Evaluation - Question 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

When I was set the task of designing and creating a music magazine, I knew what type of music I wanted to base mine on. I have chosen to look at magazines that were based on R&B and I knew from the start that I wanted to have a solo female singer on the front. This encouraged me to research magazines that are already in the industry so that I could use or adapt any of the conventions. These magazines inspired me when taking my photographs as it encouraged me to produce mine in a particular way. I have looked at the positioning of the model, the title, and the headlines involved within the front cover.

My music magazine represents its genre with the headlines and images. I have used headlines that relate to RnB and Pop music with well known artists. The image also suggests the genre with the simplistic yet fashionable clothing, hair, and make-up. The magazines below were inspirations towards my media products.

I have compared my conventions with the ones used in these magazines.

Looking at these two different headings, I have used photoshop to enable me to place the image in front of the text. I used real media products to give me the idea of placing the photograph in front of the title as this seems to what many magazines are like. I found it easy cutting around the head in order to make it another layer, however, comparing mine to a real magazine, I have lots of the title still showing. Looking above at the other different magazines, they all cover a lot of the title and even hide whole letters. By placing the image in front of the title, I think it gives it a more realistic sense as it is not blocking out any of the model and covering over the picture. It also makes the image stand out and seem almost 3D like.

I have modeled my photograph against this photo of the new solo artist Taylor Swift. The mise-en-scene of the image shows similar to my own photography. The background is plan and there are no props involved. This focuses the audiences attention on simply the model in the image and I also feel that the image is one of the main aspects of attracting the correct audience.

Looking at other magazines helped me with the layout of mine. I have used the idea of the magazine "Clash" to get the style of some of my headlines. Many magazines have a "Top charts" section or something similar. I chose to include the top 40 UK Charts within mine. The number is made bigger and a different colour/font so that it stands out as much as possible. I think this aspect will be a main part of attracting people to the magazine.

Written Content:

To decide what to write within my double page spread, I research magazine interviews on the Internet. My main inspiration for this was the MTV website where I found an interview from Pixie Lott. It gave me a few ideas on where to begin and what to include within my article. http://www.mtv.co.uk/artists/pixie-lott/news/122558-pixie-lott-interview

It took me a few times to be able have my final article ready as I wanted to make it as realistic as possible and have enough to fill my double page spread.

Contents Page Layout:

I wanted my contents page to be different from any other music magazine like NME and Kerrang. I liked how unique this contents page is from Vibe and I wanted to ensure that the layout of mine was one of a kind. I have put the image as the top half of the page, and all the pages and number in the bottom section. Many magazines have a standard layout with small images and lists of pages all the way down the page.

Evaluation - Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

When I was told about the task I had to complete, I immediatly knew what genre of music I would base my magazine on and the type of people it would attract and appeal towards. I believe that my media product would appeal to RnB teenage fans just like the real media product 'Blender' does (shown above). When I asked my girl friends which magazine they would choose out of Blender or NME, they all were attracted to the one with the solo artist Taylor Swift posing with her hair and make-up all done nicely. This was the response I wanted as it led me to want to carry out the mental image I had of my magazine to look like. My magazine shows similarities from the published one. I have developed some of the conventions from this so that they would both represent the same social groups. The posture of the model is positioned in a way to attract the younger generation as it is quite flirtatious and would appeal to teenagers. The clothing of my model is simple but elegant and on trend. Her clothing highlights the genre of music as it is not something you would see on the front of magazines like Kerrang and NME.

Evaluation - Question 3

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I have looked at different media institutions and the types of magazines they publish to the public. I researched "publishers for music magazines" and found five popular ones. These were Rhinegold, IPC Media, Quincy Jones, Dennis Publishing, and Bauer Media. The magazine I have most matched my media product with (Blender) is regularly published by Dennis Publishing, however after looking through all of theem I would say that the company Bauer might distribute my media product. They also produce the well known magazines Kerrang, Pop, Mojo, Q. As well as these popular magazines, they publish things for the radio stations Kiss, Magic, Heat and Smash Hits.

With the exception of my magazine, the others are published by Bauer Media. I think that there are a lot of similarities amongst these. The titles are all positioned in the top left hand corner. There is also a stapline that stands out the most on all three because of the size and the positioning. The image on the published magazines are relatively similar to my media product as the lighting is bright and shows the features clearly. 'Q' Magazine uses the main image on the front cover to turn any potential buyer into a paying buyer. My image also is the main function of drawing in any potential buyers and to make them into official statistics of amount of copies sold. Bauer Media has published 'Q' which is my inspiration for it to publish my media product.

Evaluation - Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?


The target audience for my media product was the most important factor to consider for me when I was planning, designing and creating my magazine. I knew that I wanted my product to attract young teenagers who listen to RnB music. I never wanted my magazine to be similar to products like NME and Kerrang as I feel that they are more for the audience of rock band fans. Stereotypically, we see magazines like NME and Kerrang for the audience of those who are Indie and magazines like Smash Hits and Blender are aimed towards those who enjoy and listen to pop music and RnB. The image I had of my magazine was that it would be light colours, with a female model on the front along with fancy writing to attract mainly young girls. The following magazines do not have any similar conventions with my media product.

These show bold fonts with dark colours. They both have a male artist on the front of the cover, one playing an electric guitar, and the other holding a microphone. Their facial expressions show seriousness and there costumes are both dull and simple.
Different to these magazines I have found one to
resemble my media product. Stereotypically, this product has used lots of the colour pink and this is automatically assigned to the female gender. This encouraged me to use feminine colours as this was a very popular magazine for teenage girls.

http://uktribes.com/
I have used this link to look at the different stereotypical groups so that I could select and match one to my magazine. By looking at this, I would associate my media product with the "Trendies" as they can be fashionable and interested in RnB and Pop music.

Evaluation - Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

To address my audience for both the preliminary and main task, I had to think about how and what would attract students/the public to read my magazines. The most important factor I think is the main image on the front cover and the contents of the magazine. Not only these attract the audience though, the colours and use of fonts on the main cover will be what will draw the attention of the audience.

I believe that the image in the USP (Unique Selling Point) of my magazine. It is the first thing that anyone looks at as it stands out more than anything else. The image is bold and also represents the target audience of the magazine - "trendies", RnB, and Pop music listeners. I knew from the beginning that my image had to be one that could attract in any of the target audience as looking at other published magazines, the pictures are what capture your interest and make you want to read about them. Like any other magazine, my media product has catchy headlines, bold words, and colours that would attract the target audience.

Evaluation - Question 6

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?





To create my media products, I used the two software programmes Photoshop Creative Suite 4 and InDesign. These were completely new to me and I had to learn the basics in order to produce a well designed magazine. I used the preliminary task as an advantage to get to know the most useful tools of the programme. Before beginnning the preliminary task, I found a photograph of a female model on the Internet so that I could practise some tools. I have used the spot heeling tool to ensure that her skin looks perfect, I also used the colour picker tool to get the same colour as her lips so that I could make them look fuller. As well as these, I was able to adjust her eye make up to give her fuller lashes, and a pattern around the eye area. I found that by doing this it got me used to the technology before I started my magazines. I grabbed an image off of the internet, which I thought would look good as a front cover, and create a mock up page. I used the magic wand tool to cut around her head so that it could be copied and placed over the heading. This gave me experience and the confidence to create my preliminary and main task.




For my double page spread, I used the software InDesign. This was completely new to me like Photoshop, however I did not have the chance to have a lot of practise in this programme. I realised that the tools were very much similar to photoshop, however this is not a photo manipulation software. The main tool I used was the Text tool as my double page spread involved a lot of writing.

Another programme that was new to me was Blogger. I had never heard of this and I knew that it would be another challenge getting to know the programme and how it worked. I found it difficult at first as there were so many different things that you could do, and different layouts. However, I got to explore this Blogspot and get to know how it worked. I think that it was very helpful towards my coursework and creating new regular posts.

Evaluation - Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task (the school magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

Preliminary

Firstly my task was to produce a front cover and mock up contents page for a school magazine. I wanted to use this task to get myself used to the software programmes and to practise create a media product. As soon as this task was set I knew that I wanted to base it on just the sixth form. As all of this was new to me, I had no real plan or layout for my preliminary. I simply just took some photos and chose which ones I thought would appeal to the target audience of the magazine (sixth formers). It took me a while to think of a suitable name which had to attract many people. The name plays a big part in drawing in readers with the size, colour, and catchy phrases.

Main Task

Looking back and comparing my final product with my preliminary, I can see a massive difference in my ability to use Photoshop and InDesign. I hand drafted out what I wanted each of my products to look like so that I had a rough guidance to follow. My main problem when designing my products was knowing what to write within the double page spread and also creating realistic headlines. When it came to taking my photographs, I knew that I wanter a teenage girl to model as it reflects my target audience. I wanted her to look fashionable, fresh and someone that other people would aspire to be. When it came to the preliminary task, I know that I didn't take a lot of care and thought over who and what will be in the image, and this shows in the difference between the two front covers. I can see that the preliminary front page is very basic, the image has a busy environment and the cover lines. My main task has an image with nothing in the background, and excellent lighting so that it easily stands out. When I was deciding the location of my photographs, I wanted a plain background for my front cover and a patterned background for my contents and double page spread to give it some detail. I was able to use a plain bed sheet to cover a wall so that it gave me a nice, clear background. For my contents page, I simply placed my model near a wall in my house that had a floral wallpaper. I decided not to have any props in my images as I wanted the reader to focus simply on the artist rather than looking at anything unnecessary object within the picture. This will ensure that the image is the main USP of the product. I thought it was most important to hand design the front cover more than anything else as there are many different objects that need to be placed on it and it avoids messyness and confusion.

I found the image editing easy to do in Photoshop as it allows you to personalise your images so they are exactly how you want them to be. This was easier on the main task as I was not used to the software during the preliminary and I did not edit the images as much as the main. There were many decisions I had to make when creating my media product as I had to know myself whether or not an image had enough or too much lighting. InDesign was also a challenge to use at first as it was slightly different to photoshop especially when it came down to inserting the image.

I managed my time well as I always stuck to the deadlines and made sure that I had uploaded my finished products in the correct time. I was doing new posts whenever I had something to upload so that I kept up-to-date and ensured that I did not leave anything out.