Evaluation Question 7

Looking back at your preliminary task, what have you learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Looking back at my preliminary task, I have noticed obvious progress and improvements in my work through making my music magazine. The photographs I have taken have improved by the use of colours and fonts, the layout of the page and photo manipulation. During the process of making my magazine, I realised the importance of research and planning.

Front Cover

 When comparing the preliminary task and my music magazine together, I can easily see where I went wrong on the preliminary task. I feel that I did not do enough research or take enough time to produce the preliminary task properly. In addition, I feel that the lack of knowledge I had with the programmes is another reason why my preliminary task does not look as professional as it could be.

Whilst comparing the photographs I had taken for both my tasks, I realised that there was a greater demand for my music magazine as I had taken 68 photographs for the cover of my music magazine and only took 24 pictures for my preliminary task as I didn’t realise I needed to take so many in order to have a wide choice of image. Also due to the lack of time I had to make my preliminary task, I was not able to take more pictures.

In terms of the colour scheme and font of the two covers, I feel that I have improved a great deal as the colour scheme and font I used for my preliminary task is not appropriate for the magazine and does not look as professional as my music magazine cover. I feel that the reason for this is due to the lack of research I did for my preliminary task and so I did not have an idea of what the colour scheme and font should look like. Whereas for my music magazine, I had plenty of cover research to make sure my cover looked as professional as possible. Looking at the font, I feel I have improved in that area also. This is again due to the lack of research for my preliminary task. The font on my preliminary task looks inappropriate for magazine and so it makes it look unprofessional and unrealistic. For my music magazine, I had plenty of research for the colour scheme and font and so I was able to produce a realistic cover page for the music magazine.

Regarding the layout of the page, I feel that I have improved in this area also. This is because I feel I did not have enough time to spend on the layout for my preliminary task and so it looks unprofessional. I feel the layout of my preliminary task unprofessional due to the lack of knowledge I had about producing a magazine on the programmes I had to use. The layout of the preliminary task is dull and empty due to there not being anything eye grabbing on the page. However, on my music magazine cover page, I was able to refer back to the research which enabled me to pick features from it to use on my cover page. This included having a large yellow star, which immediately grabs the attention of the buyer, as it is a bright colour compared to the rest of the colours. Other features include the ‘V-Festival’ sign and the ‘Must Have Downloads’ as they are aspects that my target audience is interested in.

Lastly, looking at the photo manipulation for my preliminary task, I was beginning to get used to using Photoshop and therefore, I had a lack of knowledge of how I should manipulate my product to make it look professional. I feel I improved in this area for my music magazine as I realised I had to manipulate the photo using brightness, levels and more to improve the photograph overall. For my preliminary task, the only manipulating I did included blurring the background and cloning part of the table.

Due to all of these factors I feel I have made progress and improved a great deal from the cover of my preliminary task to the cover of my music magazine.

Contents Page

Comparing the contents pages of my preliminary task and my music magazine, I notice straight away that I have improved and made progress. As with the cover pages,  I feel that I did not do enough research or have enough time to produce my preliminary task properly as well as feeling I had a lack of knowledge with the programmes I used to produce the first product.

Looking at the photographs I took for both my tasks, I used more technique and took more photographs for my music magazine than my preliminary task. This is shown in that the photographs on my preliminary task are all mid-shots and for the photographs on my music magazine I used a mid-shot and a long-shot which shows I can use a variety of techniques to demonstrate my skill and to give a professional looking contents page.

The layout of the page, I feel, is the area I have improved on the most. This is because the layout of my preliminary task is plain and boring and I did not have enough research to relate back to. Whereas for my music magazine contents page, I was able to refer back to my research, which enabled me to make my contents page look professional. These features include using the big numbers, the way I set out the pages and numbers, the title and the grey box I used for the music area.

Lastly, looking at the photo manipulation for my preliminary task, I realise that I did not manipulate the photograph at all. This was due to the lack of time I had. Whereas for my music magazine contents page, one of the photographs I used I manipulated more by changing the brightness, the levels and making the picture black and white.

Due to all of the factors above, I feel I have progressed and improved a great deal from the preliminary task to my music magazine. This is because I had more time and research to make my music magazine whereas I did not for my preliminary task. Learning from the mistakes I made on the preliminary task, I was able to make my music magazine look professional and realistic.

Evaluation Question 6

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

Evaluation Question 5

How did I attract/address my audience?

To sum up the video above, the main features of the cover page that attracted my audience were the use of colours, including the bright yellow star which immediately draws attention to the page, the topics I chose to put on the page, the model and the use of the 'V-Festival' logo as I knew that is what my target audience is interested in.

When looking at the contents page, the use of colours, large numbers and pictures is what brought the attention of my target audience. 

Lastly, when considering my double page spread, the picture, writing and the image behind the article attracted their attention. 

In conclusion, the video above shows that my magazine is successful in attracting and addressing my target audience.

Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience of your media product?

The focus of my target audience is mainly towards women between the ages of 14-21, however, as this magazine is a charts magazine; it is likely that men may find it appealing. Below I have made a short video to show more about my target audience:

Townies

 

Everything shown in the video above demonstrates what typical teenagers are like, also known as ‘Townies’. Townies wear a variety of brands such as Adidas, Nike, football shirts, Reebok, River Island, Primark, Umbro and more.

This image of media consumption by Townies, shows that magazines are one of the least popular forms of media consumed by them. This is because of  new technology being developed and so there are not many magazines that would appeal to them.

Evaluation Question 3

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

Circulation

MOJO (Bauer Media Group) = 87,555: -7.5%

Q (Bauer Media Group) = 77,522: -12.1%

UNCUT (IPC Media LTD) = 62,305: -14.2%

CLASSIC ROCH (Future Publishing LTD) = 62,352: -7.9%

KERRANG! (Bauer Media Group) = 42,077: -2.1%

NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS (IPC Media LTD) = 27,650: -4.0%

As you can see above, the magazine industry is going through a state of flux. This is because the consumption of old style media is down due to improvements in technology. Printed magazines are not as popular as they once were; however, there is still a lot of competition between media institutions as people still want to have a physical magazine due to it being easier to handle. For example, a full time worker from the city would rather buy a printed magazine to take on the train rather than risk taking a £160 Kindle Fire with the chance of it being stolen or broken. Nevertheless, the main reason why the magazine industry is going through a state of flux is due to the improvements in technology. There are many other different ways to distribute magazines including official websites and apps that can be accessed on the Kindle, iPod, Smartphones and more.

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Above there are four magazine covers including my own. None if these magazine covers look exactly the same. I wanted my magazine to be original and not copy it from other companies. However, there are some similarities between these four front covers.

One similarity is that all of the models on the covers are women. This is because women are presented very differently than men are. The faces of the models seem to be very relaxed as 3/4 of the magazines, including my own, have models with their lips slightly parted giving the whole face a relaxed look. Also, all of the models are looking into the camera giving a sexy, mysterious confident look and so I wanted my model to do the same as this is how women are presented in the media industry as teens look up to these women as role models and this is what I planned to do for my magazine. These types of music magazines are not for one particular social group but usually aim to target an audience of teenagers between the ages of 14-21 years old who enjoy and follow the music charts and new entries. Therefore, choosing the right pose and position of the model is extremely important as the model needs to look confident and seem like a role model to capture the audience intended.

In terms of costume, this is another very important decision that needs to be made when creating a magazine cover as it has to be appropriate to capture the audience intended. As my magazine is a charts magazine, I found it very difficult to decide how I wanted to portray my model. I researched teens around the ages of 14-21 which is my target audience and looked at the way they dressed. Looking at society today, I realised that the fashion for teens seems to be quite ‘indie’ and urban and therefore that is how I decided to dress my model. On my magazine cover it is quite difficult to tell what outfit she is wearing and so I had to present her look using makeup, hair and accessories. I did this by giving her dark makeup, including black lips and a shadowing effect on the eyelids which also gives off a sexy mysterious look. As my model has very long hair, I decided to loosely curl the ends of it and add a black bowler hat to finish the urban look.

In terms of the lighting, all four magazines above use artificial lighting to boost the contrast which gives a dominant look and clear cuts the quality by using a well-equipped camera to give it a professional look. Using this type of lighting makes the model on the cover look flawless as well as them looking dominant and confident.

The reason why I decided to make the target audience of my magazine between the ages 

of 14-21 is because this is the age group that is mostly interested in chart music and new entries, therefore, they are more likely to buy this magazine. In addition, people over the age of 21 may not like this type of music magazine and people aged younger than 14 are less likely to read magazines overall. Lastly, this magazine is mainly focused towards women; however, men may find this magazine appealing.

Evaluation Question 1

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

When creating my magazine, I made sure to make it look professional, it was important to base my work around real products from real media conventions. To be able to do this, I carried out different types of research including general, specific and detailed. This enabled me to analyse aspects of front covers, contents pages and double page spreads to get an idea of popular layouts and appropriate fonts and ideas for colour schemes. Using real products from real media conventions as guidelines enabled me to adapt my work to make it look as professional as it could be. The main magazines I focused on when making my product were Q, BILLBOARD and Blender.

FRONT COVER:  The main media convention that I gained most of my ideas from was Q magazine. These ideas include the pose of the model and the colour scheme. I began with the pose of the model and realised that most of the models on Q magazine give a sexy, mysterious look which is what I wanted my model to give. I then looked at the colour scheme and decided to use RED, WHITE and BLACK which seems to be the most appropriate. However, I used the magazine BILLBOARD as the media convention to base my layout on. I did this by having Lily LOVE written over the model and then the writing over the empty space without having it written over the model.

CONTENTS PAGE:  I gained many ideas for my contents page from Q magazine as this was the most similar type of magazine to mine. I made my contents page layout similar to Q by the use of the large red banner and the name of the magazine next to it as used on the contents page featuring Cheryl Cole. The way I put together the page numbers and the information is similar to the layout of Q magazine to give it a professional look as shown on the contents page with The Courteeners and Adele. Also, the pictures I used were similar to the contents page with The Courteeners and I added a review at the bottom of the page to make it look professional.

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD:  Similar to my contents page and front cover, I used Q magazine mostly as a guideline when creating the double page spread. I read through articles in Q magazine and wanted to do something similar. Also I made the layout of my double page spread similar to the one in Q by using the large L behind the article. Also for the pose of the model I took inspiration from Q magazine to give the sexy, mysterious look intended. Lastly, from the Q double page spreads, I was able to pick out the title of the page which only uses the name of the model so the reader has to read on to find out what happened. I did all of this to produce a professional looking double page spread and so it looks like a real product from real media conventions.