Music Magazine Evaluation...

I feel that my magazine has the credentials of a real music magazine and is laid out in a similar way. For example, the fonts are designed to be "grungy" just like in a real rock magazine. The background is also very vibrant, with large and detailed pictures in order to attract the readers attention. The authenticity of my magazine is proved with the test i conducted in a local news agents. I placed my magazine on the rack along with the others, and saw how it would look amongst the real ones. It didn't look in anyway out of place, and passers by I asked agreed.

My magazine is aimed at young adults between the age of 15 and 25. The music genre I have chosen to represent highlights this, as it is a popular genre amongst people of that age. It is also shown by the slang and informal language used in the article.

My magazine would be distributed like most other magazines, in a newsagents, and supermarkets. I would also provide an online subscription service for a lesser fee, just as many other mainstream magazines tend to do. I would choose this route as it would be the most effective way for getting the magazine known, and to create a successful loyal customer base. It also wouldn't look out of place in the magazine stands in these shops, as I have already mentioned.

My magazine would attract the audience through its front cover. This is the first thing any potential customer of the magazine would see, so therefore it has to stand out. I have also used words that can keep the reader interested in the article, by keeping the text informal. The contents page also uses some witty article names in order to attract the customer and make them want to read more about the article. Finally the red base colour that I have used for both the contents page and the double page spread is very eye catching, and gives it a professional touch.

Throughout the construction of my magazine I have used various different image editing programmes. The one I have used most is Macromedia fireworks. I would have preferred to use Adobe Photoshop as I am more familiar with the interface of that program, however the school did not have facilities for Photoshop.I found that despite my hesitation, it has a very similar interface to Photoshop, but was in some ways easier to use. I learned a lot about the program itself, and about different editing techniques I can apply to all aspects of image editing. I also learned a lot about composition when taking the photo itself, for example, the famous "Rule of thirds" I used this with quite a few of my photo's, for example, the original photo of Dan Morrison sitting at the drum kit I positioned him (as the subject) in the middle of the frame, then had approximately one third of the frame above him as the background. The original picture is shown below.

I feel that this picture shows good composition, and good use of lighting. Finally, I learned a lot about the effects of over-editing pictures, and how it can have a dramatic negative effect on the picture over all. For example, with the front cover, I used a posterize effect on the original photo. I had to be very careful about how I used this effect as by increasing the hue or saturation too much can cause it to look much too harsh on the eye. I feel that I managed to get the balance between hue and saturation just right, so that it looks aesthetically pleasing.

Finally, I feel that I have made a huge progression from the preliminary piece. I have learned a lot more about the software  for photo editing, as I have had time to experiment with various different tools and effects. I have also learned a lot more about the use of the camera, and composition, meaning that I can take better pictures.

I am very happy with how the magazine has turned out, and feel that it would fare well as a professional music magazine.