about it all, this is mainly about girls by the way thinking that he’s got a chance when really all he has to do is look at a girl and she’s emigrated ha-ha but yeah that is the main reason I wrote that song just to show Shaun how creepy and weird he is.” ‘Ha-ha that was a very good explanation thank you for that. Next I am going to talk about is the song you have named Field Song, why is it called that and what is it about?’

“This song is written by the lyrical genius with the name Shaun Hough [laughs] the song itself doesn’t say field in it at all but we gave it the name when we first heard it as Shaun performed it in me nans gaffer, the opening lyrics he sang ALL ALONE IN A FIELD and we all burst out laughing it was hysterical and then he went onto the next  which said NO ONE HERE BUT ME, by this time me Cal and Spock were on the floor crying like no tomorrow and the best thing about it Shaun didn’t even realise what was funny it was great ha-ha however he recovered it by re writing it but I still don’t think it’s our best song we’ve got but that is why we named it the Field Song!” ‘It sounds good on the album’ “I’m telling you he shouldn’t have changed the lyrics ha-ha” ‘That’s very funny I wonder what was crossing his mind whilst he wrote it’ “If you want a small idea I would say something along the lines of him being lost ha-ha in love as he kind of is that depression type when it comes to him writing what you call ‘Wonderful Lyrics’ which are really fundamentally shit ha-ha” ‘That’s a bit harsh don’t you think..’ “Naa he’ll be alright cry me a river I always tell him” ‘He seems like the victim, anyway another song that is listed first is called What Are You Gonna Do, what can you tell me about this one?’ “Nothing much really apart from it was written by lyric genius Shaun ha-ha no to be honest I think this could be our most successful song yet, I don’t really know much about this song but before I knew of its existence I always remember Shaun telling people What Are You Gonna Do which I think could be the main reason why he wrote it but also he doesn’t like many people which again can bring the phrase in but I think is one of my favourites to play apart from my own of course. As I said before it’s a massive achievement when writing a full 4 minute song and it really gives you that boost to continue writing more and more.” ‘Oh wow thank you for that one Kyle I have two more that I am going to ask you before your drink goes cold the first is Leave It Up To Chance, is there anything that you can tell me once again before we meet again?’ “I like the way you phrased that one ha-ha, this song I know quite a bit about it because I was there when Shaun wrote it. Shaun is a layed back character and didn’t really care too much about his school work, he would Leave It Up To Chance but also he wasn’t really bothered about anything else which also he would Leave It Up To Chance. But amongst all that is my little solo about 2 and a half minutes in which I always really look forward to playing because I made it up at one of our first little gigs at a bar just off Bold Street in Liverpool city called The Zanzibar a place where many other famous artists like Miles Kane have played who of a matter of fact I am going to meet later

. But yeah I was told to improvise every gig and then I found it and it has stuck with me since ha-ha the irony the way I can say that it was the reason why I now Leave It Up To Chance. That’s basically all I can tell you sorry” ‘No don’t worry, we better get the last one done quickly anyway before we waste your time. The last song I want to ask about is Mean To Me, why is this song so different to your usual say tunes?’ “Well this song is very close to Shaun once again he wrote it in Year 11 and we recorded it in first year of Sixth Form but we haven’t included it until now, the song was originally written for Shaun to sing solely but he thought it could sound a bit better within the band. I can’t tell you who it’s about but I can tell you why he wrote it and that’s because he liked a girl for about 3 years and he never got anything from it and it got to the stage were the only way he could get it out of his mind, he basically describes how he feels about this girl and he puts it in a very nice way and sings it very sweetly if you haven’t heard it but now all the memories of this girl he has he sings every gig aw he’s cute isn’t he!” ‘Thank you for that Kyle it means a lot for talking to us and especially your fans I’m sure they will enjoy this issue’ “Thanks yeah anytime, see you soon” he drank the rest of his drink and walked out.

The Shades always show love to each other on stage but however when gave them an interview we got an insight to a bit more about the band.  We asked what is it like with all the members and he responded with ‘To put it simply Spock and Cal are my favourites and the reason for that is the other dick head Shaun  acts like a dictator, don’t get me wrong we have a good laugh and that but there has been a few times were we and by we I mean me Spock and Cal have threatened to leave because we have no say whatsoever, he has this ego where he thinks he’s the best and it frustrates us because we know he isn’t. He can be alright sometimes but most of time I feel like saying shut the fuck up you fruit and as much as I’d want to say that I wouldn’t be able to because he argues till the fucking sun comes up!!! Another negative is that he is always changing his opinions on things when I say I like something, I’m sure he’s gay for me! Like I really do mean that [laughs].