a powerpoint closely evaluating my front cover, contents page and double page spread.

1. Gina Brown www.gbrownchs.wordpress.com practical

2. Front Cover Analysis- Image Image I chose this image because I loved the colour that dominates the photograph, and I love the classical look that my model has. The red lipstick and grey eyeshadow contributes to this as it creates a professional look. I still love how her facial expression isn’t really serious, it’s happy and yet she still manages to pull off a sophisticated pose. She was wearing a dark purple strapless dress which matched the curtains and it shows that it isn’t a pop magazine, neither a rock magazine. You get the feel of a jazz/classic magazine when you look at this in my opinion. Her posture shows that this photo is relaxed and ‘not ready’ as she is messing with her hair and laughing with embarrassment. My model was very camera shy before this shoot, but I think she did a good a job. I don’t think that it was stereotypical to use a female model for my magazine, as when I researched existing magazines, there was an equal amount of males on the covers as well as females. I like the fact that I used a younger model because not many young people are into opera and classical music, but my sister played the role of a famous opera singer, and I think it’s rare to find somebody who enjoys that type of music nowadays. I don’t think it was a bad choice of model, I’m happy with the fact that I used a young model, I’m happy with the colour choice of the dress, makeup and background, and I think her facial expression was perfect. I think it was a little bit different in a sense that she’s not looking at the camera and it was an accident, but I thought it was better to use a natural picture. I love the makeup I used for this shoot. The bright red lipstick reminds me of a forties type look, where she has glittery cheeks and shiny lips- like an iconic figure such as Marilyn Monroe. I think she looks very classy. Layout I decided to use the photograph as my background, rather than cut her out and keep the background white. I like that it creates an effect that makes the cover look busier than it actually is, because parts of the image fill the parts in which I have placed no text or imagery.

3. Purple colour scheme This was the colour of the curtains in the image that I chose for my front cover. I stuck with this colour throughout the magazine, and used purple fonts to make it flow together. I also think purple is a ‘classic’ colour, and I think it makes the magazine look serious and professional. Front Cover Analysis- Colour Scheme + Fonts I chose to do the fonts in white and purple. White because it stood out a lot more over the purple, and it looks extremely sharp and I think it’s appropriate for the set scheme. Purple because that was the main colour that dominated the photo, therefore that created my scheme. I tried to get the colour as close to the curtains as possible, but when I did, it was not possible to read what I had written. Therefore I lightened it so it would stand out more. I think this colour makes the cover look distinctive and unique because it’s a dark colour and it looks professional and exclusive, but also the image of the curtains is shiny from the reflection of my flash. I think that makes it look even more chic because it looks ‘posh’ in a way that she looks like she’s in a posh area. Fonts I originally started my magazine cover using the ‘ Lucida Calligraphy ’ font. By the time I’d finished the contents page and double page spread, I realised that it didn’t look classy at all. It looked ‘cheeky’. So I decided to have another look at existing magazines and I changed it to ‘ Century ’. Although I’d changed it, I kept it in italics, which still looked too informal for the type of music I was going for. So I changed it back to regular and this is what I was left with. I used a variety of fonts in my cover, contents page and double page spread, but I tried to keep them all fairly similar. I used the same colour scheme and made it flow with the cover.

4. Front Cover Analysis- Extras Title Originally, this was in ‘Lucida Calligraphy’ but as I mentioned on a previous slide, it looked too ‘cheeky’. I settled for ‘Century’ and made the whole title in capital letters. I changed the ‘IN’ to the purple colour that I had used for the subheadings to make the title easier to read and understand. I placed the ‘MAGAZINE’ beneath the title because I think it made it a lot more clear on what this cover was actually for, I just wanted to make it look a bit busier in the top left corner which looks quite empty itself. I linked it into the existing letters because I think it looked more tied in and a lot more involved rather than just having it below the title. Banner The black banner across the bottom half was just to make it busy because it looked a bit too plain to begin with. I looked on the Gramophone website to see what news was on it, so I could use it as a headline in my magazine. I found a story about a New York Building was unveiling for classical music, so I decided to put it into the banner. I used photoshop to create this banner and I lowered the opacity so it was possible to see the image underneath. I also think that having the opacity of the fonts and the banners lowered creates a calmer effect and makes it look a lot more classy. In the banner I placed the headline, and duplicated it so it would look kind of ‘echoey’ in the background. Subheadings I chose to have the main heading in white, then have the part that explains a little bit about that heading in purple. I wanted the subheading to stand out more than the explanation because they were supposed to be the ones to catch the attention of the audience.

5. Front Cover Analysis- Extras Adverts As I was researching existing media products, I noticed that on classic magazine covers, they tend to have cd’s free inside them, usually classical soundtracks from the piano, but I decided to use a photo of Emma Bannister for my free cd, and I manipulated it in photoshop, turning it to greyscale and creating a classic-looking title. Once I’d placed it into the cover, I twisted it around so it was a mirror image, because I like the idea of having Sammy’s head leaning towards the left, and Emma’s head leaning towards the right. I liked the way it contrasted. I used the same font to put ‘FREE INSIDE’ below the picture. I think this is one of the main reasons that people buy magazines, because of the free things you can get inside them, so I thought it would be a good idea to put one in. Another advert I placed in the cover, was the chance to win tickets to the Manchester International Festival. I don’t know if that’s real but I wanted something to sound intriguing and so the audience would want to buy it. I wanted to use a big city other than London, because London’s typical and boring, so I used Manchester. I chose for the image of Emma to be in black and white because I think too much colour in the cover would have ruined the scheme. I liked the idea of having purple everywhere for this issue, and I think having the original colours in the cd would have spoilt it. There was no exciting colours that would have dominated the image anyway, it was the colour of the wall and the school uniform which is black. Therefore, I changed it to greyscale. Music Notes I got an image from Google of music notes flowing, and I copied it into the cover, contents page and double page spread of my magazine. I think this was the ‘finishing touch’ for the cover and I love how it looks like her hair waving around. I lowered the opacity so it was faded, and I had it behind the title and above the image, so it works together. I think using this on all three of my pages works because it links the magazine together and shows that it’s a part of ‘tune in’. I think I could possibly use it as a trademark for this magazine as if it were real, I think it would be clever.

6. Image Analysis- Front Cover When I shot this photograph, I didn’t think it would be the chosen picture for my final magazine- this was an accident. As you may be able to tell, she was talking as I took it, and fixing her hair. I made sure that you couldn’t see the dress because I like the way her collar bone is defined, and I love how her shoulder slightly slips off of the picture. I think her dark eye makeup and her bright red lipstick are a good contrast and I love how they compare with the purple shiny curtains in the background. I wanted all of this is focus because it’s not the type of cover that contained more than one person, so I made sure that all of it was clear. I like how the flash from my camera is bouncing off from the curtains, I think it looks like she’s in a very high class place, she looks as so she’s at some type of award ceremony in my opinion. I chose to keep this in colour too, because the colours that are involved in this are so sharp and piercing that you want the audience to notice it in the supermarket. I also think that if I’d have chosen for it to be in greyscale, the whole purple colour scheme wouldn’t work. I’d have to have everything in monochrome and it wouldn’t stand out and grab attention of my target audience. These are some other options I considered using. This is a different shoot all together, she’s wearing a different dress and her hair is different. Although I think these are classy photographs, I didn’t think they were right for my front cover. I wanted a shot that would fit the classical music criteria and that wasn’t slap bang in the middle of the shot. My final shot for the cover is placed on the left side, so I wrote all of my text on the right hand side and it fitted perfectly. I used the same background for these shots but they didn’t come out as well as I’d hoped, so I stuck with the other shot. I used shots from this shoot in my double page spread instead.

7. Target Audience My main target audience would be the buyers of magazines such as ‘Classic FM’, ‘Gramophone’ and ‘BBC Music’. I would want people to notice my product over the rest as well. I think the age range I am aiming for would be the older generation because you don’t find many younger people who are interested in classical music. These photographs of the magazines are all classical magazines that I compared my product to. As you can see, the majority of these covers contain a free cd inside the magazine, which is where I got my idea for having Emma on the front. Also, the majority of these covers have a white background with the ‘star’ inserted in. I preferred to have the whole picture as my background rather than keep it looking quite empty. The target audience for these magazines would seem to be middle aged by my guess. Due to the people on the covers, they’re all female and quite young. It goes to show that it’s not just older people who are into classical music. I think this magazine was stereotypical in a sense that it’s only suitable for people who enjoy classical music. This wouldn’t be suitable for people that enjoy music such as rock, pop and alternative. I think the way it’s presented represents the fact that it is only aimed at people who like classical, jazz etc.

8. Contents Page Analysis The decision to use the black banner across the top of the contents page was plainly because I wanted it to link to the front cover. Another way I linked it, was by using the music notes that I used to flow out of Sammy’s hair on the front. I had a purple banner that crossed with the horizontal banner, that sectioned it off. I left the area white and wrote ‘contents’ and ‘features’ in ‘ Lucida Calligraphy ’. The rest of the font is in ‘Century’. I kept the ‘contents’ in white and I placed it just above the white background so it looks like it’s bleeding into it. I thought long and hard about how to place the text along the side. I didn’t know whether to have it going across the bottom and the photos across the top in a line. I compared it to other contents pages that I found on Google and decided to place them all down the left side like a contents page I had seen. I had to think of some stories to put as the contents, most were made up. Once I had finished the contents, I thought on which photographs to use. I used one of the photos of Sammy from the shoot I did originally for my front cover. I put it in the left corner and shrunk it to the size I wanted. On the contents page I’d googled, the top right corner of the images were rounded. I thought this looked professional and quite classy, so I did it myself. I think I made my contents page look quite traditional in a sense that I wrote who the photographs were by, I wrote the page numbers, and I made up a competition to fill the empty gap next to the photo of Elise, which contained the made-up magazine website. The photo of Elise was changed a few times because I wasn’t sure whether to use one in page to life. greyscale or colour. I decided to go for colour because it brought the I chose to put a white square in the bottom right corner of each of the photographs because I think it made it look like an official contents page. I struggled a bit to keep the fonts the same size but I managed to make it look the same.

9. Image Analysis- Contents Page I think this was the most suitable image for my contents page. As I’d made up an article to be in the contents of the magazine, I had to put a photograph of her. As Sammy was my front cover model, and double page spread model, I wanted Elise to be the main model for the contents page, so that the whole magazine wasn’t just about one person. I wanted to show that there is more than one story going on. As for this photograph, I wanted colour so that the page wouldn’t look totally greyscale. If this image was grey, it would have matched too much with the black banner across the top, and the white title. So I wanted it to be separate from both. I increased the contrast and brightness of this photograph in photoshop, and then left it as it was. I love the way that the background is blurred out as well. For the facial expressions, I think she looks like she’s thanking the audience. She looks very proud and professional so I thought it would look great as the main image for my contents. 5an d t h e n l e f t i t a s i t w a s. I l o v e t h e w a y t ha t t h e b a c k g r o u n d i s b l u r r e d o u t a s w e l l . Fo r t h e f a c i a l e x p r e s s i on s , I t h i n k s h e l o o k s l i k e s h e ’ s t h a n k i ng t h e au d i en c e . S h e l o o k s v e r y p ro u d a n d professional so I thought it would look great as the main image for my contents. I think the clothing was very appropriate as the lace and beads are elegant. I think it was good to use a younger model as well for my magazine. I think it’s widening the audience options in way that using younger models, hopefully more younger people would buy it. I think overall, she looks very classy and elegant which was a good photo to choose. This was the alternative to the above photo. I think this photo was great apart from the fact that it’s black and white, and I wanted a close-up. I think her body language in this was great but I preferred her face in the one I chose. I think she looks a lot more professional in the current photo and I couldn’t explain what this greyscale photo would like. Whereas I can say about the photo above; that she looks like she’s accepting something or being surrounded by paparazzi. But for this I couldn’t say she was at a performance, she just looks like she’s posing and I needed natural.

10. Image Analysis- Contents Page This was from the shoot I originally did for the front cover. I chose to have this small for the same reason that I chose for the photo of Elise to be big. I didn’t want the whole magazine about one person and I wanted to expand. So I put this below the photo of Elise with a rounded top corner. I think this made it look official and professional, and I think she looks like she’s at an award ceremony. Again, I used the red lipstick and grey eye makeup to contrast with each other, and then to contrast hard against the dark purple, silky curtains. The way she’s got her hand on her hip looks very strong, and I think she looks good as she’s in control. The subtle smile gives it away that she’s happy and yet she still looks sophisticated. Even though her outfit is different from the shot on the cover, I still think the slinky black dress makes her look professional and very elegant. I’m not too sure what made me choose this photo as a smaller one, but I loved the fact that it was in greyscale as the rest of the magazine was in colour. I think the way she’s looking was good because it looks like she’s listening to somebody and Christine is generally a shy person in the first place, and she didn’t know I was taking the photo at the time. But the way she’s holding her hand up to her mouth shows her shyness and I’m not sure what made me choose it because it’s not classy or elegant. I just thought it fitted. I think for this shoot I should have chosen a dress that would have suited her. I don’t think a slinky black dress looks elegant enough to be a classical music performer, I think it looks nice but it’s not the right dress for what I wanted, but I hadn’t realised this at the time.

11. Double Page Spread Analysis

12. Double Page Spread Analysis With the double page spread, I used the idea of having on page as the full picture, and then having it reflect a little on the other page. I got this idea from my iPod as it reflects the CD cover across the bottom. I had to make the page as big as the slide because it would be impossible to see the detail that it contains if it was as small as the others. I lowered the opacity on the main page and I increased the brightness, to give it the wash-out effect. I used a variety of fonts in this page, I used ‘ freestyle script ’ for the ‘we asked her’. I think this was ambitious because it was a cheeky text and it wasn’t elegant or classy, it looked jazzy. I used the black banner with a low opacity again, just to link it. Another way I linked it was with the floaty music notes. I used ‘Century’ for the rest of the text, and I used ‘ Lucida Calligraphy ’ for the ‘your questions’. To begin with, I didn’t know what to use for the title of this page. I thought about using just her name, but rather than an article on her, I wanted to use an interview like you get in other magazines which I researched. With the page numbers, I thought long and hard about where to put it. I had the big number 5 in the Century font, and the ‘interviews’ in ‘freestyle script’, vertical below the number. I looked through ‘MOJO Magazine’ and I noticed that it had the page numbers vertically down the side, maybe used as a banner so the audience could find their page easily. I also made this page look official by adding the page numbers at the bottom, and the name of the magazine. When I wrote the text in Microsoft Publisher, I made sure that my text was in columns because before I did, the text looked like it was rolling off of the page and sliding into nowhere. I didn’t think that looked very professional so I did it with the contents page as well. I did the questions in black and in a bigger size, and I did the answers in purple and in a smaller size. I thought this would be a lot easier to understand and I think it looks traditional. When I researched double page spreads, most of them had post it notes on the main photograph with facts about that person, but as mine was a classical music magazine, I decided not to put any facts or ‘blobs’ in the corners. The answers to the questions were made up, but I wanted to make them silly and light-hearted. I tried not to make it sound like every other interview you get in magazines, I tried to make it funny. The guilty pleasures questions is a prime example- pickles and chocolate, and Rick Astley.

13. Double Page Spread Analysis- Imagery I love the fact that I don’t need to edit these photos one bit. Her skin is perfect, her makeup and hair is perfect. The only thing I edited in this was the opacity and brightness. To me, this shot looks more of a studio shoot rather than a type of award ceremony and acceptance. I stuck with the dark makeup and red lips, and I like that you can only see a sharp black line for a strap. As soon as I uploaded the shoot to the computer, I knew straight away that this was my double page spread shot. I think it’s very calm and collected, and I love how she’s looking down. I wanted to mirror this image and have the text coming out of her hair, rather than looking at her because it didn’t fit. I love that you can see her shadow on the curtains behind, and for this shot I wanted light curtains, not dark. I think there’s a certain look to this picture, as well as elegant, I think she looks mysterious. She looks a lot older to me in this shot than she does in any other. I love that it’s an over-the-shoulder shot. It kind of makes you want to know what she’s wearing, how she’s stood, and what she’s thinking.