Evaluation

1: In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products?

Masthead-

For the masthead of my magazine cover I used an ordinary font from Microsoft Word; ‘Gill Sana Ultra Bold Condensed’.

Looking at ‘NME’ magazine, they also use a clear bold font with no background, leaving the text to stand alone. I used this for inspiration for my cover by having clear capitalised text.

 

I kept the colour of my magazine white to make it stand out on my background and to keep it simple like the ‘Q’ in ‘Q Magazine’.

For my music magazine I wanted to focus the costume

on the inspiration I had when thinking about having both a male and female audience in relation to N-Dubz. The models I had followed the same dress code as the stars with the famous hat Dappy styles and the shades that Fazer wears and then the jewellery worn by Tulisa.

•To help with my genre of RnB I used a brick wall background and made the artists stand out by editing the image so that they stood out in colour and were much brighter then the darker brick wall behind them. I used the same style with a brick wall in my contents page to follow on the scheme but left the background white on my double page spread to keep it simple so the focus was on the interview and images. •Their makeup was simple but the posture of my actors

throughout the magazine displayed a much more playful, attitude style to show they had character. I wanted to show what they really were like. Only in the front cover image were they really looking at the audience, I did this so that they would address the audience straight away and encourage them to look further into it. I used a studio style background in my double page spread so that the audience can see what it is like compared to a posed picture on the front. 

Mise en Scene

Brick walls

Written Content-

In my contents page I followed the conventions of a normal magazine by having an editor’s note featured. I used more formal language for this so that it is clear and easy for the reader to follow. I wrote it making sure I included what would be in this month’s edition and finished with ‘until next month!...’ hoping that the audience would buy it again.

On my double page spread I was much more informal throughout the interview and wrote in the language of the stars being questioned. I did this so that my artists can be seen for who they really are and appeal to my youth audience. I did an introduction for my audience so they knew what was to be expected and to set the scene, making them feel part of it.

This is the editors note from the Q Magazine edition I used when analysing a music magazine.

Music Genre- The genre of music I wanted to look at was heavily focused on RnB because it was a

popular option when I completed my questionnaire. I wanted to focus the magazine on both male and female so the inspiration I had was ‘N-Dubz’ so I found my band by picking props and models that resembled the three members of the band. I think I have fitted in well with the genre because the band well represents it and the secondary stories inside are all based around the RnB theme and artists along with my colours and the brick background I chose to use on the front and inside, that gives it a much more effective house style.

Layout- • For my front cover I only wanted to have the main lead on it because having anything else I thought might take the shine off the main feature in my magazine. This said, I only used one which was linked to the primary lead, meaning when you first look at the magazine the eye is drawn to the members of ‘2 Plus 1’

•For my contents page, I kept it simple with only an image that again linked to the main story from the front cover, which is the months featured article. The only other images were the two free posters to draw the audience in. All the information I included where in set out boxes next to each other which gave it a clear indication of what was what as I headed both boxes with ‘Interviews’ and ‘Inside Monthly’.

•My double page spread I wanted to make it as visual as possible so I included ten small images and a larger image at the side. I included quotes and made sure my important headings were in red. My interview was set out in two columns next to each other like my contents page and the questions were in purple, following my colour scheme so that it stood out who was asking the questions and who was answering.

2: How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

As you can see from the images above, my magazine is similar to that of social groups on the covers of magazines from ‘Q’. They share the same facial expressions to that of my models and especially from the Russell Brand edition of ‘Q’, the way he is postured and the way he is holding his hand is similar to that of Jack on my front cover. The lighting when you look more closely at my magazine on the blog, you will see that the lighting is brighter around the main artists and the background is darker, much like this ‘Q’ cover whereby they seem to be brighter like they also have a spot light on them. Overall these elements form a type of RnB, largely attitude based social group. They represent a type of different social group in their actions and faces rather than standing completely normal and out of character, they are very much in character.

 3: What Kind of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product and Why?

I think that a media institution that might distribute my magazine would be a company such as ‘Bauer Media’. This is because they tend to aim their audience around similar ages to what mine is targeted at. They own magazine’s such as ‘Q’ and ‘Kerrang’ and the radio station ‘Kiss’ therefore are well known by the world of media and these magazines are for the younger audiences; the youth much like mine. They have experience in running a brand with over 80 influential brand names covering a diverse range of interests and engaging 19 million consumers every week, so therefore would be able to successfully get ‘Playlist’ into the media world. Another distributer that would be useful is Holborn Publishing Group (IPC) because they had a magazine known as ‘Number 1’ that was based on more pop music like my magazine genre which includes pop along with RnB and was aimed at 13-19 year olds much like my target audience of the teenager stage.

4: Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product?

My readers as you can see from the image are teenagers who are also students. Their types of music include pop and RnB and they tend to listen to bands such as N-Dubz, Tinie Tempah, Drake, Lady Gaga and more. The bold colouring of the font on the front would attract them and then inside the mix of bold colours being purple and red with white stand out. They tend to buy CD’s and posters of their preferred artists and would attend a few concerts a year. With my magazine there are interviews which they would look for in a magazine and free posters included that they would normally buy.

The headphones she is wearing imply she is a big music fan.

5: How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?

Front Cover

Bold colouring, stands out on page

The characters are showing more attitude, appeals to target audience

Tells us who else in the magazine, which are popular artists at the moment

Clear, bold font with the play button for the ‘a’ gives it an effective catch

Snappy catchline

Snappy catch line

Lighting brighter for main artists and brick wall shows the genre more

Contents The competition may attract my audience especially as the prize is to win a day with an artist

Another image of my primary lead giving away a little more on the band

The monthly features give the audience lots of things to look at and do, being youth’s they like to be entertained

Special features such as interviews with chart artists makes the reader want to find out more

A poster for both male and female audience plus they are free

Double Page

Gives readers a chance to know general things they want to know about the band they might relate to

Quotes from the band stand out so can read these first

Action images so my audience isn’t bored by posed images but may relate to the fun side of the band

Interview written exactly how the band spoke to the interviewer, meaning my youths can understand them easily

Audience Feedback

Video above

presentation

Improvements

A few boys were also asked but were not filmed. They liked the magazine as a whole but thought that different colours could have been used; maybe an alternative to purple which they saw as more feminine. Also the way the double page was laid out, the interview dominated most of the page.

•From the video of the three girls the critisms were the text on the front cover could be aligned all down one side and on the double page spread the name of the ‘2Plus1’ could have been a bit bigger to give real effect. •From the boys, maybe chose a different colour rather than purple and arranged the double page better so that the images were more dominant than the text.

Aligned text down side

Text made less dominant

6: What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process of Constructing This Product?

This is the laptop that constructed alot of my magazine on. The main thing I used was the computer’s at school but all the planning, gaining my pictures and evaluating was done on this.

I used a memory stick that helped me transfer the work I had completed to do with my magazine at home’ like my images to transfer to the school computer to put into my magazine.

I used my Epson camera to gather all my images on, which some I then went on to edit using the website Picnik.

My magazine was completed using Macromedia Fireworks. Here I was able to add on effects, shapes and form my magazine.

Slideshare was used to upload my PowerPoint slides I had made onto which then allowed me to put them onto my blog.

Picnik is the website I used to edit pictures for my magazine. I used it mainly for making images brighter and clearer.

Blogger is what everything I have done with my media coursework is placed on. All my planning and presenting was done on here.

From the technologies I have shown above, I have learnt alot about many of them. Before starting media I didn’t know what Blogger or Slideshare was and I wasn't sure about how to use Fireworks or Movie Maker. I now feel I can use this again in the future without any problems which may help with a future career path.

This is Windows Live Movie Maker, where I edited my videos.

7:Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task, What Do You Feel You Have Learnt In The Progression From It To Full Product?

By looking at both of these, I have learnt alot about using the technology of Fireworks and editing of pictures. For example my music magazine image has a brighter focus on the artists whereas they are much darker in my school magazine. I have spent more time looking at real magazine and doing research for my music magazine; whereby there is an issue number, barcode and price.

You can see how much I have learnt from the difference in these contents pages. I have made my music magazine much more complex and especially in the images I have learnt how to use the tool to quickly cut around things. For example the background has been taken away from the band in my music magazine but the images in my school magazine still have their backgrounds which are irrelevant. In both the contents and front cover I have learnt how to get a better shadow and glow to make a greater effect and they have much more complexity unlike the school magazine that I did at the start of my media course which is more simply and plain.