Evaluation new

Evaluation

Ben Rogers

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

-Whilst I was producing my music magazine I tried to create something a little different, but at the same time wanted it to be recognized as a music magazine straight away. I took inspiration from previous classic rock magazines and chose to use black and white so it is clear and easy to read, the masthead also stands out because it is in white which is different to the rest of the page. I chose to use a large image showing a well known celebrity. The magazine has an exclusive interview with the band which will attract people who are interested in the band. This should promote and sell the magazine.

- I did not want to overcrowd the front cover with written information so that the reader can instantly see the main article and sub articles clearly. This gives the audience an easier choice as to whether they buy the magazine or not as they can see if they are interested or not straight away. I chose to do a large masthead but not too large that it takes over the page, this works really well because it stands out but you can still see the rest. I also chose the mast head to be behind the person because it shows that he is important and the main headline. Another reason why I did this is because I noticed that the majority of the music magazines on the internet have the image in front of the masthead.

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

Mast Head

Menu Strip

Featured Article Photo

Graphic Feature

Cover Line Secondary leadAnchorage

Date Line

Bar Code

Headline

Gift Giveaway Selling Line

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

I have split my final product into thirds and then looked at a music magazine on the internet to compare with my magazine. They both have free gifts at the top to draw the customer’s eye. The masthead it on the top third on both. The second headline is on the bottom left. The headline is in the bottom half of the magazine but the real magazine on the internet stretches over the whole bottom which my final product dos not. The actual magazine shows many articles which are inside the magazine. My final product does not include so many articles therefore making it appear blander. If I was to re-do this I would make it so that the sides around the image are covered with headlines.

1. In what ways does your media product

use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

I chose to use large font to make the articles clear and legible. I want the audience to find what they want to read easily and be able to go right to it. I chose to use a gold font because I was inspired by a previous Classic Rock magazine which had gold on grey. I thought that I would try black for the background because it will stand out and be easy to read. When the audience have been interested enough to open the magazine they will find a different picture of the well known band but with both members.

I chose to put my editorial in a different coloured box. This is to split the articles up. Before I had the box the Number One article looked like it was part of the Seconds vs Tigers article, this was very confusing and hard to read. On real media products the editorial is sometimes on its own page this is because it is so long, I chose to have a shorter editorial because it splits the page up and makes it look more professional. I chose to have a side bar because I saw this in many real media products, it shows what is headlining but gives no further information. Many Music Magazines that I have seen have shops inside the magazines which give advice on what to buy, I chose to put a list of what to buy and the page numbers next to it. I also saw in the Guitar Magazine that they had a guitar techniques section , I chose to do the same with short quotes.

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

I gained inspiration from previous Classic Rock Magazines. I noticed that they had small writing which was just legible, I chose slightly larger writing because I believe that the reader will be able to see this more clearly.

I chose to use large pictures as it shows who the band are because they are well recognized people. I also saw many music magazines which had half of the page covered by pictures. Another reason why I used large pictures is to distract the reader from the amount of writing, some reader might be put off by large amounts of writing. This was also the reason I put lots of quotes around the sides. I believe that I should have included the band’s name in large writing, although the band would be well known not everyone would know who they are. I should have also made the text closer to the guitar on the right as it is too far along and a little misshaped. I also should have moved the second column of text over to the right to avoid the middle staples, the text may be illegible covered the by staples. If I was to redesign my magazine I would incorporate these changes.

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

My front cover represents an indie social group, not a rocker. This is because of the clothes the person in the image is wearing and the way he is looking. It was supposed to represent rock social group because I went for the classic rock theme. Although I took inspiration from classic rock magazines this does not mean that my music product will be rock. The music magazine that I took inspiration from is Classic Rock, they had a very aggressive image on the front cover but I chose to do something a bit less violent, I chose to do this because if some people see an aggressive image on the front they will not buy this magazine as they might believe it is metal or heavy rock type of magazine. On the other hand some people might see this not very aggressive image and then they will not buy the magazine because they believe that it is not too aggressive for them and not the right style.

It is hard to get a good middle ground but I have chosen a not aggressive rather than aggressive approach, because I believe that much more people would pick this up if they thought it was not as aggressive.

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

My content page is very spaced out and different. It is leaning towards the rock to light rock type. This is because although the picture is not very aggressive and similar to the front cover, there are many dark colours within the content page which would be in Classic Rock magazines. In the picture one member of the group is showing the peace sign. This is not very Rock nowbut it was generally used when the classic rock was popular in the 70’s and 80’s. I am expecting the younger audiences to buy this magazine as they have seen the bands. When I took my inspiration from other Classic Rock magazines they often had most of the page covered in images to show what is included in the magazine.

Other classic rock magazines look for the older audience who are interested in the classic groups, but I have gone for a different approach. I feel there is no Classic Rock magazine for the younger audience who have an interest in classic rock. It can also be seen as a indie magazine because of all the bright colours in some parts and unfortunately could be seen as a magazine like NME which I did not want. If I was to do this magazine again I would create the magazine to be noticed as a classic rock magazine and not a classic rock / indie magazine.

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

My magazine is aimed at the younger audience as I believe that there is not a magazine in the market for that age group who enjoy classic music. If a social group were to buy this music magazine I was going for the rock type of person or emo, as these types of people will be interested in this type of music. This double page spread is rockish but I believe that it is more indie, this is not a good thing because this is not what I was aiming for. If I was to do this again I would make the colours more dark and more aggressive to bring in other audiences. Although this would bring in other audiences this might push some out. Some people may not read it because it is too dark and they think that they won’t enjoy it even before they read it. This double page spread might be enjoyed by indies, although my magazine is classic rock it has aspects of indie in it. If I was to do this again I would make it more darker and more Classic Rock because I believe that it is too light and not seen as a Classic Rock magazine.

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

Classic Rock would distribute my product because they are about the same music. Although Classic Rock magazine is aimed at an older audience, I believe that they want to distribute this magazine. This would enable the company to expand. By distributing this product they would get young people interested in Classic Rock and obtain new customers therefore making more money. I believe that the Classic Rock magazine aims for older people to buy there magazine who like heavy rock. This is because they have articles on bands like Bon Jovi and other rock bands. This limits who will buy the magazine because if they do heavy rock and then classic rock audience will not buy it. My magazine has a wide area of music, it does concentrate in getting younger males to buy it this is because there is a gap in the market for it. This magazine is can also be read by indies group which other magazines can’t. Although it is not meant for indies it has aspects of an indie magazine in it.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my music magazine is teenagers, mainly men, I have chosen this because when I have looked through other magazines I have seen no magazines which are aimed at younger people from 15 to about 25. When I chose this I was wondering what music to put in the magazine, I chose Classic Rock because the younger audiences are getting into retro and old music . So the people will be very interested because they will not have heard anything like this or if they have they will now know this music is meant for them, some thing different than computer generated music that is popular now. Another reason why I did not chose the older audience is that I believe teens are more likely to buy a magazine which they like rather than adults. Adults are more likely to buy books than magazines. Although they are more likely to buy magazines teens might not have enough money to buy magazines as they may not have an income. Although teens may be more interested in the magazine, classic rock does limit the people who will buy this magazine a great deal. If i was to do this again I would have made a magazine which varies from teens to adults that way you have the best of best worlds.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted my audience to my music magazine by using very bright colours in some areas and then keeping it black and white in others, When magazines are on the shelf sometimes you can only see the top of the magazine, this means that my magazine will be more noticed than others which may be bland at the top. This will make my magazine stand out from the rest and draw the customers’ attention. I attracted the reader by using black and white against bright colours, I wanted the customer to pick this up at the start and then when they pick it up it can draw them in. This is why I chose to put the free gifts inside banner at the top so that people pick it up. When I look at this front cover the first thing I notice is the story and the masthead, I chose to put blending options on to these two. I believe stroke looks the best, stroke puts a colour of your choice around an image or text. I believe this works really well with the contrast of the black against the white. I made the second headlines flow round the image as it looks more professional and makes it easier for the audience to read but also there is none of the writing cut out by the image. In the bottom left there is my second headline. I made this stand out from the rest so that it is noticed, I think this works really well because you notice it when you look at the magazine as a whole.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I used colour to address the audience on this contents page. I laid everything out so that the reader can see where they need to go quickly. I believe my content page matches my front cover as they are both grey and have some bright spots within the other colours. I believe that the audience wants to be able to read the writing but at the same time for the page to look good and eye catching. By the time the customer has opened the front cover they are going to buy the product or have already bought it so I believe that eye catching is not necessary on the inside pages although it still needs to look good and professional. I found it hard to get a good medium between finding a good size font so that it is legible but on the other hand to fit all the information that needs to be on the page. The album cover attracts the attention of the audience straight to it. This means that they read a sample of the article next to it and then read the rest on a different page, they could buy the magazine because they like what is inside. I made the image very large to attract attention, this is because the audience might think who are those people and then read on into the magazine and then buy it. They have also seen these people on the front cover so they might be interested in them.

Making The Band Album CoverI made this alum cover on Photoshop. I use lots of layers to produce it. I used the same photo over and over, this worked really well because it looks the same but different. I painted over the person’s face and neck with the brush but left the guitar and background. I then put a filter on the image to give it a different colour to the brush effect. Once I did this I copied the image I just made and changed the filter colour and then painted over the brush with another brush with a different colour, so it still had the outline of the first colour. I did this until I got four images and then placed them on a black background and merged the layers.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I addressed my audience by using bright colours and by making sure that I did not have too much writing. If a double page spread has too much writing most people will be put off whilst looking at it. I chose to distract my audience but also keep quite a lot of writing.I did this by using quotes around the outside of the writing, this works really well because if the audience is looking at the quotes they will want to read more. I made the title so that the audience has to think about it, this works because ‘Rise Fall Rise’ makes the audience think, is this a band or a statement, most people would read on after looking at this. I tried to make my double page spread as interesting as I could by making the band members stand apart showing that they split up, so the audience want to see if they got back together.

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

During this product I have used and learnt many techniques within technologies. This includes how to work Photoshop to create images and to change images. I have used lots of internet based skills, this includes setting up a blog, adding to the blog and creating new posts. I have taken many digital photos during the product, and learnt how to get the right lighting and setting to shoot the photos.

In Photoshop I have used many techniques including cropping, cutting, adding, layering and painting. These techniques have all come in useful when designing and creating my product. In my preliminary task I used lots of these skills, the most important skill whilst creating this was cropping and adding. I cropped the photo I had taken and did not like the background, I cropped the picture out and then added in a separate picture which was a park. I found it very difficult to get the sizing correct because the image was too big for the picture, I also found It hard to cut round the bench on the image. On my final task I found Photoshop a lot easier to work with, this is because I knew where all the buttons were so I could create the pages a lot quicker. I had a problem trying to cut out the background on the content page and it took me a while, if I was to re-do this again I would have cut the shadows out as that was the difficult part of the image to crop.

My Blog was fairly easy to set up. I found it difficult to add pictures to the posts at first. I have uploaded all my videos and my photos of my music product I have also put how I made the music product on to my blog. I have added all my photos including the preliminary task photos and my final product photos. I have also uploaded my questionnaire and my results from questioning other students. I have found the blog very useful as it shows what I have done in the past. It is also easy to view all my work.

I have created a step by step video of my front cover using the layers on the side. This shows I have created the front cover layer to layer.

7. Looking back at your preliminary task (the College magazine), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

I leant a lot from my college magazine. I learnt how to look at other magazines across the internet to assess if mine looks professional. I also leant how to use lots of the techniques on Photoshop. I did this by testing them out on my practice magazine. On the practice magazine I cropped out a picture and then put in on to a different background. This worked really well because it showed me how to do it and also it looked realistic giving the impression he is in the park. What I leant from doing the practice magazine is not to have so many bright colours as it distracts the audience from something that is really important. I also disliked the mast head on the practice magazine as it is not really noticeable. I changed this on my music magazine and made it stand out making sure that you can see it clearly and that it is legible. The headline is also too big and overpowers the mast head. On my music magazine I made sure that the headline is not bigger that my masthead overpowering it.

7. Looking back at your preliminary task (the College magazine), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

I have learnt a lot from my preliminary task to my full product I have learnt how to use all of the techniques on Photoshop like cropping, layering. On my preliminary task my content page was very bland and dull. The background of the preliminary task was very bland because it was bright but did not fit into the theme of the picture or writing. Although the preliminary task has two images I believe that the one on the final product looks far better. On the preliminary task top left picture you can see that the photo has not been cropped or edited, this makes a big difference because it shows that it is not professional. On the final product I cropped the image and then mounted it onto a grey background which looks very professional. I learnt a lot from the preliminary task which helped me design and create my final product and learnt what worked and what did not.