Evaluation

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

The usual conventions of a music magazine front cover are, firstly, the large masthead at the top of the page. I chose to create the glowing, sound wave font on Photoshop using an online tutorial. Although this isn't always done on music magazines, I felt it added more originality and personality to the magazine. Often, the masthead is positioned behind the front cover artist. I chose not to, because I thought the image of Clara was quite powerful anyway and didn't need to be brought forward.

The second largest piece of text on the cover is usually the name of the featured artist; in this case, it is 'CLARA'. I also created a rusty looking font on Photoshop for this, to give a rough, edgy look to the text, in order to reflect the style of Clara's music and style, which is raw and untampered with technology. I realise that this goes against the style of the masthead, but I wanted to show that the genre of magazine focuses on a range of popular music genres, from techno to folk and also I wanted to give the impression that Clara isn't afraid to be different, hence the differences in font styles.

I included a quote from the featured artist near her name, which was taken from the article inside. This is a convention of most music magazines and gives the reader a hint into what the article is about. I used eye-catching, powerful words, like '.....Returns', which sounds like an epic film, 'Go Crazy', persuades the reader to find out why the festival fans went crazy and suggests that they will also get excited. The word 'top' is used twice, once in the 'Top 20 hits of the last decade' and in the subheading, 'Britain's Top Music Magazine', both suggesting the magazine is the best and knows what the best music and artists are. Often, music magazines will have a plug listing the other artists or stories that will be featured; following the word, 'Plus' to show that there is a lot of content inside the issue. I did this, and created a box formation of artist’s names. I thought this added a unique aspect to the cover.

I used a large range of fonts, which is a key convention of most magazines, and I re-used many fonts in the contents and double page, to link certain aspects, such as the word, 'Clara' which I used again in the double page article, to give a recurring theme. The colours on my cover are mainly reds, purples and blues, with the reds at the top and blues at the bottom. This gives a smooth change in colour and doesn't clash. For the main photo on the cover, I chose to photograph Clara, because of her bright red hair. This went well with the colour scheme of the cover and I enhanced the colour of her eyes to link with the blue aspect of the page. She has a direct gaze, to suggest confidence and maturity, which is the message that I meant to put across through the article and to represent the social group of young, confident musicians.

For the contents page, I used large page numbers beside pictures to show which page the front cover articles are on. This is a usual feature of any magazine and I used a picture of Clara with a large number in the corner and a brief description persuading people to read the article. I also featured pictures of Joe Elliot, another article that appeared on the front cover. This also had a large page number next to them, allowing readers to quickly find the page.

I used two images of Joe Elliot, which probably was unnecessary as the two images were very similar. However, I felt that having two different 'angles' of him, showed that the magazine article about him will show all the aspects of him in detail. I used a simple, but eye-catching title with the Sound Wave logo beside it, as music magazines usually do. I made the logo lighter and rotated to the left, which I think looked interesting and didn't take up a lot of space.

A convention of music magazines is to have columns. However, in my contents page, I didn't use strict, straight columns, instead, the several article titles and page numbers were aligned in a messy, jagged nature. I felt that this flowed well, and was happy to break the rules. I also felt it looked better than if the text was all straight and also gave a free, casual feel.

In my double page spread, a convention is to have large picture that grab the readers attention. I used a large image of Clara on the first page that took up most of the page. I then used smaller, yet still eye-catching, images on the second page. I was happy with my editing for these images. I liked how the white background on the first, large picture meant that I could put a title and quote in the blank spaces. For the two pull quotes, I used a big, bold font in red, to make them stand out, which most magazine exclusive article tend to have. In contrast, the main body of article text is generally quite small, about size 8, and uses a simple font. I applied this convention well, in order to leave room for eye catching pictures and text. I thought the big title on the first page is something that many other magazines tend to do, in order to tell the reader who or what the article is about. I used the same font as the word 'Clara' on the front page, so readers can make a link between the two. I liked how it feeds slightly off the page, which I did because it looks almost like its trying to come out of the page. I rotated the text to the left, in order for it to almost steer the reader’s eye to the article text.

The colours of the article were mainly white, dark blue and red, which is a slightly toned down version of the colours on the front cover. I used mainly white and bits of dark blue so that the reds of the pull quote and Clara's hair would stand out more. I also felt these reds went well together. Lastly, I used a large first letter, in the main article. This is a feature that not all magazines use, but I have seen several times when researching music magazines. I thought the boldness and size of the letter, pulls the readers eye to the beginning of the article, leading them to read more.

How does your media product represent particular social groups? 

The social groups that I am representing are people of different ages, genders and class. Firstly, through the figure of Clara, I represented young musicians, mainly teenagers who have talent and individuality. I represented this age group with references to forms of technology such as YouTube and social networks. as this is an interest that young people generally tend to have.The article talks about belief in one's self, therefore represents young people who perhaps are struggling with realising their talents. However, they aren’t afraid to be outgoing in terms of their style, for example, Clara's bright red hair suggest that she likes to make a statement with the way she looks. Her clothes that she wears in the photos also suggest she has a sense of style and follows fashion trends, also a stereotype of young people. I also represented the older generation with the use of the artist, Joe Elliot, who is perhaps in his 60's. I did this to show that good music can be created by people of many ages, not just the younger generation. Clara also mentions, in her interview, her interest in classic artists as well as current artists, such as Billy Joel, The Beatles and Fleetwood Mac, representing musicians of many generations. I also felt that I represented young people as being easily excited and 'hyper', with the use of the plug, 'Festival Fans Go Crazy'.  This is because young people are usually associated with and make up the majority of people who attend festivals.


I also felt I represented both genders well, as I featured both male and female artists. I represented the female gender as being strong and independent, with the figure of Clara, who became a huge success by working hard and having determination. I also focused on the male gender, by featuring an article on Joe Elliot. However, I definitely have steered more towards featuring the female gender than the male gender, as there is more of a focus on Clara, because of the double page article. I also noticed later on, that the 'Plus..' plug on the cover featuring names of artists, includes four female artists and only one male. This may be because I am a female, so tended to steer more to writing about the female gender. Lastly, I represented different classes in my magazine. Firstly, the figure of Joe Elliot, is in a higher class, because of his long time fame, success and wealth. In contrast to this, the young figure of Clara, is not lower class, but still knows and understands the working class life that she had before becoming famous. 

What would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for my magazine would be both male and female, however this issue may steer more towards the female, because of the focus on Clara. They are aged between 18 and 30, obviously interested in music, but also technology and the effect it has on the music industry. They may work in or aspire to work in either of these industries. This audience is very up to date in terms of modern technology; they use social networks daily and own the latest gadgets such as IPhones, IPads etc. They are also interested in YouTube as a means of advertising new artists and watching music videos. They are generally in the middle class society and earn a salary that allows them to buy expensive products, such as musical instruments and the latest technology. They live in Britain, specifically in London and other major cities, therefore aimed at people living in urban, busy areas of Britain. They listen to chart music on radios such as Radio 1 and Kiss and download their music from ITunes. However, they also have an appreciation for older, more classic music from the 60's - 90's and they realise the impact it has had on modern music. They will attend popular music festivals and concerts and buy music merchandise, such as T-shirts and CD's and are open to hearing or seeing new and fresh artists. Lastly, because my audience are into buying popular products, they would also try to follow the fashion trends or try to copy famous musician’s styles, by shopping at major high street shop and sometimes even designer brands.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Firstly, I targeted them by featuring a young, teenage artist, who may be a similar age to a large majority of my target audience. The fact that she is so young and yet so popular and successful, would attract young artists in my audience, as it allows them to realise that they have a chance at becoming successful as well. Also, Clara became famous through the website, YouTube, which is something that my audience use daily. Many artists, who are famous today, were discovered via YouTube and this is something that addresses my audience, as they are interested by how much technology can influence the music industry. She wears stylish clothing in the article, therefore readers who like to follow trends may want to copy her style, as many fans often do if they look up to certain celebrities. The use of the plug, 'Joe Elliot Returns' with an image of him, attracts my audience, as he is hugely well known, even for the younger generation, and like other classic musicians, such as The Beatles, he has influenced many modern artists. I have attracted my audience by including chart music artists, such as Beyoncé and Rihanna, by including the 'Plus!...' on my cover, listing well known musicians. I also included an article in the contents page on The Brit Awards, a popular event that is associated with many chart musicians. My audience are into music festivals, so the plug, 'Festival fans go crazy' would attract them, as they may, themselves, have attended that specific festival. I attracted my audience who are into technology and techno music, by using a sound wave style masthead. The use of the colour red, is also generally associated with music, for example other magazines, such as Q and NME use red as a prominent colour. Lastly, I appealed to the middle class audience, by producing a classy, smart style layout.

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

The type of media institution that I would choose to release my magazine would be a conglomerate, firstly because the genre of music that is featured in my product is pop music from many generations, which a high percentage of the population would listen to. This means that the number of people that would buy the magazine is very large and it would be a mainstream magazine, featuring well known, popular artists, events and festivals. Whereas, a magazine with a genre of indie music may be funded by an independent institution as less people would know who the artists were. In order for this conglomerate to fund my magazine, there would need to be lots of adverts, which is a convention of most magazines. This is crucial, because this is how they get their income to produce the magazine, due to other companies paying them to feature their adverts. The types of adverts that may be included in my magazine may be adverts for technology, such as smartphones, MP3's and Apple products, that allows the audience to listen to music and access social networking sites. It would also include adverts for musical products, such as tours, albums, festivals and music websites. Other types of adverts that bay be featured are clothing ads, for certain designer or high street brands, as my audience are interested in the latest trends. For distribution of my product, I feel that chain shops like WHSmith and other convenient and supermarket shops where mainstream magazines are sold would be suitable, as they are accessible in most towns and cities, in most shopping centres. This is so people will find it easy to find and buy.

What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing your product?
I used the internet a lot during the research, planning and making of my product. Firstly, I used the internet to research the conventions of music magazines, finding information as well as lots of images of existing magazines. I learnt that there is a lot of information on the internet and narrowing it down concisely can be difficult and some information can be incorrect, so finding it from trusted sources is important. It was also very easy to find good quality images of magazine examples, although I did photocopy some magazine pages of my own. This meant I did not need to go out and buy more than one or two magazine issues. Having these examples easily accessible helped me to create my product, as I could follow their general format and layout. Also I had examples of magazine interviews and editor’s letters to read as a guide for writing my own. I used a blog to put all my work onto, so that it was all in one place and accessible to others. I used Blogger.com which was easy to use, as I had experience of using it before. I was able to label each post, so that all posts were organised into different categories. Also the use of pages enabled me to have a page for research and planning, one for my pieces and one for my evaluation. During the making of my magazine, I used the internet to find tutorials showing me how to create different fonts using Photoshop. This was really helpful, as they were easy to follow and meant I could make my product more unique and interesting with the use of unusual fonts. 

http://www.photoshopstar.com/text-effects/creating-cardiac-rate-effect/

http://www.biorust.com/tutorials/detail/181/en/

I also used a tutorial to make the Polaroid borders for the images of Clara in the double page article. This gave the article a vintage, classic look and was more interesting than images without borders. I used a website called Scribd.com, which allowed me to upload my preliminary and main task PDF's which I could then put onto my blog. Blogger does not allow you to upload PDF's, so this website was really helpful and meant there were less technical difficulties. I also used Facebook to create an event, inviting my friends and family to view my product and give comments and feedback. This was helpful, as I could communicate easily and get feedback quickly. 

  
Although the internet is mostly reliable, there were times when it wasn't and I have learnt that there are disadvantages. For example, when I uploaded my PDF's to Scribd, which I then put onto my blog; the quality of text is a lot lower than the original PDF's. I found that most of the image quality was fine, but one or two images were pixelated. Also, when creating an event on Facebook to get feedback, I had invited around 14 people, so thought I would be getting a lot of feedback. However, I only received only 4 or 5 comments, so learnt that internet communication has its downside, because there is no guarantee that the people will always receive or read messages. Lastly, I had difficulties with the organisation of my blog posts. I originally wanted to have 4 pages on my blog, one for Research, one for Planning, one for Pieces and one for the Evaluation. However, when creating a new page, I was only able to have one post, rather than several posts. I am only able to do this on the Homepage. Therefore, I used the Homepage for Research and Planning posts and then had 2 other pages for Pieces and Evaluation.

I used several computer programs in the making of my music magazine. InDesign is the program that I used to create the overall magazine pages. I had never used InDesign before, however it didn't take me long to get used to using it, firstly because I feel I'm a quick learner when it comes to computer programs and secondly, I have a had experience with Photoshop, which has a similar layout. I learnt that this program is actually used by professional magazine editors, so was happy that I am able to use it with little trouble. Photoshop was also an important program that I used to edit all my images and create the fonts that went in my magazine. I have an interest in photography, so enjoyed using it for other things besides photo editing. But, there were a few difficulties when I tried to insert the Photoshop text I'd created into my InDesign document. I was able to overcome this by putting the text over the images in Photoshop, saving it, and then inserting this image into InDesign. For example, I inserted the sound wave text onto the front cover image of Clara, saved it and put into InDesign. I used a Panasonic camera to take the images for my magazine. This isn't a very professional camera, but is still of high quality. Because I do AS photography, I use this camera often, so did not have any trouble during the shoot. Lastly, I used a memory stick often during the making process. Stupidly, I made the mistake of storing my magazine just on my memory stick and not saving it on either a college or home computer. Luckily, I did not lose any work and have learned from this mistake, that a memory stick should only be used to transport files to and from college. It was helpful though, in allowing me to save copies on several machines and work on my coursework at home as well.

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

Firstly, In terms of personal skills, I learned the importance of managing and directing others during the making of my product. I had to photograph my model, Clara and this required the ability to make her feel comfortable, so the images were natural. However, I also I needed to be a lot more forceful, when I wanted her to do something. I found that she was often over posing and her expressions often unnatural. All I needed to do was to tell her this and the images would have been much better. I have learned the importance of deadlines, especially with this course because there are so many sections that needed to be completed, so having deadlines for each section and one final deadline is important. I feel I am very good at reaching deadlines and showed this during the course. I also felt I was able to accept criticism and apply that to my work in order to improve the quality.

Technically, I feel I have grown and learnt a lot about the process of making a magazine. I learnt how to use InDesign and feel I know my way around it a lot better than when I was creating my preliminary magazine. I also feel I know a lot more about Photoshop than I did before, especially after using online tutorials, as I could probably re-do the fonts without following any instructions. They taught me skills that I now can apply to other things beside creating fonts. I have also learnt through making mistakes or having difficulties, as it means in the the future I am most likely not going to make the mistakes again. Lastly, decision making is something that I definitely have improved on because I now know the 'look' of magazines and how to adjust pictures, text and layout in order to make it pleasing to the eye.