My evaluation

EVALUATIONKaris Hays

FINAL PRODUCT

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA

PRODUCTS?

My masthead follows the common convention used of having it on the left making it easier to read and it is also in bold outlined text, I used a black stroke around it to make it stand out more throughout the rest of my cover. My magazine follows the same house colours all the way through, making the magazine easy to remember, I also believe that the colours are quite gender neutral making it look like it’s not just for a specific gender it’s for everyone; I also believe the colours make the magazine look quite classy. I chose these colours because they don’t associate with any specific genre of music it’s a mix of everything as it is chart music that is included in the magazine. I kept the same font all the way through, with the main titles having a black stroke around the outside.

My magazine development was based of magazines such as ‘Q’ magazine and ‘NME’ mainly because I liked the colour scheme that they followed. I like the way that some of the ‘Q’ covers were quite simplistic and that’s what I wanted my magazine to be about, to not look to cluttered on the front cover. My age range is from late teens to early twenties hopefully attracting people who listen to radio stations such as Radio 1 and Capital. I used a lot of conventions that come with music magazines not as such challenging them.

I used the convention of puffs and pull quotes to attract my readers to buy the magazine like most magazines do, I used more puffs than pull quotes as I used puff quotes on my contents page on most of my articles to act as advertisement for each individual article. I used the combination of red and black on my contents page as in a nice way they contradict each other and they go well together. I wrote my article in red and white to balance out the colours and to make it easy to read over the image on the left side of the double page spread, these link to the house colours throughout my magazine; red and black are the main colours and white is the a primary colour to the scheme.

Most music magazines use a series of photographs and different locations for there magazines. I used a studio for my images because I feel like it gives it a really classy look, the clothing that they are wearing contrasts each other as I wanted one singer to be in like pale colours to represent the good things in the article and the other singer in dark colours to represent the bad that has happened in their career. I made the images fun and some serious, the serious images go on the front cover and then as they read the article the fun images appear, it’s like the magazine is revealing a new side of the artists. The solo images were made to be fun and reveal the personality of the individual artists. I took a wide variety of images, changing what I do with the band on the cover, I changed it up with going from a band of three to just a duo as I though a duo are more unique and there is not that many of them giving my magazine an extra attraction. I then included the image of the boy to give my magazine a more gender neutral look inviting boys to read the magazine. I then used the solo images of the girls to give the magazine a more personal feel to it as if the reader was really getting to know the band.

I used my logo of my magazine throughout the magazine, to create a feel of continuity and to keep the house colours through the magazine. I want my readers to remember the name of my magazine so I will print it throughout the magazine, it will also become associated with the colours red and black.

I used columns for my main article, I also used them with the images on the right hand side making it look neat and clean. I also changed the colour of who was talking trying to keep within my house colours and to make it easier for the reader to see. I also made the article fun and not to formal so the reader felt as though they were having an personal connections with the band.

A puff was used basically summing up what the article is about drawing in the readers attention. It’s in smaller font size to the rest as I wanted the logo and name of the band to be the main attention. It gives the reader an insight into what they will be reading about kind of like a synopsis.

The same house colours are used throughout the double page spread. I used the same thickness (4pt) and colour stroke for the name of the band and for the logo in the corner. I also wrote the article in the same house colours as used all the way through the magazine making it more memorable.

I also used none-serious images for this article as I wanted it to fit the theme and make a personal connections with the reader by being fun. I also wanted it to contrast with the front cover image which is a much more serious image, making it seem as though they are revealing all there secrets within the article, which could also add as a plug.

HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?

My magazine is aimed at all genders, but I think with the main image being a girl group it may attract more female attention, because of the image being girls it shows to young girls that they can be successful and that girl bands are still around. That’s why on my contents page I include the image of a male to try and make it more for the male sides of things. The article also includes things about their success and there relationships which are mainly things that girls enjoy reading it, which is why I tried to make my colour scheme gender neutral so all genders will want to pick it up. The image is them making a sign to shush which symbolises gossip which is mainly associated with girls and secrets. There is no imparticular social class aimed for this magazine, but I think with the price being £2.20 you could say it was more for the working class as it is more affordable than magazines such as NME. With it being so cheap it might attract other social groups as it is not as expensive as some other magazines and it is therefore cheaper to subscribe to the app. My main image and the rest of them I took only include white people, this could make all my audience white but hopefully will attract some white people. The magazine is aimed at late teenagers to people in their early twenties, mainly because they are the people who listed to the chart music featured within my magazine. I have chosen trendy colours to match the vibe of the magazine and to give a sleek, crisp look. The social group is for people who have lively personalities and don’t have any particular taste in music they listen to a mix of different genres.

WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND WHY?

Many magazine publishers would want to produce my magazine as it has a wide audience range to attract to, there are many age groups to attract so they wouldn’t worry about not accumulating an audience. My magazine follows the same conventions as most music magazines. My magazine also is a great promoting point as it could be used to introduce new artists to the charts. I feel as though out off all the publishers out there, the BBC will be best for my magazine as they have many different ways of advertising it and they are in direct link to one of the biggest UK radio stations, they could even introduce a new audience as with all their radio stations they could get new people interested. With ages varying to whichever radio station, it could also give us the opportunity to promote new artists within our magazine setting there career off and introducing them to a big audience of people. I feel as though they will be the best publishers for my magazine as they are a well known brand and have a lot of different ways of promoting the magazine to people of all ages. My magazine price is also very low attracting people from different social groups giving us a different type of audience than other magazines. Out off all the magazine publishers I feel the BBC has a closer connection with the type of music involved with my magazine.

WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?

My target audience is any gender in the late teens to early twenties. I have chosen this age range of people because I think it gives me a wide variety of people to target, and these people are the ages I associate with chart music, as they are the target audience of radio stations such as Radio 1 and Capital. Also included in my contents page is some people who were in the charts at the time of me creating my contents, these are the people who were in popular charts such as Radio 1 official charts and Billboard. My style of writing is quite informal trying not to make it seem to regulated and to create personal connections with my audience. It also fits what age I am aiming my magazine out as they are the ages that mainly use slang and informal language. My writing is always in a bold font making it easy to read and fitting with the targeted audience of my magazine.

While I was researching for my magazines the majority of people who took part in my survey were male, but I feel that more females are more likely to pick up a music magazine than boys, especially with this issue with the main image including two girls this might put boys of from picking up the magazine because of it having a girl group on the cover. I want to change that with my magazine I want more males to want and pick up the magazine instead of been put of by the gendered content.

The colour scheme I used of red, black and white was chosen because I feel that they are gender neutral colours and may persuade every gender that the magazine is for everyone there is not specifically targeted gender. I also believe that the colour scheme that I chose gives my magazine a sleek and sophisticated look, hopefully attracting more than one gender.

The majority of the people who took apart in my survey were ranging from the ages 16-20 which is the main audience I am hoping to target, it also makes everything I found out in my survey even more important to the production of my magazine. I did use some of the answers they gave for example I used the majority of the artists that were in the charts at the time which people had said they enjoyed listening too; it’s also what I based my price of my magazine on.

HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE?

When I took my pictures I wanted the cover image to be serious and too look like they were revealing a massive secret; that is why they have there fingers over there lips making the ‘shhh’ symbol. I think this would attract my audience because they will feel as though they are getting gossip. I also dressed the girls in different clothing not following the typical girl band thing of wearing the same outfit; I wanted one of the girls to be wearing dark colours to represent the darker side of the gossip they will be receiving and I then got the other girl to dress in lighter colours to represent the lighter gossip. Also by including ‘our fans are the reason we are here!’ is making it personal for the fans making them want to know what they have done to help them. The images included within the article I wanted to fun and have a lively feel to them, the girls are being playful and messing around with each other and the camera, I think this gives the magazine a personal feel for the reader as they can feel as though they are apart of the band; especially for young girls with them seeing two young girls on the cover it might inspire them or make them want to find out more.

I include puffs and plugs throughout my magazine, especially in my contents page to make people want to go to that page. I also think competitions are big ways of getting peoples attention and making them want to buy your magazine. I include competitions such as winning tour tickets to see MATRIX the band on my front cover; with it being on the front cover it is grabbing peoples attention straight away and instantly makes them want to know how they can be the winner. Also by using mainstream artists it makes people more interested in what is going on in their lives. I also include them within my contents page, by using words like ‘exclusive’ it makes the reader feel special as if the magazine is addressing them directly, by making them feel special they then want to buy the magazine in favour of feeling special. I also feel as though the price is an important selling price for my magazine because the price of my magazine is a lot cheaper than a lot of other music magazines I feel as though this adds as a selling point as it is much more affordable than bigger branded magazines.

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?

At the start of the coursework we did a preliminary task using Photoshop so we could have a go at developing something before actually doing the real thing. Before this piece of coursework I had already had experience of using word and PowerPoint but I had never used InDesign and Photoshop, I found Photoshop easier to use as InDesign and I liked the finished product more on Photoshop than I did on InDesign. I found InDesign a lot more complex but I finally got the hang of towards the end of my double page spread, I think this was down to me using Photoshop for my front cover and my contents making it harder to move onto a new programme, I did like the finished product that I created on InDesign. I also liked how easy it was to layer up everything on Photoshop and InDesign making it easy to use and easy to link in-between each programme to make it easy to transfer images across, for example my images on my double page spread were edited with Photoshop I was able to easily import them by using the ‘link’ button on InDesign. In the planning towards our magazine we used micro technology such as the programme survey monkey which I personally had never used before, but I really like how the programme gave you extra details about your surveys making them easier and more efficient to evaluate. I also like how you could produce a graph so you can really see the difference between the percentages of each answer. We also had the opportunity to use cameras to get our photos giving them a much more professional final image and were in great quality especially with having access to the studio.All of these programmes made the process of making my magazine easier, they made it easier to edit and layer on top making my magazine look sleek and professional.

I used PowerPoint to put together my ideas for the majority of my planning, I used it for my: pitch, magazine research and survey analysis. I have had a lot of experience with using PowerPoint before so I didn’t find it too hard to create my planning material. With PowerPoint I feel like it is easy to use for things such as the pitch because you get see all my ideas in an easy simple way and there is not too much content on the screen at once. I used Word documents to create my dummy: front cover, contents and double page spread, I then copied these into my pitch. The same as with PowerPoint I have had a lot of experience before this coursework with this specific programme. I also like the easiness of the format of this programme as I feel it is very easy to use and I like how my dummies came out.

I used Excel to create my flat plan for my magazine, I have had experience with using it before but not as much as I have had with Word and PowerPoint. It was quite easy to use once I got the hang of it and I think it gave me a efficient flat plan making it easy to use for my reader. I colour co-ordinated it categorising the different sectors of my magazine.

LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK, WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO THE FULL

PRODUCT?

My preliminary material was aimed at college students and gave us a chance to have a go at the programmes that we will have to use in our final pieces. By doing this task it has helped me gain confidence with using programmes such as Photoshop and helped make my final piece a lot more structured than my preliminary magazine was. I believe from the start I have gained more understanding about the layout of magazines and how much different certain conventions make on targeting your audience.

When planning for my magazine I found out that the layout of the magazine was important, when researching other magazines I understood that there are certain conventions of magazines such as the name being on the left hand side and I started to understand the importance of these conventions and the effect that they have on the buyer. From the start I knew that on my front cover id didn’t want my magazine to have a crammed front cover I wanted it to be simple to drag the readers in. Another important factor I came across was the colour scheme, I discovered that the colour scheme had the be repeated throughout the whole magazine to keep a feel of continuity to the magazine and to give the magazine it’s own connotation. The colour scheme also represents the music and gender that you are advertising for, from the start I was inspired from magazines such as ‘Q’ and ‘NME’ I like the colour scheme of ‘NME’ and I like the simplicity of some of the covers created by ‘Q’. I based my colour scheme on these two magazines and the fact that they are very gender neutral colours making it not just for one gender.The final thing that I found out was important was the name of the magazine, I wanted something that was just on word and was simple but will be remembered by the buyers, that’s why I chose the name ‘REPLAY’ as I thought it was well suited for my chosen genre of music and it relates to music in the sense that the music included in this magazine you will want to play over and over again. The font of the magazine is in franklin gothic in italics also making it more memorable.

I also found out that planning for who your audience will be targeting was very important when getting to my final piece, it helped me to figure out what genre, age and genders I was going to aim my magazine at. It also helped me know if people were wanting to pay an expensive amount for a magazine or if they were still willing to pay for subscriptions. Using survey monkey helped me to find out what I was going to base my whole magazine on and everything to go with it for example the artists I could include within my magazine. It helped me create an image of the people who would be interested in my magazine and helped me put together the ideas I would be needing to attract the audience, for example by including a chance to win V fest tickets would attract my audience because they are the age associated with festivals.

From my preliminary material to my final piece you can see the improvement I have had with understanding conventions, layout, name and colour scheme has improved since then. Through my planning I learnt about the different types of images that you can have the lighting you can use. I also feel with my final piece you can tell my knowledge of Photoshop has developed as my final piece looks more efficient compared to my preliminary material and my photos look better in a studio setting they give the magazine a sleek, more professional look and I prefer them to the images in natural setting. I also feel that planning has a big impact on your final product, on my preliminary material I did no planning towards my piece whereas on my actual piece I did a lot of planning towards making it a better final piece.

Since the start my knowledge of Photoshop has developed massively, by being able to practice with my preliminary helped my understanding of the different tools there are and how you blend different layers to give it a better look, it also helped my music magazine be finished to a high standard. It helped me give my images a crisp finish and to look very professional. I used a lot of the tools like the crop, lasso, stroke and the photo filter, by using a collection of these tools my magazine was able to look the way I wanted it to look.Looking back at my preliminary task you can see my development and you can see my understanding for tools and how they work has grown, as well as my confidence, with using each tool. My understand of how conventions are used to attract audiences has grown also.