Evaluation

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

At the start of this coursework i analysed three different front covers, contents pages and double page spreads. Analysing these gave me ideas for what i wanted to do with my won magazine. I also started to notice what was vital to include on my magazine such as a barcode, issue number, date and catchy taglines, i used all of these on my front cover. It also has me thinking about other important elements which make the magazine different, such as the colour scheme an pictures.
When taking the first few stages of my front cover i has many ideas which i wanted to do, these were all unconvetional and i liked it because being unconvetional means my magazine would have been unique. However, i then came to realise that these ideas i had would not work and that trying to be unconvetional was not a good idea, so it was best to stick to being convetional. For example, i took many different pictures for my magazine, however looking at other magazines helped me choose which pictures would be my final images which i would use and which picture would make my magazine look much more professional and striking when on a stand in a store.
I sketched three different front page designs after picking the name 'Remix' for my magazine.
I started off with the masthead over the top of the main image, meaning that the top of my models head was slightly covered. I then realised that this would not work as it looked un professional as i have not seen magazines laid out in that way before and did not strike me which means it would not strike the audinece either. I then decided to pull my picture down and add a black banner at the top so that my masthead could fit and show up this brightened up the whole cover and made it look more professional and more like a music magazine rather than a cheap school magazine. What i ended up doing with the masthead makes it convetional as it looks like other magazines which are sold in stores already. Even though this is the case it is the name and the colourscheme which makes it different from others.
My contents page includes a 'features' and 'regulars' section which is convetional to other magazines as all have these sections.
Before starting my double page spread i analysed some to give me an idea of how i was going t right a story. I ended up writing an interview as i saw this included in nearly every magazine which i researched. In addition just like al these magazines i took the catchiest quotes and enlarged the text and changed the colour.

These show that i have developed and challenged froms and convetions of other music magazines to base around my own ideas of my magazine.


Question 2- How does you media product represent particular social groups?

The genre of my music magazine is Hip-Hop and R'n'B. I had to pick a model which fits best with this genre and a modeal which fits best with my target audience.
I needed my model to attract the target audience as this would be the people who would buy my magazine, however if the image on the front does not strike them then they are less likely to pick my magazine over other. I needed to pick a model which would be popuar as this model is basically the 'celebrity'.
The model on my front cover is the same person i have chosen to write about on my double page spread. My reason being because when picking up a magazine and seeing the person on the front will most probably make you want to read more. Also including a catchy headline to go with the front image will make you want to read the contents page to see what page this story is on and to find out more.
My magazine represents young, urban teenagers such as jordan who i had written about in my target audience.
Unlike the media such as the news, my magazine represent this social group in a much more positive way, showing that young, urban teenagers are not all trouble makers.
The model i used is in between the age range of my target audience which will attract the right groups of people which i expect my magazine to attract.
The language used in my magazine wasn't too formal, however some slang was used as this is a way of attracting the taret audience and getting on their level. Showing this magazine is understanding and appreciative of their lingo.


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

Publishers which may publish my magazine could be BBC magazine (www.bbcmagazines.com)

they sell a variety of music magazines and their main one is Top Of The Pops, so they may be interested in my magazine as it is a Hip-Hop magazine so there is a gap in their market for my magazine. However, they may not want to publish my magazine because they may not want it competing with their huge magazines which they already publish such as, Top Of The Pops.

The second publisher which may publish my product could be IPC media (www.ipcmedia.com).

They already publish well known magazines such as NME. So they may be interested in taking on a Hip Hop filled magazine. Although, the problem with them publishing my product would be that, most of their audience/consumers are young female which is not ideal for my magazine as my magazine is targeted at mainly teenage males.

Institutions which may distribute my product could be large supermarket names such as Morrisons, Tesco and Asda. They always have a section of magazine next to the paying point. They have a wide seletion and different genres of magazines. Therefore, if these institutions were to distribute my product, mine would be competeing against other, popular magazines. The niche market for music magazines is quite small which may be a problem because my magazine would be competing against fast selling fashion magazines such as, OK, Heat and Hello magazine.


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

I have targeted my magazine at teenagers ranged from 16 and upwards. Maninly male consumers. Jordan (picture below) is the trypical candidate for the type of target audience. I have also written about him in my target audience profile.
The audience i am aiming at are Hip-Hop and R'n'B lovers, who are interested in finding out the latest about the most popular musicians
As i have targeted my magazine to teenagers, most will still be in education so my magazine is reasonably cheap at a retail price of £2.

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

Attracting your audience is crutial so i have used many techniques to do so.

I first of all chose my model who is an attractive young teenager who has good fashion sense and looks Hip-Hop style. He will attract many girls and also boys who look/dress similar to 'Andrew Paps'. I had a colour scheme of red and black in mind so i dressed Andrew up in a red and black checked shirt and plain skinny jeans with a black cap. This is the style which fits in with the genre i am going for. This is a part of mise-en-scene, which is extremely important as this is everything the audience will see such as, the background setting and costume.

I felt that my colour scheme ran thoughout the front cover and contents page very well and that this made my magazine stand out. The reason i used these colours to attract customers is because it is bright witht the red but dark at the same time, with the black and grey. Giving it a more Hip-Hop look. Also as it is mainly targeted my magazine at males so these colours work very well in attracting them. Another technique i used to attract my audience is the language. I used language which younger generations will understand attracting their social group. In addition to this the main technique is pricing. At a selling price of £2 which is reasonably cheap, i will be attracting customers who do not want to spend a large amount on their luxuries, so £2 will be a very attractive figure for them to want to buy this magazine.

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

Photoshop Element 8 was the programme i used to create my music magazine. Before producing this magazine i hadn't used photoshop before, other than when producing my preliminary task. Although i did know how to use the crop tool (lasso tool). However after working with this programme for a while i have developed and learnt new skills about technology. My magazine was mainly completed on Apple Mac compluters which i am new to using, so getting the hang of it was quite difficult. When using photoshop the main point which i used alot was layering. I now know how to make my writing such as my mast head and taglines to overlap the picture. I have learnt how to use the magnetic lasso tool to crop my pictures which is easier to cut out the picture, rather than using the normal crop tool. I used the move tool many times so i am now thorough when using it. I know also know how to get rid of any layer i do not want, or if i have a specific layer that i would like to work with i now know how to select it down fom the colloumn on the right. I used a Sony Cybershot camera to take many of my images, i decided to take pictures indoors because i realised that taking pictures out doors does not work well when trying to get an even image.

To upload all of my coursework i used the blogger site. (http://www.blogger.com/) i have never used a blog site before so i was new to the technology on it, however as i had to use it many times to upload and write all my coursework on it i can now use it without any problems.

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

The preliminary task was so produce a front cover and a contents page for a school magazine. I produced this magazine by taking out research on other school magazins to give me idea on the layout and the type of stories and pictures i should include. However, at first i did not carry out any research until i realised that i did not really now how to make a start. So i learnt that without carrying out research you will not be able to make a start on your product. I have also learnt a very valuable lesson, to save my work every few minutes to ensure i do not loose large amounts of my work if the computer decideds to crash as this has happened to me near the deadline. I now also know to save my work in more than one place to ensure i have a back up. In addtion, when producing my preliminary task i used only the basic tools such as the crop took and pain bucket to create my layout, as i did not have any experience with using the other tools. which made my magazine look tacky and cheap, however after learning how to use the more complicated tools on my final pieces i have grown a stronger understanding about all the different tools and have learnt how to use each one to create my professional, expensive looking, eye catching magazine.