Evaluation

Evaluation G321Foundation Portfolio

By Ana Kamille Ruiz

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

http://ruizanakamille.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/codes-and-conventions-task-m-magazine.htmlhttp://ruizanakamille.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/blog-post.html

I have used many different types of generic conventions in my magazine cover. I was able to work with the different codes and conventions by applying it to four different magazines which is linked below.

Front cover My front cover incorporates the generic conventions of a music magazine as the main cover star is behind the masthead, the barcode and the puff. Although, the cover star is going against the general conventions of a magazines as she is giving an indirect mode of address.

My front cover was definitely influenced by Q and ACOUSTIC magazine.

My front cover was influenced by ‘acoustic GUITAR’ magazine. In this magazine the cover star is giving an indirect mode of address so that the audience/target market could feel that this picture was captured ‘in the moment’. Therefore, while planning my cover page I wanted to have a similar vibe so I incorporated this to my cover page where my cover star is looking down and playing with the guitar.

Contents

My contents page was influenced by Q magazine also. With Q magazine the language and vocabulary is easy to read and understand which is appealing to the audience. The layout of the contents is very structured and allows people to look at the page easily therefore, I wanted to do the same thing to my magazine and the layout and its structure influenced me to do this. In the bottom page of the magazine, I did the same exact thing where I incorporated the CD albums that fans can get, the different music that they can download and the top charts. I also incorporated the ‘every month’ section as a generic convention in a contents page of a magazine. And also, the different features that the people will get inside the magazine.

Double page spread

My double page spread was also influenced by Q magazine’s double page article on Florence and the Machine. I really like the idea of the fact that Q magazine typed USA across the page along with her music album. This interested me so I wanted to do the same idea therefore; I used it on my double page and typed the album name ‘Newborn’ across the page along with the star’s name. The article was influenced also as it is about Q & A’s from the artist itself. Such as asking her what she though of her new album, how she started playing the guitar etc. This casual and friendly interview allows the star to be admired by the audience and its target market.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

For my magazine, it is aimed to target teenagers and young, older women who prefer to listen to a mellow type of music.

I presented quiet, peaceful and elegant images. The purpose of an elegant and peaceful vibe from the images is to let the target audience have an idea of what they are expecting in the magazine that they are about to buy.

Ana-Kathleen is supposed to be another replica of ‘Taylor Swift’. A girl who sings acoustic songs about love and relationships.

I have targeted the stereotypical teenagers in the 21st century that have fandom over a solo artist. Fandom is another meaning of fans being overly obsessed with solo artists and bands which I want with my artist.

This would be a profile of a typical teenager who would be interested in the type of genre that I am producing for my magazine.

Someone who likes sitting in the grass, playing a relaxing, acoustic music.

A girl who likes to go off in the woods and surrounds herself on her own with the nature and her guitar to listen to inspiring songs.

My magazine is mostly aimed at teenage girls however, if there were boys who were interested in this genre as well, I would expect them to be mellow, quiet and have a sense of their own and let acoustic music and their guitar to bring them to life.

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

http://www.smithsnews.co.uk/smithsnewsgroup/smithsnews“Smiths News is the UK’s leading newspaper and magazine wholesaler. New contract awards have consolidated our position as the country’s largest wholesaler. We’re a big organisation, but we care about our customers and we’re known for our friendly and open approach.”

Smiths News PLC distributes different types of newspapers, magazines, health care magazines etc. My magazine would go under the newspaper and magazine market where they distribute my acoustic magazine. Smiths News PLC distributes to 30,000 customers everyday therefore, I feel that ACOUSTIQUE would be distributed by a major distribution company.

http://www.whsmith.co.uk/Products/Acoustic-Guitar-Magazine-Subscription+Magazine-Subscriptions+94014956

4. Who would be the audience for your media product

Target audience My target audience is mostly aimed at females at the age of 15-20 who prefer to listen to acoustic music.

I have given information about solo artists who do acoustic magazine. Any thing about this genre is in the magazine. The majority of people who enjoy an acoustic vibe would probably be young adults.

Below is the link to the questionnaire that I did and how I was able to find out about my target audience and what they preferred.

http://ruizanakamille.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=publication+plan

5. How did you attract/address the audience?

From the front cover itself, I attracted the audience from the picture that I took. I used a good quality camera that would allow the target audience to feel interested and look at the magazine.

Also, I used different types of colours to make the words stand out and I tried to prevent the words from blending into the picture as the lighting is quite low on the image. All of the colours I used are quite different from each other as the masthead is white, the name of the artist is peach and the pugg is yellow. I think all of these compliment each other. The peach and white colours compliment each other and the yellow compliments itself and all of the colours around it. This is important to me as it does not look as tacky and neither does it over power the image too much. The softness of the yellow, red, peach and white allows to make the target audience feel that elegant vibe within the magazine which is vital to me.

In addition, my masthead is very simple and not too out of place in cover. It looks as if it blends well with everything and overpowers the image from its colour however, the attraction of the artist is still complimented.

Furthermore, the layout of the magazine is simple and it is not covering the face of the artist as the words and colours allows the image to be dominated and make it vivid and stand out well.

Since there is not a lot going on with the words it can be easily understood as the words are not cluttered and the language is simple and understandable for my target audience.

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

I used paint.net to construct my cover page and my contents page and word document to construct my double page spread and an app on my phone to edit the pictures.Strengths

Paint.net

• You can get used to it after a few tries

• You can change the selection of the canvas such as changing it to A4 or A3

• It is easy to import pictures to the software and edit them by using many different effects

• Files can be saved as different options such as; JPEG/PNG/PAINT.NET FILE

• Copy and paste easily

• Take away any unnecessary parts of the image

Word document

• You can easily add pictures in from paint.net

• You can add text boxes in the document easily.

• You have the different options of the fonts and its sizes and the colours

• It is simple to use

Weaknesses Paint.net• You cannot change the

words when you make mistakes when doing a text.

• Sometimes the magic wand takes out areas that you want from the image.

• It is easy to over-edit a photo so you can make mistakes easily.

Word document • When you add pictures

in, everything can get all over the place.

• You have to consider the text space of the article because when adding a big letter in the beginning the next line can have a big space. So it can look misplaced.

PhotowonderThis is the app that I used to edit my pictures from my phone.

Strengths • You can take the photos and

choose the effects you want straight away.

• Use flash if there is not enough lighting.

• Take a photo using the front camera or back camera

• Decorate the photo straight from the phone

• Take photos and make it into a collage

• You can send the photo straight to an email and be opened online.

Weaknesses • The effect can change slightly

once opened online

• There is not enough effects

Here is a link online to see what Photowonder is all about.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=cn.jingling.motu.photowonder&hl=en

Photographic choices I took many different images to see what looked best for the contents, the double page spread and the front cover. I had to consider the lighting and what looked best for each photo.

For my front cover there were three pictures I had to choose from which were all different. I wanted to choose an elegant style, simple and professional. The lighting on the top right is too bright, the image on the bottom right was not exactly as perfect as the one I chose which is the bottom left as the artist is looking at the guitar instead of somewhere else. So, I made my decision to pick the bottom one.

Also, with the contents and the double page I had to consider what looked best as the lighting of the front camera and back camera were different. Since I wanted a simple and elegant one for my double page I went for the bottom picture. The contents had the colour red in it for the background of the fonts so I chose to pick the darker lighting for the contents page.

Also, I had to look at the images if the pose of the artist was awkward or not therefore, I did not choose the far left image above as it did not look right to me.

Blogger was a very easy process as it was quick when you could add post a blog entry and publish it in seconds. Instead of printing off all of the work I did and wasting paper I could upload it to blogger and let other people see it straight away by giving them my URL.

With the 3 elements - my front cover, contents and double page spread. I found it easy to do it as I as already able to have an idea of what was to come out of it from the research I did. Also, I was able to sketch out my contents and double page as a draft to choose which type of layout I wanted which helped me out quite a lot. With my front cover, I did a sample of my what I hoped for with my magazine which can be seen in this link http://ruizanakamille.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=sample+magazine this sample helped me with editing what looked wrong and helped me realise what I needed to do for my final work.

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

From my preliminary task compared to my final product it looks very plain and that there is not enough attraction to the magazine. My idea was to make it look fun and interesting with all the colours but, because my actual magazine was a different concept I understood that depending on what your concept and style is, it can depend on the way you present your final magazine/product. It is about choosing the right target market and the right style that compliments it.

To get to where I am now with my final magazine product I have learnt the different ways and techniques that I needed to do in order to create a realistic magazine. The way I had to choose from my pictures, the editing skills, the effects I had to use, the fonts and the colours. I was able to learn from my preliminary task to make it look realistic and professional.

With my contents also you can tell from the software being used as I used word document for my preliminary task and paint.net for my actual contents. My school contents looks plain and boring as the background does not have enough colour to it. The pictures however, are ‘fun’ compared to my actual contents although, this probably won’t attract the students. With my actual contents it is more put together and everything compliments each other especially the images and the font.

Overall, I think that my final products were successful and that it fits will with the brief. I have been able to research and plan all the areas that I needed and it can be seen from this overall product. I feel that there are no strengths and weaknesses to any of my final products as they all compliment each other. I am pleased with the way it turned out as I was able to represent an acoustic genre.