2. What specific professional media
examples did you look at and how did
they influence you?
I began by looking
at past and
present soul artists,
such as Aretha
Franklin and Dana
Fuchs. This allowed
me to get a feel
and idea of how
the artists strived for
success and
played a huge role
in the making and
development of
soul music. This also
influenced the
creation of my
artist who featured
on my double
paged spread.
I then looked at professional media examples, one of
which was a front cover of B&S(Blues and Soul)magazine.
This influenced my own production as it allowed me to
analyze the front cover of soul magazine and look at
typical conventions within it, as well as denotations.
Although, to improve I possibly could’ve looked at more
soul magazines, that differ to ‘Blues and Soul’.
I continued to looked at professional media examples,
but this time I thought it would be relevant to look at a
different genre and analyze the front cover. Analyzing the
previous front cover magazine served as a guide to help
me identify the typical conventions within a magazine, for
example: a masthead, main cover and sell lines.
I then moved on from looking at front
covers and decided to analyze a double
page spread, with popular soulful artist
‘Adele’ as the main image. Just like the
front covers this allowed me to look at
typical conventions of double paged
spreads, such as a main image, columns
and subheadings. Although to improve I
could’ve looked at more professional
double paged spreads.
This then encouraged me
to analyze three genres of
different contents pages.
One of which, happened
to be a contents page
from a soul magazine.
Which included a main
image followed by a small
summary, which doesn’t
give away too much
information, allowing the
reader to carry on reading
the magazine.
3. What have you learnt about technologies
from the process of constructing your
magazine?
For my research and planning I mainly used the following software: Prezi, Powtoon,
PowerPoint, Emaze, Slideshare. They were both very useful for recording the research from
typical conventions seen in all the front covers, double page spread and contents pages.
The designs also made the recording more interesting to view.
The making of my production required me to use Photoshop to produce my front cover,
double page spread and contents page.
For my evaluation I used similar software to my research and planning with ‘YouTube’ being
an addition seeing as I used it to interview a member of my target audience. Although my
blog was the software that I used mostly throughout the whole production to document all
my work.
When it came to using a camera for my front cover images, double page spread and
contents page, I was able to take suitable images and the more I took, the more experience
I gained. Although it would be easier to own a professional camera to experiment with
outside of school.
4. What have you learnt about you post-
production skills from the process of
constructing your magazine?
Using Photoshop to construct the whole production of the magazine was
very challenging at the beginning, considering that it was my first time.
Although with practise and many drafts I was able to finish my production. To
improve I could practise editing more using Photoshop as it was something I
struggled with the most. However from my student magazine it gave me
confidence when it came to conventions of magazines as I became known
to the layout and the need to have a masthead, main image, sell lines and
so on.
What have you learnt about your language skills from the
process of constructing your magazine?
Having researched into my target audience, I learnt that the language used
had to be suitable for them. As well as ensuring that the sell lines and banner
would attract the reader to purchase and continue reading the magazine. I
learnt that having a masthead and headlines is one of the main conventions
and with mine having the word ‘soul’ in it could attract my audience being
that they are interested in soul music.
