A good example of a foundation production evaluation from 2011. OCR spec.

2. My Project
•
The project set to us was to create a music magazine which both
uses and challenges, popular and modern day music magazine
conventions.
•
I have produced the magazine ‘Foul’ completely on Adobe
Photoshop and here is how I did it...

3. Research into existing products
Before making my magazine, I studied many other music
magazines, and researched two in particular : ATM & Mixmag.
These
were a rough crossover of the genre of music I wanted to produce
my magazine for (Dance/Drum’n’bass).
I
I t.I then bought my own copy of ATM and Mixmag. I analysed each
issues front page, contents page as well as 2 feature articles/double
page spreads. I also analysed 2 more front covers from each brands
previous issues. By doing such intensive analysis, I learned all of the
main music magazine conventions so I could understand why and
where to use them in my own product.

4. Front Page Analysis
ATM
The front cover on this issue of ‘ATM’ is quite dark and dull. No
popping or bright colours are being used - most of the colours are
navy, silver, grey, white and black. Most of the text has been
written in white on this front cover.
The headlines font is digital style, and is a mixture of capital and
lowercase. The font also has a scratched/faded effect which gives
it a weathered look, much like the bricks in the background.
The feature article photograph is of DJ Danny Williamson (Stage
name: LTJ Bukem. The photographs background is a bricked wall
with piping going alongside.
The end result of all the mise-en-scene in this photograph adds up
to quite a mystery theme. Where is he? What is he queuing for?
Why is he wearing dark glasses and a trench coat? Why am I so
suspicious of him?!
The camera lens has been placed at a low angle and so is tilting
up to Williamson. By using this angle it makes us, the reader, look
up to him both physically and figuratively.

5. Front Page Analysis
Mixmag
Unlike traditional music magazine colour schemes, Mixmags
main colour scheme for their masthead, cover lines and plugs
is neon pink.
The use of neon pink is very eye catching on this front cover.
Mixmag have chosen which bits they wanted to promote, and
so have therefore put them in this bright colour. The neon pink
is used in alternative order on the text with the colour white.
All of the text on the front cover is in capitals, excluding the
plugs subtitles and the list of featured artists above the
barcode. By putting text into capitals it will give the impression
of shouting, excitement and importance.
The feature article photograph here is a candid one of
Deadmau5 from a live event.
Their free CD has been stuck on the bottom left corner – a
very popular position for free CDs. The barcode is in the
bottom right corner, and the price is on the left hand side of it
along with issue details and website. The price isn’t extremely
small, and I think it’s a fair price for this magazine that comes
with 13 free tracks.

6. Contents Page Analysis
ATM
ATM’s contents page consists of only one page. There
are 3 categories: ‘features’, ‘regulars’ and ‘reviews’. The
pages background is a soft fade from white at the top to
navy at the bottom, with a grey wire pattern under the
text.
The list of items are in a very simple font and all in
capitals and the category titles are in bold. In the quarter
right hand top of the page, there is the ‘editors note’.
This is five paragraphs long, and is written in a smaller
text size, and Mark O’Donnell includes personal
thoughts and opinions. He also refers to the interviews
he carried out himself for this issue.
There is a sequence of four photos on the right hand
side of the text in a square shape.
At the bottom of the page there is information such as
Editor, Assistant Editor, Sub Editor, Art Direction &
Design, Photography and also other contact information
for the magazine.

7. Contents Page Analysis
Mixmag
Mixmags contents pages are split over two back to back pages. I find
this makes it a bit tricky to read and follow compared to if it was over
two facing pages.
The background on both pages is black with inserted images. There is
a heading at the top of each page stating the magazine name, issue
month and year and the title ‘contents.’
There are 3 different text sections on this page. One titled ‘VIP’ with
the subtitle ‘Clubs, news and banter.’ The next section is titled
‘features’. 7 different items are listed under this heading. The last
section has been horizontally placed at the bottom of the page, giving
information on the free CD that comes with this issue.
On the following page, there are five different sections.
The first one is about the fashion contents of the magazine, titled
‘fashion’ with one item beneath.
The second section is titled ‘tunes’ with a subtitle of ‘the world’s best
guide to dance music’ and 2 items in this category.
The following section is titled ‘tech’ with 1 item included.
The fourth section is titled ‘Don’t Stay In’ by the company Don’t Stay
In - ‘your essential clubbing guide’
The last section is titled ‘regulars’ and contains 4 different items in this
category.

8. Feature Article Analysis
ATM
This is one of ATM’s feature articles for this issue. It
contains small bios and interviews with different DJers and
Drum and Bass musicians.
The background is a fade from black at the top into a bright
red at the bottom. On top of this, there is the same style of
techno lines used elsewhere throughout the magazine as to
maintain a certain theme.
Under each picture the artists name is in red and is written
in capitals. The rest of the information is in a white text. The
information is presented in a form like way for example:
Based:, What’s your story?, Inspirations:, Weapon of
choice:, Proudest moment to date: and What’s your
poison?,
Each artist answers all these questions, and some of the
answers are quite funny and comical due to such variation
between characters.
I like how the layout of this article makes the text easy and
also fun to read. The information is in short snippets and
there aren’t paragraphs of writing to be read. I enjoyed
reading this.

9. Feature Article Analysis
Mixmag
The pages background is white, and has a black techno grid border at
the top.
All of the photos are taken from live events that took place
outside. The three largest images capture the stage,
the lights, the strobes, the explosions and the crowd. With
photos as big as these as so dynamic as these, they really shout out
to reader as soon as they turn the page.
The rest of the text over the two articles is written in black over the a
plain white background. In some places the text actually spills onto
two of the photographs so the white background has been carried on
over them, creating a text box effect. The writing is black and a very
simple font is used. Questions have been distinguished again by the
use of a bold font.
For each artist, there is information on ‘Forthcoming Live Dates’ giving
details of tour dates, and website information.
I think compared to the energetic and vibrant photographs on this
magazine, the article would’ve stood out better if a black background
was used with either white or a brighter coloured font, so the page
was more jazzy and dazzling.

10. Deciding my genre & target
audience
•
I already knew that I wanted to produce a magazine of the drum-nbass/dance genre, and found there were no actual existing
products. The best I could find was ATM (Drum-n-bass/dubstep)
and Mixmag. (Dance) So I combined many of the common
elements for my own magazine.
•
I assumed my audience would be fairly young adults eg: 1630years, as this genre of music is fairly modern and is increasingly
becoming more and more popular therefore my audience would be
around their 20’s.

11. Audience Survey Results
I created a survey containing all questions I felt necessary in order to
be able to understand and meet the wants of my audience.
Here is a summary of the results:
My audience wanted a monthly magazine with a bigger ratio of images
to writing throughout the magazine, and for the majority of images
to be candid, rather than posed.
They would be attracted to a front cover that is organized & easy to
read with a traditional colour scheme. (Red, white and black)
My audience want to be communicated via in a chatty, yet chilled and
laid back tone. My audience would also prefer to read about well
known established artists and would love for information to be given of
gigs and other live events, associated to the particular article.

12. Who would be the audience for your media product?
From the results gathered from my audience survey, I now have an idea of
who my target audience will be for my magazine.
Due to the genre of my music (drum-n-bass & dance) there is already
a common stereotype for these type of people. Often associated with
illegal raves, and sometimes drug taking, my audience have a bad
name. These people are generally aged between their late teens to late
twenties.
With my magazine, I hope to attract more students, and a younger
audience, perhaps from the age of 16 onwards. I will include 1 pop
artist eg: Plan B as he has collaborated with drum n bass artists
such as Chase & Status and Pendulum. Therefore I will not only attract
an audience of drum n bass music/dance music lovers, but also a small
minority may buy it for the one pop artist influence that month, which
could possibly increase my sales.

13. Here is my rough hand drawn plan for my front cover.
Although it is very rough and vague, it helped me immensely when I was first starting out
on Photoshop.

14. Here is my rough hand drawn plan for my contents page. As this was only a template, I
was able to change around the positioning of text and images on my real contents page.

15. Here is my rough hand drawn plan for my double page spread. I originally knew where I
wanted my headline and kept this consistent. The other items however, I changed
around due to the fact I included more images and less writing so initially planned.

16. Creating my masthead
Firstly, I typed in ‘Foul’ in a textbox on Photoshop and placed in
Tahoma font (house style) and expanded the text box, making it
larger and easy to work on.
I then highlighted it and changed the font style to ‘bold’ and
also changed it to the ‘faux bold’ option, as well.
Next, I changed the writing colour to red and
clicked on ‘edit layer style’ so I could add my
‘stroke’ effect. (Size: 3px) I also added a ‘drop
shadow’ (Size: 5px, Distance: 5px, Opacity: 75%.
Both of these effects are in black.)

17. This is step 1 of my front cover process.
I wanted a traditional coloured masthead (red and black)
and from my audience survey results I was able to use a
traditional magazine colour scheme.
I knew I wanted the mast head in the top left corner of my
magazine as this is the most popular layout for many
magazine front covers and works well. I then inserted a
black banner, with a white one on top to separate the mast
head from the page and this also allowed me to place other
text on top clearly.
I also knew from the start this was the photograph I wanted
as it was a candid shot which was perfect for my magazine
issue a ‘festival review.’ The photograph although we
cannot see the singers facial expression, his body
language connotes live action and as he is mid-action, we
can tell he is a rapper. His clothes are very casual and
suitable for the music he is performing. He is standing right
at the edge of the stage and so is really interacting with his
fans.
The atmosphere in the photo is enhanced by the light
coming in from the left, the drum set behind him and the
body guards in front of him. I did contemplate cropping the
body guard and camera man out of the picture, but I
decided to keep them as they both add depth to the photo
and show just how close the artist is.
Although this image is blurry, which is unconventional for
professional magazine front covers, it suits the style of my
magazine as in order to suit my genre, I do not want a crisp
clean shot photograph and I like the edginess it gives to the
front page

18. Step 2
Here I started to play around with text, font and font effects.
For example the shadow effect and also the etching effect
on my mast head.

19. Step 3
Next I decided to split my cover line into two as I felt there
was too much text altogether and I want all the text on my
front page short, snappy and easy to read.
I started to add plugs up the right hand side corner of my
page.
I even experimented with layering and overlapping as you
can see I have done so with ‘Best festival acts this year!’
underneath Tempa T’s head.

20. Step 4
After experimenting around Photoshop I discovered the
stroke effect for both text and images. I then used the
stroke effect on every single item I wanted outlined and
used the same size each time as too keep a house style.

21. Step 4
Here I decided that the previous plugs on the left hand side
of my page had too much text and I wanted them to be
shorter and sharper .
I also did not like the amount of red I had on the page, and
wanted to add more of my other colour scheme colour:
orange.
I then shortened the list in the top right hand corner of
artists, and moved some of them down into the centre right
of my page as I wanted to create a longer vertical list.
I then inserted a star shaped banner and put the remaining
artists in that shape.
I also moved the image up a lot as I felt the space above
Tempas T’s head was boring. By doing this, the reader
sees the body guard and camera man better, which
intensifies the images ‘live’ feel.
I then added a black banner to the bottom of the image,
which made the text, price and barcode stand out more.
Next I moved the feature article photographs caption to the
centre left of the figure as I felt it made it easier for the
reader to make an immediate visual link to the photo.
I also added a puff to very top of the page and moved the
date and issue number to inside the ‘F’ or ‘Foul’.

22. Step 5
Despite my previous decision, I decided to move my
feature article photograph down once more due to the fact I
had rearranged and had enlarged my headline.
I decided to make my headline much bigger as I wanted it
to stand out more to the reader and I also placed it beneath
the figure in order to give it a more 3-D effect.
Next, I split my list of artists into two, which as a result took
up more room on my page and gave it a ‘packed’ look.
I used words such as ‘plus’, ‘including’ and ‘exclusive’ to
add an exciting tone to the page.
I also changed my plug from ‘the only dance-drum’n’bass
magazine’ to: ‘the best selling dance-drum’n’bass
magazine’ as this made my magazine sound popular and
more established.

23. Step 1
This was my original layout for my double page spread.
I quite liked the effect on the background as it gave it a ‘starry’ look, perfect for my festival review issue.

24. Step 2
Here I inserted my stand first and started to add and move around photographs.

25. Step 3
After much thought, I decided to actually have a white blank background. As this was a review, I wanted the amount of text I would
be including, to be clear and easy to read. I could also make photographs stand out more using coloured borders.
In theory, if this was a magazine to be published professional, using a black background would be more costly in terms of ink
expenditure.

26. Step 4
Here I added more pictures and also captions.
Before inserting my article text I wrote it up on Word first as I found it easier to organise and arrange by copy and pasting from the
word document into Photoshop.
I then started to add stroke borders to photographs.

27. Step 5
Here is my final double page spread.
I added borders to all photos and textboxes and varied the colours to match their corresponding image/caption.
Also, I wrote a website address and page numbers as this was a common theme of other magazine spreads I studied.

28. As you can see I have used a similar layout for my double page spread as Mixmag.
Whilst I was originally analysing it, I particularly liked the article headline and where it
was positioned on the left hand page.
I also like the style of the text boxes and how they sometimes overlapped onto the
photographs.

29. This is step 1 of my contents page process.
I knew I wanted a black background and for the majority of
the writing to be white, as in my magazine I wanted to
alternate between a black background with white writing,
and a white background with black writing and develop this
into my magazine’s house style.
From my audience survey, I knew I had to have a clear,
organised and easy to read contents page as they were
more attracted to that style. Therefore, as this was the
contents page and if they were browsing in a shop and
opened up to the contents page I would want them to be
drawn in, not repelled.
I have chosen these two photos to use as one is a relaxed
summery shot of the festival, later featured in my magazine.
The other, is a photograph taken at the same festival but
with a more night time ‘rave’ feel to it, which represents my
magazines music genre better.
I also wanted to have a clear layout regarding sections,
headings, sub-headings and items.
I knew that I wanted the subheading, then a very short blurb
containing information to draw in the reader to the article,
and for the page numbers to be easy to spot.

30. Step 2
I started to add items to the ‘Features’ section and used
my colour scheme colours for the text: red and white. (no
orange at this stage.)

31. Step 3
Here I added more orange to the page as this was one
of my house style colours throughout my magazine.
I then decided my next two sections: ‘Regulars’ and
‘Contact Us’
I also added captions for my two photographs featured.

32. Step 4
Here is my final contents page.
I have changed all page numbers to orange.
I have also added details such as Editors, Photography
and Fouls PR and HR department.
I have taken this idea from ATM’s contents page, as
they too had similar information presented, allowing the
reader to see and even contact certain employees.

33. I also added captions for my two photographs featured.
Front Cover Analysis
There is a bold masthead, in
traditional colours – red & black..
A puff has been placed at the top..
A bold headline, immediately telling the
reader what the magazines feature article
is about. It is the same font and colour as
the mast head. Both ‘Chase’ and ‘&’ have
been placed behind the figure in the main
photograph. This gives the headline more
of a 3-D feel, and draws attention to the
fact that the photograph has been taking
from a live event, and is a candid shot as
you can tell form his body position an
action.
Words such as ‘plus’ and ‘including’
have been used and placed in bold to
attract attention to them, ad give the
impression that the magazine is
‘packed.’.
Plugs have been placed down the
right hand side of page, and have
been placed in a text box. All the
writing, box colour and box border
colours correspond with the
magazines colour scheme. (red,
orange, black and white).
Information on the feature article. The
word ‘exclusive’ has been underlined
and made bold, in order to make it stand
out to the reader that it is important.
Another headline on the page
starts on top left section of the
page, and continues at the
bottom. The use of an ellipses
makes the page look fuller and
bigger, as half the title has been
placed somewhere else. Also, as
the reader searches for the
second half, they will take in
everything else on the page as
they look towards the bottom.
Barcode & price. The price is fairly
large, and not been ‘hidden’ in any
way, as this is a reasonable price for
the magazine and is a USP. .
Certain figures such as the camera
man and 2 security man have been
kept in the photo, as this proof the
photograph was taken at a live event.
It could convey across to the reader,
how close the singer was to the
audience and how they interacted. It
is also one of those photo’s that could
make the audience immediately want
to be there.

34. Double Page Spread Analysis
There is a bold title for the article,
that really stands out, due to it’s
size and colour and shadow
effects used. .
There are 10 photographs in total
over the two pages, alongside
only 754 words.
(80% of my audience said they
wanted a bigger ratio of images to
text)
All photographs and text boxes
have a house style border around
them in the 4 main colours.
Some of these photographs and
text boxes have been tilted and
some overlap other objects. This
makes the page look more
packed and less boring than
having everything horizontal and
vertical.
It also makes the page look
layered with various objects on
top of and underneath each other.
There are two columns down the
middle of the page with no
background or border and written
in black font. This stands out
against the other text, as this is
the actual review of the festival,
compared to the other text which
are opinions of the acts.
The page numbers have been
placed on the far bottom corners
in red. There is also a website
address in the bottom centre of
the right hand page.

35. Contents Page Analysis
The magazine mast head is
placed in the top left hand corner,
same place as on the front page.
The date and issue number are
placed beneath in orange.
There are 3 main sections of the
magazine.
‘Features’ with 11 items.
‘Regulars’ with 5 items.
and a ‘Contact Us’ section.
A constant style has been kept
throughout the page.
The section heading in white, bold
and underlined.
The article title in bold and red.
A short piece of information about
the article in italic and white.
The page numbers in italic and
orange.
The title ‘Contents’ is only slightly
smaller than the masthead as it
needs to be clear what page this
is of the magazine.
The two photographs featured
convey different atmospheres.
One is in daylight and outdoors,
and obvious it was taken at a
festival. The impression looks
summery, friendly and sociable.
The other, is of one singer. It was
taken at night, again at a festival
but this time in a tent. His body
language look powerful and the
lights denote he is on stage
performing at a live event.
Information has also been given
of employees who work on the
magazine.
Such information of the magazine is given such as a website and e-mail
address, telephone and fax details and the office address. This shows that
the magazine are welcoming any feedback viewers may have, via any of
these options.

36. How did you attract/address your audience?
I thoroughly adhered to all the wants and requirements my audience had chosen on their
survey in order to make it tailored to them. I made all my decisions based on the most popular
answer for a question, and did not change it to suit my own tastes as this would be useless in
attracting and addressing my audience.
I therefore:
• made sure my magazine was a monthly one
• I included a higher ratio of images to text
• included a traditional colour scheme
• the majority of photographs were candid
• I did not include a free CD
• my mode of address is laid back
• the majority of my articles are about well-known artists
• I have included interviews
• I have an organised front cover
• I have included regulars that my audience listed
• I have included information on upcoming gigs and live events
• I have not rejected any explicit language in any of the interviews in my magazine.
All of the above were the most picked answer for the matching question.

37. How does your media product represent particular social
groups?
The social groups represented throughout my magazine could be many,
although my main age range is 16 years possibly up to the age of 30
depending on individual music tastes. I believe my magazine could be
attractive to people up to the age of 30 as it is modern and fairly mature. It
uses a traditional colour schemes which could appeal to both sexes. The
pictures I have used I feel are professional and work very well in my
magazine and with the genre of music.
Many of my images are candid shots at live events and festivals. I feel that
my audience can relate to this, especially the audience at the older end of
my age group as they may be more festival goers compared to the young
16 year olds, where music festivals have only just started becoming popular
with their generation.
Most of my artists featured are fairly new eg: Subfocus and DJ Fresh, but
other artists such as The Prodigy and High Contrast are featured also to
create a good balance of new and existing popular artists and bands.

38. Following Conventions – Front Page
The masthead is in tradition magazine colours. (red & black)
It’s big and bold and is placed in the top left hand corner of the front
page.
There is a puff for the magazine, placed at the very top of the page. .
Words such as ‘plus’, ‘exclusive’ and ‘including’ have been used on the front
page. This is very common for magazine front pages. It gives the impression
that the magazine is packed and has exclusive and elite information inside.
These are usually unique selling points for an issue.
My plugs have been placed in coloured text boxes. They are running
down the right hand side of the page. .
My barcode and price are to easy to spot. Unlike
expensive magazines who may wish to ‘hide’ their
price, I feel mine is well priced and so this is
something I want to point out to my audience. A
exclamation mark has been used to add emphasis. .
On my front page there is one element of ‘overlapping.’ This effect is
effective as it makes the page look more 3-D and less ‘flat.’ .

39. Following Conventions – Double Page Spread
There is a large title, in a bold colouring, font and size..
Some writing has been placed in columns. In the case of my
magazine, the festival review has been written in 2 simple columns. .
There is a stand first, introducing the
reader to the article and telling them a
little bit about what it is about.
Any photos have captions underneath, given the reader a small bit of
information about what the image is about, or where it is. Many of
photograph captions contain opinions as this is a review article.
Page numbers on in the bottom far side corners of each page, and there is also the
magazines website address, placed in the bottom centre of the right hand side page. .

40. Following Conventions – Contents Page
The date and issue number are
clear to see.
A large photograph has
been used which links to
one of my magazines
featured articles.
The different
sections have been
clearly titled, and
common sections
such as a ‘features’
and ‘regulars’ have
been used.
A contact box has been included giving out contact
information for the magazine company. A ‘credits’ box has
also been used.

41. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I feel my magazine both uses and challenges the forms and conventions of
existing magazines. For example I have used a traditional colour scheme
and house style through out my magazine and have kept and used many of
the same elements featured on a real magazine front cover and contents
page, in my own product.
An area I feel I have challenged existing media conventions include my
colour scheme in particular. I have introduced a bright orange colour along
with the red, white and black throughout. Using a fourth colour enables me
to attract attention to a certain piece of text or area, as well as avoiding a
build up of one colour.
(For example, on my contents page I used orange to write my page
numbers in, to break up and overuse of the colour red on the page.)

42. Pricing my magazine
My competitor magazines were priced at £4.20 (Mixmag) and £3.75
(ATM)
I decided to price my magazine at £3.00 as this was cheaper than both
of these magazines. I am not giving away free CD’s and so this
immediately lowers my cost of production compared to the other two. I
think my cheaper price will attract more readers, therefore increasing
sales. If I were to price my magazine more expensively, the high price
could possibly deter customers. I would rather price it cheaper and sell
lots in order to make a profit, rather than sell it more expensively and
not sell as many to get the same profit.

43. What kind of media institution might distribute your media
product and why?
ATM magazine is distributed by a company called Planet Media Publications.
Mixmag is distributed by a company called Development Hell Ltd.
For popularity reasons, I think I would choose to have my product distributed by
Development Hell Ltd. (distributors of Mixmag) Mixmag is a more commonly known
magazine and I actually had great difficulty firstly discovering ATM magazine and
then buying it, as ATM was not sold in high street newsagents or even popular
newsagents chains. I had to order my ATM magazine online where as I bought my
Mixmag from a WHSmiths.
Development Hell Ltd is an independent media company who only deal with the
distribution with one other magazine alongside Mixmag; The Word. Therefore, I think
a small and concentrated company such as Development Hell Ltd would be great for
my magazine as they have these two magazine as their main focus. If I were to go
with another distributor such as IPC Media, there is some worry that my magazine
would be one of 120, and so could possibly be ‘lost’ or not as focused on as it could
be in a distribution company such as Development Hell Ltd.

44. Preliminary Task: Student Magazine
The first product we had to create in Media, was a student magazine for
our school. The magazine could be aimed at any age group, and we had
to design the front page and contents.

45. Student Magazine Front Cover
I chose to market my student magazine at Sixth
Formers. (age group 16-18years)
For my front cover I took a photograph of my
friend studying at a desk. I didn’t have a mast
head for my magazine as such, simply the name
of our school in a dark pink coloured font. Part of
the writing was in bold, and the second line was
not.
I didn’t have a headline, just 2 plugs on either
side of the page, at different heights and in
different sizes.
The writing is plain, with no effects and in either
black or white coloured font. There is a discount
voucher on the front of the magazine, for a
clothes shop popular with the target audience.
This was one of the elements I hope would
attract readers.

46. Student Magazine Contents Page
My student magazines contents page was very
simple.
It has a plain white background. The name of
our school is in the same bold font and colour,
with ‘Sixth Form College’ in the same colour font
also. The schools logo is in the top left hand
corner.
The date and title are in a green colour, as to
stand out against the reddish font above.
There are no individual sections as there are
only 5 items in the magazine. Each item has no
subtitle, but only the small piece of information
about the article. The page numbers have been
placed in green, underneath.

47. My two front page comparisons
Foul’s masthead is in traditional magazine colours. (red & black) It’s big and bold and is placed in the
top left hand corner of the front page.
WDF magazine’s masthead is not bold nor eye catching and is in a slightly bold font, in a maroon
colour placed at the top centre of the page. It has no fancy outlining and is very simple.
Foul’s headline is huge and takes up most of the centre page and feature article photograph. It’s in
the same red coloured and bold font as the masthead. There are in various font colorus and sizes,
and some are in boxes.
WDF magazine does not have a headline.
Foul has many plugs scattered around the page including articles inside the magazine as well as 9
artist’s names featured in the issue. There is a coverline, linking to the main background picture.
WDF magazine has 3 plugs on the page. One in the bottom right, another in the bottom right and
one in the top-centre right. 2 out of the 3 are written in black, and the other in white. This is due to
the background colours behind the text. They are all in the same font, and all quite small & ‘skinny’.
Foul’s feature article photograph is of a singer at a live festival event. The mise-en-scene includes
security guards, a camera man, a stage and bright lighting. The photo has text on top, as well as
some text placed underneath the main figure. This makes the page have an almost ‘3-D’ effect.
WDF’s feature article photograph is of a sixth former at a school desk. The mise-en-scene here is a
desk, a pen and notepad, as well as other students in the background. All the text on this page is
placed over the image, therefore making the page look very ‘flat’ and ‘boring.’
Foul’s front page includes a main puff of the magazine, as well as various puffs across the page
such as ‘plus’ and ‘exclusive.’
WDF magazine features none of these elements.

48. My two contents page comparisons
Foul’s contents page is on a black background, and has both the magazine name and page title very
large, in the same bold font and colours. The issue number and date is beneath the masthead,
underlined, in a bold effect and in in orange. (part of the colour scheme)
WDF’s contents page has a white background and the magazine name in a skinny font in a maroon
colour. The title and issue number are in a green font, with the title in a slightly bolder font.
Foul’s content’s page has 3 different sections ‘Features’, ‘Regulars’ and ‘Contact Us.’ There are 16
items in total in the magazine.
WDF’s contents page does not have any separate sections as there are only 5 items in the
magazine, and these change per issue depending on the school news that month.
On Foul’s contents page there are two photographs linked to the two main cover lines featured on
the front page.
WDF’s contents page includes no images.
The layout of Foul’s contents page items are consistent: the subtitle is in a a bold red font, the short
blurb on the article is in italic white, and the page numbers are in italic orange. The photo captions
are the same minus the blurb.
WDF’s item layout is consistent also, although there are no subtitles for each article, simply the short
blurb in plain black text, with the page numbers following in a green font.

49. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you
have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back to my preliminary task and then forward to music magazine it is
obvious to see I have progressed a vast amount, and have advanced my skills in
magazine editing as well as increasing my knowledge of where and why magazine
conventions are used and how they work.
I feel I have learnt many things, the main being my ability to connect with my target
audience and how I can address and attract them to my magazine. I have also learnt
technical techniques such as being able to place background images in front of
some text and create the impression of layering. I feel I have a better understanding
of how to create effective plugs and cover lines and how to use these to their full
potential.

50. What have you learnt about technologies from the process
of constructing this product?
Fortunately before I started to create any of my media products, I already knew how
to use Photoshop thanks to having Photoshop Elements on my laptop at home, and
had used it for personal leisure before. I was pretty familiar with the tools you can
use on there, and the effects you can achieve with images and text.
For my preliminary task image, I used a simple 3.2mp camera on my phone. For my
music magazine, I took the images off of a 8mp digital camera with various settings
to match each atmosphere I captured.
I then used the photo effects on my laptop (Macbook – iPhoto – built in editing tools)
to do a basic enhancement on my photographs, and then used tools such as
cropping and and the magic wand tool in Photoshop to change and move around my
images on my pages.
I used programs such as Microsoft Word & Office Tools Word to spell check my text
before importing it onto Photoshop, where unfortunately this tool was unavailable.