Evaluation Questions 1-3

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

From looking at real media products, such as music magazines, I was able to understand the construction and the techniques that were used. I was then able to apply this to my own music magazine, on my front cover, contents page and double page spread. I looked very closely at the layout of other magazines and I tried to transfer this into my own. As you can see in this example of Billboard magazine, they have used the artist’s head to cover up part of the word, I found this was very common with a number of other magazines, and saw that it was an effective layout tool. However, I felt that it took the focus away from the words around the face, as the face became the main thing on the page. Although I wanted my image to stand out I did not want any focus to be taken away from the Masthead (name of the magazine) and the cover lines around. You can see here by the circled masthead that I have not used the conventions of real media and found that for my situation doing it this way is much more effective.

Here I saw that Billboard used larger writing in a different font to the rest to make the reader see the artist’s name clearly, this is a type of lure and I felt that it was an appropriate way to attract the reader’s attention. I also looked at a number of other magazine front covers and felt that they too used lures in a number of different ways. I decided that using different shapes to attract the public’s attention enabled different parts of the magazine to stand out, as you can see from the red arrow.

The blue arrow is pointing to the barcode, issue number, website and price; this does conform with real media conventions as it shows that the magazine is professional and it is something that magazines do.

The green arrow demonstrates real media conventions as it is proving the form of cover lines within the media product. It is showing that just as real media products, my magazine is also enticing and would help to grab the reader's attention.

To eliminate the complexity of choosing an appropriate mise en scene, I used green screen technology to remove the background and insert colour rather than an actual background, this follows forms and conventions as it is similar to the Billboard magazine. I also used a lure type approach on my front cover which I found was also common on many other magazines such as ‘Q’.

 

2.    How does your media product represent particular social groups?

As my music artist is said to be 22, and had a number of years in the music industry, I feel that my media product represents teenagers who feel they wish to aspire to their idols. I feel that my product shows character and this will be noticed by the group of people. It also represents both boys and girls who are interested in either fulfilling any dream or a musical one like my magazine shows It also represents people who could be interested in trends and being able to express themselves. I feel this goes for the majority of teenagers, as many of them have an idol who they would like to become like one day.

My product follows the hyperdermic syringe theory as it is injecting information and facts about the artists within my magazine as it is an inspirational story and will make the readers feel good from reading articles within.  This represents the social group of young children deciding what they want to do in their future lives.

As my magazine is a pop magazine it is likely to be discussed between young social groups, this is likely to be young children just discovering the music industry and teenagers who are beginning to spend more time out with friends and possibly older teenagers who are in clubs listening to the music. The music and media industry will therefore be a large discussion between social groups; this is called a two- step-flow as it will therefore be spread by word of mouth to other friends and therefore my magazine would be spread to other social groups.

3.    What kind of media institution might distribute your media products and why?

I looked into a number of different media institutions and found that ‘Bauer Media’ would be the most likely magazine institution to distribute my magazine is they already distribute magazines such as Q, Kerrang and Pop. This is because the audience for my magazine is similar to those who would read these magazines. The genre and  style of my magazine is also similar to these magazines, especially when I got my colour scheme inspiration from Q.

Larger and more obvious distributors would be some such as Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s as they supply and distribute all types of books and magazines, another large distributer is WHSmiths, this would attract a large audience, including people who would be likely to buy my magazine.

Evaluation Questions 4-5

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

The audience for my magazine would be both male and female, probably ranging from about thirteen to twenty. I have tried to use both female and male models in my magazine so that I did not restrict my audience. The reason I believe my audience will start at the age of thirteen is because pop music tends to be very lively and nearly always catchy, from the videos I have seen and the pictures of pop music artists, they tend to lead very exciting lives, this will be noticed by the audience and is a very catchy thing.

5.    How did you attract/ address your audience?

When creating my magazine and looking at other pop music magazines I found that they were colourful and vibrant, I therefore took that and did the same with my own. Using bright colours would help me to attract an audience, such as teenagers.

 I believe that I would also have an audience of people in their late-twenties because my magazine shows sophistication, which is shown through my double page spread article and catchy tag lines.

The layout of my magazine, especially the contents page, is also sophisticated in that it is quite simple and broken up well. Initially I wanted the background to be white, with colours down the side, however unfortunately I was unable to do that, so using the same grey-white fade  as my background with simple black, red and white, I believe has helped me to widen my audience.

 As you can see in this front cover example of ‘Q’ Magazine, they use the colours red black and white, and I felt that each of these colours complement each other on the page and help each other to stand out off the page. This is why I chose to also do this colour scheme. The black, white and red colour scheme is also culturally learned from the symbolic semiotic. This is because magazines such as ‘Q’ and ‘NME’ also use this colour scheme, therefore the audience will notice these colours and relate them to more well known magazines. I also chose my image carefully, It took me a number of attempts to find an image that I felt worked well as a front cover image. My image is an eye level shot, this has helped me with making my audience feel connected with the person in the picture, as the image is not too close up it also gives the audience more of a chance to see the artist which I hope gives the impression that they know more about her before reading the magazine. I also felt that it was appropriate to show different camera angles throughout my magazine, as this would show understanding and also would help the audience to see different images and keep the magazine interesting.

A you can see by my double page spread I have kept it very simple and effective, this is so that it is not over complicated and readers would not find it too busy and unattractive. I did not want my audience to feel bored by the article, but I also did not want it to feel crowded and busy.

Here is an example to compare with the image on the front cover, this is a high angle shot which is looking down on my music artist.  This image is on the contents page and therefore I wanted to demonstrate use of editing and colour, so I edited this picture into black and white and adjusted the shadows and brightness.

I also used things such as an issue number and date, barcode and website. This has helped to attract the audience  make the magazine seem more professional and realistic.

On my double page spread I used informal chatty language which I feel will be useful and attractive for my readers. The uses and gratifications theory on information is relevant to my double page spread as it is informing my audience on information and facts they may which to know about the topic I was writing about. The tone of my double page spread is informative yet relaxed, it is telling the readers what they wish to know and yet still keeping them interested. The language and words are simple which I felt was sensible yet may be slightly stereo typing teenagers in the way that they may be less inclined to read an article if it was made up of formal language and large complex words.

Evaluation Questions 6-7

6.   

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

Having used programmes such as Adobe Photo shop, Picasa, Adobe Premiere and Microsoft Publisher I have learnt how to lay out my products and ‘put them to bed’. I have also learnt which programmes can do different things to a picture of background and even writing. I found that by using different effects and fonts I was able to break up the writing  and by using effects on images I was able to learn and understand what effects are useful and help to enhance the quality of the picture.

I have also learnt how to use a number of different tools within the programmes I used, especially adobe Photoshop.

I used the Lasso tool and the magic wand tool a lot throughout my product as I felt it was a quicker way to remove the green screen as opposed to using Adobe Premiere Element’s green screen tool. With these two tools I was able to cut around the picture leaving a crisp line; however I did find this difficult when trying to cut around the hair of my models.

-  The magic wand tool was useful for crisp lines as it would cut out large parts quickly.

- The lasso tool however was useful when zooming in to do small particular parts of an image

To take my pictures I used a Cannon digital camera, I also used green screen technology which I found was useful and learnt how to edit in different background, which is the initial idea of green screen. As you can see from a number of my pictures, rather than using background settings, I used colours to simply make the models stand out from the page.

Another form of technology I learnt to use was blogging, as you will see from my blog- www.laurawoodmedia.blogspot.com, I learnt how to update it as and when I felt necessary, with the relevant information. I also had to use programmes such as paint when updating my blog, as I found that I was unable to upload documents, therefore I had to print screen it and copy onto paint where I then turned it into a .jpeg document which blogger then allowed me to upload to my blog so I was able to discuss what I had done to create this document and what I would later change.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS9b6H_Vh8w

This video was useful for me during the production of my magazine as it helped me to learn how to remove the green screen in my case.

I also learnt how to use a number of websites to extract relevant information and pictures, I also managed to find other examples of blogs and magazines which gave me more ideas of how to create my own.

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

At first when I created my front page and contents page I was initially happy with it, I felt that the pictures and colours were appropriate and that it all looked very attractive, however having shown it to a focus group I found that a number of points were highlighted:

Picture quality was poor and looked inappropriate, and slightly out of place.

The layout of the front cover was also poor and made it feel very cramped, there was not enough space to put cover lines and any extra information

A few people pointed out that they did not like the fact that they could not see the magazine’s name.

Some people did not like the colour scheme and felt it was too boring. Therefore I felt that I needed to change the front cover and contents page to become more readable and more attractive as well as looking much more professional. Therefore I decided to change everything, including the picture, colour scheme and layout- the three main points that I felt were raised. So i took another picture and looked at other magazines and eventually created my front cover. I felt that it looked much more thought about and I also felt that I had spent more time considering the construction of the layout to make it more readable.

I feel that I have learnt a number of things since my preliminary task:

Picture editing- I feel that I have learnt how to experiment; having used a number of programmes I have learnt how to change lighting and colours. However I have also learnt how to cut out and crop parts of images I do not want. Having taken nearly all of my pictures against a green screen I was also able to learn how to remove the green screen and put in the desired background.

Layout- how different items will fit in on the page without making it seems busy and overcrowded. My preliminary task was useful for this as it helped me to practice how a magazine should be laid out and also how to lay it out without it looking unattractive and not being effective when reaching for my target audience.

General editing-  have found that using the same colours, fonts and styles do not complement each other well, readers want to see a bit of variety so that it does not look boring. This is why throughout my magazine I have tried to use different fonts and different sizes. I have also used italics and bold throughout for example where I name a number of music artists, I felt that colours, size and style helped to break it up so that it did not just look like a list of names.

FINAL DRAFTS

Front Page

Contents Page

Double Page Spread

New pictures

As I was unhappy with the picture on my double page spread I decided I should take some new ones to see if they would look any better. I tried to capture a range of different expressions along with different camera angles. I took a number of photo's but these are my favourite 3, I liked them because the one of the left was an inviting picture from a high angle shot. It made me feel that the person was friendly, which could reflect well on the magazine as it would make the magazine feel friendly too. The two pictrues on the right however were edgy and looked professional, the edition to them both also made them feel more effective and more attractive. I am going to try them on my double page spread and will hopefully be able to create a final copy.

Double Page spread

This is my double page spread I created after looking at a number of other examples. I found that many other magazines used an interview format for their double page spreads, but I however felt that it may be a good idea to write an article instead. Using informal chatty language I thought I would be able to attract an audience much easier than I would with an interview. I made my article using a real life situation which I felt would be a good way to keep the reader interested in the story that they are being told. It is also informative as it tells the reader what they may wish to know about the artist. I also tried to stay with the same colour scheme of red white and black as it is a major part of the magazine and it helped to show the relation between each part. I feel that my image is a bit too stretched and the image looks slightly out of place.
Then when talking to my focus group they told me that they found the layout of the text was hard to read, therefore I should try to find a way of breaking it up, so that the words aren't so close together, this may also make the page look neater.

Double Page spread ideas

 I have found that each of these double page spreads have a distinctive layout, by where they split the page into two parts. One of which has a large main picture showing who the article is about, then usually a larger masthead saying who the artist is, then finally on the other side is the article/ interview. As this is such a popular layout I too will use this layout and will maybe use one larger picture and one smaller picture like the Alexandra Burke and Cheryl Cole articles. All of the articles and layouts are simple yet effective, they are easy to read and demonstate how keeping it simple is very useful when attracting the audience. I can also distinctively see which magazines are 'Q' for example by their colour scheme they run through-out. This is also very useful and I will attempt at doing this with my own magazine.

As you can see I stuck to the new colour scheme of red white and black as I felt that it looked good against the from page, it also helped the magazine to flow better, being able to see that both parts of it are related. I also used the same red banner down the left hand side of the page as it was also a type of 'signature' effect on the magazine. I however do not particularly lie the grey on grey look with the background and the top picture, therefore I feel that I may need to change that in the future.
I have used a number of effects on this page just as I found on other magazine's contents pages. A particular part of my contents page that I found a number of other magazines did, was the small white writing in the bottom left corner. This is a note from the editor, I felt it was quite a good idea as it made the magazine feel much more friendly and approachable.