Evaluation

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

I found that analysing magazines was extremely helpful towards my own final product. By analysing the front covers , contents pages and double page spreads of different magazines. By doing this I was able to identify with elements that where used in every magazine (e.g. cover lines) and then elements that where original and linked in with the theme of the magazine (e.g. colour themes). The layouts of the magazines pages were important as while I constructed my own magazine pages I was able to refer to the professional magazines for layout ideas. I had my own photos and title ideas and the magazines help me to identify where to put everything so I could get the best out of my magazine and for it to look like a professional item and stand out on a magazine shelf in a shop. I used Total Film magazine a lot while designing even though it wasn’t a music magazine. I felt the layout was different from the music magazine that I was analysing and thought that it suited my style of magazine and fitted in with the photo well. The similarities between my own magazine and Total Film magazine include the position of the date and bar code as I have put them on the right side of the page close to the masthead. I have also made the masthead to layer behind the image of Lucy so the her head just covers the bottom of the word ‘Country’. I also took the idea of putting the headers across the bottom of the magazine to name a few more celebrity to draw in my audience. I have also put the main cover lines along the left side of the page just like Total Film magazine. I also put in an ‘Exclusive’ heading at the top of the cover lines like Total Film heading ‘World exclusive’ I also included the colour theme and text size ideas from Total Film magazine within my own magazine by doing one big text layer, cover line in between the smaller cover lines. I took the idea of the heading ‘Cheryl Cole’ and the pug ‘John Lennon’s lost weekend’ from Q magazine and put them towards my own but changing them to fit my own design. I put the large heading across the bottom of the page ‘Lucy Sirett’ like the Cheryl Cole heading but added some text underneath as it looked a bit plain. I then took the idea of the John Lennon pug and changed the design and words to ‘Chance to win £1,000’ to have a competition for the magazine to draw the readers in rather then having another cover line like Q magazine. By including these ideas I was able to develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products to fit my own design.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
For my music magazine I chose models that would suit the theme and style of music that my magazine was based on. When putting my magazine together I wanted to create a positive view of my ‘celebrities’ so that they could be seen as great role models for my target audience of young girls and people who want to become music artists just like the ‘celebrities’ featured in the magazine. This is because my audience are young girls who like to listen to this type of music and even like to make music of their own by playing guitar and writing their own songs. I feel that the magazine can inspire these particular groups. I also chose my models on the basis of my target audience so that my models looked like the type of people who I would expect to buy my magazine. My magazine represents thesocial group of mainly young girls like Chloe who I used as my audience profile. My magazine represents social group in a positive way, as my magazine is a light, fun and a different product that will attract my audience and show them in a positive way due to the standard and appearance of my product. I didn’t use models of an ethnic background for my magazine, as there are no popular country music artists who are of an ethnic background. I also didn’t use children or middle-aged adults as models for my music magazine as the magazine is not targeted towards them and so therefore will not attract them to look at my magazine on a shelf in a shop or buy it.

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

I think that publisher Redwood would be a good company to publish my music magazine. As they are known for publishing a range of magazines including OK, M&S Magazine (for Marks and Spencer) TV Times and Evening Standard. I think that by publishing my magazine, Redwood would be able to expand their company and invest in the music side of things and a music magazine that could be good for their company. Redwood would be a good publisher for my country music magazine as they are familiar with my target market of young girls as they publish OK magazine, which partly targets young girls as it also targets middle-aged women, and anyone that has an interest in celebrity gossip. I also think that Century One would be a good publisher for my magazine as they are extremely well known in the publishing industry and specialise in advertising and publishing with professional institutes. Century One have published magazine that range in topic from food and groceries to whales and dolphins. Looking at Century One’s website at their portfolio it’s clear that they haven’t published a music magazine before. This could be good for the company, like Redwood as they can achieve publishing a music magazine to add to their portfolio and could even improve their profits. It would also give them a chance to tackle a different type of target audience as they haven’t published a magazine that is aimed to such a specific target audience as mine however this could be negative thing as they may not have any experience of how to draw that target market in. Even so I think they would be a good publisher for my magazine as they have published many magazine before and are a very successful publishing company.

http://www.redwoodgroup.net/advertising_mands.html

http://www.centuryonepublishing.ltd.uk/

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my music magazine is young females who have similar interest to Chloe who is a girl that I used for my audience profile. They should be interest in country artists like Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus, listen to country music and have specific hobbies that include music e.g. playing guitar, dancing or song writing. They should have interests in country artists and their work, as they will be featured in the music magazine. Without those interests then there would be no reasons for them to buy the magazine. Chloe and the model Lucy featured in my music magazine are the typical type of people who I would expect to be interested in my magazine. My magazine is also targeted towards girls who are students who have low income as my magazine is sold at a price of £3.99 which isn’t that expensive so my target market are able to afford my product. The colours I have used in my magazine also represent my audience as I used pink and brown and pink is known as a feminine colour, associated with girls.

How did you attract/ address your audience?

I attracted my audience by a number of different techniques. I used images that the audience could relate to, as my magazine is targeted towards young girls, that audience should be interested in country music so I used a glamorous and pretty girl to pose for my front cover image. By using Lucy as my celebrity model the audience for my magazine will be able to look at her and will want to be like her. She was dressed in a pink and white dress with flowers. I felt this would appeal to my market, as the flowers are feminine and girly and would draw them in. I also used a colour scheme that would attract my audience of brown, dark pink and white. The colour pink is also associated with girls, which are my target audience which would then draw them in. My use of language that I used I feel also draws my audience in as it persuasive and causes the audience to be curious and therefore want to buy the magazine e.g. ‘The chance to win £1,000’ and find out how they can win £1,000.

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

To make my magazine pages I used Photoshop, which I was comfortable with using as I had previous experience and knowledge beforehand from using the programme at home. I worked on the Mac computers which in the beginning of making I had trouble with as I hadn’t used them before but once I had gained some knowledge of the Macs I was able to use Microsoft Word and Photoshop on the Macs without any problems. Other technologies I used while making my magazine pages was a Sony DSLRA380ADI.YG 14.2MP camera which I used to take the photos that used in my magazine. Before taking my photos I had to plan seven photo ideas and a few secondary ideas, three for the front cover, three for the double page spread and one image I could use for the contents page to link to my double page spread along with a few other images. There were many things that I had to consider when taking my photos such as location, props, lighting, costume, model and background. I wanted to shoot my photos in a field so that it would link with my country magazine I also wanted it to be sunny so that I had natural light for my photos and so I wouldn’t have to edit the lighting on Photoshop. Both of these things were successful for my photos and I didn’t need to edit any of my images for my magazine. I used a guitar and a scarf for props in my photos and I think that they worked really well and I used both of images, were props were used, in my magazine. I wanted my model to have her hair down and out of place. I wanted her to have subtle make-up and have a number of different outfits to wear so that the photos had some variation which she did and I think she looks really good in the photos. For the background I wanted simple bold colours so that when editing and creating my front page and double page spread I was able to put text over the photos and for the text to be easy to read over the picture. When shooting my photos I tired to use as many different, angles and poses to create variation which I think I accomplished well. When editing in Photoshop I used tools such as the horizontal text tool, the move tool, and the line tool. I also used effective techniques such as changing the opacity and using shadows. Other than Photoshop I used blogspot.com which I had no previous experience of but I quickly learnt how to use it and am now comfortable with the website. From using these technologies I have learnt that previous knowledge of the technologies helped me to progress quicker however once I knew how to use certain technologies I was able to use them without difficulty.

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

Looking back at my preliminary task I feel that I there is a big improvement. I think that my magazine pages look more professional and are of a higher standard that would fit in better on a shelf in the shops. My preliminary task could be improved a great amount and by putting the two side by side I can clearly see the difference. I think I have learnt a lot more about Photoshop and how to use the layers and tools. I also think that analysing professional music magazines before hand really helped with the production of my own magazine as I was then able to identify with the layout and the rules to what to put and what not to put in a magazine and on the front page e.g. price, date, bar code etc. I think that if I hadn’t of analysed magazine before hand my own magazine would be at a lot similar standard to my preliminary task. I also think that photos make a difference to the standard of the magazine as when doing my preliminary task I used a small Samsung s500 camera with 5.1 mega pixels to take my photos but when I did my music magazine I used a more professional camera to take my photo and I think that that makes a huge difference to the quality.