Evaluation Question 7

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

Since first making my college magazine at the start of the year to making my music magazine I can definitely see the improvement in my skills. In comparison my music magazine looks far more professional than the college magazine. I have learnt lots of skills involved in the production using the apple mac's. The photographs in the music magazine are much better quality, the page is more filled and it is much more detailed. Also my music magazine uses aspects of real life media where as the college magazine doesn't.

Evaluation Question 6

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

Technologies I have used:

 Blogger:
All my coursework over the past few months has been uploaded onto my own personal blog. The work here goes from the finished magazine all the way back to my first research and planning posts.

Prezi:
Using a programme called 'Prezi' I made my publication plan which was where I listed features of my magazine such as price, name, where it would be sold and regular content. On Prezi I made this plan as a sort of spider diagran that you can move along to each point.

Photoshop:
Adobe Photoshop was the key programme in making my magazine. All of my magazine production was done on this on this programme, the cover (shown on left), the contents page and the double page spread were all created using photoshop. My photoshop skills have advanced a great deal from when we first did the photoshop tuturials at the start of the year.

FlickR:
I used FlickR to talk about distribution. I uploaded images of my magazine and in the comment boxes I wrote about distribution of similar music magazines and how my magazine would be distributed.

InDesign:
I used Indesign to first make my college magazine cover at the start of the year, I also used it for the text in my double page spread for my music magazine.



SLR Camera:

For my magazine pictures I used an SLR camera to take them. I think the quality was very good, and they looked quite professional. My skills with using the SLR cameras has improved from the start of the year. 





Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

How did I attract/address my target audience on Prezi

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How did I attract/address my target audience on Prezi

Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product? Why?

The audience for my magazine would be a teenage boy who is 16/17 years old. This is due to my audience research being carried out on people of this age group. Also stereotypically the people who are fans of the indie/rock genre are teenage males. Typically they have long hair with sweeping fringes and wear chequered shirts and skinny jeans. This is the type of clothes worn in my drawing.

Evaluation Question 3

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

Click each photo to link you to FlickR to see the analysis.

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Both photographs are from the same angle and are also a similar shot type, my photo is a medium close-up and the one I'm comparing it to is more of a mid shot. The costumes are very similar, both people are wearing black leather jackets, quite the stereotypical look for artists of the rock genre. Also they have similar hair styles, blonde and wavy and also they both have bright red lipstick, however the artist on the right has darker eye make up. And they both have things round their necks, in my photograph she has a bandana and in the other she has a necklace. The facial expressions in both photos are alike, they both have a kind of dark feel to them and a quite stern look in their faces. The posture they have both used are similar with their shoulders tilted slightly forward. The backgrounds used are different, my photo is taken against a red background where as the photo in comparison is against a white background. The other photo uses more light and is a brighter photo and mine is more darker with a blue tinge to it which is an effect I purposely used on the SLR camera. The blue tinge on photographs is often used in music magazines of the indie/rock genre.

Evaluation Question 1

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

 Front Cover:
Both magazines use a colour scheme of red, white and black. Both magazine names are in bold and are also similar fonts, they have a worn out, eroded look to them. The two magazines both have a red strip going horizontally across them in which the artists name is, these both use similar fonts. The photographs are both similar looking as some of my research was based on this particular artist, therefore they are wearing similar outfits, the style of shot are similar and also this shows that each magazine features on the same genre of music. Also a similar feature they share is that they give away free posters to readers. I have found from my research that this is a common feature found in magazines that focus on the indie/rock genre of music.
The main photo on the 'rock one' magazine is in colour but mine is in black and white, this is due to my photograph research looking at bands and artists of similar genre and I found that many of these bands use black and white photos for magazine and album photo-shoots. In my photograph the artist is holding a bass guitar where as in the other magazine the artist is not. I took inspiration for this idea from Kerrang magazine covers to give my photo more of a 'rock' look to it. Another Kerrang inspired idea was the banner at the bottom in which artists and bands featured in the magazine are listed.

Contents Page:
'Contents' in both pages is in large bold font to stand out to the reader. To the right of the page in both contents pages the main artist/band in that issue is made to stand out on the page, there is also a photograph of them. Both of them have subscription info which is bold and colourful to stand out to the reader, both of these use the word 'just' to try and make the reader think they are getting a good deal for a low price. The bottom half of each page lists the features of the magazine, also in bold they heading 'this week' is used in each magazine which is bold and stands out on the page, it is one of the first things you notice.
However, in Kerrang the features are under specific headings such as 'live reviews' and 'gig guide' where as my features are just in order of the pages. I think the Kerrang idea is better as it makes it more clear to the reader. Also in my magazine there is less text than in Kerrang although I fill some of the space with bold sections displaying the main features which are the main things in the magazine that may interest the reader so it needs to stand out. Also in the Kerrang contents there is an editors note which is a feature that I have not included.

 

Double-Page-Spread:

Yet again both photographs in each magazine are clear that they focus on the same genre of music, they are similar shot types, similar costumes and also have the same position on the pages. The two magazines use a colour scheme of black, white and red, red is used for the interview questions and white font is used for the answers. Both have an introductory paragraph to the article that is made to stand out from the rest of the article and also they both have a red bar at the top of the page in which the name of the artist is shown. The two articles have a name in which a variety of two fonts are used and also two colours are used, red and white.

The photograph in my double page spread is more of a close up shot and fills more of the background than the one I'm comparing it to, this is relevant to the story name 'up close and personal' as it is an up-close shot. Also my image again is in black and white, this was inspired again by my research into indie/rock band photo-shoots which often used black and white.

Double Page Spread Alterations

I changed the design of my double paged spread. Below is the original design.

Contents Contents Alterations

Below is the contents page before the alterations:

Completed cover

Front Cover Alterations

Completed Work

Underneath are screen-grabs of my completed work; the front cover, contents page and double paged spread.

Contents Page After Improvements

I have made so alterations to my contents page:

Another photo I will use

To fill up some of the empty space on my contents page this is another photo I have taken.

Research and Planning-Extra Genre Research

What clothing will my model wear?- My model is going to be female. The clothes we know that she will wear is a leather jacket, black and white shirt, purple leggings and Dr. Martins.