G321: AS Media Studies: Evaluation

G321: AS Media Studies: Evaluation from Michael McGrath

G321: AS Media Studies: CWK Final Piece

Drafting and Planning: Final Contents Page Improvements

Our design brief stated that my magazine needed to include 4 original images, however before this improvement, I only had 3. I managed to take some photos to add to my contents page, I had my friend pose as an “exposure” artist – “Lonely Division” and linked her to the table of contents using a page number (26).

Organisation: Final Photoshoot

Drafting and Planning: DPS QR Code & Article Additions

I noticed that my DPS article wasn’t promoting anything, and so I decided to add a small paragraph about Second Passing playing at Glastonbury 2017.

I also noticed the left side of my DPS had a large blank space, to fill this, I added a QR Code to a Outre.com where readers can purchase tickets to Glastonbury, where Second Passing will be playing.

Drafting and Planning: Front Cover - Background Colour Change

In response to my feedback, I changed the colour of my front cover’s background. I did this because my cover had a lot of negative space that was begging for the readers’ attention, to reduce this effect; I changed the colour to create symbiosis between my magazine and my artist (blue denim).

Drafting and Planning: Pugs

After adding my QR code, I still had some negative space that I wanted to fill, to do this, I decided to use pug saying “Win 2 VIP tickets…”, I have then put the page number to page 101 to correlate with the “Merch” page, this will make my magazine seem more realistic as Merch and competitions are often found near each other.

Drafting and Planning: QR Code

Another piece of feedback I received was to add a QR code to offer my audience a deal when they subscribe to the online version of my magazine (outre.com). This will allow me to reach a wider audience, by offering 6 months’ half price I will hopefully encourage readers to buy the magazine for the perks.

Drafting and Planning: Table of Contents Improvements

On my feedback, it was suggested that I should change the cluster of album covers to something else as it looked unprofessional and slightly messy. Another suggestion was to add more content to my magazine, as monthly magazines tend to have 100+ pages. To do this, instead of changing all the page numbers, I decided to add more articles, to match album reviews, I added live reviews, where I will write about artist’s concerts, I also added an exposure tab, where new artists are featured to get their names out in the industry. This allows my magazine to look more full and more value for money.

Drafting and Planning: Differences Between First and Final Draft

(Left: First Draft, Right: Final Draft) after receiving feedback on my first draft, I made some draftic improvements to my cover and conents page. One of the improvements to my cover was changing my secondary cover lines, in my first draft my secondary cover lines stuck out like a sore thumb, they didn’t fit my magazine’s style, this made it look unprofesional. Another big change was my main cover line, after completeing my new secondary cover lines, my main cover line didn’t stand out and shout at the reader to grab their attention., to beat this, I changed the fonts and colours of the font’s background. A third big change was my skyline, in my first draft, my skyline was minimal and boring, in my fonal draft, I made the background match my masthead, and included two layers of text, one white and one black.

On my contents page, I updated my mini-cover (located above my table of contents) to be the same as my updated cover. Also on my table of contents, I changed the colour of the numbers on the right hand side of the table. I also filled the blank space below my image. To fill space, I made a second DPS just as a filler, I also filled the space with album covers that I made (each of which are mentioned in the “Album Reviews” tab).

(Left: First Draft, Right: Final Draft)  not much changed on my PS between my fist and final draft. I replaced the call out “Pre-Order…” with my pull quote as it looked unprofesional. I also received the feedback that there wasn’t enough content on my DPS, so I increased the length of my article.

Drafting and Planning: Magazine Final Draft

Drafting and Planning: More Article Improvements

The following is more improvements on my *article* to try and fill more space on my DPS. (Improvements in red)

Second Passing is back! Fans of the British Alt-Rock Band Second Passing took to twitter to welcome back the band after an almost 2-year hiatus following the revelation that the lead singer, Rachel Basset, was struggling with an addiction to cocaine.

Second Passing is a Birmingham-based Alternative rock band formed by lead singer, Rachael Basset. Second Passing started out in Rachael’s garage playing for their parents. They received a big break back in 2012 after a representative of Lab Records Limited spotted them playing a gig in a local pub – something that kick started their career. Fast forward 6 months and Second Passing had released their first album “Thoughts of a Full Moon” which sold over 55,000 copies, both physical and digital, launching them into the spotlight of the alternative music scene. Hopeless Records picked Second Passing up in January of 2013. In the summer of 2014 Second Passing were invited to join Neck Deep on Warped Tour. Also in 2014 they released their second, self-titled, album under Hopeless Records which came top 100 of the year.

In the year building up to the announcement of the hiatus, there was speculation about Rachael going through a rough time as she failed to show up to a string of meet and greets on warped tour 2014. On the day, Second Passing’s management tweeted: “Due to unforeseen reasons, Rachael will be unable to attend the meet and greet scheduled at the Hopeless Records tent tomorrow at 2pm… thankfully, the rest of the band will be attending and look forward to meeting everyone who comes!” At the event the band were said to look stressed and “occupied” despite engaging with the awaiting crowd.

In March 2015, Second Passing’s management announced the band’s hiatus to “Focus on the wellbeing of the band members and to take a break from the spotlight of the industry”. It was revealed that the lead singer, Rachel Basset had been admitted into a rehab centre to recover from a cocaine addiction. On her personal twitter the day of the announcement, he stated “yes, the rumours are true I am being admitted to rehab for cocaine I would like to thank Second Passing for being with me through my recovery” followed by a tweet on Second Passing’s account saying “We are proud of Rachel for taking this step towards getting better, we ask that you all support him during this difficult time”.

Now, almost 2 years later, and with a fully recovered Rachel, Second Passing are back. On her personal Twitter, Rachel said “I would like to thank everyone who helped me during my time of need. I would also like to thank the wonderful staff at the centre I was treated at. I met some amazing people with some amazing stories. Hopefully, this will encourage anyone who is struggling to get help, you’re not alone!”

Rachael received treatment for her addiction at the London Freedom Recovery Centre, which has had many positive reviews for being the best in the country. Their treatment plans include group activities, as well as individual counselling to get to the bottom of each patients individual needs.

Speaking of her recovery she said “it’s left me feeling revitalised and motivated to begin making music again, I’m looking forward to seeing your reaction to the new tunes”

Second Passing are currently working on their third album. It has been rumoured that the profits from the sale of the album will be going to charities like those that helped Rachel during her difficult time. 

Drafting and Planning: Contents Page Improvements

My contents page had a large blank space below the secondary image which made it feel empty, to reduce this effect, I created some album covers to position cascading down the area. Each of the album covers relate to one of the albums listed in the “album reviews” section. Furthermore, I have created a second DPS to position there this DPS is one of the articles that can be found in “features”.

Drafting and Planning: Anchorage Text Style Change

On my first draft cover my anchorage text under my cover line did not stand out above the secondary cover lines. This was due to me having the same design for my main cover line as my secondary cover lines. This made it blend into the rest of the page and the readers’ attention is drawn away from it. To combat this, I made my anchorage text bigger and used black as a bold “look at me” statement

Drafting and Planning: Article Improvements

When my teacher gave me my *feedback* for my *first draft*, he mentioned that my article on my Double Page Spread did not have enough content. (Improvements highlighted in red)

Second Passing is back! Fans of the British Alt-Rock Band Second Passing took to twitter to welcome back the band after an almost 2-year hiatus following the revelation that the lead singer, Rachel Basset, was struggling with an addiction to cocaine.

In the year building up to the announcement of the hiatus, there was speculation about Rachael going through a rough time as she failed to show up to a string of meet and greets on warped tour 2014. On the day, Second Passing’s management tweeted: “Due to unforeseen reasons, Rachael will be unable to attend the meet and greet scheduled at the Hopeless Records tent tomorrow at 2pm… thankfully, the rest of the band will be attending and look forward to meeting everyone who comes!”

In March 2015, Second Passing’s management announced the band’s hiatus to “Focus on the wellbeing of the band members and to take a break from the spotlight of the industry”. It was revealed that the lead singer, Rachel Basset had been admitted into a rehab centre to recover from a cocaine addiction. On her personal twitter the day of the announcement, he stated “yes, the rumours are true I am being admitted to rehab for cocaine I would like to thank Second Passing for being with me through my recovery” followed by a tweet on Second Passing’s account saying “We are proud of Rachel for taking this step towards getting better, we ask that you all support him during this difficult time”.

Now, almost 2 years later, and with a fully recovered Rachel, Second Passing are back. On her personal Twitter, Rachel said “I would like to thank everyone who helped me during my time of need. I would also like to thank the wonderful staff at the centre I was treated at. I met some amazing people with some amazing stories. Hopefully, this will encourage anyone who is struggling to get help, you’re not alone!”

Second Passing are said to be working on their third album. It has been rumoured that the profits from the sale of the album will be going to charities like those that helped Rachel during her difficult time.

Drafting and Planning: Skyline v2

Acting upon my feedback from my teacher, I re-designed my skyline. As you can see, my skyline uses a completely different font from the rest of my magazine, I did this deliberately to make my skyline differ from the rest of my cover, this allows variation, and my cover to look less boring. I have, however, used the same colour scheme of burgundy, white and black. This allows me to keep a consistent house style. 

Drafting and Planning: Masthead / Cover Star Resize

As you can see, my masthead has been reduced slightly, my cover stars have been pulled over to meet the edges of the Cover. This allows my cover stars to seem more relaxed and comfortable on the cover. This matches my ethos as my cover stars need to seem like they don’t care.

Drafting and Planning: Improved Secondary Cover Lines

After receiving and reviewing my feedback from my teacher, I decided to improve the way I designed my Secondary Cover Lines. Before they were bulky and dominated my cover page. To improve this, I decided to slim my cover lines down and add some variation to my cover line. 

I think the newer design is subtler than the older one and is easier on the eyes.  I think that the newer design looks more professional and fits my ethos more than the older one.

Drafting and Planning: Feedback on First Draft

General Feedback

As a class, we received some general feedback, which included some things that I have already done but also included some things that I have not. The feedback we received was:

• Must establish ideas from Research into Similar Products
• E.g. asking ourselves “where did this idea come from?”
• “New single” never appears on the front cover of a magazine as a cover line.
• Instead, you will find “New album” or “Upcoming tour” – usually both
• Artists lack musical Mise-en-scene.
• E.g. wrong costume, wrong body language, etc.
• Contents pages tend to lack “Substance”
• i.e. low number of pages (e.g. below 100 pages for a monthly magazine)
• too few cover lines in the table of contents
• Front Covers, Contents Pages and Double Page Spreads all need a “holistic” approach
• E.g. using the same cover star on the cover, contents and DPS. Using cover lines on the cover on the table of contents on the Contents Page
• Content for DPS tends to be “Corny” with not enough content.
• i.e. avoid saying things like “My fans are the most important thing to me”
• Font size for DPS must be 8
• Focus on SPaG – marks will be lost for poor spelling, punctuation and grammar.

Personal Feedback

My teacher and I had a one-to-one talk about feedback on my magazine, some of the feedback he gave me included:

• The proportions of my masthead to my main cover star are off, masthead needs to be smaller and pushed upwards.
• My skyline needs a lot of work – at the moment it looks too plain.
• My main cover line needs to be more centralised and straight on my cover page.
• My secondary cover lines need improvement. Currently, they are too blocky, could space them out a bit, centre my cover star and put cover lines around my cover star.
• My DPS needs more content – not enough content of my article. 

Drafting and Planning: Album Cover for Contents Page

For my contents page, I have a large empty space below my secondary imagery. To fill this space, I decided to create an album cover that correlates with the “Album reviews” section of my table of contents. I decided to use a circle to represent the “eyes” of “The Vengeance in Your Eyes” and the colour grey to represent the “Vengeance”. This album is by my artist called “Home of The Strange” 

Drafting and Planning: Magazine First Draft

The following is my first draft of my music magazine "Outre". This draft is representative of my final product.

Organisation: Photographs

When it came to taking my photographs for my first draft, I decided to change my plans on using the black walls in the drama studio as my cover stars were wearing quite dark clothing and I felt that it would have been too difficult to pull the background out to put on my magazine. Instead I chose to use a wall outside of school that was painted a smooth red which correlated with my house style (for photos that I kept the background in) and was easy to crop out if need be. Furthermore, this location offered me with a large amount of natural light meaning that I did not need to use flash or use too an ISO that would cause too much noise making the photo unusable.

Here are my photographs: