Evaluation Film

Final Front Cover

My front cover has been altered to follow typical conventions of the indie music genre more strongly. My first photo shoot was planned and I researched common conventions to ensure I was following them accurately throughout my work. Despite this however,  the lighting was slightly too dark, and adjusting the brightness level made Ambers face too difficult to make out as clearly. 

Final Contents Page

I decided to change the overall style and appearance of my contents page to better suit common genre conventions. I also had a more recent photo shoot with higher quality images, which I used throughout my work to ensure I was completing my work at the highest standard possible.

Final Double Page Spread

Like my front cover and contents page, my double page spread has changed significantly since my first draft, due to me wanting to follow genre conventions more accurately in order to appeal more to my target audience, and the quality of my images improving after my most recent photo shoot.

My double page spread both supports and disrupts Laura Mulveys theory (1975) of women being presented as 'sexual objects of desire', because although Amber is wearing a rabbit mask so you are unable to see her face, the audience would be able to see parts of her skin. On the other hand, the rabbit mask can be seen as terrifying and threatening, which will take away any aspect of Amber being sexualised due to the clothes she is wearing.

Front Cover 2nd Draft

Front Cover 1st Draft

Contents Page 2nd Draft

Contents Page 1st Draft

DPS 2nd Draft

DPS 1st Draft

Front Cover Flat Plan

This was the original flat plan for my front cover, however during the first several drafts I altered the structure because I wasn't completely satisfied with my flat plan. However, as I carried out further research into indie music magazine front covers I realised that my flat plan followed typical genre conventions significantly closer than my front cover,  so I changed the layout of my front cover. 

Contents Page Flat Plan

This was my original flat plan I created whilst in the early stages of creating my media product. The completed version of my final contents page is structured differently to this flat plan to follow common genre conventions more accurately.

Double Page Spread Flat Plan

As with my contents page, the flat plan for my double page spread is a little outdated when compared to the final version of my double page spread. Again, the structure of my double page spread was altered to closely follow genre conventions, and the inclusion of a rabbit mask gave my media product uniqueness and originality.

Artist Profile

Before the creation of my double page spread, I considered how I wanted my artist/model to be represented in this piece of work. From my research I knew that women aren't typically featured in indie music magazines, but when they are it is usually in a sexualised way. I tried to follow this convention with my front cover, which can be seen with the positioning of Ambers hand on her lips. This can be seen as supporting Laura Mulveys' theory (1975) which argues that 'females are sexualised and presented as objects of desire for the male audience'.

I wanted my media product to have originality and uniqueness, which is why I used a rabbit head in my most recent photo shoot. I used what I considered to be the most effective and of the highest quality image, and positioned it on the left hand side of my double page spread to follow typical layout conventions. The pink filter is an additional feature of excitement, and draws more attention to the rabbit head.

The inclusion of a rabbits head improved the quality of my images and will hopefully make my media product stand out from the rest. In the first draft of my double page spread, I used the picture that is now presented on my front cover. With this photoshoot the image quality was significantly poorer, and whilst the images followed conventions, I felt as though my double page spread could be greatly improved. This improvement has hopefully been successful, and my representation of Amber has changed because of this alteration. Amber is given a slightly sexual representation in my front cover and contents page, but the rabbit mask makes her appear intense and menacing in the double page spread.

Edited Photos

As evidenced below, I had to alter the lighting and levels of my first photoshoot to improve my images. However, due to the successful lighting with my improved photoshoots I didn't have to edit and adjust my photos in as much detail. Regardless of this, I adjusted the saturation level to bring out more colour in the image. I also adjusted the levels in each of my images to make the images brighter and reduce any dark shadows occurring. With my new photo-shoot with Amber wearing the rabbit head, the image quality was significantly greater in comparison to my older photo-shoots, so I didn't feel like I needed to edit these images. I did experiment with adjusting the brightness, saturation and levels etc. with my rabbit images in Photoshop, but this decreased my image quality and gave the photos a grainy appearance. You also weren't able to see the pink filter as clearly. 

Actual Photos

Below are all of the original images from my photoshoots. My first photoshoot followed the appropriate genre codes and conventions, but the lighting wasn't of the best quality, which made it difficult to make my media product to the highest standard possible. My second photoshoot was a significant improvement to my first photoshoot, as the photos had better lighting and the inclusion of a rabbits head gave my images more uniqueness and originality. The use of a pink filter in my new photoshoot also gave my images originality, especially when incorporated with the rabbits head.