Finished Evaluation Draft

Evaluation Draft

Question 1 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My media product - A music magazine, the genre of my magazine being Rock, Mostly indie rock. My magazine is more challenging then developmental, this is as I feel that my music magazine challenges the ‘Norm’ of what you would see in my selected genre, this is as in my selected genre, the main colours are usually red, black, white, the font are usually messy, the magazine looks less organised than say, a more laid back magazine like R&B/ Vibe as an example, compare vibe to kerrang, the differences are easily seen. With Vibe, everything has clear layouts, whereas kerrang has less of a solid seen structure (show examples of both).

This is why I believe my magazine challenges the conventions of rock magazines. For the masthead, of kerrang, for example, the writing is quite big, bold/bulky, has that typical messy/cut up text you would expect in a rock genre, whereas my masthead is quite sophisticated, Font is clear to read and is clean, this is good as my target audience are from around 16+, and at this age, we are lazy, so any font which is clear and/or bold, is good, as it is easier read. For rock magazines, you usually have a whole band, placed in the main image, with darker clothes, the pose representing rock music, either face/hand gestures or both, with my main image, it is only the main singer, wearing partly black, but with a smile, which you wouldn't expect, so overall my image looks more bubbly, then you would expect, this is as I am trying to show the differences in how rock is expected and how the people are expected to look, which is how I am representing my social group. I am showing this by having the difference in font, image, masthead placement, and overall colour scheme.

I am challenging the conventions of rock magazines in my DPS as my DPS has a clear structure, which Kerrang, in some cases, does not. As well as this, as stated before with my front cover, the typical image I have chosen to use in my DPS is not necessarily the type of image with clothing and styling you would expect to see in a rock magazine. However, in some ways my magazine does go along with typical rock magazine layout, as there is a picture of the lead singer in the DPS, which is what you usually see, to make the reader obliged to read the article. As said earlier, colour scheme is quite important in my magazine when it comes to challenging the conventions of rock magazines. My dps is filled with quite a range of pinks/purples, which aren’t the usual colours linked with rock, and as well as this, my DPS is laid out with sophisticated structure, where placement of text and image are coherent, as well as all colours linking.

My Contents page holds similarities with kerrang, the typical rock magazine. With the change in font sizes. However, my magazine is different as my font is all one colour, as I wanted sophistication, rather than something ‘messy’ which is what you would typically see in a rock styled magazine. My magazine also has more variation in imagery, where kerrang would have about one or two images, the main image showing the main article, whereas my magazine as an image for each regular or feature. My contents page also has way more text than what a typical rock magazine would have, as I wanted to explain each page in more detail. These are some of the ways in which my contents page challenges the conventions of rock magazines.

Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

For my magazine, my particular social group would be older teens into indie type music or rock music, so people labelled as Indies, hipsters, alternatives, etc. I think my media reaches out well to these groups as it expresses individuality, it shows differences, meaning, it shows that despite what people expect, you can still be different and get people to understand. It is to help kill stereotypes, and I know that most young people can be quite afraid to show who they are because of being judged or worried that they won’t be accepted, this is in all genres, but I feel like my magazine will help to show them social groups that its fine to not necessarily look how people think you should.

This is why I think that my magazine will appeal to my social groups chosen, I also think this because of my layout, the simple, yet colourful or ‘tumblr’ themed choice, will engage younger - middle aged audiences. The cover image is not dark/moody, which is how it challenges stereotypes about the rock genre, you would expect something dark, whereas mine, shows more happiness and colour, killing that stereotype that people who listen to rock music are always sad/depressed. This relates to all the other images used in my magazine.

The language of my magazine is also laid back and humorous, which links well to my social group as well as target audience, younger and more indie type crowds, in this case, are more laid back and prefer simple vocabulary. As well as this, through-out my magazine, I have used mostly females, with one male picture, removing the dominance of men in this genre. I have also used non-white musicians, killing the stereotype that only white people listen to rock music.

Question 3- What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

When researching, I thought that Bauer media group might be best for publishing / distributing my magazine, this is as, they have already produced loads of magazines which have gone amazingly far in the UK, and most of these are weekly magazines, one being Kerrang! Magazine. They have also produced some popular TV music channels such as KISS, which is very well know, they help magazines with popularity by producing radio channels. Apps, and More, for all of these reasons, I thought that by them releasing a magazine as different or unique as mine, their business will rise as well as my magazine, they will do greatly with promotions, advertisements, and much more, allowing my magazine to be seen in a positive light, and as well as this, kerrang is a rock magazine meaning that the audience who are interested in that will hopefully by intrigued by mine. Despite the competition that may occur because of kerrang being big, I still think that Bauer would be best for my magazine as my magazine is also a weekly and shares similarities between other magazines. With all this apps, I could create an app for my magazine, which posts new, music, videos and more.

While researching, I decided that despite the apps available and having kerrang meaning I have promotion, I decided that maybe Bauer media group would not be best for publishing my magazine, instead, I thought that Conde Nast would be appropriate, this is because so far, they do not having any music magazines published, meaning that there is a space in their market available for my magazine, without any competition. I could also trust them with making my magazine huge as they have produced magazines such as Vogue and Glamour which are both huge magazines, worldwide. (Post examples)

Question 4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

For this question, and the purpose of audience, I will be looking at Kerrang!’s press pack for referencing.  But firstly, my intended audience, the ideal for my magazine, was both genders, so male and female, but of course, depending on who is on the cover will determine which gender will take more interest, as well as this, it will depend on what band is being featured, as some bands are more able to attract female audience, it will naturally happen. For the ages, my median age is 22, but for overall ageing, my magazine would ideally aim to 16-35 year olds. I found out / got my median from researching Kerrang! And hammers magazine press packs, this was ideal for me as they both follow a similar genre to mine.  Social status and working would be medium to a lower status, as the magazine won’t be priced to high, this is as students in college/uni will not be able to afford something above £3, I would say. For ethnicity, I would aim to White-British, as the magazine will be based in UK, this to me makes most sense. For fashion, I would expect my audience to dress in clothing from shops such as Drop Dead, which is a scene/hipster site owned / co-owned by Lead singer of popular group, Bring me the horizon, Oliver Skye’s. I would expect colours such as pastel colours, black, white, grey.

If I had to give a profile of the typical reader for my magazine, I would imagine any male or female around the ages of 16+, probably art students, who are interested in pop-punk and indie bands such as Alt J, All time low, paramore, and more. I would imagine them to dress in clothing from drop dead or Topshop, have coloured hair, but laid back, so no extreme piercings or tattoos, but more hipster dressed.   (Post examples)

Question 5 - How did you attract your audience?

How did I attract this audience, well firstly, I think that my model and colour scheme pay an important part in this, the model for what she is wearing and how she is posed, this is very popular at the moment for teens and young adults, by doing that, I have hopefully immediately made people want to look at my cover, with the colour scheme, the pink, purple, black and white colours show pastel like similarities, which again, are ‘in’ with fashion and social networks. I have also offered Facebook and twitter to my audience, as most of my audience are a younger age, they are going to be more interested in looking online for information then having to read about it in a magazine, especially as they are always on the move and always ready to reach out back to celebrities - this is another way I have attracted the audience. When getting feedback, especially on the layout of my magazine, I only ever got feedback about the cover lines and such being too small to read, which I have changed, hopefully to appeal more, bearing in mind that the people who gave me feedback were in the age range i am reading out too, so their feedback was important. I believe that my other conventions have helped to attract my audience, being the font, and the size, as people my age, so higher teens and younger adults, we are lazy, meaning that the bigger and bolder the font, the more attractive, this why most of my font is quite big or bold, and there is not much on the magazine, so that my audience are not put off or too overwhelmed. My use of language is laid back, nothing complicated and quite friendly, meaning that there will be no language used in my magazine that will challenge my readers, allowing them to feel confident and comfortable when reading my magazine.

Question 6- What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

During the making of my magazine, I had to use a lot of technologies which I had never used before. This meant that at some points, things became complicated. There were two main technologies that were used, Photo-shop and In-Design. Photoshop was used to create my front cover, and any other small edits I may have needed. In-Design was used to create both my DPS and Contents page. For Photoshop, there were many tools that I had to use, Being the crop tool, the text tool, the move tool, Ctrl + t which allowed re-sizing, blur tool, and other blending/colour catching tools and paint tools. They all helped me at different points.

The crop tool was important, it allowed me to make my image fit perfectly onto my canvas, and also allowed me to cut out parts of the image I did not want there. The text tool - Allowing me to create text and place it onto my image. Ctrl + T which allowed resizing with an object, meaning either text or image, which was good to help with resizing and placing. Blur tool helped to get rid of rough edges and skin. Blending tool, helped to stop differences in the image, there was a colour catching tool which was good when editing skin, matched with the paint tool.

In-Design, used for professional page layouts, used by professional magazines companies, I used this for my DPS and contents page. While using In-Design, I used tools such as the Selection Tool, to move/grab layers. The type tool to create text. The rectangle frame tool for importing pictures. The rectangle tool to create boxes. I also used ruler lines to ensure accuracy.

Illustrator, used to create text, has abilities which applications like Photoshop do not have, I used illustrator to create my masthead, this is as the font that this application has, and Photoshop didn't, so for this, the only tool that I used was the text tool. I created this by using the text tool, then saving the file as a PNG so I am able to transfer it to Photoshop.

Another application which was important when making my magazine was Blogger - Media technology which allowed me to show my journey/progress, a very easy platform to use. Online, as it is interactive, as well as this, it is easily assailable, for family and friends to see. I used blogger nearly every day, to post progress screenshots, notes that were taken during lesson, things that I know would help me during work or for when I am at home.

The photography studio - Massive importance to my work, without this, my work would have not looked as clear, graphically good, and professional as it did look. I have done notes on how to work most of the lighting, cameras and accessories that we luckily had, which made my time in the studio easier, as there were many different settings for lighting, as well as many different lights that we had to control, at once. The DSLR cameras, we also had to know off by heart, meaning timing, settings, zooming, either automatic focus or manual. Backdrops were also included in this studio, meaning we had the opportunity to have our models against either a plain black or white background, allowing clarity. I also embedded videos such as my pitch, for easier access. I used things like 2 point lighting, backdrops and more to ensure my pictures were at a good quality, as well as using a DSLR camera, allowing me to edit ISO and more.

Technologies used in evaluation -

Technology used in magazine pitch - for me, I had used PowerPoint, this is because for me, I know how to set everything out, meaning I am comfortable with the layout choices, the tools, meaning how to add text, change the background, re-size images and more. I also like simplicity, so for me, PowerPoint was a good option.

Timetoast - A good online website which allows you to set out when you are going to do a task, meaning dates, which helps with deadlines, and helps to give you a clear layout of when to do tasks, easing stress.

(Input the finished college magazine and then the finished music magazine and begin to point out differences)

When editing my college magazine, I was very unaware of things, like tools in Photoshop, use of rulers, meaning that my magazine college magazine did not look as professional as my music magazine. When making my music magazine because of the practise I had beforehand, my magazine automatically looked a lot better, meaning that things were in place, font was placed properly, and overall the magazine looked much better. I have learnt a lot of things from making my college magazine, such as how to edit better, using Photoshop, how to use new applications such as illustrator and more, which I had never used before. As well as this, I learnt to capture my improvements more, by using blogger and screenshotting, which is good as it shows my progression from college magazine, how that looked, and then my music magazine, and the differences between the two of those. More specifically, I improved way more on things such as captions, which are easier to read and differ from the main cover line. The picture is more accurately placed, no parts of her body cut off. I used guidelines, framing rulers and more meaning everything overall had structure. Fonts are easier to differ, different sizes for different sentences and keywords. This was due to tools I had on Photoshop, such as these framing tools, resizing tools, text tools, and more.