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

Once I began my media course work I analysed a couple of magazine covers, contents pages and double page spreads in order for me to gain knowledge about the conventions used on existing media products and examine how they appeared within the magazine. As I created my own music magazine I took into consideration and used similar conventions from the previous magazines I had analysed.

I achieved this by inserting within my front cover a central mid-shot image that would highlight the artist that would be in the main article of my magazine. The mid-shot image reveals the topic with more details, revealing sufficient for the audience to sense as if they were admiring the entire topic. Above my central image I placed the title block which is extended across the top of the magazine, with a bold format that includes two contrasting colours (black and light blue) which give the magazine a vibrant appearance. I did this in order to make the magazine stand out and noticeable to the audiences from a quick glance. The central image is supported with anchorage text that includes a quotation or a couple of words from the main article this is done in order to grab the audience’s attention, making the want to read more. In order for my anchorage text to stand out from the puffs I made the text bigger and brighter, this gives it greater importance to the precise article. The colour scheme that I used within my magazine is black, white and blue giving the magazine a contrasting appearance that makes it stand out from other magazines. The puffs located around my image also use the colours black, white and blue as these colours stand out from the gray background. The font used on the puffs is the same as the anchorage text, though the font is much small in order for the magazine to include a straightforward and tidy appearance, which facilitates reading for the audience. Additionally I added buzz words like ‘Plus’ and ‘Exclusive’ in order to emphasize the anchorage text and puffs. Finally I included the price, bar code and website on the bottom right corner.

Within the creation of my content page I have used a conventional appearance, as I inserted five main images which represent the areas of interest with organised text at bottom of the page. For audiences comfort I have number my images in order for them to find what they are looking for quicker. I used a house style throughout the magazine by softening the edges of the features within my music magazine, this makes the magazine appear eye catching and helps it standout from other music magazines.

My article begins with a full-size image of Gabriela that takes up the entire page. I have done this in order to establish the artist which the article is regarding. On top of the image I included a quote to grab the audiences’ attention and appeal to them so that they would like to read the entire article. Then the next page to my image is placed my article in a conventional layout similar from the Vibe music magazine that I had analysed previously and which also inspired me. The article includes the interview I did on my artist and an image of her. My third page also contains an entire image of my artist; although this time I decided to include part of my article over my image. I have numbered and maintained the same colour scheme throughout the three pages of my article.

Analysis of my final survey results

This is the final questionnaire I have created in order to discover my target audiences’ opinion towards the features I have included within my final music magazine. These are the results I have gathered and the conclusions I have made:

From the results gathered I am able to notice that the majority of the time I have made the correct choice towards my music magazine, as the responses from my target audiences’ were mainly positive.

Final Music Magazine Survey

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5JFDRY9

Magazine - Final

 

Magazine Artical

Gabriela talks about the changes within her life after being the youngest person to have won the X Factor.
What has changed in your life since you've won X Factor?.

Well things have changed drastically since the X Factor; I’ve now got myself a record deal, a huge amount of fans and since then I’ve been to America to recode my debut solo album.

So out of all of those things you’ve done so far what has been your highlight?

Humm.. My highlight was performing at T4 on the beach because it was the first time I had officially preformed my single, so it’s good to be able to you know get your music done and then be able to show everyone what you’ve been working on and all the hard work you’ve put into it, its defiantly a big reward.

Cheryl Cole was your mentor on the X Factor has she heard any of your solo stuff?

Humm, no I don’t think she has, I haven’t heard anything from her since the show, but she has a lot going on right now anyways, so will leave her to it.

Swagger Jagger is your explosive debut solo single, so for people that don’t know, what is a swagger jagger?

A swagger jagger is basically someone who steels your style off of you or maybe they do have their own style but just like yours a little too much.

Let’s talk about your solo video which is incredible, there are colours, it’s fierce, and it’s explosive. What can you tell us? What was that whole experience like?

It was amazing, obviously it was my first video, I was super excited about it, though it was also quite stressful as well because I really had to put my all into it, but it turned out really well and I’m really, really happy with it.

Now we have heard that Superhero is going to be your next single is it official or is it just gossip?

I can’t really confirm or deny that you’ll just have to wait and see I think.

Did you get to keep the clothes you had worn on set?

Yes, I love that, my stylists are really good like that anyway you know what they buy for me to wear is mine, but I couldn’t give it to anyone else, no one else could wear it, it’s mine. 

Your fans are called brats, did u call them that? 

No, actually during the show someone actually said I was a brat, I think it was Simon Cowell, and the it just came together, well I’m alright I just know what I want and that makes me a brat some times, I’m only 17 I have grown up yet and I probably never will, but sometimes I don’t agree with something and try to get my own way, but in a nice way not evil, I’m not evil.

Your fist song leaked on the internet last week before you got to release it, how did feel about that?

Well I wasn’t happy at, and I don’t think anybody would be, I just felt like I worked really hard on it, and the fact that it wasn’t actually the real version, then people where sort of judging it when it wasn’t even the real one, I was out of my control.

Now your debut solo album is out later in the year, what can we expect from it? Have you got an album title yet?

I have got an album title but I don’t want to tell anyone yet because I so excited about it and I don’t want to let anything out at one, so you’ll have to wait and see, I bit off suspense won’t kill you. I’ll say the album is quite edgy I don’t really like using that term but there’s no other term to describe it, but it’s a mixture of thing, it’s a big bundle, like I keep saying it’s like a jig box, you know there’s a bit of this a bit of that, there collaborations.

What collaborations are there?

I can tell you one, I’ve got a very interesting song with Busta Rhymes, it’s quite surprising he obviously got played the song and he really liked it, so he being him it didn’t take him very long and he had done his part, which is amazing.

Did you get to meet him?

No, sometimes I think people automatically think you get to meet the artist, but actually you don’t , though I’m not that sad about that because his on my song the song that I had help write, so it made me really happy.

So you have quite a few celeb fans including Lilly Allen who recently tweeted she’s a fan of your latest single Swagger Jagger and she’s also said stuff about you in the past, so could you possibly maybe work with her in the future?

You know what, I would absolutely love to work with her, just pure and simply because I’ve grown up listening to her music. I remember me sat at computer actually getting an instrumental up to her song and singing it. My Nan use to make me sing Alfie, maybe one day she could sing it for my Nan, ‘aww’ that would be brilliant.

At the start of this year you’ve preformed to a packed out audience at G.A.Y, what was that like performing at G.A.Y?

‘Yh’ it was really good fun. Not what I expected, I heard that when everyone was inside there were like big queues so I’m pretty disappointed that we couldn’t fit everyone in, but you never know I might be doing another performance.

Are you going to be playing anymore shows in the UK? When can we see you live?

Defiantly, I’m going to try to fit in as many as possible, because that’s what I do, I mean I’m a performer and I prefer to be on stage, live to a big audience, I’m excited.      

What’s the coolest pop start thing you’ve done so far?                                                                 

‘Aww yh’ I got my dad a car for father’s day, I got him a range rover sport, but my idea was to get him a three wheeler give that to him first and say look what I got u dad, look at this beauty and then give him the range rover. But I just didn’t have enough time I didn’t even put a bow on it.

In five years from now what do you hope to have achieved?

That’s quite hard because I’ve actually done more than I ever thought I would anyway. I away I can’t believe any of this actually happened. 

So are you generally in a happy place at the moment?

‘Yh’ everything seems to be going alright I’ve got the song out and the album has one more track for me to go in and lay my vocals on

Would you recommend that people should do X factor?

Yes, you can get so much from it; I mean even if you don’t get through to the live shows, there’s so much you can learn from it. For example I learnt about the way people may view me and the way I need to progress with my vocals and things like that, but then again it’s not an easy way through, there’s a lot to do its basically learning a new song for maybe three or four days not actually the whole week because there are other thing you need to prepare for, it’s amazing but stressful.

Magazine - Second Draft

Photo Editing

I wanted images that really stood out within my magazine, therefore I decided to use some different types of editing.

With my first image I had the idea of having the same image side by side but with different effects giving the magazine a creative appearance.

My starting image was a normal mid-shot coloured image.

Firstly I uploaded my image on to Photoshop and copied it, I then rotated it 180 degrees and applied the Black and White effect onto the image. To finish off I then pasted the original image and placed both images side by side.



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 With my second image, I uploaded it on to Photoshop, then applied the Black and White effect tool onto image.

Before:

                                         

After:

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With My third and fourth image, I uploaded them separately on to Photoshop and decided to use the Blur tool so that i was able to get rid of the unwanted backgrounds as one of my images contained a bin within the background that made the image appear unattractive, and the other contained a Christmas tree which didn't really have much to do with the genre of my magazine, so I got to the conclusion that if I blurred the background I would be able to make the most of my images and at the same time give them both a creative appearance. 


Third image -                                          Before:

                                                            After:

Fourth image -                                     Before:

                                                                After: