Evaluation Questions

I have created a football magazine,primarily aimed at guys aged 14-20 but still in general there are no restrictions on age or gender.It informs and updates readers of the latest and up to date news with the football world in a clear,friendly layout. The title of my magazine is 'futbolístico' i chose this because it literally means football in Spanish language and because Spanish football is said to be the most popular today.I feel that my Football magazine includes the key conventions seen in mainstream ,popular football magazines that are current available in shops.I have tried to make my finished product as professional looking as possible; mainly through trial and improvement and also including asking my target audience what there views were, using constructive criticism in order to improve my work to the highest standard possible. By including conventions such as bar codes,dates, prices, mastheads and sub-headings on the cover of my magazine I was able to make my magazine look professional and as real as possible; similar to ones that would be found on shop selves.

How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

Masthead: There to identify the genre of the magazine, it attracts the audience.The title also conveys a message to the reader about the magazine. Always at the top of the front cover in Football magazines, with a strong font. It is short which will enable it to catch the readers,

Audience: The main audience of my magazine are guys between the ages of 14 and 20. By putting large images of football players on the cover, it relates to the audience; therefore making them more likely to look at the magazine and purchase it.

COVER LINES:Informing the reader of what is inside the magazine, often used to draw their attention and helps persuade them to buy the magazine. A well known artist is often used to attract the specific audience. I included several cover lines on the front cover,Such as news about Real Madrid and Villareal's Draw,Bayern Munich facts,Rooney scoring.

Main feature image:Also known as a feature article photo. The dominant image on the cover; with information about the article that follows with it.Colour scheme:Subconsciously makes readers aware of the genre of the magazine.The use of colours also indicates what gender and age the magazine is aimed at.I have used plain Black and white colour scheme which some how indicates professionalism from what i have learned.

Masthead:I have used ‘futbolístico’ again as it is the title of the magazine and I need to emphasize this. I’ve kept it the same font and colour as on the front page to make it as consistent and professional as possible.

Font:I have used clear and plain fonts to make it easy to read and at the same time it also gives the magazine a bit of professional look which is exactly what im going for.

Colour scheme:I have tried to used the same colour scheme as the front cover, to make the magazine look consistent and clear. This makes the product look more professional and finished. But to emphasis certain stuff i have used colours such as red,blue and yellow

Images:I have used images that connect with what is included in the magazine, such as images of local players in the field. The images used will also be included in the articles within the magazine.

Social networking links:

I have also given some social networking websites link so that our audience can get the latest updates on our magazine and also on football.The audience would also be able to give us feedback which is of significant value for us.

Main headline:Link other football magazines i have also put up the main headline or the title of the cover story in the middle.I have used bold font to make it most noticeable.

Main image:I have also put up a main image describing the cover story just like my reference magazine ''World Soccer'.I have tried to make the image as relatableas possible so whats to relatable to football than a picture of a freekick in motion.I have also made it black and white to made the whole colour scheme of the cover story.

Other images:

I have also place some small images relating to the cover story.These small images are not black and white just to make them more visible from the rest of the content.

Cover Story:

I have also put up a small description about the person about whom this cover story is based on.

Q:How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a  real media text?- I made sure to keep my product as attractive as I can so that my audience can get engaged with it easily. Colour and themes have been kept in mind so everything looks very catchy as shown in real media text. The title of the magazine is very edgy and attractive with big bold fonts, the fonts has been chosen with concentration to give the look exactly the way I had thought during my research .All the pictures were taken from a DSLR which automatically catches attention and gives a professional look. I remained very carefully on who I was making the magazine for. I did this in many ways, I concentrated on how the models dressed (so the audience could relate to it), for example on the cover what the man is wearing completely gives the look of him being a footballer. Other than that i also did a small survey in my college by which i was able to finalize a couple of things to satisfy our audience.Coming to the distribution it would be a self published magazine. Much research have been done keeping in mind all the costs. I have decided to make an online website to introduce the new product first, I think it will be a good decision to get their response and make them aware online first. This way I can research the advertisers and make the target audience believe what they want. Once its established my later plan is to sell out the magazine in stationery shops and others in large amount of copies or make some deals with the owner of the shop. The magazine would be for RS 200/-, In the shop, the magazine should probably be packaged in plastic so that people don’t go through it there but rather buy it. I chose this amount because its very affordable unlike other football magazines which are very expensive and people prefer too see it online rather than going out and buying it.

Q: How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

- The first step i took was research and planning. Before starting my preliminary task I did a detailed research on other magazines lying under my genre to understand the codes and conventions which links from real media texts it was a great decision to make of what type of genre would i like to work on but it was very important for me to have an inspiration first.For this, technology was an important factor for the consumption and production of my media text as it enhanced my creativity. We were supposed to present our work on our blogs and it was a bit difficult since i was not use to blogging. We had a photography class in which we learned different techniques of using the camera and lighting, Internet was one of the major resource that i took help of for surfing, finding out other magazines cover and studying them it made my work much easier and helped develop my skills by also learning adobe Photoshop The image manipulation program allowed me to manipulate graphics necessary for the magazine. E.g. crop tools such as Marquee (magic wand), Lassos, and colour converters such as Red Eye Corrector, Colour Variations, Colour Dropper, Dodge etc.However, technology is of a great help but there are some con’s of it.Learning Photoshop needs great skills but I gave it my best effort. We started saving our work in USBS and it became very easy to edit them in PowerPoint or slide share to make it look more creative.I learned to organize my time better and plan a task properly by looking at a common conventions of other magazines before I started working on my final which made my work much easier as i learnt many new things which were not covered in the preliminary product. At the post production stage which included editing of my pictures of the magazine in Photoshop. My understanding of applying the real conventions has improved over the course, I added all the conventions of a football magazine genre on it to complete my final product.

Q: How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

1.Computer/laptops: Computers have made life easier, It is a very important tool as it can save a lot of time and now days its all about blogging. In the very beginning we were told to save our work on the school systems. From the very first day we were supposed to start blogging our work till the last class. We used the computer systems to surf the internet "GOOGLE" was one of the most important engine that we made a lot of use in our research (inspiration). Blogging became the part of our daily life as we were supposed to mention about every experience we had and what we did in our class.2.Photoshop: Adobe Photoshop was the main software we made use of to construct the preliminary and final magazine. I had basic knowledge of Photoshop but i was keen to expand the skills through online and mostly by my teacher who helped me a lot throughout. It was a bit difficult job but i had a great support.3. professional camera(DSLR): It was very essential to use professional camera for better quality for my shoot without it my work wouldn't have looked professional. We had a class that was totally dedicated on camera techniques we got to learn a lot and according to that we took our shots and angles on the final day of our photo-shoot.