Evalutation

Sid CurryCandidate Number:Centre: 33435 Aquinas College

AS Media Studies

Question 1 – Who would be your audience for your media product?

I have created a mood board comprised of images that are aimed at my ideal readers. My magazine would be aimed at male 17-25 year olds. My magazine is a genre based on the Mod and Indie subculture. I didn’t feel there was a demand for a indie magazine but there is for a magazine based on the 60’s and late 80’s/early 90’s Mod and Madchester culture. I would aim it at the younger and older generation. Being the people that want to experience it and the people who have experienced it. Having a hybrid between these two subcultures will be my unique selling point, to give me the edge.

Sub-genres and hybrid magazines

After looking at my audience research I had noticed there is a demand for a hybrid magazine combining the ‘Mod’ and ‘Madchester’ sub-cultures directly. It would be aimed at lower class males.

Demographic Profile Representations

Male/Female Male

Social Class Lower/Middle

Age 16-30

Idols Pete Townsend, Noel Gallagher, Ian Brown

Music Genre Indie, Rock n Roll

Music Magazine New Strain

Other Media TV, Film, Vinyl

Clothing Brands Fred Perry, Pretty Green, Pop Boutique

Transport Vespa/Lambretta

Footwear Desert Boots, Smart Shoes

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

The social group I would represent is the ‘Mod’ social group. This is due to the Indie music genre, coming from bands like Arctic Monkeys, The Who and The Smiths. The readers would wear brands like Adidas, Ben Sherman and Fred Perry with desert boots and parka coats.

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

why?

IPC media would distribute my magazine because they distribute magazines of a similiar style. IPC is the distributor for NME which is of similar ‘indie’ genre, covering the same style of brands, bands, festivals and Music news.

Merchandise

Apps

Websites

Question 4 - In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

When choosing what type of music magazine to do I had a few options which I could have taken. I decided to create a Indie music magazine as it is my main musical influence. I looked at a few NME front covers to get an Idea for layout and overall style and colour scheme. The covers I studied have been placed at the bottom of the page. I noticed straight away that the cover star had to be very in your face and assertive but co-operate with the style of it all like it was a sort of symphony. I could also see that banners were almost mandatory. Whether the banner was a block with text on it or a long list of band names that acted as a banner it didn’t matter. Other that the Stone Roses cover I noticed that pugs were used too, to be able to bring the readers attention to other stories within a magazine. When choosing the colours scheme I noticed that there is a lot of red, yellow and white. Red connotes rock music whereas white is a symbol of sleekness and cleanliness. I also saw that a the cover could have a hint into to stars’ interests, e.g. the Oasis cover writing is ‘sky blue’ which relates back to Manchester City as the band support that team.

Front cover

Front coverMy front cover had to employ of the detail and methods that I had seen on the NME covers I studied.My cover star is Noel Gallagher and I knew before I had even planned the layout of my cover I had to make him extremely large to represent his place within the music industry to really reflect the amount of respect he has from other musicians.I chose red, blue and white as my colour scheme because it connotates to the rock background but also relates to the Brit Pop era and the Mod subculture of which Oasis were a large part of. I repeated the trend of using blue writing for a Noel Gallagher article to represent his support for Manchester City.Banners became a massive part of my design too. I used them to signify all the different articles I have featured of the front cover. I also adopted the use of a list of band names that will be included in the magazine. I placed them in a red banner at the bottom of the page with a plus sign to indicate the inclusion of them inside.

Double Page SpreadWhen researching for a double page spreads I found three very fitting ones. All the had very large mastheads used to interest the reader and very interesting stand-firsts to capture them into reading the article. I knew straight away that this was crucial. Using pulling quotes in the middle of text was also a recurring pattern used encase the reader wasn’t completely enticed.The picture of the band/singer that the article was about had to be very large too. If not another picture was used to contribute to overall picture space.

When I came to do my double page spread I had decided to do a Jake Bugg interview that is featured of my front cover.

Double Page Spread

Contents PageMy contents challenges other contents pages because mine has an editors letter and NME’s doesn’t. This could give me an edge, having more content for readers to enjoy. I also have a competition advertised on my contents page, this could attract readers but with the prospect of winning free tings

Question 5 - How did you attract/address your audience?

I used prominent features with bright colours to attract reader, making them interested in the exclusive content inside

Large, eye catching picture placed over text to show importance. Use of eye and rule of thirds brings audience in

Unique selling point with bright colours attracts attention. Readers may be interested in competitions. The way it is placed ontop of the picture with a shadow behind it makes it stand out more.

Cover star name large and well designed. Shows reader the main article to grab their attention straight away.

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

I used the crop tool to resize images and cut out uneeded parts of it

Crop Tool

Background Eraser

I used the magic eraser tool on photoshop to get rid of background on pictures to make it fit better when I layered it with other things

I used the shape tool to create a pug for my magazine. I added a stroke onto it to put a border on the text

Question 7 - Looking back at your preliminary task (Aquinas College

magazine), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression to the full

product?I have learnt various things over several programs. I have learnt how to use basic tools and how to create an effective magazine cover. I have learnt how to re-colour, re-size and layer things.