Feedback. Blog 10

I did a questionnaire with a girl from my target audience and i asked her what she thought of my magazine and several other questions. The girl that completed my questionnaire is Emily Gates from Priory School in Lewes, she is 13 years old and i think she is perfect to ask what she thought of my media product as she is in my target audience.

1. Do you like the magazine?
Yes, it is interesting and has a lot of information and gossip and is written so it is easy to read. It is also set out in a good format so it isn't just a big long page of information.

2. Do you think the colours are eye catching?
The colours are eye catching because they are girly and bright.

3. Would you buy it in a shop and why?
I think i would buy it in a shop because it has a god front cover that has a lot of the latest gossip that makes you want to read the magazine to find out more.

4. Do the stories on the front cover make you want to buy it?
Yes, it has the stories in different fonts that catch your eye and they are the right gossip that i want to read about, because they are about music, fashion, tips and celebrities.

5. Do you like the layout?
The layout is god because the magazine title stands out and the stories are on the sides so you can see the background picture of the band behind.

6. Do you think the pictures work well?
Yes, the pictures are good because if you don't know who the celebrities are, but you know what they look like then you will know who they are because you can see their picture.

7. Do you like the fonts and why?
The fonts stand out because they are white on a dark background. Also all the words that will make you want to read the magazine are in different fonts and different colours.

8. What are your favourite parts and why?
My favourite parts are the contents page because it is set out so it's easy to read and they make me want to flick through all the pages all at once. I also like the double page spread of 'The Queuetee's' because it gives me all i need to know about them and has information about there tour in London and a website.

9. Would you change it to make it more appealing to you?
I wouldn't change anything because i think it has everything a teenage girl magazine should have.


After doing this questionnaire with a member of my target audience i can see that i have achieved what i needed to achieve by making my magazine suit my target audience.
She also told me that the language was easy to read and that she would read on.

Planning and evaluation of the article. Blog 8

This is the draft of my article, I decided to write the article as an interview so that i could make it more interesting for my audience. I started the article by introducing that our magazine managed to get an interview with them and used language to make the audience think that we were the first to talk to them after their split, so that it makes the audience want to read it.I then went on describing what it will be like interviewing the band by saying what the weather is like, which involves the audience and by giving a summary about what will be asked, this gives the reader a chance to decide whether they want to read on or not. This is why it is very important to make this part of the article interesting and appealing to your target audience.

I then started asking t

he interview questions, i asked questions that would be interesting for the target audience and an example of a question i asked is, ' So it's tru

e Kat that you now have your own make up company?' This sort of question reveals a lot and the audience would then know that Kat has a make up company, which also promotes the band members company.

This is my first example of the double page spread i have chosen to analyse. The article is from top of the pops magazine and it is in the form of an interview. I think it works very well for the target audience it is aimed at because

the band is very famous in this age group and by using an interview it let's the audience know what the band are doing and is

also interesting and keeps the audience wanting to read on. They use language that is interesting such as this example from the article:

The language is easy to read and is typical language that the target audience would

Before they start the article they introduce it by deciding what they had to go through to get an interview with this very famous band, this gives the audience an idea of how hard the magazine had to work to give them this information, which makes the audience want to buy the magazine more because they are asking the band questions that the reader has always wanted to know.

In the middle of the article they used a circle shape to write a quote from the article, by doing this it lets the reader has a first glance of what will be said in the rest of the article. Usually the quote will be the most interesting part of the article to draw the reader in more. They used a circle shape to make it look more interesting and to aim it at the target audience. An interview is defiantly the kind of article i would use.

This is my second example of an article of the same target audience as me. This article is from the magazine top of the pops and is in the form of small bits of information on different celebrities. Doing this is a different way of doing an article on a double page spread but by doing this the audience who are young don't get bored or intimidated by big bulks of writing but uses small facts about famous people that the target audience will know well. This will keep their attention.

Again they use language that the audience can relate to which is informal and interesting. Here is an example:

As you can see the language is exciting and makes the reader want to read on.

Lots of different images are used to make the double page spread eye catching and when the reader is flicking through they will notice this page. The images are of celebrities ding some silly stuff which appeals to the target audience as they are young and also of famous people meeting other famous people. Again this is interesting to the audience and makes them want to know about why they are meeting.

I don't think i would use this kind of article because it doesn't give a lot of detail and doesn't focus on anything in particular.

Editing Photos. Blog 7

To make my magazine look like a professional magazine i had to edit my photos, i did this using photo shop.
This photo that i used as the front cover image needed to have a transparent background so that when i placed it onto the front cover it would be able to go on top of a coloured background of my choice, which would then help make it more appealing to my target audience using colours.
This print screen is of the original image before i used photo shop to edit it.
I have changed the layer to layer 0 which then means it has been unlocked and the background can be transparent. If i don't do this then the background will be white.

This print screen is showing how i used the magnetic lasso tool to cut out the background, i did this by going around the subjects in the image. I found this quite hard to do because if the area that you are using the magnetic lasso is light and blends in slightly with the background the tool can't find the defining line that it would stick to, this means that i had to start again quite a few times to get it just right and to get the tool to go around the parts that i wanted it to.



After using the magnetic lasso tool i needed to select the background so that i could delete it and make the background transparent. To do this i went to select, then inverse.








After selecting the background, i needed to get rid of the background. I did this by pressing, apple and X, this deletes the background and shows the image in front of grey and white squares.







To save this image with a transparent image, i went to file, save as and changed the format from photo shop to photo shop PDF, this means that when the image is on Indesign there is n background and it can just be placed on top of the coloured background, this makes it look much more like a pop magazine.






For the rest of the images i used i did the same thing as i have done above apart from a couple of images.

This image which is used on the front cover needed to have a theme with it, the theme for the band 'The Queuetee's' is pink so i decided that i wanted to use a pink background behind the subjects in the photo. To do this i did the same as the main image on the front cover which was the use the magnetic lasso tool to cut the background out.
In this print screen i used the magic wand tool to select the background, this means i could use the paint brush tool to paint the background without going onto the image, this way i could get a clean and neat edge of colour.

This print screen shows how i could use the paint brush tool freely all over the image without it going on the subjects. Again i wanted to use a bright pink to go with the theme of pink with 'The Queuetee's'.







This is the finished image that i used on my front cover. I think it work really well because it is bright and colourful which appeals to my target audience.








With this image i needed to get rid of the background so i used the same technique as before, this time i am using this image for a slightly different purpose, it is going to be used for a prize. I needed it to have a signature on it so that if the reader wins they can see that they win a signed photo of one of the members out of 'The Queuetee's'. Showing my target audience what they could win in picture form shows them what they could win and is easy for the reader to know what they are getting and will want to enter the competition.

Photos. Blog 6.

To put on my magazine pages i had to take photos that i thought would be suitable for my target audience and think about what the photos would be used for. I thought of my main flash and main sells when i did my flat plans, so that i could then take the pictures for the stories.

My main flash front cover photo:

The main flash on my front cover is about Pop stars new years resolutions and so i wanted to have a photo that would represent famous pop stars getting together to do a photo shoot, you can tell that they are all famous for their own reasons because one of the subjects in the photo also have a story about him later on in the magazine.

I wanted to have a plain background so that it would be easier to use in photo shop as i wasn't planning on keeping the background at all, i was going to cut it out completely. I think the lighting could have been used a bit better because it looks quite yellow but i don't think this effects the image too much, possibly using daylight would have made the picture look brighter and clearer.

I wanted the subjects to be wearing casual clothing because all of them are supposed to be from pop rock bands, by wearing casual clothes i think that it draws the target audience in because they can relate to them. On the other hand i do think they could have been more fashionable clothing as the magazine is mostly aimed at young teenage girls who are easily influenced by fashion. I also wanted the clothes to have bright colours but that doesn't stand out too much because the background on the front cover is bright anyway, i think this would be too blaring. I put the guitarist in the foreground so that he is the one that stands out the most and captures the most attention because he is supposed to be the most admired by young girls and most well known. By doing this when the audience glance at the magazine they will see this famous pop star who they admire and want to buy the magazine. I defiantly think that this image stands out the most compared to the rest of the images i did for my magazine, which then makes the magazine stand out most to the target audience.

Main Sell-Cameron Williams photo:

This is the photo i used for the story about the pop star Cameron Williams. I used the brick background so that is isn't a really busy background and is easy to cut out in photo shop. I wanted to cut out the background and then in photo shop use the paint brush tool to colour the background in a bright and eye catching colour. By doing this it would appeal to my target audience a lot more as it is eye catching and would draw them in. The way he is posed would also be appealing to my target audience because its like he is keeping a secret from the audience and my target audience would automatically want to know what his secret is and would by doing that draw them in and want to read about it especially if he is well known which is meant to be.

Although i think i chose this model at the wrong time as one of his eyes is slightly swollen and there is a scar visible, this wouldn't look good in a children's pop magazine but i am going to use photo shop to try and hide the scar and make it look as realistic as possible so that it would be suitable for my target audience. Again i think that the way he is wearing casual clothes makes him look more natural and makes him look as though he is more of the pop rock sort of person, which my target audience really likes. The lighting that is used is daylight which i think works really well and makes the subjects skin look much more clearer which then means that i wont have to use photo shop to makes his skin look clear. I wanted this pop star to have long hair so that he would look more like he is from a pop rock band and i defiantly think, by looking at other kinds of magazines that I'm doing, that my target audience will be drawn in by this.

The Queuetee's band photo on the front cover:

I really wanted his image to be like a typical girl band image fro young girls because for one my target audience will look up to this kind of band and so they have to be happy, enthusiastic and look fashionable. I think that i have achieved all these things when i took this picture and i defiantly think that it would appeal to my target audience because of these things. I wanted them to look happy and enthusiastic because they need to be role models to the target audience and because the audience is quite young they wouldn't understand properly why the subjects looked unhappy and wouldn't by the magazine especially if the image is on the front cover. I wanted the subjects to be a typical girl band and got my inspiration from the spice girls because they were looked up to by young girls all over the world and partly because they were always happy, enthusiastic and energetic. I chose these clothes to wear because i thought they weren't too over the top but they were still in fashion and again i went with the more casual look with clothing. In the magazine there is a page on fashion and i had the idea of letting the subjects wear the clothing on that page so that it promotes the clothing. The fashion page isn't shown in my double page spread of front cover but it says on the contents page that there is a page later on in the magazine on it. Again i wanted to use a plain background so that it would be easier to use in photo shop as i want to colour the background in a bright colour so that it is eye catching to the audience. I am also going to do a theme colour for the Queuetees band which goes throughout the magazine and onto the double page spread so i thought the colour pink would look good in the background of this photo because this colour is popular with my target audience which is young teenage girls. I think i could have improved on the lighting as i think it is too yellow and maybe sunlight would have been better for this image and would also make it more bright and clear.

Double page spread main photo:

This is the photo i used for the main image on my double page spread. I wanted them both to be looking at the camera and smiling because this connects with the audience and draws them in, they also look very friendly and when looking into the camera and smiling this makes the audience think that they are being friendly with them and this is inviting to my age target audience.

Again with the background i wanted it to be clear and unobstructed so that it is easy to cut out on photo shop. The lighting doesn't make this picture look that bad but the same with the other images i think i could have used sunlight instead. The subjects are very central in the image and i think this is very important because it means that the eye is drawn straight to them with no distractions and i also think that by them both having their arms round each other they look even more friendly and welcoming to the audience.

I wanted them both to wear stripped tops because they are supposed to be a very close girl band and it shows that they are really close to be even both wearing stripped tops, i think this important to grab attention to them to my target audience, as the story is about their band getting back together after 4 years, this kind of story needs to have attention drawn to it. I have decided not to cut the background out on this image and to leave it the way it is, as this image will be on the double page spread it wont need as much attention as the front cover because the reader has already got to the double page spread. I also looked at other examples of double page spreads for my target audience and they didn't seem to take the background out of the main image.

This is the photo for the competition on the double page spread:

I chose this photo to be the competition photo because it is an image just before the subject (Kat Cooper) dyed her hair and this could represent her before the girl band broke up for four years and you can then see a change in the band. I think this is the best photo for what it is going to be used for because it is different from the rest of the images and looks more like it could be a prize and signed by the band member. I chose the background to be quite clear for the same reasons as before, so that i can cut the background out on photo shop and colour in the background so that it looks professional and also goes with the theme pink for the girl band, by doing this the audience can see a connection.
I wanted the subject to be wearing something elegant and pretty so that it shows that she is in a girl band, also because for the purpose of this photo the fans would want her to be wearing something pretty and girly because my target audience are young girls and aspire to be like the girl band. I wanted the subject to be quite central in the image because it is then eye catching straight away. Although i did want the subject to be slightly to one side so that the composition is more interesting and not just right in the middle. I didn't want her to look at the camera for this photo because unlike most of the other photos i took fr my magazine it doesn't have to connect with the viewer straight away to capture their attention, the image is for a prize so connecting eye contact with the audience isn't essential.