My media product uses many conventions of typical magazine covers and contents pages. For the front cover, I included a masthead, main cover line, additional cover lines, and a medium close-up cover photo following the rule of thirds. My contents page also featured a masthead and long-shot main image advertising features, with page numbers, descriptions, and smaller images of other features. I learned about taking effective photos using the rule of thirds, and how to design magazine pages using Photoshop, InDesign, and Blogger through this process.

1. AS MEDIA - PRELIMNARY UNIT G321
TASK-
Evaluation of College Magazine Front Cover and
Contents Page.

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop
or challenge forms and conventions of media
products? (FRONT COVER)
Masthead
Main cover line
Cover lines
Medium-close up
cover photo.
Rule of thirds used
as well as fairly
plain background.

3. My magazine cover includes and uses many different forms and conventions of
a typical media product.
- My masthead used the entire top third of the front
cover as is common of most mastheads to draw
attention to the magazine.
- My main cover line was bold and stood out from the rest however maybe it
should have been made clearer it was the main selling line as this is a key
convention of magazines. I used other cover lines much like all magazines do
to attract the reader and interest them with the features included in the
magazine.
- Although my example of a magazine on the first slide (VOGUE) does not
include a barcode it is, again a key convention of a magazine. However, some
magazines do not choose to use this on the front cover, I did as I feel it adds to
the professional aspects of the magazine and is more practical.
- I used a typical Medium Close Up(MCU) shot for the front cover of my
magazine as almost every magazine in the industry would use this convention.
My photo was appropriate for the magazine ‘Student Life’ as well as being a
successful shot. However, if I were to take the photo again I would slightly
change the positioning so it fitted into the rule of thirds better.

4. THE MAIN DIFFERENCES
The main difference between my front cover and the VOGUE front cover are;
- My magazine is aimed at college students, so cover lines are aimed at them and
about typical college topics.
- My image is again different as it has been made appropriate for a college
magazine, although it is still a medium close up. The pose of the student in my
magazine is much friendlier and simple which is ideal for a college magazine
where as Emma Watson’s VOGUE cover uses a more fashion based shot,
which is again appropriate for that specific magazine as the idea is for readers
to idolise her, I wanted my readers to relate to my shot.
- The colours I have used are aimed at both genders, this is to appeal to my
entire target audience as opposed to just females for example. I feel like blue is
a bright bold colour that is attractive to both genders as well as being capable of
grabbing attention and looking professional.
- I have included a website address on my front cover as I feel it would
improve the readers interaction with the magazine and the contents of it.

5. In what ways does your media product use, develop
or challenge forms and conventions of media
products? (CONTENTS)
Masthead
used on
contents
page
Main image on
the page is a
long shot and
advertises
features
Page
numbers and
descriptions
of features
are given to
attract and
inform.
Smaller images
used to display
other features
Advertising
website address

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the
process of constructing this product?
I have
used..

7. By using the digital camera I was able to take an appropriate and
Medium Close Up (MCU) shot for my student magazine. It helped me
learn about the important of the rule of thirds and how I could take a
successful shot. Also after taking my first set of photos, I realised
background was essential and should be plain so that it doesn’t
distract from the model or the cover lines, masthead etc… of a
magazine. I included a folder in my shot to make it more relatable for
students and made sure the model had a friendly and positive
expression to make her seem approachable. If I could improve the shot
I would possibly make the models face fit more into the centre third to
leave room for cover lines and also I would not leave the slight gap I
have in the top third.
I used Adobe Photoshop to make my front cover image better
quality and also to add text and other conventions of a typical
magazine. I personally felt the levels of the colours and lighting
was already of a good quality but I used the red-eye tool to
eliminate any red eye in my cover photo. I also learnt how best
to use the text tool to add different fonts, colours and sizes to
my magazine to make cover lines stand out, especially the
main cover line and masthead. I learnt how to use drop
shadow and stroke on all of my cover lines to add emphasis
and make them stand out against a contrasting background. I
feel this made the cover look more professional and was fairly
easy to learn. Overall I found Photoshop a useful tool that it
easy to learn to use considering it is of industry standard.

8. I used Blogger as means to keep a diary of all my coursework and to
explain all the stages of my development. I found it fairly easy to use
once I got the hang of it and enjoyed uploading various stages of my
work to the blog. I learnt about exported images and changing the
document format to make it easier to upload photos and documents that
I had already created. I found it was fairly self explanatory once I’d
learnt the basics.
I used InDesign to create my contents page. This included
placing images, creating and adding text and copying and
uploading my masthead which was created in Photoshop
over to my InDesign document. I found it fairly similar to
Photoshop to use as the tools were very similar. I found it
easy to place images and fit them to the frame correctly which
was a massive help when creating my contents page. The
only difficulty I had was copying my masthead over from
Photoshop which once I had learnt how to do, was actually
very easy. I also found InDesign a very useful way of
choosing how to layout my page and make sure I was using
the rule of thirds the best way I could, it was fairly easy to set
out columns and boxes appropriately. The only thing I would
have liked to learn more about was how to add colourful
backgrounds or shapes etc… as I feel my contents page was
fairly plain and there was a lot of dead space.