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?

Since the Preliminary task, I have learnt how to use professional technologies like Photoshop to create professional media products. I have taken on board that the audience is the main theme when creating a magazine everything depends on the audience and the genre of the magazine. For the Pre-Lim I did not carry out as much research into the school magazines, compared too the amount of research I did for the Music magazine. I used magazines such as 'Kerrang' & 'NME' to get an idea of the layout and conventions used in a music magazine to date.

I planned everything before I started creating on the music magazine because I wanted to achieve a high grade. When I was producing the Pre-Lim I did very little planning because it was a piece of work just to see what we was like towards such programs like Photoshop. More research I did consisted of me evaluating other magazines and getting some ideas. The research I carried out was focused on fonts, house-style, colour scheme, image sizes, photo angles, and many more. The research was successful because I was then able to get an understanding of what and how the magazines in the shops look like and how they sell so well.

I noticed and I am sure you have noticed a clear difference in quality with my Preliminary task and my Main task. Everything from the Pre-Lim is basic. For example the picture has not been edited, the fonts have not been drop shadowed and there are no use of other effects such as lighting. I am sure I have made a vast improvement from my Pre-Lim to my Main task. This would be the case for many other people. However it is very clear in my two pieces of work. However I think i could of improved a few things on my Music magazine, like add more cover lines too fill the page slightly more. On the whole I believe that the Final Music Magazine was a success in relating too the target audience (16-25) and the genre (INDIE).

Displayed above are the pictures of my Music magazine and my School magazine . It is clear too distinguish which one is which because I have learnt so much since my Pre-lim I showed it in my work which is displayed above. Over that time I have learnt many new skills and techniques on the Photoshop workshop, which has helped me produce a much more high quality piece of work than my Pre-lim. My Main task which is the Music magazine looks a lot more like a conventional front cover, (or in this case a music magazines front cover), I think that the colour scheme on the front cover helps it in its push to look like a conventional. The colours blue, purple, black and white gives the front cover more style. Its also the shown with Alec's clothing as he's representing these colours. However my School magazine does not have this aspect. There are many different colours on the front, and I think this is a major aspect into why its not a very effect piece of media. This then shows what I have learnt during the time aloud to produce a Music magazine.

Evaluation Question 6

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

The technologies I used:

Photoshop is where I done most of my work and all of the work with photos. When using photoshop I came across tools I had never used before. Tools such as 'Crop tool' 'Burn Tool' 'Drop Shadow' 'Blur tool' and many more. However these where the ones I used the most.

Once I had taken my pictures of my model and chosen the one I wanted to used for my front cover, I put into Photoshop and began working on it, below are the stages I went through whilst using different tools too adapt and create a better final picture than the one I had taken originally.

I used a variety of different technologies in the production of my magazine, Before I could begin any of the designing I had to take photos. However, even before I did this I had to research into real music magazines to get an idea about how to pose my models and about what to include in terms of mise-en-scène, etc.

I used a digital camera for taking my pictures because A. Its very easy to transfer my pictures form the camera onto photoshop etc and B. Because the digital camera I used was of a high quality and produced high quality photos. For the all my pictures I used a Samsung PL60, and took photos on a variety of different settings, such as beauty shot (which retouches the subjects skin and tone to make it feel fresh and blemish-free) This was very easy to use as it was a lightweight digital camera. Using this camera I feel totally in control of how and what I wanted the pictures to look like. It has so many different settings I could test them all out and see which looked the best and so on. When I began taking pictures they were weak, however as the weeks progressed and my time with the camera increased so did my knowledge and technique.

Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted and addressed my audience through my colour scheme and the use of my bright colourful images. All of my Mastheads were in bold dark blue font, with a thick block of white inside the lets (because you will see with the font that it looks almost like bubble writing). This will almost certain attract the readers attention. Also, my structure was clear and the text was readable as I spaced my text out on the page and used bold colour outlining around all the text so the cover lines etc can easily be noticed. The font 'Punk's not dead' was used for my main masthead and some coverlines. The fonts 'Base05' and 'Base 02' were also used in sections of the work. I got these fonts from Dafont which I have mentioned before in my evaluation.

I also believe that my contents page was clear when helping the audience throughout the magazine. In addition, I made sure that my images were bright and clearly noticeable so when people sore the magazine, they would be adamant to read it, because the appearance is of a high standard. The expression given off in the picture on my front page, is like Alec is wanting people to read about him and understand him more because he is knew to the music industry and wants to become noticed. So this acts like a hook almost like his eyes do. Drawing the reader in.

As my music magazine is themed towards the INDIE genre, it has a lot of competition. NME and obviously Kerrang are probably the greater competition that I have to consider and compete with. However, I believe I have factors in my magazine that the others cannot compete with.

Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience of my music magazine 'Sound AFEX' is INDIE males and females aged 15-25. A typical INDIE would be one like this. I wanted my magazine to be unisex because it will attract both males and females which then means more readers would read my magazine. The colour scheme used throughout the pages are pretty much unisex as none of schemes favour one sex other the other. Like I said before my target audience is aimed at 15-25 year old's (teenagers-young adults). I chose this market because I fit into that market therefore I have an idea of what people of my age want in a music magazine. Young adults go through many hard times, mainly more than older adults because there growing up and becoming different people. This links in with my article. The article is about a troubled young boy following his dream and now he is pursuing that dream. Alec can act as a role model too younger adults.

Kerrang targets 15 - 44 year olds (Predominately Male)

Hit Parader targets 18 - 24 year olds (Predominately Male)

NME targets males aged 18 - 30

VIBE targets 18 - 30 year old's

I would like my magazine to not favour any sex. I would like to think the customer breakdown would resemble 50% for each sex. I have aimed by magazine at females as well as males because I believe there is a gap in the market for a magazine to favour both males and females.

An Indie

My Audience:

The audience of my magazine would be INDIE males and females. There hobbies consist of going out with mates a lot, attending raves and going clubbing. Also attending specific concerts such as V festival and Reading. The females and mainly all the males like to go shopping to impress the opposite sex and keep up to date with the latest INDIE fashion.

Where my target audience might shop:

The places where my audience would shop, might be places like Hollister. The reason being is because it sells rather 'cool' like clothes, it has a 'club' feel too it as its dark and cramped. The workers are attractive which would lure the people I am looking to buy my magazine into shopping there. Other places in which they would shop would be Topman (male) or Topshop (female). The reason being is because it sells clothes such as Checkered shirts, skinny jeans, leggins, converses and retro tee shirts. All of these types of clothing you would see INDIE's wear.

The music that INDIES would listen to:

The music I would expect my target audience too listen too would be bands such as: White Lies, Jack Penate (singer) Florence & the Machine, Editors, MGMT, Mumford & sons and many many more. Bands and singers are big inspirations especially with INDIE's. You can tell this by the turn out of people these types of bands/singers have at concerts/gigs.

INDIES favourite T.V shows:

My target audience would prefer to go out or listen to music than watch TV, however if they chose too watch TV the programmes that would be most popular would be: MTV, VIVA, 4MUSIC (music channels) Skins, The Inbetweeners & Shameless these are the most popular programmes because my target audience will try and relate to these programmes because they are things that happen to 'young adults'.

Socio-Economic Groups

I did some research on socio-economic groups so that I could get a clearer idea of how to categorise my target audience. I priced my magazine at £3.50 which is quite a high price for a music magazine, however not so much for a monthly magazine. This higher price means that I should be aiming my magazine at the higher socio-economic groups, such as B and C1 & C2. However, this is not very accurate because it does not show that only people in the higher Socio-Economic will want to buy my magazine. Also my target audience's age group starts at 15, so it is likely that the younger members of my audience will not have jobs and will therefore not fit into any socio-economic groups.

Social Status

This is to be considered quite an important segment of target audience. The social groupings of Kerrang!'s audience would include groups like moshers, scene kids, grungers, goths and emos while the readership of 'Vibe' for example would be smart urban, trendies and townies. Social groups are used regularly by advertisers in determining who to aim their product at. My magazine is aimed at a variety of groups. The main aim is towards INDIE's although social groups such as scene kids, grungers and trendies would all be interested in my music magazine because of the dialect and what its offering inside. This is a picture I took from uktribes.com. This website website analyses the different social grouping of Britain, it shows us the groups of now-a-days and what people are into. Using this site i'd say the people buying my magazine would fit into the following groups: Scene kids, grungers, trendies, skaters, townies and most importantly INDIE's.

Evaluation Question 3

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

I have researched and looked into other magazines analysed their publishers:

Kerrang is the most successful music magazine that is published weekly with a circulation of 104,544 per year.

Mojo is the second best selling music monthly recording sales of 97,772 for the month.

NME recorded a circulation of 400,948 between January and June in 2009 according to IPC Media.

VIBE recorded a circulation of 800,000 sales in 2007 according to Quincy Jones.

Although Bauer Media already publish a successful rock/INDIE magazine, I think they would be the best company to publish my magazine. This is mainly down to the fact that they are a very successful media publishing company. I also believe that the magazines that they are publishing are quite old meaning that there is a gap in the market for my magazine as mine is modern and fresh too the market. My magazine I believe would work very well with Bauer Media because they already have the figures too show there successfulness and I believe my magazine will achieve it's full potential under the guidance of Bauer Media.

IPC MEDIA SUMMARY

IPC Media produces over 85 iconic media brands, with our print brands alone reaching almost two thirds of UK women and 44% of UK men – almost 27 million UK adults – while our online brands collectively reach 20 million users every month.

IPC's diverse print and digital portfolio offers something for everyone, with a focus on three core audiences: men, mass market women and upmarket women.

Our men's portfolio (IPC Inspire) comprises a wealth of leisure brands including Country Life, Horse & Hound, Rugby World and Decanter, as well as lifestyle brands including Nuts, Mousebreaker and NME.

BAUER MEDIA SUMMARY

Bauer Media reaches over nineteen million UK adults across multiple media channels. We have more than eighty influential media brands spanning a wide range of interests, including heat, GRAZIA, Closer, MCN, FHM, Parker's, MATCH, Magic 105.4, Kiss 100, Kerrang!, 4Music and the Big City Network, our group of twenty local radio stations.

Our business is built on millions of personal relationships with engaged readers and listeners. We connect audiences with compelling content, whenever, wherever, and however they want. Our unique insight allows us to work closely with our customers to develop innovative solutions that create a difference to their business.

The magazine which I did my detail analysis of, Kerrang, is published by Bauer Media; this really does give me quite an easy choice. However, there are other things to consider as well, such as the circulation. I want my magazine to be successful therefore I want it to be distributed by a company which has a track-record of having high levels of circulation. Bauer manages to beat IPC in this area as well, since its weekly music magazine's (Kerrang!'s) circulation is 43,253 while IPC's weekly music magazine's (NME's) circulation is 40,948.
Bauer Media already publishes two monthly music magazines, and therefore Bauer shouldn't be worried about losing sales because they will be competing against itself. IPC Media only publishes one monthly music magazine, and publishing my magazine as well might put the sales at risk. Bauer should be more willing to distribute my magazine. However, the downside is that Bauer might not wan to publish a third monthly music magazines as it already publishes two.

In conclusion, I have decided to pick Bauer Media too publish my magazine. This is because it already has experience in publishing two popular monthly music magazines (well known magazines, because of there sales) , and should therefore have the experience to make my magazine a success also.

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I decided to make my magazine aimed at the younger audience, mostly teenagers. This can be reflected in the price of the magazine, at £3.50 per issue as it is affordable, to the younger generation. The main artist of this issue is probably more towards the indie genre, teenagers are often represented or shown as trouble makers, and in my issue I try too show that not all teenagers behave the same. His clothes show his social group and the interview shows independence whilst at such a young age. The article is inspiring towards the readers because Alec shows how people can make their dreams come true no matter what's thrown at them. Social class is not really relevant in my magazine, as the language is not particularly formal.

To get a better idea about how the social groups which my magazine and Kerrang represent are different and similar, I shall compare the cover images between the two magazine covers. Both models have a direct eyesight towards the reader, this acts as a hook. It can attract the reader into buying the magazine. There faces are mysterious they seem to not be giving much away. Maybe this encourages the readers to find out more about the models by reading their article. The size and positioning of the models are more or less the same, as there both sitting down, with there backs more towards the right side, and then there body tilting slightly to the left of the page. In Kerrang's issue the models head is above the masthead which can represent a kind of dominance.

Both expressions show confusion. They are both looking as if they have something to say, or express. In my opinion I believe they look as if they have been caught out or questioned. Its almost like as if they do not want to be disturbed. In both pictures the lighting is most strong towards the middle (where there faces are) the reason being is because theses are the most important things on the front page.

Evaluation Question 1

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

I began by researching into different music magazines and getting an understanding of how they look. NME was very influential in my research. I used other magazines such as

Kerrang to see what the other magazines were offering. I studied the pages in the magazines to get an idea of what they were like, and how the articles were presented.

When I started on Photoshop for the first time my work was very weak as

I had no experience using the application. As the weeks went on I gathered more guidance with Photoshop and began to use many different tools. The tools in which i used consisted of 'Burn Tool' 'Drop Shadow' 'Pen Tool' 'Text Wrapping' and many more.

Magazine Conventions.

Overview of Magazine Conventions.

Forms and Conventions
I believe that my magazine follows the conventions of a real music magazine, I used fonts that I thought would give the magazine a more modern feel to it, which is what now-a-days music magazines are trying to pull off. The magazines are looked at (Kerrang! & NME) had very much a lot of images and text on there contents and articles, and I really wanted to mirror this effect because I believe it looks more entertaining and eye catching. Also readers could argue they get more for there money. I challenged the forms and conventions of the current existing music magazines in my genre by making my text more modern and eventful. However it may look similar to Kerrang's font. Although this can be excepted, as my genre is basically the same as Kerrang's. Both being INDIE/ROCK. On my front cover, I included one primary image. On my contents page I included 1 image and another 2 on the double page spread, which fulfills the conventions of music magazines.

Masthead- Mise en Scene My magazine is called 'SOUND AFEX' my inspiration came from much research into why and how magazines are called what they are. Mostly Kerrang helped me in my idea of choosing the name 'SOUND AFEX'. The reason being is because Kerrang resembles the sound of a guitar. The sound of a guitar could be seen as a Sound effect. I then thought that Sound can affect people. So I started with the idea of 'Sound Affects', then I realised that people might believe I am trying to spell 'Effects' so I deliberately spelt it wrong so people the understand that I am trying to give off the idea that Sound AFEX's/affects people. So I decided to stick with the name Sound Afex. I then was inspired by the rough, shattered effect used in Kerrangs font. So I took this idea of shattering and applied it too my masthead. MY magazines masthead typography is distorted and very bold, I believe my masthead is different from other magazines as its not smooth and sophisticated like many other music magazines are.

The colours used by my masthead are conventional colours. I have used a block colour of lightish purple on the word 'SOUND.' and a dark purple on the word 'AFEX' I then reinforced its borders with a darker shade of purple outline, using a drop shadow to give it more style. I havent seen this style used conventionally whilst researching although I believe that in using it myself I have challenged the codes and conventions set by other leading magazines. The position in which my masthead is in follows the conventions of other magazines.

Music Magazine Title

As you can clearly see the Title above is the title/font I used for my Music magazine. The effects and font are so much different from my title on my school magazine. The Title 'Sound AFEX' works really well with the font BASE02 which is a font I took from dafont. The colours are different to made it stand out that little bit more. I also decided to give the font a drop shadow to make it stand out slightly.

School Magazine Title

When we began are task to create a front page of are school magazine, I had no experience on Photoshop what so ever. This is clearly shown by the title above, as its not of a high quality of my music magazine title. I used pretty much basic fonts as i had no yet discovered dafont at the time. I kept the colours the same as the school's to give it more of a house feel to it. I then added a Wilmington Grammar logo to give it more resemblence to WGSB.

Cover Lines- Mise en Scene My front page cover lines use and develop conventions set by real music magazines. I wanted to keep too the house style so I used purples blues and whites in the cover lines to keep the style more or less the same. The largest one of my cover lines is situated on the left in the middle. The reason being is because during my research I picked up on the fact that the most important articles are planted in the middle, where most people's eyes are drawn too at first. The font 'Punks not dead' is very common in my work. I believe its the best font for my genre (INDIE) and looks attractive.

Size and colour is another important convention I researched. I have a huge variety of different size fonts situated on the cover lines, the reason being is because some cover lines are more important than others. Too make the fonts more outstanding the colours play a big part in making the cover lines more eye catching. So with this in mind I made the bigger cover lines have a darker font.

Mise-en-scene/ Costumes/ Props.

The costumes that were worn in the pictures, were checkered shirts with white vests worn underneath, I got the idea of this from research into leading music magazines. To see what was worn by the musicians in Kerrang & NME because my genre of the magazine was almost the same as them. If the model was wearing too much clothing it does not work as well as models with basic casual clothing.

Layout and Colour- Mise en Scene I have used a colour theme throughout my magazine. I have used black & red in my magazine, as it seems to be common colours used by many music magazines. For my magazines background I have used light blue, and white. When designing my layout I researched other leading magazines too establish how they layed there pages out. I ended up putting the picture in the middle and placing (with thought and practice) the cover lines around the picture then like all the other magazines I put the master head at the top. I researched into where the cover lines are placed normally, although I noticed that some were placed at the very bottom of the Front cover. These was mainly 'PLUS's' or 'EXCLUSIVE's'.