Evaluation - Q7: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The heading and introduction to my double page spread are featured at the top of the page using conventions of double page spreads. The layout of using columns, the bold questions and the stand out quotes are also ways in which I have followed conventions. I think it was important to follow these conventions because they are something the majority of magazines will have so I think it would be too much of a risk to change them. The photography that I have used on this page is shown on each page separately along with the text. I think this develops forms and conventions because often one page has text and the other page has one main image. I have decided to do this differently to fit everything in more neatly in the layout and I think using different shots in my photography is important to express the artist to the audience.

Evaluation - Q7: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Contents

The use of columns in my contents page uses existing conventions but I have developed this by splitting the page using lines to make each section stand out. I have included elements that are common of some magazines such as listing all of the pages with very short titles. This has been developed as I have gone into more detail on certain stories giving the reader a bit more information when they first open the magazine. The editors note is a common convention I have used because I think it is a good way to interact with the audience of the magazine. There are some images on the page and by editing one of them in a circular shape I have developed the normal form of using square or rectangular images. I don't think there are any ways in which I have challenged the forms and conventions of existing media products.

Evaluation - Q7: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Front cover

The cover of my magazine uses, develops and in some ways challenges many of the forms and conventions of existing media products. The masthead is at the top of the page, which is a common position. The main image covers the whole of the cover and I have developed using the main image with the editing I have done to it. The background is black and white in comparison to the model and it over laps the masthead slightly emphasising brand recognition. There is only one sell lines which could be seen as an unusual use of this convention but I like the simplistic look of my cover and I think it works best with the style of the magazine and the main image. I think the byline that I have put in at the bottom challenges the normal conventions of a byline. I thin this because the language I have used is risky and hasn't been done on another magazine.

Evaluation - Q7: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Forms and Conventions:

• Masthead
• Anchorage Text
• Byline
• Strapline/Skyline
• Main Image
• Sell Lines
• House Style
• Colour Scheme/Palette
• Splash Colour
• Quotes
• Direct Address

Evaluation - Q6: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Evaluation- Q5: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The media institute I have chosen to represent my magazine is Bauer Media Group. I have chosen Bauer as my institution because I think they would be the best company to distribute my magazine to the wide target audience that it has. Also I know Bauer have a strong reputation with music magazines as they represent Kerrang which is a similar style of magazine to mine. This is helpful as I know they are already successful with similar music magazines. Bauer have a strong relationship with advertisers so I would trust them to ensure that my magazine contains the correct advertisements that will appeal to my target audience. Finally as Bauer have such a good reputation in the media industry I thought they would be the best to go with because they will give me the highest quality of service as they have such a good reputation to keep up in the industry.

Evaluation- Q5: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Magazines that inspired me

            

There are two main magazines that have inspired the creation of my own music magazine, these are Kerrang and NME. Both of these magazines influenced many elements of my magazine and helped me form something that will definitely appeal to my target audience.

Before deciding what institution will publish my magazine I wanted to look at what institutions publish the magazines that inspired mine so I know which company would be best for my magazine.

Kerrang are distributed by Bauer Media Group which are a very well known company for publishing magazines and have a good reputation in the industry. Where as NME are distributed by IPC Media which is another strong publishing company. This will help me in deciding what company will distribute my magazine because now I know what companies work well with my style of magazine and the target audience.

Evaluation- Q5: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Research

Emap from lstafford123

Evaluation- Q5: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Research

Ipc media from lstafford123

Evaluation- Q5: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Research:

Bauer media group2 from lstafford123

Evaluation- Q4: How did you attract/address your audience?

Photography

Evaluation- Q4: How did you attract/address your audience?

Double Page Spread
The double page spread that I created includes many ways in which the audience is addressed and it also appeals to my target audience very well. Below explains how it does so:

Evaluation- Q4: How did you attract/address your audience?

The Contents

My contents page shows features of how I have attracted and addressed the target audience. Below I have explained how I have done this:

Evaluation- Q4: How did you attract/address your audience?

The Cover

The cover of my magazine was very important in attracting and addressing my target audience. There were many different features that I used to appeal to my audience on the cover of my magazine. Below shows how my magazine cover attracts my audience:

Evaluation- Q3: Who would be the audience for your media product?

I have chosen a specific audience to target my product at. The target audience I have decided to appeal to is males and females from the ages of 16 to 25 approximately that are interested in rock and indie rock music. I have chosen this age group because I feel that everyone who falls into this age category will have similar interests when it comes to what type of rock and indie rock music they like meaning what is featured in the magazine will appeal to the majority. I also think indie rock music is one of the more universal genres of music so I will be targeting my magazine at both males and females.
I think that my magazine will vary from more indie style music to slightly heavier rock music as this will widen the audience for the magazine. I haven't given any specific interest or hobbies or jobs that people in my target audience will have because I think that rock music is a genre enjoyed by a majority of people at some point or another and liking music ins't dependent on what you do in your spare time or what job you have.

Evaluation- Q2: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Blogger
Throughout the creation of my final product I have had to keep an updated record of my progress through this blog which is generated by Google's 'Blogger'. I have never used a this website before so it has been a completely new form of technology for me that I have had to learn to use. We were shown in a lesson at school how to use the website and from then I have been able to update my work regularly with no problems. The use of a blog is something important I have learnt about technology from the construction of my product.

Evaluation- Q2: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

PicMonkey
PicMonkey is the website I used to edit all of my photography. I really enjoyed using this website and it helped learn a lot about what can be done to improve an image with the use of technology. The website had loads of different ways to change the image you want to edit. The colour, texture, tone, saturation, effect of an image could be changed. You could also add things to a picture such as makeup, text and stickers. I fund that this website catered for all my needs in editing photos and t helped me create the images that I wanted.
The website can be reached here.

Evaluation- Q2: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

FontSpace
FontSpace is the only website I used for my text. This website helped me create the main text on pages in my final product such as the masthead, anchorage text and the stand first. I found this website very helpful for enabling me to find the correct style, size and colour of font I wanted to use in my final product. The website had a vast variety of fonts to choose from and I thought this was very useful as it meant I could find the perfect style of font and I didn't have to compromise on what I wanted.

Overall I think this website helped me learn a lot about the use of technology in the making of my product. It enabled me to create text that I wanted and it made learn how to use websites in a way to create the perfect item, for example changing the colour of not only the text but also the background.

The website can be reached here.

Evaluation- Q2: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Photography
I used many different forms of technology for my photography to help with constructing my final product. In our class we were able to use an iPad to give us our first insight into photography. The iPads were helpful as when taking pictures a grid can be seen on the screen which helps with the positioning of the model to create the perfect image. We took a series of photos using different shots and angles ensuring we knew the basics for when it came to using photography in the final product.

I then progressed from using the iPads to taking images on a hand held camera. For the majority of my images in my final product I used my own camera. I felt more confident in handling this cameras I knew exactly how to work it which I think increased the quality of the images. My own camera is also of a high standard so I knew it would take high resolution pictures.

For a few of the images in the contents page of my final product I used a hand held camera from school. Although I wasn't used to handling this camera I still found it easy to work with and it also produced high quality images. I am glad I tried out a different camera to my own as it gave me more experience in photography and the use of different cameras.

Evaluation- Q1: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Anchorage Text
The anchorage text of a magazine cover is very important and I feel that I have learnt how to use anchorage text correctly in the progression from my school magazine to my music magazine.

In my school magazine the anchorage text is short and snappy enough to catch the attention of the audience but it also provides enough information about the article inside making the audience want to look inside, I think this is the same when looking at the anchorage text used for my music magazine. The biggest progression can be seen in the actual design of the text. The first anchorage text is all the same colour, same font style, same size, on the same level and the same boldness. I think all of this created a big downfall in my overall magazine cover. However I knew what areas I had to improve on in the creation of my music magazine cover and I think I addressed them well. The text in the second anchorage text is shown on different levels with different font styles, this creates a much stronger impact and shows the attention to detail in the magazine. I also used different colours and different backgrounds. The variety created with this anchorage text makes a huge difference and is something I think the target audience will definitely find appealing as it represents the style of music.

Evaluation- Q1: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Double Page Spread
In the preliminary task we were instructed to create a school magazine cover and contents page. This meant we did not have to design and write a double page spread, however this is something we had to do for the main task of creating a music magazine. As I had no practice in making a double page spread I found this section of the task slightly harder as I had to learn what to do as I went along. The research and planning helped me greatly when I made my double page spread as it gave me the knowledge of what works and what doesn't.
In the making of the double page spread there were a lot more elements to be completed in comparison to the other pages in the magazine. I had to focus on my writing style and how I wanted the stroy to come across to the readers. This meant I needed to create a balance using formal and informal language that would appeal to the readers. Along with writing the story the page design was also challenging as I had to wrok with two pages and ensure they flowed simultaneously. I am used to working on single pages so I found it harder to create a double page spread that worked well. I think the final product of the double page spread has worked well and I think all of the elements compliment each other creating something that will be very appealing to the target audience.

Evaluation- Q1: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Masthead
The masthead of a magazine is something that is very important. It is often noticed first when the audience look at magazine so it needs to create a strong brand recognition straight away. In making my school magazine cover the masthead had some strong and weak points to it in comparison to the masthead I created for my music magazine.

The difference between the two mastheads that I used is very apparent. The first one shown is from my school magazine cover and I think there are some good and bad parts to it. The colour stands out very well from the page and I think is an appealing colour to the target audience of that magazine, I also think the girly and decorative font is something that would appeal to the target audience. However the font style I have used isn't bold enough to ensure that it has a strong impact on the audience. I don't think the lettering will create a strong brand recognition and I think the use of lower case lettering also lowers the impact of the masthead. This is something I had to take into account when creating the masthead for my music magazine and I feel I have addressed all of the previous issues that I had. The colour and style of the font represent the genre of music well so I think will appeal to my target audience and in using a strong, bold font with capital letters it means brand recognition can be easily created by the audience.

This is the website I used to create both of my fonts. I found it very useful and it contains a vast and varied amount of fonts with the option to change the colour of the lettering and background.

Evaluation- Q1: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Editing Photos
The editing of my photos developed as I progressed form the creation of my school magazine to my music magazine. There is a clear and obvious difference between the quality of images in my school magazine and the final product of my music magazine. This shows the progression of my skills between the creation of each magazine. A strong difference between editing skills can be seen most clearly when comparing the images on the contents page of my school magazine to the images on the contents age of my music magazine.

On the left are the images that I used in my school magazine contents page and on the right are the images that I used in my music magazine contents page. There is a clear difference of editing in these sets of images. the images in my school magazine haven't been edited at all which I think makes them look unprofessional, this is a contrast to the images that I have shown in my music magazine that have been edited much more to create a high quality of image.

This is the website that I used to complete the editing of my photos. It enabled me to use different tools to create the desired effect that I wanted to achieve.

Evaluation- Q1: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Photography
In progression from my preliminary task of creating a school magazine to my final task of creating a music magazine I have learnt how to improve my photography skills to ensure a better outcome for the finished product. The main image of my school magazine in comparison to the main image on my music magazine is a clear example of how my skills in photography have changed.

 

Here is the example of my photography skills in the creation of my main image. The left shows the photography for my school magazine and the right shows the photography for my music magazine. For my school magazine in that photography I didn't pay attention to detail. There are weaknesses to my image such as the use of mis-en-scene. In the frame the model has a hair bobble on her wrist this is something that I didn't think would impact the image so I didn't bother changing this but I think it makes the image look less professional as it shows lack of attention in the mis-en-scene.
Attention to the mis-en-scene is something I focused on in the photography for my music magazine as i knew it was a weakness of the school magazine. So I ensured that everything that could be seen in the shot related to the image and the magazine I was creating. For example the leaves on the ground are purposefully positioned as it shows the shot is outside and indicates it was taken at Autumn time creating a sense of cold which reflects the mood of the model and the genre of music the magazine is based upon.

In my school magazine I also think the background isn't well thought through and I think this shows through the image. I took the picture in my friends garden and although it makes a good background I don't think it links in appropriately with the creation of a school magazine and could be something that would be more useful in a nature magazine for example.
However in the photography for my music magazine I created a suitable background for the image. The brick wall fits well with the style of the magazine and the genre of music. I wanted to make sure the background I used reflected the magazine and why I used it could be seen by the audience.

We were asked to use a medium close up shot in the school magazine and I think I have created an image that reflects the features of this shot distant. although I did find this guideline restricting in the photography as I couldn't take a photo that wasn't a medium close up so it limited my choices.
There were no restrictions on what type of shot had to be used in the main image for the music magazine which gave me a lot more freedom in using any shot I wanted to. I used a long shot in this photography because I think that it ensures the audience can see an overall view of the model and nothing is hidden from them. As the people buying the magazine they deserve to be shown the hole image rather than just using a medium close up.