Evaluation Question 7

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


















When i look back from my music magazine to my preliminary task i can see that i have come a very long way. I have made progression in understanding the uses of technology in making a magazine, the codes and conventions  an the importance of time management.

When i first made my preliminary task i was new and an amateur when it came to adobe photoshop and understanding the importance of the layout and colour of a magazine. As you can see here i only used basic beginner tools in my magazine. For example: The image...i just took picture that i thought would look nice and attractive not really bearing in mind the layout of my magazine. As you can see here my image is very big and well lit but when it cam to putting my text on to the page, the text overlapped my image which was not good as a good magazine has everything balanced and laid out well. Another example is my text...I noticed that my preliminary task the text i used was very basic and boring compare to some of the text i used in the final product of my music magazine. Although i tried making some of my text stand out using drop shadows and highlights the magazine still looked plain. this is not good as it would not help me when it came to attracting the audience. I also found out through my research that almost every magazine consists of more than 1 font. This makes the page look a lot more interesting as one font is boring.

In the contents page of my preliminary task i lacked the knowledge of other music magazine contents pages and techniques. For example reducing the amount of space left on a page. I noticed in my research that some magazines filled the whole of their magazine with either, text, image or shapes but at the end there was no space left at the end. Also looking back into my preliminary task i found that the content in my contents page was not so informative and they were not really appealing. But now i know that in order to turn a potential buyer into a actual buyer your content must be informative and attractive and this is what i lacked in my preliminary task.

When i compare my preliminary task front page and contents page to my actual magazines front page and contents page i see a lot of difference. The difference between the two magazines show that i have definitely come a long way in the last few months.

In my magazine front page i have learnt to use all the space on the page. This helps as it makes your magazine look very informative and shows that you know what your doing. In my magazine you can see that there is hardly any space left around on the page, i made sure of this by filling any spaces with extra text or shapes. Colour is also very important in a magazine as it is one of the things that can grab a readers attention. On my page i tried ti keep my colours to a minimum whilst making sure that they look interesting and looked good together. This is a difference from my preliminary task as i only included about 3 colours and repeated them throughout my magazine which was a bit boring. When it came to the image i had to put a lot of thought and consideration into picking which picture was appropriate for my magazine, this is mainly because of the mistake i made in my preliminary task when i did not really take into consideration the test and space in which i would need to put beside or on top of my image. So when i came up  with this image i was very happy as it allowed me to put all the content i planned to put on my page with out really worrying about the image and the space on the page.

There were also a few lessons learnt from my preliminary task contents page and my music magazine contents page in which i included. For example my text. The text and the titles on my preliminary task were very boring and simple and i had to make sure that it did not happen in my music magazine. So in my music magazine contents page i added more text to each heading and explained what i would be talking about in each topic/heading. This could also help my potential readers as they have a deeper insight into what the articles inside the magazine will be about.


Other things i learnt:

• I learnt from my magazine research and my preliminary task that the image or model on my front page is very important. In my preliminary task i used school kids, the problem was that i used two females instead of one female and one male. This was not good as it looked like i was appealing to one part of the school and not the other. So in my  music magazine i decided to use a model that does not appeal to one sex but appealed to the audience that loved that genre of music which is both male and female. So i decided take a picture of my model dressed like he was a star in the R'n'B industry so it will appeal to the readers. I also had to make sure that the image stood out and also appealed to the readers and audience so i edited the image to make it stand out more
  
• I have also learnt that the music magazine industry is a increasingly competitive place to be in right now and only those who come up with something new and appealing are able to survive and make money. Every week the stats of each magazines fall or rise and this is due to whether people are buying there magazine, From my research i found out that there were not  many R'n'B magazine in the music magazine industry, so making one will show that i am bringing in something new and also helping publishers appeal to a wider audience.
  
• Time management. This was a very important part of the course and also one of the hardest. During the course we had many deadlines we had to meet in order to keep up with work load and give an equal amount of time to our contents, front and double page spread so they all looked up to standard. If these times were not met there was a a chance of you either not being able to finish a task or falling right behind in the course which was not a good thing at all. Not meeting deadlines and falling behind in course work for some of us was a wake up call and realisation that extended learning out side the school premises was something in which we had to consider strongly.
  
• Text. I learnt from both my research that the content a magazine is part of the formula to its success in the magazine industry. I had to make sure that the text in my contents page, front page and double page spread were interesting and appealed to the right readers.
  
• Adobe Photoshop/inDesign. If i had to name the top 10 things i learnt front my preliminary task, photoshop will most definitely be in the top 3! Personally i have come a long long long way when it comes to understanding photshop since my preliminary task, I almost feel that i have mastered the art of manipulating images and texts using this software. If you compare the way preliminary task front page and my music magazine front page look it is evident that i used almost 10 times more of photoshop than my preliminary task.

Evaluation Question 6

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


In both my making and evaluation of my magazine technology has played a big part in showing who my target audience are and how i did it. For example, just a couple months ago i never knew how to use photo shop to design magazines, edit pictures and even change the colour of my background! But know i feel like a pro! There where many ways in which i found my self understanding and coming to grips with technologies such as  photo shop and In design. For example through the help of our teacher. She helped direct us through step by step instruction to be able to complete the most basic of tasks on these soft wares. These then led to us wondering and exploring photoshop and maybe doing a step further. For example if she aught us how to crop and image out, we'll go on to change the colour of the picture on a whole. This was good as we felt that we had achieved and learnt something which we never knew before.

But one of the biggest and most helpful thing that helped us get to the stage we are now on both photoshop and design was the use of the internet. For example websites that were totally dedicated to helping people like me understand photoshop and teach us skills that we never thought could be possible on a software. It showed me that almost any thing is possible with photoshop! Another helpful and handy tool was youtube. During our ameuter times youtube was like our best friend. I we had something or some sort of plan in our minds but didn't know whether it was possible or  how to do it, in just 30 seconds or so we had the step by step instructions right in fron of our eyes.  Whether the tutorial was 3 or 15 minutes they all helped and where very important to both the design, planning and contruction of the magazine. It helped my planning because there were certain things i wanted to do on my magazine. I found that almost all of them where possible on photoshop but for the rest, these were a bit to ambition. Knowing where a type of editing was possible or not helped my planning as i then knew that i could include it in my planning and understand how it could help me achieve what i wanted to achieve.

In some cases some of us where stuck during a tutorial or found that the steps where hard. These effected us because it forced us to change what we had plan. So if the technology is not clear and easy to use and follow, it is pretty much hard/impossible to produce your product. In some cases we had to settle for the product or what we had created half way during the tutorial as it looked good, and other times we had to just discard it either because it couldn't be used or it was an utter mess.

Personally i thing technology played a MASSIVE part in the lives of every student in out class. Another software/piece of tech was blogger. Blogger helped us do so many things. It allowed us to express ourselves and allowed us to show who we were and what we were capable of. Blogger also allowed us to share with others the exciting ways in which we constructed our magazine and did our research. When it came down to research and evaluation we were able to add images, videos, animations and even power point presentations. It also allowed us to show others the long and exciting journey of our AS media. For example from our preliminary task, to our research all the way to our construction and final pieces.

My Camera. Also another important piece of technology that got me to where i am not. I was able to take so many pictures with this camera and they were all high quality pictures.With out my camera i would have struggled to make my music magazine. I used it for my preliminary task, planning and music magazine (double page spread, front page and contents page). With a good quality camera and photoshop at your access then producing images are very easy.

Apple Mac. When it came to computer we had the access to top quality ones. Instead of us using normal desktop pc which don't perform to well and are sometimes unreliable, we were given apple macs which are very well known for there media uses. The computer performed very well and did not slow down or break down during the course of making our media products and writing out our evaluations. It was also a great experience for some of us who have never had access to an apple mac. It took me quite some time to understand how it worked and where things were meant to be but after a while i got the hang of it.

 Microsoft Word. This suprisngly came in handy during the construction of our magazines. I thought that since we were doing everything electonically and typing them straight onto our blogs this soft ware would not have much benefits but i was wrong. We needed it especially when it came writing our our script for our double page spread. We typed up our double page spread text in microsoft word and then gave it off to our teachers to correct, in which when she finished marking we edited the work and put it into our double page spreads.

Here are other technologies that i used:

Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?


There are many different ways in which i attracted and addressed my audience through my media product. I made sure i did this through my Front Cover, Contents Page and Double page spread. The main aim for almost every magazine in the music and outside the music industry is to attract and address the target audeince. There fore they would need to be a lot of thought put into how you would do so. I made sure that each page of my music magazine had at least two or three things that would attract my target audience and get them to either read more or turn them from potential buyer into an actual buyer or to even visit the online site.

Front Page

I decided to place on the front page of my magazine a 'freebie'. I thought that if i decided to give away a free poster of one of Rap/R'nB's biggest music star to my target audience it would attract, entice and grab potental buyers attention. I felt that this was a good marketing technique as people like free stuff. I also figured out that this will especially appeal to the female readers as most teenage girls have posters and pictures of music stars they like to listen to or have a crush. So a free poster of lil wayne would be a great addition to some of the audiences collection.  





 
Heres another way i thought would be a good way to attract my audience. Sub titiles like these on a front page really grab poeples attention. If i was to walk past this in a supermarket i would actuallly stop and take 3-4minuites of my time to read something like this. This would be interesting to my audience as soem people would just want to know what position an album was, or maybe use the ranking list to find out what album they may have missed out on. This i felt way definetly a good way to grab the attention of my audience as music is changing everyday. 

Words such as 'EXCLUSIVE' are one of the best ways to address and attract you target audience. The word wexclusive makes you feel that if you don't read it then you are definetly missing out on something. It also shows that my magazine has something that other magazine do not have access to yet, which adds a lot of value to it.

Contents Page

I decided to try and make my magazine a bit interactive. So i made a section in my contents page dedicated to getting my audience a bit more involved in my magazine and grab  more of thier attention. A section such as 'Your chance of winning £1000' is a good way of getting someone involved. For a small price of £2.50 getting involved in a little competition could win you £1000. 

Double Page Spread

I also found another way in which i could attract my audience, this time through my double page spread. I decided that since i was writing an double page spread on a music artist i should try and make a bit more interactive though the magazine website. I made a a little box on top of the double page spread telling my reader to watch my artists latest music video. This i felt was a good way as i am not only promoting the artist but i am also promoting my music magazines website. It also help as i can reach out to a wider audience, so for example my readers/audience enjoyed reading the article on the young star and decided to watch the music video, if they liked it they could recommend it to other friends or promote it through social network sites such as twitter and facebook.

Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My target audience for my magazine is 15 - 25 year olds who have a interest in RnB or Rap music. I will be showing and anlaysing why i chose these target audience and how my magazine will attract these people to buy it.

I chose this target audience because rap and RnB music are becoming more popular each and every day. I also chose this target audience because realistically you would not be seeing a lot of people over the age of 25 listening to  this music out loud. This is why i thought the most appropriate target audience for my music magazine would be between these two ages.

At the moment, in the music industry there are quite a lot of magazines that are Rap or RnB that cater for my target audience/ For example:

• Vibe Magazine
• Rap Up
• Hip Hop
• XXL
• Rolling Stones

These are all examples of other big name magazines in the music magazine industry that have target audience along the lines of 15-25. This is because the majority of people that listen to these kinds of music are  mainly youngsters as they look up to these artists as role models.

Another reason why my target audience and other music magazines target audience start so you is because the youth of today are mainly influence by music and artist. Meaning if they were to hear the lyrics of a famous artist such as Lil' Wayne or Usher they can easily be influence to follow or copy what they do or is said in the lyrics. For example if is was a song about drugs, sex, love and violence, the youths can easily be influenced. This may be another reason why these main four things are increasing as the years go on. So the reason why most magazines start at a young target audience is because they are easily influenced and often look up to these big names as role model.

Here is an example of a song that could influence the youth:

Snoop Dog ft Wiz Khalifa - Young, Wild And Free

In my magazine i figured out that one of the best ways to draw your target audience i s through the images and the content. People can often tell what genre your magazine is by the way you r model has dressed up. For example if the magazine has an imagae of a person wearing jeans,t-shirt and headphones around there necks people would think that the magazine is a dustep magazine, If your magazine ahd a picture of a person wearing all black, big black boots, long black coat and frizzy/messy hair it would be seen as heavy metal music. In my magazine i dressed my model in a fashionable grey cardigan, shades and a snap back hat. The main reasons for this is because these are the clothing my target audience will probably dress in. For example the hat, currently there has been an increase in youths wearing these hats every since they were introduced by american rap adn RnB artist. The reason i put shades on  my model is because the shades make him look not only classy but rich and famous. This is currently how most of teh artist on front page magazines dress. The image on the front page of a magaxine is very, very, very important as it is the first thing a person sees when they approach your magazine, thats why the way you model is dresses mush not only erflect your target audeince but also reflect the genre in which your magazine is based upon.

I also you the website "UK TRIBES" to help he find my target audience for my media product:

Evaulation Question 3

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

Currently in the magazine industry there are 2 main media institutions that publish music magazines. These publishers are:

• IPC Media
• Bauer Media

IPC MEDIA

IPC Media produces over 60 iconic media brands, with prints alone reaching almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men. They publish these music magazines.....

http://www.ipcmedia.com/

BAUER MEDIA

Bauer Media is a division of the Bauer Media Group, Europe’s largest privately owned publishing Group. The Group is a worldwide media empire offering over 300 magazines in 15 countries, as well as online, TV and radio stations.They publish these music magazines.....

 http://www.bauermedia.co.uk


Here is a short video on the type of magazines Bauer Media produces and what they do:

Personally i think that the publisher that will publish my magazine would be Bauer media. I think this because when i went on there site i found out thy did not currently publish any R'n'B magazines. So if they were to publish my magazine it would show that they produced a variety of magazines with different music genres.

Here i went onto the Bauer Media website and found that they had a section in there website which allowed you to find magazines that fit your desired target audience using something they called an audience finder. I decided to search for magazines that had the target audience of 15-25 as this reflected the same target audience in which my magazine was based on. Doing this would allow me to find out how many magazines Bauer Media published which are within my target audience range. So i set the target audience finder to 15-25 and on "Total Readership" which stood for both female and male readers. I then found that there was only one magazine which fitted this category and this magazine was "Kerrang". I found that the main gender that read this magazine where male (61.9%) and the percentage age range that read this magazine is (67.7%). This highlighted that the magazines main target audience is 15-25.

 

What kind of media institutio...

More PowerPoint presentations from prince

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent partricular social group?

My media product represents a particular social group. I feel that this social group can be identified by anyone from my front page magazine. My magazine’s target audience is 17-27. This means that the magazine is mainly for young people who enjoy or are fans or R’n’B and Rap. My magazine I mainly aimed at this social group because they are the main age range who listened to that kind of music. This may be evident from the content and lay out of my magazine. For example the image, it may attract and catch the eyes of youngsters because the model looks young and is obviously between this age boundary, his dressed in nice close and is wearing sun shades and has put on a bold pose for the camera. The use of a young person on my front cover shows that the target audience of this product is young as you would not really find people over the and between the age of 30-45 listening to R'n'B or picking up magazines with not only images like this but with the front page content in my magazine.

I used a few magazines to find out what type of clothing my model should wear for my for page shoot. I was stuck between a classy look for example wearing a suit or a casual yet smart look for example a jacket/cardigan. After a long time thinking about this i came to a conclusion that wearing a suit may make my magazine look a little bit too serious so i decided to go with a causal look. I had to make sure that the look i chose was not to casual so it can appear to my audience. To do this i had to make sure he dressed like a youngster but posed like a star. This makes the image look very interesting and different as it is a young teenager like us wearing casual clothing better than we would. This may also attract and catch the eye the  of female readers.

My double page spread is an example of my efforts of getting accepted by my readers and buyers in my social grouping. The inspiration for my double page spread came from an artical on dizzy rascal. I really loved this double page spread as it stood out and was very different from the other double page spreads i have seen. The layout i felt was perfect which was also the same for the colours and arrangement of the words. i felt everything about this double page spread was well thought about and was creative, this is why i felt that i had to make my double page spread somewhat similar to this one. If i was a potential buyer for the magazine in which dizzee rascals double page spread was written in i would definetly feel persuaded to buy this magazine as it would gain my attention and  make me want to read more about it. In order for me to make my magazine double page spread just like this one i had to make sure my image and it back ground was similar or related to it. So i searched around my area for a background which was along the lines of the dizzee's double page spread. When i found the place wanted to take my picture,  i then  had to find the appropriate pose. I found that doing the exact  pose did not suit both my magazine and my character, so i had to alter the pose. I created my magazine using the software "InDesign" in which i which i used to create a similar double page spread.

I did some research on the type of places my target audienc will shop at and came up with these top 10 SHOPS:

• JD SPORTS
• RIVER ISLAND
• TOP MAN/ TOP SHOP
• NEW LOOK
• HM
• OFFICE
• CHOICE
• BURTONS
• FOOTLOCKER
• BLUE INC

Here is have made a video using the software JING explaining how i found the right socio eco groups and audience for my magazine.

Evaluation Question 1

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

The magazine industry is a very competetive industry in which every day/week sales increase and decrease. The sales all come down to meeting your target audience needs and making sure there needs are met every time you publish a magzine, as once they find something that catches their attention somewhere else that you dont have it means you lose money and audiences.

• Mojo                 ( Bauer Consumer Media ) :    87,555 ;   -7.5%
• Q                      ( Bauer Consumer Media ) :    77,522 ;  -12.1%
• Classic Rock    ( Future Publishing Ltd ) :        62,354 ;  -7.9%
• Uncut               ( IPC Media Ltd ) :                   62,305 ;   -14.2%
• Kerrang!          ( Bauer Consumer Media ) :    42,077 ;   -2.1%
• Metal Hammer ( Future Publishing Ltd ) :       35,259 ;   -15.7%
• NME                (IPC Media Ltd ) :                    27,650 ;   -14.0%

http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=48770&c=1

In order to get my magazine up to professional standard as other magazines in the music magazine industry i had to do a lot of research and comparison. I used all research and other elements i gathered to create my own music magazine. The magazine genre i used was R'n'B, personally i feel that my magazine can be identified by others as a R'n'B magazine. To do this i had to use similar images, set out and style to other magazines.

Take for example the image, i had to make sure that my image related to R'n'B music in terms of style, clothing and body language. I chose the look with my model wearing sun glasses because it gave him the known and famous look. I had to make sure the image was very clear and neat. I made sure this because in my preliminary task my image was not as good as it could have been. This is because i didn't take into consideration the lighting and the positioning of the picture. If you were too look at a front page image of a R'n'B magazine you;ll see that the image is not only clear and flawless but there is also good positioning. To make my image clear i had to use certain tools in photo shop to clear the face and make it look professional. I also had to crop out some bits of the background to make sure my image was centered and not leaning more to the right or to the left.

One thing i liked, was the use of putting the head of the main image in front of the Heading. I felt that this made my magazine some what stand out and look a bit more professional. Although in some cases this may not be good as some people will not be able to identify the magazine because it covered up by the head, but it all comes down to whether your target audience can walk into a supermarket or shop and come across my magazine and automatically know the name of the magazine the whether the magazine name is not there or covered. They'll mainly be able to identify my magazine by the layout. so, i decided to do this because almost all R'n'B magazines did this and i would make my magazine look slightly professional. When i compare my music magazine to my preliminary task magazine you can see a lot of difference when it comes to the title and the image. In my preliminary task the Magazine title is right at the top of the page and the image is right below it. So in order for me to put the head in front of the music magazine name, i put the image layer on top of the magazine name layer. 

My media product uses the format and conventions of a real media product by the way it is set out. Different magazines have different layouts for their magazines. For example they may have their magazine title at the top of the page and the picture at the bottom or they may have the magazine name behind the images head. In my case I made sure my front cover reflected and looked like a typical R’n’B magazine. After researching the layouts of several other magazines, I finally came to the conclusion of how I wanted my magazine to be laid out. I decided that my magazine title will behind my images head, I wanted my stories/text to fall down the sides of my magazine and aligned either to the left or to the right. What I didn’t want and didn’t like is when there is a lot of text crossing the page and spoiling the image. I made sure that my barcode was at the bottom of my page and not half way or at the top. I also had to make sure that my image looked sharp and catchy.  My layout is very much different to my preliminary task in which my writing almost covered the faces of my model which was not professional at all. Also the layout of the preliminary task magazine set out was very basic and boring. The way my music magazine is now set up it can appeal to the audience research as I kept my colours basic and my image flawless. In order for me to do most of this I had to make sure that I was learning new skills to use in Photoshop to not only enhance my knowledge but to enhance my Photoshop skills.

When i research other music magazines i found out that, the size of the word depends on the importance of the word. This is very important as the words that are in big fonts are the words that draw the potential magazine buyers attention. This is because they may either know the artist, be interested in one or two of the topics or they just want to know more about the artist/subject.

 

In order for me to attract attention i knew that i had to use names that were big in the R'n'B and music industry. The bigger the name the more people will recognise your magazine and want to read about itm the smaller or unpopular the name is the less recognition your magazine will get. In my magazine i used big names such as "Ludacris, Beyonce, Rihanna and B.O.B". These are well know names in teh industry in which will help me gain recognition from my target audience and from other passers by.

Another way in which i felt my magazine represented and developed the conventtions of a real musica magazine is through my music magazines double page spread. I did a research on the layout, set out and uses of models on other and current music magainzes. http://princeobode.blogspot.com/2012/01/research-into-magazine-double-page.html

One way my double page spread develops the conventions of real music magazine is through the set out. For example:

The first double page spread is from an music magazine featuring UK Rapper Dizze Rascal and the second double page spread is one in which i constructed by myself. I feel that my double page develop these convetion through the layout for example take the image. I have made the image half the size of the page which fits perfectly and is balanced. The image and the model are suitable for my magazine as teh model is dressed very well and smart. He look like a famous music artist and the background in which his standing does nont only add colour and creativity but it also suggests the age of the model himself. If you relate this to the double page spread i feel there is a good use of space, colour, and size. I made sure it was like this so it fitted the dizze rascal double page spreads standards as it was obviously made by professionals.

I had to make sure the heading of my double page spread was clear, bold and was placed some where appropriate. I most of the double page spreads i have research i have found that the headings are clear and put in a place where it can catch a persons attention. So i decided to put a little bit of my heading on top of my picture and the rest on the plain white back ground with the drop shadow effect. I felt this would help make the title stand out, but not too much as i needed everything including my text and image to be balanced.

Another way in which my media product uses, develops and challenges the from s and conventions of a real media product is through my contents page.

The fisrt contents page is the contents page i created with the help of the music magazine 'Q'. As you can see the layout of these two contents pages are slightly similar. I used the magazine 'Q' as a guidline to make sure that that my contents page was along the lines of a real music magaizne and not something obviously created by an amatuer. As you can see form my contens page on the top right of the page my magazine logo is there which is the same as the Q magazine (placed on the left). This is used to show brand identity, this helps as it reminds the reader of what magzine there reading and also makes look professional as you are branding your work.

I also made sure that i used some type of unique and different picture in my contents page which is the same for both the images in the Q magazine. THis highlights creativity and uniqueness in your work which is good as it serperates you from other magazines in the music industry. The uses of images are very important as they add excitement and interest to a page. They also draw the reader and audiences. This is why i decided to edit my picture to make it stand out a bit more but not too much as i wanted and needed it to be balanced with the text as they are both equally important.

Double Page Spread - Final Product

Here i have the final product of my music magazine page. I got the design of this double page spread from another double page spread based on dizzie rascal. He i wanted my image to take half of the page because it seemed not only to be a good picture but also i though it would look better in full than for me to cut him out and place him maybe in the middle of the page or even on the sides.  I also decided to put a quote from my artist on the side of the image as i found that the left side of the page looked bear without it. When i put it there it looked okay so i left it there. I put a grey bar at the bottom of my page with the page number, website and also the logo of my magazine. i did this because when i looked at other magazine double spread pages i found that they had all these things there. It also adds identity as well as making the magazine double page spread look professional. I chose the colours on my page to be mainly black, white and red. This is because they went well with the images and the models clothing. My title is big because i felt that it will draw more attention and also looked good in big.