The evaluation (1)

Matthew CliffeCandidate Number: 2219Centre: 33435 Aquinas College

AS Media StudiesOCR G321: Foundation PortfolioBrief from OCR syllabus

Q1. Who would be the audience for your media product?

I aimed my magazine at…

People who have a definite music taste

16-25 year old males

Spend free time onPlay video games

People who spend money on

Like to shop at


I feel like my magazine will be similar to the magazine Mixmag, however I believe that one big difference between the two publications would be that my magazine is more genre specific, for example Mixmag includes dance music as a whole while my magazine focuses in on EDM/Dubstep. I also feel that in general they're are not many publications specifically focusing on these subgenres of music and so I believe my publication will be filling a gap in the market. I believe that due to the huge amount of fans of these genres of music my magazine will have a bigger amount of potential fans then other publications due to there being no other magazine like it on the market.


Through audience research I conducted I found that there is a gap in the market for a publication like mine, because my product is a Sub-Genre based magazine my product appeals to a niche market, therefore not many publications are similar.

These publications are enjoyed by a huge amount of people due to the mass appeal of the song styles and artists featured in them, for example because dance music is such a broad genre of music that it appeals to a huge group of people and so ‘the dance issue’ cover story creates brand identity.The main reason these publications are enjoyed by so many is due to the entertainment value of the features included.


This individual issue of mixmag appeals to a younger audience then usual due to the ‘new school’ cover story which includes the tagline ‘meet the young things that run tings’. This magazine also appeals to a similar audience as my magazine would, although mixmag’s primary audience has a median age of 26 and is 72% male or 28% female, this individual publication is therefore targeting a wider range than normal with it being aimed at younger individuals.


The primary audience for my magazine will be males aged 16-25, the reason for this is because my magazine mainly orientates around dance music/electronic music, this is a genre of music mainly dominated by males, although some females do listen to this genre of music I believe it is mostly dominated by males so therefore I would class females as being a secondary audience. Also many of the features that will be included in my magazine will be orientated around things that would appeal to males as well as the age range I have chosen, the music featured in my magazine is what appeals to this age range. My secondary audience would be people that may have had the magazine passed on to them through positive word of mouth of family members and friends, this generates a greater circulation for the product and improves recognition of the brand.


A similar product to my magazine I believe would be the magazine Mixmag, this product is similar to mine as it includes a similar genre of music to my product as well as targeting a similar demographic. A big difference between these two products however is that I would want my audit bureau of circulations to be a lot higher than Mixmag’s 20,000. I would expect my magazine to have an audit bureau of circulations of about 30,000.

The ideal reader for my product would be someone who is male, aged between 16-25 and has a good knowledge of dance music and its origins, the also aspire to be involved with the dance genre in some sort as in a Producer or a DJ e.t.c

Q2 : How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I believe that my cover star represents my ideal reader, with my cover star taking up most of my mis-en-scene the audiences eyes will be attracted to this on the page, due to my cover stars costume looking rather casual and chilled, the reader will aspire to be like them with how popular he is but how chilled he looks about it, this strays away from traditional conventions of musicians with most of them not looking as chilled as my cover star. This twist up of traditional conventions will appeal to my young audience and make them aspire to be like him, also because he doesn’t look threatening and more laid back the reader will be more likely to purchase the magazine.


In my photographs of my cover star, I made sure they represented the ideal reader and what they are like, therefore making sure I am targeting the correct audience. I achieved this from dressing the star in casual wear so they look more relaxed and non-threatening, I also made sure the facial expressions of my pictures made the star have a serious look to him so the points I am trying to make in my magazine are taken seriously and not as a joke, if the star doesn’t look genuine then the reader will not take it seriously and it will have a jokey vibe to the text therefore not having the impact that I am looking for.


My magazine is aimed at males aged 16-25.My target audience would:-Enjoy socialising -Have individual music taste not influenced by things like ‘Top 40’-Shop at places like Note, Adidas, Selfridges-Have their own accommodation-Have a steady income-have studied/are studying at college/university-lower middle class/skilled working class


To appeal to my desired audience my cover star would have to represent an idealised version of the reader. In my magazine I have taken elements of DJ Skrillex and tried to represent his style in my cover star, in these next few slides I will show the similarities between these two and why this is important for my target audience.


Direct mode of address.

Dressed in mainly black which contrasts with his pale skin to make him stand out on the page.

Fingernails are painted in a messy way to give a sense of informality to the image, also due to them being green and orange, the green blends in with the house style of the page and the orange stands out.The side swept hair look

gives the image another sense of informality, making it look more approachable to readers.

Facial expression gives the image another sense of informality with him almost cracking a smile.


Direct mode of address.

Similar to the spin magazine my cover star is dressed in mainly black so that the pale skin contrasts with it and makes him stands out on the page.

The arrangement of the page means part of the image overlaps the masthead, this gives the image a 3D look on the page.

The arrangement of my page means that the image takes up most of the mis-en-scene, this means that the image will be the first thing the readers eyes will be drawn to, similar to spin magazine the most popular artist featured in the magazine will be put there to increase brand identity and the popularity of the publication.


The features I have included in my media product represent my target audience, for example I have included features associated with clubbing, and clubbing destinations like Ibiza, I have done this as this will be something that my target audience is interested in and will want to take part in. I have also included features about drugs as this is a big part of modern day life for my target audience, because of this my target audience will be interested in these features therefore increasing the likelihood of them reading it. I also included a feature titled “the youth of today are corrupt” this will shock the reader as they will be classed as the youth of today and because it is a quote they will know that someone has said this about them and therefore will read this feature to find out more.

Q3: What kind of media institution might distribute your product?

I believe that development hell ltd would be a good company to distribute my media product, I have chosen this company as they already distribute a similar magazine to mine called mixmag and I believe that my publication and mixmag would compliment each other. This company also strives to connect to the audience in many different ways through things like magazine apps, social networks and promotion events and I believe this will create a large amount of potential readers as things like social network pages and apps can be accessed all over the world much easier than a print publication can be accessed and so therefore this company are branching out to people all over the world who can access the publication and give their opinion on it, increasing brand identity and brand awareness.

Q3: What kind of media institution might distribute your product?Z is a magazine that will be published monthly at a price of £1.50 per issue, this is similar to Mixmag but I have made it a lot cheaper because my target audience will not have a high amount of disposable income therefore by decreasing the price a lot compared to other similar publications this may increase the chance of them purchasing an issue as they do not have to spend so much.


Mixmag’s website which is created by Development Hell ltd.


The website claims that Mixmag is the worlds biggest dance music and clubbing magazine, this means that my magazine would reach a huge potential audience therefore increasing the audit bureau of circulations of my magazine

Mimag’s website also includes a feature known as ‘the feed’ I believe that this is something I would like to include with my magazine’s website as my target audience are used to speed and updateability so this feature satisfies the audiences needs and expectations

The website also includesA ‘Tweets’ section which is something my target audience use on a regular basis so therefore the company are including features which are relevant to the audience and something they will take an interest in, this is something I would include in my website.

Q3: Distribution.To distribute my product I will use different methods to try and branch out to the biggest potential audience possible, the first method I will use is the most used method by putting physical copies into major retailers across the country, this is a good method to use as most people buy magazines from major retailers and so the amount of potential readers increases. The second method I will use is by constructing an app for the brand in which people who have downloaded the free app can purchase the magazine, this is a good way to distribute my product as around 51% of households across the uk own at least 1 apple product so will be able to download the app, this is a very easy way to read the magazine and is not much work for the reader. I will also distribute my magazine into major supermarkets such as Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury's and Morrison's. The reason I have chose to do this is because so many people like to do all of their shopping in one place and so by putting physical copies into supermarkets people can purchase the magazine while they are doing they're food shopping, and so they don’t have to go to a separate shop to purchase it, therefore reducing the amount of effort needed to get the magazine.

Q3:Products.

Q4:In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Front coverI believe that my front cover builds upon ideas and conventions in different publications similar to itself, for example my magazines masthead is a single letter ‘Z’ this is similar to the magazine ‘Q’ and these simple mastheads almost create a logo for the magazine so therefore the brand is more recognizable to readers.My cover star is showing direct mode of address to the reader with him looking directly at them, this is similar to the publication mixmag in which Calvin Harris is directly looking at the reader which involves them with the magazine. Another similarity between these two publications is the freebie located at the top corners of the page, this gives the magazine a sleek look and gives the reader an incentive to purchase the magazine with a freebie.I believe my magazine challenges this publication with the fact that I have a white background, I believe this makes the features on my page stand out more to the reader and not blend in with the background like other publications.

Front coverMy magazine front cover also builds upon other magazine publications, for example in this mixmag publication the magazines ‘Plus’ section is located at the bottom right of the magazine, although this is within the mis-en-scene I believe that this does not stand out enough to the reader so in my publication I built upon this idea and created a ‘Plus’ section that took up the whole length of the page at the bottom of the mis-en-scene, I believe this makes the sections stand out more to the reader so it gives them a bigger incentive to purchase the magazine if they see it, the colours I have used also contrast with my white background so it almost gives the features a highlighted look therefore making them stand out more.My front cover also challenges the conventions shown on this publication, for example my features are in blocks so the layout looks more professional to the reader however with the background of the mixmag publication being similar to what you would see at a club I believe the layout is supposed to look almost unprofessional because of the style of magazine, as clubbers connotate disorder and mayhem so I believe this is the style they are trying to make to attract their target audience of young clubbers.

Front coverMy magazine is similar to this publication of ‘Spin’ as the layout is simple and their is not too much on the page which I believe gives the magazine a more professional look as if the front cover looks like there is to much on the page then the layout doesn’t look as blocked as it should be, my front cover does not have lots of features crammed onto the page so that I do not give to much information away, the limited information gives the reader an incentive to purchase the magazine to find out what my features are about, also I believe that these products are similar in that both target a specific audience just from the front cover for example the spin magazine includes ‘the dance issue’ which gives the reader a good idea of what the magazine will consist of and whether they want to purchase it or not, this is similar to my magazine as my cover stars name ‘SKRILLEX’ is one of the biggest features in the mis-en-scene so the music featured in the magazine can be easily identified by the reader. Like all magazines my front cover includes a barcode, price and issue date which are connotations of magazine front covers.

Contents pageI believe that my contents page uses conventions in other publications and build upon them, for example in this mixmag contents page the layout gives the page a blocked look but because the stars featured on the page aren't blocked this is what the readers eyes are drawn to in the mis-en-scene, however I believe my contents page builds upon this with my whole page having a blocked look including the image, I believe this gives the page a more professional look and also because the image is the biggest thing on the page this is what the readers eyes are automatically drawn to. My contents page also builds upon the layout of the features with them having the page numbers first then a description of them so that the readers know where to find these features without having to read the whole description, this means that the reader does not feel like they are having to work when the magazine is meant for enjoyment, also giving the page a more sleek look. A big difference however is that I use a lot more colour in my conetnts page and I used this because my target audience are young so the use of bright colours makes the page look more appealing rather than the use of dull colours.

Contents pageI believe that my contents page challenges the conventions of this mixmag publication in that the page consists of one large image taking up most of the mis-en-scene while my contents page includes many images that are much smaller and I believe that this gives my page more appeal to the reader as if the features are to small and are shadowed by a huge image then the reader will most likely not bother top the read them, however because my features are taking almost half of the page this makes them stand out more and so the reader will be more likely to read them, therefore increasing the chance of positive word of mouth and the magazine being passed on to others.My contents page also builds upon the idea of a ‘your free cd’ section as seen in this mixmag publication, this gives that page more desirability with the reader actually gaining something from reading it rather that reading it just because they have to.

Double page spreadMy magazine double page spread is similar to this mixmag publication in that the article contains a dropped cap so that the reader has a good idea of where they are meant to start reading from, as well as both articles layout being in blocks this gives the article a more professional layout which the reader can easily follow so therefore increasing the chance of them reading the whole thing.Both also have one main image that takes up half of the page so therefore the reader has a good idea of what the article is about and what sort of tone the article will be trying to portray from the stars facial expressions, for example both stars have a serious look on their faces which tells the reader the tone that they are trying to portray in the article will be serious. A big difference however is that my double page spread has a grey background while the mixmag double page spread consists of a white background, I chose my grey background because I believe that this dull colour makes everything on the page stand out more to the reader for example because I have used white in my page design this would not stand out with a white background so it looks more professional.

Double page spreadMy double page spread develops conventions of a double page spread in many ways, for example on this mixmag double page spread the image taking up half of the page is just a square image that doesn’t interact with the page itself, however my image interacts with the page by altering the layout of the article as the stars arm changes the blocked layout slightly, I believe that this gives the page a more disordered look for my target audience of young clubbers. Also my double page spread develops the idea of having the artists names in bold, for example on the mixmag page the artists who the article is about have their name in bold, although this stands out I have developed this idea by using the artists logo as a indication to the reader of who the article is about, this stands out more on the page and also because I have a white bored around the logo and a grey background this makes it stand out even more to the reader, indicating where they need to look on the page before starting to read the article.

Q5: How did you attract/address your audience?

Masthead

Cover star

Unique selling point

Free giveaway

Anchored text

Main image

BarcodeFeatures

Features

Price


Gender: My magazine is aimed mainly at males, i show this on my front cover through the cover star being male also the genre of music relevant to my magazine is also mainly mal dominated, however I believe my magazine could also appeal to females who are interested in the same genre of music

Age: My magazine is aimed at 16-25 year olds, the cover star is within this age group so the audience can compare and relate with them, also features on my front cover such as Drugs, clubbing, corrupt youth are all relevant to my target audience so they can relate to them and will be interested in the features.

The font used in my masthead looks almost like graffiti, this is something that appeals to my target audience therefore giving the magazine a more urban feel to it.


The use of ‘Plus!’ gives the audience the feeling as though the magazine is giving them something for free and going out of the way to do it, also the use of famous names in the genre of music being placed in the mise-en-scene gives the magazine a unique selling point and creates brand recognition.

The free cd feature gives the reader an incentive to purchase the magazine, as well as giving the magazine desirability.

This tagline gives the magazine a unique selling point, ‘the new generation’ gives the magazine desirability for my target audience as the crave things that are new.


Gender: My magazine is aimed at males, i have achieved this on my contents page by including a male as the biggest image on the mise-en-scene, this is something the readers eyes are drawn to and due to him being in the same age group as my readers they can relate to him and desire to be like him.

Features: The features i have included in my contents page include things like ‘fashion’ this is something relevant to my target audience and a feature they will be interested in. I also include features such as ‘competitions’ which gives the reader an incentive to get involved with the magazine and create an immersive world for the magazine brand.


I included two subheadings of ‘Regulars’ and ‘features’, these are to make the page easier to navigate and also to give the reader a good idea of what the magazine is about and what content is usually featured. To attract my audience I kept a consistent colour scheme of red, yellow, white, black. This consistency made me able to link all of my final pages and therefore increase brand identity.

The simple layout of the contents means that my audience can see what is in my magazine without requiring much effort, this appeals to my target audience as they want to read the magazine to relax and escape from work, this minimal effort means they can enjoy the magazine without feeling as though it is work.


Gender: the main image includes the cover star, emphasising the main article and drawing the reader into it. The main image also includes a male who is around the same age as the target audience therefore increasing the chance of the reader relating to him and reading the article.

The use of ‘Z EXCLUSIVE’ gives the reader an incentive to read the article as they see that it will be only found in this magazine and therefore increasing the desirability of the brand.

The article being in columns means that the article is easy to follow therefore increasing the chance of the reader looking through the article, the use of a dropped cap means that the reader knows where to start in the article.

During the creation of my media product I have learnt a vast amount about different technologies, they have helped to develop and improve my product vastly as well as helping me during the construction of my music magazineSome of the technologies i used are:DIGITAL CAMERABLOGGER.COMMICROSOFT PUBLISHERADOBE PHOTOSHOP

Q6:What have you learnt about technologies from the process of

constructing this product?

Q6 DIGITAL CAMERA

The use of a digital camera proved to be very useful during the production of my media product, for example with a digital camera I can instantly check if a picture i have took is what I want it to look like, therefore improving the time spent on taking images, also overall the images took with a digital camera are far greater quality than that of a traditional camera, therefore improving how professional my product looks.

Q6 BLOGGER.COM

To record the progress that i have been making during the construction of my products i uploaded regularly to a website called blogger, this was very helpful as it gave me the opportunity to continuously analyze the progress that I have been making to my products and to see if I need to make any changes. Also this website is a blog so anyone can access this and give me feedback, including my teacher. I also uploaded any work that i did related to my final products such as analysis of magazine pages so therefore my knowledge on magazines was as strong as possible and i can see my analysis whenever i want after i have uploaded it.

Q6:Constucting my front pageTo edit the images I have took I added them to a Photoshop document, firstly I used the quick selection tool to get rid of any background that I didn’t want to just leave the cover star. I then used the sharpen tool that so on my final product the cover star would almost have a 3D look. Next I added my features in which I used the horizontal text tool, to make the text stand out on the page I then used the rectangular marquee tool so that I could add a black background to the text.

Q6:Constucting my front page

I repeated this process to add other text within the mise-en-scene.

Finally using the line tool I added a freebie into my product.

Q6:Constructing my contents page.To add text to my contents page I used the horizontal text tool in Photoshop, this is the main purpose of the contents page to inform the reader of the contents so this proved useful.

To add the yellow behind the text to highlight it I used the rectangular marquee tool, this proved useful as it made the reader aware of the most important elements on the page through them being highlighted, therefore indicating which order to read the page.

To add images onto the page I used the paste tool, I did not edit this image in any way as I had gotten the desired effect from how I took the picture

Q6:Constructing my double page spread

To add my article to the double page spread that I constructed I used the horizontal text tool, to add the dropped cap (which indicates where the article starts) I used the text size tool so that it was the biggest letter on the page.

To add this type of text I used the size tool to make the text large, I then used the rectangular marquee tool so that I could highlight the text and put a background behind it, to then add the spaces between the lines of text I again used the rectangular marquee tool to delete parts of the black background.

Q6:Constructing my double page spread

To add this stylized font I downloaded a font specifically designed for the artist Skrillex, this gave the text and edgy look and makes the page look very appealing. To add the white border onto the text I changed the layer style, this then makes the text stand out more on the page so the reader knows who the article is about before reading it.

To add the tilted text onto the page after writing the text I then used the edit boxes on the text box so that I could tilt the text to a degree that I was happy with, I did this to give the page an edgy look and make the page look more interesting.

Q6:Constructing my front page (changes)After feedback from my teacher I made further changes to all three publications to improve my mark.

To make the image occupy more white space I made the image larger, firstly I selected the layer.

I then clicked show transform controls so I could edit the size of the image

I then resized the image to occupy more of the blank space on my page

after feedback from my teacher I resized my tagline to make the page look more professional, I also added ‘dance music’ instead of just ‘music’ to target a specific audience and let them know what music genre the magazine features.

To resize the tagline I selected the layer, then selected show transform controls so I could edit the size of the image to what I wanted it to be.

Q6:Constructing my contents page (changes)

To add a pull quote to one of the images, I selected the horizontal type tool and drew a box in which I could write my quote in.

To add a black background to the text, I selected the rectangular marquee tool, this then gave me the option to draw a box around my text.

To add the black colour I selected the paint bucket tool and added the colour I wanted which was black

To add a description to my image, I selected the horizontal text tool to draw a box in which I would write it, I then selected the rectangular marquee tool to highlight the text and then used the paint bucket tool to add a white background.

Q6:Constructing my double page spread (changes)

As my double page spread had saved as a single layer it was very tricky to make changes to as I could not select single elements that mad up the page.

To make this image smaller I had to first highlight it using the rectangular marquee tool, I then created a copy of the layer using layer via copy tool, the first layer was then deleted and replaced with grey background using the paint bucket tool, I then moved the copied layer on to where the first layer was and used the show transform controls to make it smaller, this was to make sure that when the magazine is produced when the page is folded text doesn’t cross both pages and look unprofessional.

To change the size of the text on the page I highlighted the text by using the rectangular marquee tool, I then made a copy of the layer and deleted the first layer, to fill the blank space on the page I used the paint bucket tool to fill it with the background colour, I then used the transform controls of the highlighted text to make it smaller.

Q7: Looking back at your preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression to the full product?

Looking back at my preliminary task I see that my product looks very bland and there is a lot of white space, I also see that the main image I used does not look as if the cover star is directly addressing the reader, therefore decreasing the appeal of the page. Also on the page there is not very good positioning therefore making the page look very unprofessional.

The features being in a bright colour with no back ground meant that they were hard to read at a glance, which means the features are not as effective in drawing the reader in to purchasing the magazine



I believe that since I have produced my preliminary magazine, my knowledge has improved greatly on how to make a product look more professional. For example on my Aquinas magazine front cover all of my features were a single colour on a white background, this meant that they almost lost they're impact on the page through this, as features on a front cover are meant to stand out and be the main reason that the magazine is purchased I rectified this in my final product by including a small black background behind the text so that is had more of an impact within the mise-en-scene and overall looked more professional. Another problem I had with my Aquinas front cover was that the cover star was not looking directly at the audience, this meant that the image did not look like it wanted to involve the reader so therefore they would lose interest, also the compositional elements of the image were not considered in my preliminary task therefore making the page look messy and unprofessional, I rectified this in my final product by making sure that the cover star was looking at the audience so that the audience is more interested in the piece, I also used the rule of thirds in my final product so that my points of interest are between intersections in the image, overall making the image look more appealing and professional, Also on my image I used Photoshop to move my image on top of certain layers such as the masthead on my magazine so that the front cover had an almost 3D look to it so it is visually more appealing to the reader and meets the audiences needs and expectations.


• On my Aquinas magazine I also did not consider how the page would stand out on a shelf to passers by, this became a problem as if the page does not stand out then therefore the chances of someone purchasing it are hugely decreased, I therefore considered this in my final product by including bright colours and lots on the page so therefore the page stood out more and overall improved the look of it, as if the page looks bland then the reader will also think the contents of the magazine will be very boring and plain and so therefore will not purchase it/ read it, overall increasing the chance of positive word of mouth.



• I believe that my contents page has improved massively since my prelim, firstly a major improvement was the amount of contents I included in my final product, I believe this is an improvement as if there is not a lot of contents within the mise-en-scene of the contents page then therefore the audience will think the magazine includes a minimum amount of content and so therefore will not read it, I therefore in my final product made sure that a lot of the mise-en-scene was full of contents so therefore the page meets what it is meant to do (inform the reader what is in the magazine) and also to make the page look more appealing as the columned text makes the page look neat and sophisticated overall making the page look more professional. Another problem I had with my prelim contents page was that the images I included did not look very professional, to change this while taking pictures for my final product I considered different compositional elements for the images, such as the use of rule of thirds so the image looks more appealing, I also considered lighting with the image, this played a huge part in my image taking as i made sure that there was light coming from behind to prevent shadow and make the image look more professional.


• Another improvement I made to my contents page was to reduce the amount of white space within the mise-en-scene, I did this by including large images and also more content on the page, this therefore makes the page look more appealing and increases the chance of the audience reading the magazine. On my prelim contents page I also noticed that there was no definite house style that you can see except from black text and white background, I believe this decreases the appeal of the page as it looks almost boring, I therefore in my final product made sure I included bright and vibrant colours to the page to make it more visually appealing but I stuck to a maximum of three colours so that the page still retained a professional look.



• Even though I did not make a preliminary double page spread I believe that the skills I developed with my other two pieces can be seen in my final product, for example through manipulation of images in Photoshop I was able to produce a high quality image which had no background and I could use where I needed it, without manipulating other images in Photoshop with my other two pieces I believe I would not have been able to do so on my double page spread. Also through the production of my contents page I understood the importance of text being in columns on the page so that not only does the page look a lot more professional but also the text is easy to follow. I also understood the importance of a house style on the page through the production of my contents page, through this i kept the colours i used on the page down to around 3 so that the page looks professional but also visually appealing.

The evaluation (1)

News & Politics

media product

magazine mixmag

similar product

similar audience

magazine at16

product appeals

similar genre of music

young audience