Organisation: Media Evaluation

This is a link to my evaluation draft on SlideShare, http://www.slideshare.net/LewisGlennon208. In my evaluation I have answered each question and shown and explained the development of my magazine. I have also discussed why I made certain decisions and how my research helped me in making my music magazine. However this is just a draft so I will be making improvements to it.

Organisation

Over the course of the last week I have doing my media evaluation on my G321 magazine task. I thoroughly planned my organisation of doing the evaluation so that no area of it is rushed and it has maximum effort put into it. I did this by doing a slide per day. This helped me get to understand the task and figure out what images and hyperlinks I should use to show the development of my magazine. However I will soon find out what improvements I will need to make to help me put together the best evaluation I can. Overall I am happy with my evaluation as I feel that it shows how my research and planning, target audience, organisation of time and use of a number of programmes have helped me develop my music magazine, LGM, into the best product I could make.

Drafting and Planning: Front Cover

This is my new front cover with my improvements made on it. I am happy with this front cover and I prefer it to my original piece. Like my double page spread I only had to make a few changes to my front cover. The biggest change I made was pulling Jake up so he is closer to the masthead. This makes Jake dominate the front cover letting my target audience know that Jake is the main story of LGM this week. I also made the fonts the same size and used a vary of fonts to stick to the codes and conventions of a music magazine. When I last made my front I made the basic error of not including cover lines which were on my contents page. This time I took my time and included all the stories on my contents page in my cover lines. I also used all my made up music stars as cover lines, but also included Katy Perry to help pull in more target audience who are not all into indie music which is what NME do. I also included a pug to help pull in my target audience as they will be desperate to win Jake's signed album. I really like the image I used of Jake and decided to use a mid shot. The reason I did this was so you could clearly see that Jake has his hand in his pockets therefore portraying attitude and showing the audience that Jake does not really care about music anymore and that is why he is giving it up. I also included a date line, price, bar code, issue number, and the name of the people who produce the magazine. I also included the logo of LGM. As this interview is so big I have also included a 'Limited Edition' gold sticker so my target audience will be pulled in as they will want such a big issues. I also changed my masthead so it is more dominant and bolder. This will really help me pull in my target audience as it will make my left third visible. Finally I kept my colour scheme simply and based it on Q and NME's magazine by just using red, white and black. I put Jake's story in red and the other cover lines in black to once again show my target audience that the main story of this weeks issue is Jake's interview.

Drafting and Planning: Double Page spread

This is my double page spread draft with the improvements I was given on it. I have kept the original picture and stuck with the typical image on one side and text on the other. The reason I did this was because I tried to form the text around the image but it did not look like a proper music magazine, while setting it up like this it does look like a professional double page spread seen in a music magazine. I also stuck to the conventions of NME, by not asking questions instead letting Jake speak on aspects of his career. I put the bits where Jake did not speak in a bold font so my target audience knows which parts Jake is speaking in the interview. I also kept the text colouring red as it ties in with my colour scheme. I also made the font size smaller as in NME the font is about size 9 where before mine was size 14. I also changed the fonts of the two pull quotes. This was a key area for me to improve because in my previous draft the fonts were different and this is not usually seen in a music magazine. Finally I checked over and made sure there were no spelling and grammar errors and made sure that my two page numbers are viable to see as that is a basic convention which I missed out last time I made my double page spread. I am pleased with this as I have sorted out basic errors I have made to improve my work.

Drafting and Planning: Improved contents page

This is my finished contents page. I took on board all my improvements and I am happy with this contents page. I based it mostly on Q magazine's contents page with the two big stories taking the center of the page but copied NME's colour scheme of white, red, and black. Firstly I have included the date, name, website and subscription link at the top. This lets my audience know where to go to for news and information about subscription. I also added in an ad to LGM'S YouTube channel. This shows my target audience what songs they have to listen to and gives them free, quick access to them which helps me appeal more to my target audience. I decided to split the index into reviews and features. The reason I did this is because in NME's Royal Blood issue they did this and I thought it was a good idea and looked effective. I made sure that everyone who was mentioned on my front cover was included in the contents page and I included 65 pages as it is a weekly magazine, as I pointed out in my previous blog (lewisglennonmediawork.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/target-audience.html). I decided to use red boxes to split the category and show the audience that they are different areas. I went for white on red and black on red as it looks effective and used the same fonts for each feature just making some bolder. I decided to put a white line through the Albums header because it looks effective and cool and Q have used this effect before. I decided to put some images of the featured guests in to show my target audience who will be in this issue if they are having a quick glance. I really like my new masthead as it is similar to NME's but also because it fits in well with the background. I decided to put Jake's interview and the Glastonbury's review to show my target audience that they are the main stories they have to read thus pulling them in. The only thing I think needs tweaking is I need to see how it will look with the background of Jake in the image as it does look plain. However I am pleased with this contents page as I believe the fonts, colour scheme and pictures I have used look effective and professional.