Evaluation

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

When researching music magazines there were conventions that were widely used. The magazines all had a title relating to music and if not had text relating to music and the artists. I have disregarded this convention because the magazine will target more than one genre of music and will also focus on the artists and other content, therefore I decided to have a more ambiguous title. It is also because my genre of music has varied since the beginning production of the music genre; a large variety of music will be shown in the magazine.

 All of the magazines had coverlines and taglines to feature the contents of the magazine. Initially I wanted to include taglines however the page became too cluttered and complex and it did not appear aesthetically pleasing.  I did not include any coverlines because I did not want to advertise the contents, I wanted to grab the reader’s attention from the image and the lack of information on the cover.

 Aside from Kerrang not many magazines had multiple images on the front page. I agreed with the convention of having an image but I did not want to advertise much considering it is the first issue. Therefore, the audience is not very large and I wanted to entice people rather than confusing them. I wanted to not Billboard and Vibe have not added bar codes to their cover page. However, I wanted to agree with the simple convention so that it was easily accessible in a shop instead of having to purchase online or look for the bar code.

Neither did I include a covermount because it is a new magazine and it needs to be connected to a global institution for the packaging and distribution. -Virus has separated text in both size and font so that the title can be easily located and to show the importance of the title in comparison to the rest of the text. I decided to use a grungy font to hint at the content of the magazine. Despite the lack of conventions used I used graphics to highlight my bar code, price and issue number.

  

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine projects punks/ grunge styled people to be educated in the surrounding issues such as the social affair of the lack of funding for the NHS. It shows the musically interested people aware of other genres but against music related to partying and showing off materialistic lifestyles. This makes the grunge and punk social group appear to be more sentimental than materialistic as well as being aware about issues separated from a particular genre of music and fashion.

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

I believe -Virus would be distributed by an independent company such as Wolf At Your Door. This is because my magazine is controversial with using non mainstream conventions as well as mentioning views on politics. This would not appeal to such a volume of audience in a small area. For example, NME has more than 30 distributes in London alone whereas -Virus would not be in such demand so it makes sense to use a smaller company. So I would wish for the magazine to be distributed by an independent company (Wolf At Your Door) that is rated on content compared to appeal.

 

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My audience would be aimed at English speaking and reading audiences (would not be distributed in illiterate areas). The audience is young teenagers and adults (this is because age does not detach the reader from the content). They are people that are interested in new mixes of genres preliminary focusing on grunge, punk and rock both in subculture such as music and fashion. All people showed in my magazine were teenage girls therefore the audience are assumed to be in a similar age bracket. However, the neither gender nor age are prevented from reading the magazine.

How did you attract/address your audience?

My magazine has a controversial layout; this will attract people interested in smaller branded magazines. I’m targeting people that buy independent magazines; my magazine should appeal to them with the front cover having a different format. The colour scheme of monochrome against the bright vibrant background is enticing because of the contrast. This is also shown in the simplicity of the cover. The fashion of the featuring new band with the leather jacket and messy hair should also appeal to my audience as they should be associated in some form to that fashion.

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

Before my magazine I had not used Photoshop before. So using it in production showed in my magazines quality. But through tutorials and the new devices I learnt how to layer my text, opaque the layers, to filter images and to sharpen/ soften/ blur lines. This is shown through my second drafts for my cover image where the title is overlapping the image and background. The images are heightened in colour/ stripped. Later drafts showed the title layered on top of the image in transparency and in gradient. The finalized product features the subtraction of the title so that it shows the new device I learnt from the magnetic lasso tool to select parts of the image. Furthermore, the sharpening and darkening of the image. Using Photoshop has helped me create my magazine especially as it is fluent to use and create on (made for making similar products). Using advanced technology made my magazine appear more professional compared to the original drafts which were performed on PowerPoint, which is used to make power points rather than magazine covers.

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

In hindsight of my preliminary tasks I did not understand how to use Photoshop, how the general layout of a magazine was, the language used to show formality and informalities towards the audience. Looking in depth in other magazines has helped me see how professional published magazines use these devices and layout. For example, my case study of retro gamer heavily affected my original layout of my double page spread with multiple images and texts on both pages. However, with further research I developed a more professional layout with a larger amount of text and advertising for all content through lager text and separate fonts as well as background images.

 The preliminary cover page annotation of Clash magazine showed me that I could make the contents more intimate by showing a close up and keeping the style plain and simplistic. Whereas, TIME showed me that using a monochrome filter can be used on a professional magazine.

Creating a school magazine helped me understand how to create a magazine in a detailed brief. Creating my Hampstead School magazine helped me progress as I was putting the whole cover and contents page together by my previous preliminary tasks and then applying it to the work. It aided me making my drafts for my contents page to show previously thought out template that I made myself to show how the product is put together. It also helped me to create a questionnaire for my target audience because I had to make the magazine with my audience in mind so that it would appeal to people instead of a non-relatable magazine.

Analysing colours of magazines showed me how it can show a connection throughout the magazine as well as a theme, this is why my genre of heavy/ dark music was shown through dark and vibrant colours and that was running throughout my whole magazine.

Overall I believe that the preliminary helped me create my product of my magazine’s cover page, contents page and double page spread. Through analysing and breaking down the meanings and attributes for every decision in my product.