Production Log: Monday 28th January 2013

I didn't know what to do today or how to improve my magazine. I couldn't think of any ideas for what I should do. So I spent my lesson by looking through magazines and some inspiration. Also over the weekend I had gone magazine shopping and looked through some more. From this mental thinking, I gathered that I need to change pretty much my whole magazine except the last page; the poster page of my model Sophie. I didn't want to change any of my pictures on the front cover, the contents page or the second article page. Only my first article page where it introduces my main article. I need to redo my front cover by making it look more appealing and magazine-like. 

Magazine Shopping

Production Log: Friday 25th January 2013

Transcript
I continued to improve my magazine today. I worked on the double page spread and edited photos as I was completely re-doing that page. I found it quite hard to think of what images to use. I didn't really make good use of the time I had today as I felt I needed time to do a bit more research. I also did another evaluation question. 

Production Log: Monday 21st January 2013

Today I decided its about time I give attention to the actual magazine and start improving it. I wanted to concentrate on my double page spread as major improvements and changes were needed. One of the things I noticed on music magazines' double page spreads is that they have a small article on the same page on the side; it is either a complete different article or something to do with the current artist's article but off topic for example a new album that will be releasing. Also I am planning to do another double page spread. However the article will not be long at all but it will be filled with a montage of one of my models, probably the model I haven't included as much. But this may not happen depending on the amount of time I have. Additionally I started to look through my images again as the images I used on my double page spread I dislike a lot. 

Two articles on one page

The page I started improving today

Comparison of my Draft Music Magazine and Real Products

After creating the draft of my magazine, I analysed real products to see what I am missing for it to look like the real product. I have analysed each page.

Front Page:

Comparing my front cover to existing front covers I see a lot of difference. Existing products look a lot more professional. The sell lines on my magazine don’t have a professional look as it is lower case letters whereas the existing products are in capital letters making it bolder looking. Additionally my main sell line is the same size as my other sell lines so you cannot tell the difference between the two however in the existing products you can. Also the main images are mostly close-ups especially when the artist is female and solo. I may brighten my image as it looks quite dull compared to the other existing ones. It looks like they have a glow on their faces or a spotlight is shining onto them. I also feel that my plug for the free poster looks quite childish and would be found in a children’s magazine not a teenager/adult magazine especially for music and this occurred to me during the analysis of existing products.

Contents Page:

My contents page is on a double page even though not all existing products’ contents pages are like that. But I feel that having a double page for the contents allows my target audience to get a better idea of what is included in my magazine as this would make them buy it more. It also gives more space to include features and images. The Billboard magazine’s contents page is laid out quite differently to mine. Firstly it is a single page and not a double. Also a third of the page is given to the band index which I feel is quite a lot of space. However I do feel my contents page has too much of white spaces so I will need to improve on that.

Double Page Spread:

During my analysis of double page spreads I spotted that all of the double page spreads have pull quotes that are big bold and in a different colour or font to the rest of the article. Also the interview questions are in a different colour to the rest of the article so the answers stand out. Also I realised that having a pull quote over the image does not look professional. However on a postive note my colour scheme resembles existing magazines meaning that I have chosen the right colours. However my first double page spread image doesn't follow the colour scheme as the maxi is a bluey green colour.

Feedback for Draft Magazine

Production Log: Friday 18th January 2013

Today I thought it was about time I get some feedback from my classmates of my magazine. I decided to gather three of my classmates and appoint them each of my pages; so one of them will do my front page, another would do my contents page and the other would do my double page spreads. I told them to criticise as much as possible as it will help me get a better grade. I recorded each of their feedback using a voice recorder. 

I decided to create a short video clip to make it more interesting by adding images of my magazine in it. Also I need to improve my ways of presenting each task by using different means of media. 

Production Log: Friday 11th January 2013

I decided to start thinking about my evaluation. I have to answer 7 questions and my deadline is on 11th March 2013 so that is about 8 weeks away which allows me to do one question per week. Each question has to be answered using different means of media like Powerpoint, Prezi, video, Word etc. Some of the questions can only be answered towards the end of my coursework. The question I have set myself to do for this week is 'From your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?' I also decided to go through my whole blog and improve any posts or tasks that can be improved. For example, in some of my posts I need to add a small description under each embedded link (Prezi, Scribd, etc) so viewers know what each post is showing and the purpose of it. This will be an ongoing task.