BLOG CLOSURE NOTIFICATION

Center Name: Norbury Manor B&E College
Center Number: 14343
Candidate Name: Sophia Cortis
Candidate Number: 2058
Unit: G321

Final Construction Pieces

Front Cover:

Contents Page:

Double Page Spread:

Evaluation: Question Seven

This is my answer to the evaluation question 'Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?'

Evaluation: Question Six

Evaluation: Question Five

Evaluation: Question Four

Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation: Question Three

Evaluation: Question Two

Evaluation: Question One

Here is my answer to Evaluation Question One: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media texts?

Double Page Spread Links To Cover/ Contents

DPS Links to Front Cover/ Contents Page by Slidely Slideshow

Double Page Spread Layout

Here's a Prezi which goes through my layout decisions and how much they differ from my flat plan.

Artist Interview

Here is the interview I have produced for the double page spread of my jazz and soul music magazine after looking into and researching what types of questions were asked in real interviews. Additionally, I used the research I had received after asking my target audience about what they would like to see in an interview. 

What's a day in the life of Rob like?

Um, probably waking up super early, a lot of dub reggae music. Sorting out my hair, crimping it out and putting in some gel [laughs]. Putting my headphones in and running to Uni- always leaving something behind though. 
In my spare time, I enjoy skateboarding, going to art galleries and shoving my nose in a book. I like drawing stupid stuff. I write to do lists and poems, blogging- I love blogging, I'll start my own YouTube channel soon.

Oh, so what do you study at university?

I study sociology which is the study into how society works. Through my songs, I often discuss some of the problems that we face as human beings. For example, in one of my songs, 'Adulthood,' I speak about how growing up and the process of turning into an adult has its ups and downs. Some of the lyrics are: "It's a rocky rocky road, is life. And we have to make it clear that everything has its ups and downs, baby did you hear?" The song is basically about telling people that they have the potential to do what they want to do, regardless of the conditions that they are under. For example, having ADHD, means that teachers and my peers had always put me down because I've never been good enough or tried hard enough. But I want to prove everyone wrong. 

What's influenced you with your music? 

My life experiences. My upbringing. And my family heritage, do you know what I mean? My granddad used to sing to me while I was a kid, which I think had a great influence on me. I would often find comfort in his Frank Senatra esque tone and voice. And it would instantly make me feel safe and at home; I guess that's what I want to recreate as an artist really, a safe space for people to forget about all their problems.

Who do you look up to?

Of course [hesitates] I would want to say my mum, but if we're referring to musical heroes... I like the oldies. People like Sarah Vaughan also people like Son House and more modern music , I don't really like what's out there so I'm trying to make something new. However, I like happy vibes like Eliza Doolittle, Biz Markie. I like a lot of different music, things from pop to funk and soul. To jungle, and rap and grime. Drum and bass, house... so as you can see, pretty eclectic. 

What music are you working on right now?

Well right now, I've actually entered quite a transitional stage in my music. Along with my musical identity and a change of management, I'm in the midst of creating a fresh new sound that suits me to this day. I've been listening to a lot of Hip- Hop recently, artists like Slick Rick. Um, J Prince and Tom Misch. I've also got a couple of new instrumentalists on board with a wish to create a completely new sound. Although it's a big part of my musical identity, I wish to drop the ukulele and pick up the mic so that I can let my voice go. 
I've been spending a lot of time in the studio recently, experimenting with new sounds and making new contacts that show me different sounds to music that I already know. I hope to be releasing a mixtape in the next month and a half, so keep your eyes and ears peeled [laughs].

What's your goal in life? Do you plan on making music your career? 

Well I'll mention it again, what I want to do is I want to provide the safe place where people can forget about their problems. And just chill out and dance, definitely dance. I love dancing. My music has to make people dance. Recently actually, I did that YouTube challenge where you're not allowed to dance to whatever's in the charts at the moment. It was hard I can't lie.
I do plan on making music my career. I think I have a lot to say as a person as well as an artist. However, fame doesn't really do it for me, if I can get my music out there, that's one thing. Fame is not something I particularly strive for and I don't think that fame necessarily equals success; which I think is a really good thing to bring about in terms of alternative music and its popularity. Often, artists judge their self worth and talent on the amount of hits they've got and I've never been about that.

And, have you got any upcoming gigs?

Next up, I have my show at the Roundhouse in Camden, supporting a big artist called Frank Turner. We've chilled a couple times and he's really cool, it's great to be amongst musicians who are like minded, it's also good to jam in our spare time. But yeah, getting back to the point [laughs] Roundhouse, Camden, 23rd May. Be there or be square [laughs]. You can keep updated with what I'm doing on my FaceBook:Little Robyn (with a Y).

Thank you, Rob, for your time, wishing you all the best.

Yeah no problem, thank you!

Double Page Spread Image Decision

Stand First

After researching into stand first's of interviews in music magazines, I created a PowerPoint Presentation showing what I got from analysing them and how they influenced my DPS interview stand first.

DPS Market Research

I made a Glogster explaining the research I have done into real media double page spread interviews/ articles and how they influenced my decisions of my DPS in my music magazine.

Contents Page Feedback

I sent an image to some people of my target audience and asked them to give me some feedback on the contents page of my music magazine. Here I created a collage of their responses. 

Contents Page Text/ Features

Contents Page Colour Choices

Here is a video I made using Adobe Premiere explaining my contents page colour choices.

Contents Page Image Choices

Here is a PowerPoint Presentation I created explaining my image choices for the contents page of my soul and jazz music magazine.

Contents Page Layout

Here I made an Emaze Presentation, showing my layout decisions and how much they changed from the flat plan.

Contents Page Research/ Deconstruction

I researched and deconstructed a couple contents pages from music magazines, however, because jazz and soul magazines are not as popular as other genres of music magazines, I was able to find a 'jazzwise' magazine which I could deconstruct. The other, is a contents page from rock magazine 'Mojo.'

Front Cover Feedback

I took a picture of the feedback I received for the front cover of my soul and jazz music magazine. I gathered it all by printing it out and getting people within my target audience to write down their opinions on post- it notes. 

Front Cover Linked to Research

This is a Prezi showing how much the research into soul and jazz magazines has influenced the production of the front cover of my music magazine.

Cover Layout/ Changes

Here is a video, explaining the the layout and its changes of the front cover compared to the flat plan I had produced previously.

Photograph Manipulation

This is a PowerPoint Presentation explaining the steps into producing the final image for the front cover of my soul and jazz music magazine.

Front Cover Features (Text)

This image explains my decisions for the features of my music magazine.

Final Front Cover Shot

1)

2)

3)

Masthead Decisions

Here is a PowerPoint explaining the steps of producing the masthead of my jazz and soul music magazine.

Test Shots

I produced a video using iMovie and Premiere of the test shots I have taken for the front cover, contents and double page spread of my music magazine. This gave me a rough idea of where I want the mise- en- scene of the images to be and what I want my artist to be doing within the shots that help present her as a soul/ jazz artist. Regarding the hair and makeup of the model, I like the simple makeup look so that most attention goes to her hair. Some of the images I've taken, have potential use for the double page spread because they link really well with my genre and feature colours that I plan on using on the front cover.

Shot List

 This is the shot list for my Jazz/ Soul music magazine and why I've chosen certain positions and locations for the front cover, contents page and double page spread.

Model Consent Form

Here's the artist for my music magazine holding a model consent form. 

Flat Plan Feedback

I placed the scamps of my front cover, contents page and double page spread in front of a couple of peers who match the target audience (16+) of my music magazine. I asked them to feedback what things they like about the flat plan and what they would possibly change. 

Flat Plan/ Deconstruction

Jazz and Soul Visual Moodboard

To give a little introduction of the genre of my music magazine, I've created a visual moodboard to present some of the words and music related to the genre. 

Reader Profile

This is a glogster of my reader profile.

Artist Profile

This is a video of the artist (Little Robyn) of my Jazz/ Soul music magazine I'm going to produce, introducing herself and talking about what her music is about. 

Audience Research & Analysis - Focus

Here is a PowerPoint presentation of the audience research (focus), with the questions and answers from the two people I asked. Because the target audience of my music magazine is 16+, I decided to have one friend of 16 and the other a family member who is middle aged to help me with this section of my research. I have also made sure that for this part of the audience research, due to the fact that it's more focused on my music genre of the magazine, I ensured that both the people I had received help from, had an interest in jazz/ soul music.

Audience Research & Analysis - General

I created a survey on Google Forms for my general audience research. I sent the link to 18 of my contacts and asked them to fill it out. I sent the form to people of different ages to give the results more of a range like my target audience of my music magazine.  With the information I have collected by producing and sending out my survey, when making the magazine, I can cater to my target audience's requirements of what they like to see in a music magazine.

1)

From these results I can infer that the most common genre of music listened to is R&B/ Hip Hop, whereas second is Pop, Jazz and Soul or another genre of music. These results can help me to produce the music magazine successfully because I know that it will reach a good number of people who actually enjoy listening to the music genre of jazz/ soul. 

2)

After receiving the answers to question number two, I can tell that a lot of artists people listen to are mostly artists who don't fit the genre of my magazine. A couple responses mention Jazz and Soul artists such as Lauryn Hill and Amy Winehouse. By asking this question, I could get a general knowledge of what people within my target audience listen to and possibly features some articles inside my magazine of the singers mentioned; helping me to reach out to audiences more.

3)

This question was one of the most useful in the survey for helping me with creating my music magazine and catering to my target audience. From these results, I can gather that, in my magazine, I should include new music and artists emerging into the music industry. Also, I can infer from the results that I should put artist interviews and tour dates in the music magazine as this was also a common answer to the question. 

4)

I asked this question so I can get a little bit of information about what I would need to include (on my front cover especially) so that the magazine would appeal to audiences. From the answers of the question, I can tell that while making the music magazine, the image on the front cover should look original, making the model stand out. I could do this by working with what my model will wear and the props used. I can also see that majority of the results are that the feature which makes them buy a music magazine is what's written on the coverlines. This tells me that I will need to include text of interesting features inside the magazine, in the coverlines. 

5)

From the results of this question, I can now get a good sense about what questions I should ask the artist of my magazine, this way I would be informing my target audience about things that they actually want to know about. A common answer to the question was what influences and inspires the artist. Also, I've found that in an interview, many would like to know about upcoming music and gigs that the artist is doing anytime soon. By receiving these results, I will be sure to use the answers when producing the double page spread in my music magazine. 

Artists in Jazz/ Soul

This post is my research about a few jazz/ soul artists: Amy Winehouse, George Benson and Sam Cooke.

I've found that all artists present/ presented themselves in similar ways. For example, the guitar is a common instrument used within the genre. Also, their styles of clothing are relatively unique, especially Amy Winehouse and her hair. Because Jazz and Soul is music which had become mostly popular in 1920s-60s, the fashion of older artists go well with that time period; however, Amy's fashion can be considered vintage in order to fit well with her genre of music she produced. 

Introduction to Soul and Jazz

Here is a Prezi I have made introducing soul music, the history of it, what's been influenced by it and main old and new soul artists.

Research Rationale

I plan to produce a Soul/ Jazz music magazine with a target audience of 16+ since it’s hard to put a specific age range on who listens to soul. I have a wide access to my target audience, for example I go to sixth form which has an age range from 16-18. Also, I have access to young adults and adults to help me build my research. This will help me to gather accurate information and cater to what they look for in a music magazine and what attracts them to purchasing one.

For the research into making my Soul/ Jazz music magazine, I will do two types of research: general and focused. I will put together a set of questions around what people’s interests are in music, what they like to see inside a music magazine and what attracts them into buying one. This will help me with my general research as I should be able to gather a good amount of feedback to influence my magazine. As for the focused research, I am planning to get a few magazines already published and show a small group of people; asking them what they like and dislike about them. By doing this type of research, it allows me to get a good understanding of what those belonging to the target audience of my magazine, expect and like to see.

To produce my research I will have to create a set of questions on Google Forms and send it to people, obviously belonging to the target audience of 16+, for them to fill out and send back to me. My focused audience research will require a few different magazines that I can use to get feedback on. I intend to video the couple of people who will give their opinions and ask them why/ why not they make like or dislike the exemplar magazines that they are shown. 

Magazine Typography Moodboard

This is an image moodboard that I have created featuring different fonts used on music magazines for their mastheads.

I've found that the majority of the masthead fonts can help to identify to audiences what type of magazine they belong to. For example, 'Kerrang!' instantly suggests that the magazine has something to do with rock/ metal music because of the cracks in the text as it's seen as quite a ruthless genre of music. Additionally, the font is relatively simple, black, bold, san- serif and the letters are all connected; this helps to identify what type of music magazine it is because rock/ metal is usually associated with the colour black.
The 'Blue's & Soul' masthead gives away what genre of music the magazine is based on just from the name of it, however, the choice of feature colours have also contributed to it being easily recognised. The shades of yellow and purple give an older feel to it, helping to suggest a genre of music which had been extremely popular in past years.


Fonts and colours used for these mastheads meet the target audiences successfully. For example, the 'Billboard' masthead is more colourful than some other magazines because of the red, yellow and blue inside a few letters of the word. This will grab the target audience easily (most likely teenagers) as it gives off a more mature vibe than a children's pop magazine would due to the plain san- serif text and primary colours.

Music Magazine Moodboard

Here is a moodboard I created showing examples of different music magazines and what is currently featured in them regarding news within the music industry and songs in the charts.
From this, I can gather some features of a music magazine to include in the one I will produce. However, because these magazines are different genres to the magazine I am planning to make (Soul), there's a limited number of features I can use; such as, the 'Mojo' type feature colours- quite dim, associated with an older feel to it. Also, the idea of featuring who's big at the moment within the industry and the current news, which is is all the magazines above, I can use in my Soul music magazine.

Music Magazine Deconstruction

Here's a PowerPoint Presentation of a 'Blue's & Soul' magazine
 features deconstructed and explained.

Introduction and Initial Ideas

This is a brief explanation of the music magazine project I'm working on, along with how I feel about it and what my initial ideas are for my magazine, Enjoy!

PRELIM TASK: Audience Feedback

I created a PowerPoint slideshow consisting of some feedback I have received from some peers who met my target audience. I had sent images of my final front cover and contents page to them and asked for their opinions or I handed the final printed copies and asked for them to video their responses.

PRELIM TASK: Final Products and Cohension

This is the final front cover of my college magazine called 'Step Up.' I'm happy with the finished product because whilst producing this, I learnt new skills such as how to use photoshop. Also, I'm proud of what I've made considering the time given for me to do it was limited. As a first attempt at constructing a college magazine, the things I included are valid and link together well such as the coverlines and my chosen feature colours: black and pink.
The things I would improve on my college magazine however, is definitely my attention to detail; such as lining the text up neatly and making certain sections stand out more than others, being different to other products.

Here is the final of the contents page to my college magazine. It links successfully to the front cover due to the feature colours being the same on both pages, the fonts of text included and the fact that I've included the masthead again but in a smaller size on the page as well. Also, my choice of a white background is on the front cover and the contents page. Because of these features, my contents page can easily be identified from belonging to the same magazine as the cover page.
I'm happy with the final product because it meets my target audience's needs well as I've mentioned articles included within the magazine which are actually relevant to what the product is about.
I could definitely improve on specific details on the page such as typos and preventing from stretching the images which changes the shape of the model's faces.

PRELIM TASK: Contents Page Layout

Here is my final layout of my contents page compared with the flat plan I had produced. This shows what changes I had made and why but also the features on the page that I decided to keep the same when making it.

PRELIM TASK: Finishing Touches to My Contents Page

To finish off the layout of the contents page, I chose to ask for people's opinions on what they thought might need improving. The major thing which needed editing was the small empty space in the top left hand corner (shown in the first image). Also, the font I used for 'Step Up', appearing at the very top of the page, didn't quite fit nicely and looked odd. With this feedback, I came up with the idea of copying the font used for the masthead on the front cover of the magazine, to also be used for the small 'Step Up' text in the contents page. After, I turned the text to be sideways and moved it to the empty space. This instantly made my contents page look fuller. Completing the contents page, I increased the size of the text saying 'contents' so that it would be more in line with the name of my magazine (shown in images two and three).
Furthermore, to improve the college magazine contents page even more, I changed the font of the text to the same as one I had used for a coverline on the front cover, I did this because it makes both the front page and contents to link and easily be identified as being from the same magazine.