FLIX Magazine (Evaluation)

In this blog i will be looking at FLIX a magazine cover made by me and will be evaluating it to other actual magazines to and will grade it fairly on how it looks to that of an official media magazine.Furthermore i will be looking specific fields of the magazine this will be the production,sources of information,finished product and its effectiveness.


The starting production of this magazine started with a figure posing for a picture however this dose not mean using phones and posting them on the web. A professional camera was used in a room with a blank white wall i told the figure how and where to stand and the photo was then taken and uploaded where it would be edited using Adobe Photoshop.

Editing this photo started by changing the brightness and contrast of the image to make it a more visible image and so that it would come of the canvas as so many other magazine covers do. Next using colour balance was use to lighten the mid tones and darken certain areas with the shadows. There was a part of me that wanted to texture the figure.

However i thought this would make the image look to fake and therefore went with using the Sharpen filter to make it look more realistic. Finally the shadows and highlights tool was used to make the image come out more to the audience also to make it look professionally done by a photographer.

Once this image was finished next was the name of the magazine i decided to use FLIX as it links in with the common slang "movie-flick" so that was the idea behind the name using a custom font the title is "blocky" text and comes off the screen well and makes it look genuine.

Once the title was implemented other text had to come next a basic font was used on the smaller text such as the pricing and information about the magazine the more unappealing side of the magazine.

However other text like the headlines,sub headlines and movies were typed with another custom font to link with the theme of a "blocky" text that comes of the magazine finally one of the sections of fonts was put into italics a clever way to change the feel of the magazine and leaving the reader wanting more.

Moving a way from text it was now a time to focus on a border for the magazine i decide to use diagonal stripes  to be used as it links with "Clapper Board" these are used in takes of movies however with two sets of vertical stripes made it look like a cliche so one set was taken from the image.

The first set of stripes still made the image look armature at best so the stripes were moved and deleted in certain spots so not interfere with the other images. On the other hand a shape tool was used to make the offer logo for the net-flix code offering this is used as a selling technique and pushes the offer to the reader as they get something from the magazine. Shapes were also used as background images for some text to bring it off the page the same is done for specific images.

Lastly the images were found on the internet and were cropped and put into certain areas to make it fit with the theme of a movie magazine these images were the bar-code,Hancock 2  and the net-flix logo also a drop shadow was faded behind the FLIX title to make it more elegant and professional.

Next was to find primary examples to base my work off however there are only two primary sources of media magazine that are universally recognized these were both Total-film and Empire Magazine these two sources were found on the internet and two of the most appealing pieces that caught my eye were used as a looking glass so i could get a better perspective of how a media magazine should look. Below are the two examples i used to base my work off.

As seen above the two primary examples are professionally done and look appealing to the eye in both positioning and originality.(Below again is the finished product as its the next section of the blog it also gives you an idea of what it looks like compared to others)

The FlIX magazine now finished looks like a common media magazine not in the sense that its bad in the sense that it looks as it should i am happy with the result of this as it was taken from two major magazine titles and then was made off of that.

The positioning of the text is ideal as it dose not have to much text so that it annoys the reader also making the texts vary in sizes shows the most important parts of the magazine off to the reader also making the most important parts the lightest colours on screen grabs the audience towards the magazine.

Furthermore the specific areas in where the text place does its job as a selling point the cost is linked to the title and dose not scare the reader away as it is the thing they notice first rather then last this is a unique selling point as the reader is more interested in whats in the magazine then the price. As so many other magazines do.

The use of a border is effective so that the magazine isn't just a blank image it also takes off space to any areas which are blank are now covered so it makes it look professional this was a technique used by empire magazine.

The use of  having a young figure off to the side gives the magazine room to put information into areas it also gives the reader an interest in that this person is a mystery and they are determined to find out what it is this is basic human nature.

Also a young figure appeals to a younger audience which is the main audience i am appealing to the audience being young adults to middle age adults those interested in film more specific.

In conclusion the used of varying text size and a professionally done image of a figure/character make the magazine look genuine. However more could have been done so it looked more like other more recognized magazines and so it didn't look as a common magazine.On the other hand the use of a specific colour scheme and shapes make it stand out to the reader. Out of all of this i can say the work is good but more could be done in my opinion.

DVD Sleeve evaluation (TWO FACED)

In this blog i will be evaluating the DVD sleeve for the movie Two Faced as seen above i will be talking about key points in the evaluation. I will talk about the production,sources of information,finished product and its effectiveness.

The production of the Two Faced DVD sleeve began with getting the correct dimensions for the DVD sleeve.However a template was used in order to get the correct dimensions with no mistakes once the template was in the correct format the DVD sleeve would be started.

First the previously made Two Faced movie poster was saved as a JPEG file and was then brought over to the blank canvas then it was fitted into place so the resolution was not changed making it look to pix elated.

This was the front cover done as many DVD covers use the poster in order to save production time and to save money so not wait for another design. Next was to do the DVD spine this step was the shortest task to do as it was a basic task. The text tool was used however the text of the movie title had to look the same as that is one of its signature features is the title.

When the correct font was added and the colours and shadowing effects were in place all that was left to do was to rotate the text to face the correct way and cropped to fit the dimensions of the spine when this was done next was to add images. The three images were the official logo of DVD , bbfc eighteen rating and the mask of Two face the first two image were easy to acquire as you can find them on the internet.

However the mask was another matter going back to the mask on its own to do this the original PSD file of the poster was found and most of the layers removed or hidden the file was then save as another JPEG file then cropped to fit the dimensions of the spine similar to that of other objects on the DVD spine.

Now that two-sides of the sleeve were done it was now time for the attention to be turned to the back of the DVD sleeve in which all the information about the movie would be presented. To make a start to the back of the sleeve three white squares were put above one another to indicate where the images would go the on the back. This was to make sure when the text was added it would not clash with the images to make it look unprofessional.

When these indicators were added to the sleeve next was to add the blurb of the DVD sleeve this was a simple anecdote about movie i previously written down before copied and pasted into a text box. However it was structured so certain chunks of text were parts so it wasn't just a big paragraph of text it was split so the reader didn't get bored reading it.

Coming back to the text tool other small pieces of information were added such as the cast and crew and technical information this was cropped and fitted into the areas that it was assigned to, now that all the text was added it was now time to come back to the three vector images these vectors had to be replaced with images of the movie this was done by taking images from three different scenes and then adding them over the white vectors and then adding a red border similar to that of the movie poster.

Finally all that had to be added was images of a bar code and other media related images all of these can be found on the internet these were added and cropped to fit the dimensions of the DVD sleeve.

To make sure the lay out of the DVD sleeve was correct i used information and JPEG images i had seen from previous examples.

Comparing the DVD sleeve that had been made to other DVD sleeves i would say that it looks professional in that .The layout and positioning of text and images is correct to that of other DVD sleeves. As previous examples were used and actual physical copies were at my grasp i was able to get two views of how it would look both on display and digital.



As the image above shows the basic dimensions to that of TWO Faced are the same also the positioning of the text and images match that on both the front cover and the spine. However looking at other examples the back of the DVD sleeve is positioned differently then that of this DVD sleeve.


Linking with the horror-Slasher franchise in which TWO Faced this example is taken directly from that specific genre and is a classic for all horror fans inspiration was taken directly from this DVD sleeve. Using the borders that surround it and how that it is structured this can be show by a side by side view seen below.

As you can see by both images the lay out of them is almost identical however due to a large amount of text the scene images were moved to the right rather then the bottom of the DVD sleeve.

This DVD sleeve mixes in well with the original genre it was intended for which is Horror-Slasher this is shown by the intense images of the serial killer/main antagonist show on the front cover and the back with scenes from the movie. 

Furthermore the colour scheme sticking to specific dark colours and light colours such as blacks and reds with the mixture of dark brown makes the poster look more intimidating which makes it look more like a horror movie poster.

In conclusion the use of the positioning of the text and images mixed with the morbid story line and the specific colour scheme makes the DVD look genuine and intended for a specific genre and a specific audience