Evaluation Questions

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

Throughout the creation process of my magazine pages I feel that I mostly followed the forms and conventions of real media products, however some things that I did broke these forms and conventions but this was done purposely as I did not want my product to become a clone of all the media products that are out at the moment.

I followed typical conventions of music magazines like having a photograph of an artist as the main image for the front cover. I also used typical font styles for my front cover text, for example a large masthead text and several smaller sized font cover lines.

In most professional products, I have observed that the models are always shot in some kind of pose and the majority have a prop of some sort. So I decided to follow this convention for my magazine front cover shot as I thought it would produce the best outcome. My model is in a singing pose and also holding a guitar. Although I was at a great advantage when I took the photos for my magazine as I was at a friend's gig and I decided to take these photos at specific times where I could get the best shots and I would be able to use them for my magazine. Later I also took some more photographs in which I asked the models to pose appropriately. All of these images were useful for the type of magazine pages that I wanted to create.

Although most magazines follow a convention of using a mid close-up shot of the model but I used a mid-shot as I felt it gave the best feel to the magazine and if the shot was any closer then the prop which was purposely used to show the model was a guitarist would not have been seen and the magazine wouldn't be so obvious as a rock magazine, this is because a guitar is a common denotation of what an audience would think of to be on the front cover of a rock music magazine.

The main reason I followed the forms and conventions of traditional magazines was that when I did my audience research I found out that these typical things were what the audience wanted to see in my magazine pages, so I did not want to create something which would not please the target audience or would go against my original ideas.



Question 2:
How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product represents a particular social group very distinctly as it is clear just by looking at my pages that it is aimed at rock music fans. However, through the representation of the models in my cover and contents page, my pages can appeal to a wider range of audience. For the front cover image, I used a young model who is 18 years old, this fits well into the target audience age which most media products aim to attract of 16-24 year olds. My model is also male so this could be more aimed at males of this age group. Although, females could be attracted too as my product tries to represent the younger rock fan generation. The model in my contents cover could also help to reach out to a wider audience as I decided to change from my original decision of the male model photo and I used the female instead as I thought it would create more of a chance of getting a variety of audience members, both male and female. As a result of my changes, no gender groups are excluded from my product. It could also include audience members of all ages other than just the target age that I wanted to produce for as I know the rock music fan base has a large variety of audience members ranging from young to old, male and female.

Another thing which I decided to change slightly was my representation to conventions of other magazines. I did not show my model with a happy or sad expression as I didn't want the models to look fake and as if they were posing for just another magazine. I asked my model to sing so I could capture the natural look of my model as I thought this would appeal to the audience more if they see a model on a music magazine doing what you would expect them to rather than posing with a certain expression. However, when taking the photographs of the female in my contents page I asked her to pose as if she was doing a photoshoot as her image was going to appeal to the female audience members that wanted to find out about how to take perfect photos, as good as photoshoot ones, without actually going to a photoshoot. The clothes that my models were wearing were not specific with any particular subculture but deliberately included just to appeal to a younger generation. I asked the models to wear something fashionable, similar to the fashion of the young generation today as again I did not want them to look forced into a certain subculture. This could also help to appeal to more than one subculture as my models do not have a certain "look" about them and this could make a range of audience members more interested in my product as the models look more like them rather than something which denotes the connotations of a certain subculture.

This image is the one I changed

in my contents page as I thought

it would be more suitable in

helping me target a wider and

larger audience.

Question 3:
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

After researching a range of publishing companies, I decided that IPC Media Publishing House would be the best kind of media institution to distribute my media product. There are many reasons for this, The first is that this company do not publish anything like my product at the moment and this would be a new product for them to try out and expand their audiences. Also it wouldn't create too much competition between this publisher's titles as they do not have anything like my product. If this company published my product it would be very beneficial for them as they would do better financially. They would attract a wider audience range as they are promoting a different type of magazine. They would become more popular with the audience as it shows they are open to publishing many different types of media products rather than focusing on a particular subculture to aim their products at. They may even be able to expand their company to produce more products similar to mine if it they are successful.

I would encourage subscription to my magazine as it could mean that I would gain a more niche audience and these fans would keep updated with my product and would purchase it regularly. Also subscription could mean that more people would become interested and could subscribe too.

I would also distribute my magazine in shops. Places like WHSmith, Newsagents, Stations and Corner shops would be the main ideal places as a lot of people use them everyday and the more people that see it, the more of my target audience would buy it. I would also aim to distribute my magazine in bars, particularly the ones that have rock bands that play on weekends and week nights as this could encourage a wider audience range to read my product. I also would aim to distribute my magazine in stores like HMV and other music shops, specifically the independant branches that focus more on rock music products as this could mean my magazine would gain even more audience members. Another way I could distribute my magzine would be in youth clubs. I would do this as it could make certain teenagers who cause trouble within their neighbourhood interested in something they wouldn't expect, like my media product. It could give them a new hobby which they want to persue, like playing the guitar or forming a band. I would do this by contacting all the local youth clubs and giving them a number of my product to distribute and if it was successful I would continue to do this.


Question 4:
Who would be the audience for your media product?

The main audience for my media product would be young adults between the ages of 16-24, both males and females. However my product could be for anyone over this age group but they wouldn't be the main target audience.

My reasons for this are that when I did my questionnaire and audience research, the largest respondants were of this age group.

The charts below show this.

Question 5:
How did you attract/address your audience?

There are many features in my product which would attract my audience. For example the photography is interesting and helps to draw the attention of the audience before they buy the product.

The cover lines are important as they are one of the main features that help to draw the audience in. My cover lines were in bold, white font which contrasted with the darker background image. This helps to catch the readers attention before they have even read anything because of the contrasting colours.

Selecting the right font for my magazine was important because if I used something that was unreadable or too small or too unprofessional looking then this would put the audience off from buying my magazine. I decided to stick with safer fonts which would catch the audiences attention but also attract them to my magazine. The fonts I used were bold and bright and a few had certain effects on them just to give an extra boost to the design of the magazine, making it look individual.

When designing my pages, I took into account that 40% of all magazine purchases are determind by the content of the front cover, instead of brand loyalty. This is why I decided to keep my models between the age of my target audience and styled them to look like artists from the same backgrounds as my target audience. I did this so that when the audience look at the magazine they may notice that these models are not so different from themselves and they may look up to the product for this. Another factor that could attract the audience is that my models are not unattractive and would appeal to both men and women of the target audience age range.

Question 6:
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

To create my media product, the main technology that I used was Adobe Photoshop CS3. Once I had selected the images that I wanted to use I opened these in Photoshop and began designing my pages. I used lighting adjustments and changed the brightness and contrast. When creating the main image for my double page spread, I used the "magnetic lasso" tool to draw around the band and cut out the background so that I could place it on my page and the design that I created using different Photoshop "brushes" could been seen behind the image.

The technology is limiting in some ways as you cannot do everything in one programme. For example, if i wanted an elaborate text design which filled a page through creating many different paths, photoshop wouldn't be the best software to use. I would suggest using Illistrator. However, by saying this, the amount of "effects" and chages you can make using this software is amazing. Almost any picture can be completely transformed. This is why it is so popular within the magazine designing industry. Overall, the technology I used was very enabling in relation to my creative ideas as it did everything I needed it to.


Question 7:
Looking back at the preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to a full product?

During the process of both the preliminary task and the main task, I feel that I have learnt a lot in the progression to producing a full product. Not only did I learn a lot about the technologies used, like Photoshop and Illistrator but I learnt about how to manage my time carefully and organise everything successfully. Organising my human resourses was not a problem as it was very easy to find the models and get the photographs done quickly as everyone was willing and wanted to get things done on time.

Throught the two activities, I made a lot of creative decisions based on ideas that I developed from the information gathered from my target audience. The ideas came from the research I did. I looked at what the audience wanted in a product and what they didn't want. I then worked from there producing draft sketches and many different alternative ideas until I found the product which I thought most suited the audiences needs. The audience influenced the "micro" details a lot, mainly because as I was creatig my pages, I asked audience members about what they thought and how I could improve it and also, how successful they saw the product becoming through the way it was deisgned. I listened to all comments made and changed things like, framing and layout if the audience were not over keen and I did not think it would work.

Overall my audience feedback did confirm expectations as I was very careful and took a lot of time producing my pages because I knew what the audience wanted and I tried to create the best that I could to please them.

Throughout the development of my ideas, I had to do some problem solving, generally with the still images. As most of my images were taken during a live perfomance, it was hard to get the perfect image because there was movement in the photographs, however I wanted this as I didn't want the shots to look too organised. I also found a second solution to the problem, by taking photogaphs at different times in different locations and I also used some other models to get better images.

The final outcome of my product relates well with my drafting as they are similar in design and this shows that I stuck to my plan without making too many changes and I listened to what the audience wanted from the start.

Finally, I would say that the progression from the preliminary task to the main task was not so hard, although I found the preliminary task a little rushed and I wasn't as confident with the technologies I was using. After producing my final outcome of the main task, I thought it was clear that I had learnt a lot in this time as I managed to create good quality designs within the time set.

Post Production Feedback

Whilst creating my pages, I took into consideration all the things that my target audience said they would like to have seen in my magazine pages from the questionnaire that I created at the beginning of this task.

Strengths:

My magazine pages seemed to be very popular with my audience and I am pleased that I received such a positive response. I had many strengths with my pages, for example the first thing that the audience commented on was the image that I used for the main focal point on the front cover. The audience liked this as they said it reminded them of a real rock magazine that they had read before. I thought this was positive feedback because if my front cover looked like something they had seen before, then it's likely that my pages fit well into the category of magazine that I was aiming to produce. Another thing that they audience liked about my front cover was that I used elements which made it look like a real magazine. For example, I created a sticker in photoshop and used it on the cover making it look like a typical convention from a real rock magazine page. With my contents page, I also received a lot of positive comments. For example, one person said that "the layout is very well done and not many colours are used which helps to keep it readable and looking professional". Others said similar things too, this helped to understand that when I decided to keep my colour scheme to a minimum of three or four colours, that I made the right choice. I purposely did this as I did not want the page to look too messy, otherwise it would start to look unprofessional. Also, people commented on the fonts that I used because they liked the way I kept the same font and just changed the colour or size to give it a bit of variation but also keep it looking good at the same time. For my double page spread, the audience also gave me some very positive feedback. Firstly, they liked the way I used my photos as I made them look like printed photographs and added them into the double page spread to help with the design. They also liked the main focal point of my double page spread, which was the image of the band on the bottom right side where I had created some brush work in photoshop and layered the image over the top, which in their opinion looked "very stylish and professional".

Weaknesses:

Although my magazine received mainly positive feedback, there were some weak points too. Firstly, Some of the audience were not too sure about the font that I used for the magazine name, However, I thought it was appropriate as it suited the rock theme and fitted well with the contrast of the other fonts that I used. The second thing that the audience did not like so much was the font colours on my double page spread. I had used a dark gradient for the background and then a blue colour for the question font and this did not work so well as the gradient became darker because it made the text less readable. The audience gave me a suggestion to improve by which I should make all of the text white and change the question font style so that it's easier to read and there is still a recognisable difference between the question and the answer. This image makes it clear that the question text was quite hard to read once the gradient became dark and that I should make improvements to the pages before they were to be published, if it was for a real magazine.

Music Magazine Final Pages

Alternative Contents Page Idea

This is my second idea for my contents page. I changed the image and the relating text on the right hand side of the page as I thought it would be another good alternative idea to the first one that I created. Also the image relates more to the type of magazine that I am creating.

Alternative Double Page Spread Ideas

These are all alternative ideas that I created for my double page spread. I changed the background colours and designs so that there would be more of a range of ideas for my pages. After creating these pages I realised that a darker background works well and in my opinion, looks better than the other ideas. I also stuck to the colour scheme of red, white and black as I did not want to make the pages look too over the top. I think that by keeping to a minimum of colours also helps to keep the magazine looking professional.

Final Music Magazine Double Page Spread

This is the final design for my music magazine double page spread. I used a darker gradient background so that it helps the writing to stand out. I also included some other images that I took and made them look as if they were photographs. I also experimented with different photoshop brushes to create a good design which would sit behind my focus image, to make it eye catching and professional looking.

Final Music Magazine Contents Page

This is my final contents page idea. Originally I thought about using the contents page which is now my alternate idea, however I decided that this one would be better because it has a range of images including different people. I prefer this one as it looks more like a real magazine because I didn't use all my photos from one artist.