Evaluation

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

My music magazine was primarily focused to match the conventions of Q magazine, I used plain large fonts that vary in my chosen house colours red, white and black as i believed that these colours connoted  'rock' in a magazine after studying the NME front covers whilst doing our deconstructions previously in the  year. I didn't necessary challenge the conventions of a modern rock and roll magazine, but i used less enthusiastic fonts and slanted titles which NME uses, and focused the presentation design towards how plain but effective Q magazine places their titles on the front cover to create a more professional looking magazine. So i used ordinary conventions of a music magazines, e.g big striking image that initiates eye contact the viewer, different sized fonts and text sizes for the more important information that i want to attract the reader with, same principle applied when including band names into the front cover. Another convention i used was a short, memorable masthead that many modern rock magazine use like NME and KERRANG. I used all of these conventions in my contents and double page spread as well, as i wanted to connote rock and roll throughout my entire magazine.

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


My magazine represents a particular social group because the specific issue is directed at teenagers primarily but can range up to rock and roll fans up to 30 years old or anyone that still has a preference for contemporary rock music. A social group that i am trying to represent through my magazine is rebellious youth, for music followers that do not listen to whats in the charts, but instead are stereotypically independent and alternative rock music fans that will participate in gigs and mosh pits instead of staying at home and perusing through the top 50 pop sensations of our time. My magazine represents the youth that will act against a conformity instead of living by its principles and beliefs and not being restricted by its rules.


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


The type of media institution that would distribute my media product would be the 'Bauer' media institution as they reach over nineteen million teenagers/adults in the UK and are responsible for my music magazine inspirations such as KERRANG radio and Kiss 100 that specializes in distributing alternative and classic rock music to a wide audience, and because the main consumer of this kind of media is mainly audiences that range from ages 16+, it would be the perfect media institution for my magazine.
http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/

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

 The audience for my media product would be anyone aged 16+ that enjoys contemporary rock music and preferably, live music performances as my magazine mainly features information on festivals, live rock shows and solo performances by rising artists. The picture on the right are typical audience members that would enjoy my music product, as they have been photographed at a 'Muse' concert. This is the type of people that answered my polls and my questionnaire, so then at a SUM 41 concert and also at a REEL BIG FISH concert (both successful contemporary rock bands)

me and my colleague asked several audience member what kind of music magazines they read and what they expect to find in a rock music magazine, as the questionnaire given out to 20 sixth form students, and 15 of those students said they would most like to read a rock magazine.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

The mode of address I used towards my audience in my music magazine was primarily formal language as many professional and successful music magazines avoid using colloquial and informal language towards their audience as it treats the reader with some respect. I expect my audience to be bored with the amount of over exposed and undeservedly publicised pop music that has infected modern music with it's slender grasp on grammar and musical taste as many of my audience members would listen to in the lyrics. Therefore the formal language in my magazine represents the higher form of musical talent and intelligence compared to modern pop music. The main ways in which i attracted my target audience was introducing 'freebies' on my front cover (in this case, a free poster) and connoting 'rock and roll' by using the colours red white and black which is commonly used in the modern rock institution, but is still effective.

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

After exploring and using the possibilities and editing tools photoshop had to offer after a few weeks, I soon found myself highly capable of constructing a music magazine, as at first i was unsure how to edit my images and layer my fonts and text boxes in my magazine, but now i am highly educated in the ways of photoshop. Social networking was definitely a useful source of technology that i could use to communicate with my audience and gather feedback and ideas directly back from media consumers. I have learnt that having an online version of my and my classmates magazines, as it allowed us to compare our magazines and share interesting conventions and ideas to use for our own magazines.

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

When I created my preliminary task i was fairly uneducated with apple macs and photoshop, and looking back I consider it to be of poor standard and quality. From that stage to now, i feel that i have definately learnt a lot about digital editing and how to operate the apple macs, also handling and distributing files is now much easier than i previously thought. One of the main things i've learnt though is how to handle my time effectively so i have enough time to both blog and work on my music magazine. I have also learnt about the importance of communication with both my teachers and the audience, without the teachers I wouldn't have had the constructive criticism i needed in order to improve my magazine, and with the help of the audience by communicating through social networking (facebook) and the results from my questionnaire I discovered the importance of the public opinion as you need to give the people what they want.

Front Cover, Contents and Double Page Spread.

Crime Justice

'Crime Justice' is a crime drama set in London, the fundamental concept driving the ploto this episode is a missing child report, the last time she was seen she was next to the penguin enclosure whilst her mother left her briefly to obtain her daughters dropped jacket. By the time she returned her daughter was gone and the speaker anounced that the park was closing, forcing her to leave and wait for her daughter outside the zoo. After notify security and several hours of searching the zoo, security called the police where 'The Detective'[1] and Roxie [2] found a lock of hair in the woman's toilets basin, which the DNA matches the hair left on the previously dropped jacket, there was also a fingeprint on the mirror of the bathroom, which matches to a woman who was considered a missing person 20 years ago and presumed dead.

[1]
Name: Only known as 'The Detective'. Real name unknown
Role in Crime Drama: Detective
Age: 58
About him: He is an 'old school' veteran in the police force and was moved to the Detective Agency years ago due to his violent and aggressie attitude and lack of consideration towards Police rulebook. He has no family and the closest thing he has to a friend is his assistant Roxie who has helped him solve crimes for the last two years, she keeps The Detective from getting into too much trouble and isn't effected by his arrogance like the other assistants 'The Detective' has had in the past. Although he acts like a stereotypical tough guy bad cop,whenever he's alone he has brief moments where he stares woefully at a picture of his wife and is extremely vulnerable at those moments. He has a serious drinking problem as he became an alcholic twenty years ago after his wife went missing.


[2]

Name: Roxie
Role in Crime Drama: Detectives Assistant
Age: 25
About her: She is Dangerously clever in the way she gets her information, by not playing by the rules set by her superiors. Her determined attitude can sometimes land her into tricky situations, which are overlooked due to the detectives reliance on her unchallenged crime solving abilities. Although she may seem like your typical slut, her inner abilities prove her to be a much more complicated yet illustrious character.

Class Evaluation.

Front Cover

Positives- One of the main positives i received from my class was that i had a good, striking image on my front cover and it was obeying the frontcover conventions of a music magazine, as my model had good eye contact with the camera and it was a big image. They also pointed out that i had good house style and my choice of colours was very succesful, this links to the mast head as i used both the colour black and red in it to set the theme of the magazine. My big coverlines were much appreciated and my use of font changes where also greatly admired.
Negatives-The class found it difficult to see some of my font because of the darkness of the image in the back round. There are a flaw photoshop flaws that need to be worked on, as well with the image. My front cover image took a series of complaints as it was perhaps, too big. Therefore i need to shrink down the size of my image so i can include more headlines on my front cover, which was also a major concern from the class.

Contents

Positives- The continuity was much appreciated by the class as i used the house colours of red and black quite strongly in my contents pages, and the image of the model playing the guitar was also enjoyed by the audience.
Negatives- I need to include an editorial profile into my contents page, so i can let the reader know a little bit about me and what my magazine is about. It was reccomended that i sort out my image a little bit as a bit of his sock was missing due to a photoshop error. I need to sort out the page numbers, perhaps making them bigger and bolder so it's easier for the reader to see, and also i need to add a bit more information, perhaps a review section in the empty space at the bottom.

Contents page first attempt. (bits missing)

Due to some computer difficulties, some of the copy on the page is missing, but it included a note from the editor along side a glorious picture of myself, and a small review collumn where i included page number for proffesional reviews on music videos, albums, new artists and so on. I used house style with the colours and the main title font. I tried to use the same method as i did on the front cover and not include a lot of text into the page as i don't want to make it seem to busy. Improvements on this page are inevitable....

Front Cover first attempt.

This is the first draft of my front cover, i will change it sooner or later depending on the ammount of criticism i receive from my piors. I chose a house colour of red and black because i felt they were quite sensibe and wouldn't look tacky, a tacky colour for me would be something like silver and yellow or something that ridiculous and the readers wouldnt take my magazine seriously. I was stuck between two pictures of my model, but i chose this one becase i think he looked more arrogant and proud, much like any rockstar. If i had to improve this cover i would include more coverlines and perhaps a big red circle in the top right corner next to/slightly behind the models head with some informtation for the readers that would attract their attention more. I didn't want to steal focus away from the models head though and clog up the cover with words and make it seem very busy. The most important words are highlighted in red, including the 6 in my title '6 String'. I changed the title from Gstring to 6string because i felt that Gstring was a bit too rap/hip-hop. And in this project i want to mainly focus on rock/acoustic music, but as much as i loved the title Gstring, i wasn't up for changing that musical genre. Another improvement i would make on this front cover is the artist examples used, I would swap Jamie T and put in a better, more relevant artist but i don't know how to change the text because my photoshop skills are very limited...

Change of plan

Instead of using the previous idea of using digital layering with drawing of my model and copying this byroglyphics idea, I'm going to do the original idea of taking normal pictures and only changing them on facebook and not using drawings. I made this decision because i think it would make the magazine look like it was directed at a younger audience whereas i want to aim it at young adults. Also it may be confusing for the viewer as it could be considered unclear wether it's a music magazine or not and more art based. Therefore i've taken pictures of a model infront of a white wall with a guitar from various different angles and positions so i will a good variety to chose from for my Front Cover, Contents Page, and DPS. Hopefully i will be able to upload the pictures in a slideshow soon in the future.

Front Cover Concepts

 These are images I found on a website called http://www.byrogliphics.com/. It was originally an idea i was hoping to include in my Art A-Level, but instead i chose to take this method and include it to my front cover. The reason why i have chosen to do this is because my initial photoes were rather plain and boring to look at, i got my model to play the guitar and there is some real emotion being shown in the images, but i still believed that they lacked the attraction that is supposed to grasp peoples attention. Therefore instead of doing ridiculous amounts of editing with unsatisfying digital paintbrushes and other photoshop fails, i will paint and sketch the photo instead, and use simple layering techniques to achieve an insperational front cover photo. With this method also, it can connote the simplicity and absence of technology of Acoustic Rock, which will give my magazine the continuity that will give it a more proffesional look.

I magazine

You can recognize the target audience of 'I magazine' by firstly; studying the advertisement the company published on television, where they portray several middle-aged people within the range of 20-50 year old readers. However, there are aspects of the newspaper that could be aimed at anyone from the age of 16+, as there are several stories included into the paper such as cinema releases and reviews that would attract the attention of teenagers. Therefore I believe that the target audience is simply 16+.

The piece of media was developed by The Independent at an attempt to deliver small portions of information that can be absorbed quickly and easily by young professionals. Therefore this paper is a quick, cheaper version of the independent that delivers the same amount of information to the public, but in a simpler form.

The price of I magazine can be considered competitive as it is the cheapest newspaper by only 10p compared to the Sun. The Times magazine however is 90p, and The Guardian is £1, therefore I magazine is the cheapest in comparison to all other successful magazines in the U.K, making it the leading piece of informative media in the competition.

It has been launched by being advertised on the television at both post and pre watershed. Also it has been advertised online with several Facebook groups that involve people into the inside information that is included in the newspaper.

Music Magazine Questionnaire

Music Magazine Questionnaire

Please draw a circle around your answers.

1.       Which genre of music would you most like to find on a contemporary music magazine?

Rap/Hip-hop                Pop                  Alternative Rock               Electronica                Dubstep

2.       How much are you willing to pay for a music magazine?

£1-£1.99                     £2-2.99                £3-3.99                      £4-4.99                  £5+

3.       On average, how often do you attend music concerts per year?

Never                  Once                  Twice              Three times             Four times +

4.       Would a free music poster interest you in buying a music magazine?

   

                                Yes                                          No

5.       In a music magazine, do you prefer lots of images and a small amount of text, or the opposite?

Lots of pictures, small amount of text                          Lots of text, small amount of image

Equal ratio

6.       Which of these magazines would you rank as the best?

Q                         KERRANG                 NME                  BLENDER                VIBE

Thank you for taking the time to answer this questionnaire.                

I've handed this questionnaire out to 20 sixth form students so I can make easier decisions towards my music magazine, such as which genre to base it on, which music magazine conventions to follow, e.g NME magazine has some slanted fonts, KERRANG has large 'messy' fonts. This questionnaire allows me to give the audience what they want.

PRELIM

This is the prelim task we where to set to experiment with a magazine cover. The aim was to have a magazine cover for a school magazine that would be aimed at students in the school. I tried to set a formal theme in the cover, using simple fonts and subtle changes of font size to highlight the important pieces of copy. In my music magazine i plan on using a lot more information and i'm going to try to direct my models infront of a simpler background or at least edit out some of the complexity. As i find that there is too much focus on the background with the open window and it draws your attention away from the pieces of text.

Front Cover sketch

This is an idea i sketched out in preparation of my photo shoot on friday, i've decided to change my genre of music to alternative and acoustic rock from hip-hop/rap. I've made this decision because I didn't want my front cover to have the stereotypical rapper on it with the tattoos and baggy jeans, instead i wanted a model that looks like your average joe, but the background is going to be filled with people, dancing and screaming at this single guitarist. I'm taking these pictures at an upcoming party, so hopefully i'll capture some of the atmosphere in the photos. I'll use these photos to show my target audience, as the main people that will be attending this party will be 16-24 years olds, which is the age limit i am aiming this magazine at.
Also at the party i may try to take some photos outside in the night, and use a strong, single source of light to try and capture a more 'chilled' atmosphere besides to the party scene i'm hoping to put on my front cover and end up with a good double page spread photo that is mostly covered in black, but perhaps in the corner of the photo i can have the model playing the guitar, only viewable by the single light source of a stage light or something. With this double page spread photo i can achieve a less hectic and busy photo than the front page idea. Or, i could use the same approach with the front cover concept, and show some photos of more fans and instruments to create a more exciting picture, in contrast to the relaxed photo. For the contents page i need the model positioned on the right hand side of the photo, with a plain background so it would be easier for the viewer to see the writing, i may have a powerline running across the page into the models were he could be playing a song, or simply posing.