Evaluation Question 7

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

I learned a lot in the progression from my preliminary task to the main task. When looking at them side by side I realise how much I've improved over the past months. Not only has my technological skills increased, but even the ways in which I tackled the projects. Obviously, as they were different types of magazines, they had to be done in different ways, the school magazine was done in a very formal way whilst I made the music magazine in a casual, more easy to read way. Also I had to remember that, with the preliminary task, it was easy to find models, props and settings where as the music magazine would much more difficult. I had to take 3 sets of pictures in the end to get the perfect ones for my main task although only planning on one set.

A key element that I have learned during this project is making my work look professional. My music magazine looks very professional and contains many similarities to other magazines whilst keeping its originality. This includes the consistent style, the use of straplines, and varied text use. I achieved this look due to my research into other music magazines to prepare for the main task. As little research was done before starting the preliminary task, it did not contain this level of professionalism. By comparison, the preliminary work looks dull and without character, and although it is supposed to be formal, boring is not the same.

A major thing that I changed from my progression to the main task is the use of InDesign. It helped to organise the double page spread into columns and wrap the text around the imported pictures.

Evaluation Question 6

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

For this project I learnt how to use a range of technologies and applied them to my work and my blog. These include:

iMac computer (Very difficult)

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe InDesign

Blogger

MS Word:mac

Slide Rocket

Picasion

The main technologies that I worked with to create my magazine are Photoshop and InDesign. Because of this I learnt a lot about the programs and they allowed me to extend the limits of my creative ideas beyond that which I could've achieved with simple programs such as MS Publisher, MS Word, or MS Paint. There are a lot of tools and enhancements to work with to create a professional looking product.


Useful tools that I used most often include polygonal lasso, spot healing, clone, paintbrush, gradient and type tools. I also used a number of other ones but these were of the most importance.
I preferred using the polygonal lasso tool to the more commonly used quick selection tool due to it's preciseness, I found that the quick selection tool tended to over or under step the selections and make non-professional looking selections. I also preferred using the spot healing tool to the clone tool for deleting imperfections, this was more a matter of convenience more than quality of the tool. I found that using the clone tool was no more effective than using the spot healing tool in most situations and the spot healing tool was quicker. Although using the gradient tool in professional work isn't always seen as a good thing, I felt that I managed to successfully use the tool without breaking the professionalism, and even to enhance the image. Obviously the type tool was necessary for the text on the cover and contents page, I didn't, however, use it for the double page spread as it was created mostly with InDesign.


Text wrap was the main asset of using InDesign for the double page spread. It is one point that every magazine that I researched had in common. It allowed me to wrap the text around the images that I imported in. Along with the use of columns, this created a professional looking double page spread that looked like it belonged in a magazine.

Another technology I used for my project is the digital camera I took the photos with. In order to take photos of myself I used the 10 second delay and the multiple capture options.

Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

During the creation of the final designs I always kept in mind my target audience. In order to appeal to my audience and keep the professional look of the magazine, I did research into other magazines with the same target audience. There were trends in styles that were popular such as informal tones, flashy, eye-catching pages and stories that are focused at that audience. I did also, however, try not to put off potential readers outside of my target market particularly by making sure not to be condecsending in the writing. If adults sense that they are being looked down on they will be put off from buying the magazine.

When you look at the front cover of the magazine, the first thing a potential buyer would notice is the figure of the famous singer and the lines 'Zayne England: Famous In A Day; New Life Of The Overnight Sensation'. This will play a pivotal role in catching the potential buyer's attention and turning them into a paying customer. For this kind of draw it has to be assumed that the character of 'Zayne England' is widely popular and particularly to the target audience.

Another thing that is likely to draw in an audience is the bar at the top of my front cover. The word 'win' is highlighted in red would draw attention to a chance to get something for nothing. The prize is also relevant to the interests of the target market to increase interest even further.

Another aspect of the audience catchment for my magazine is its unique selling point (USP). My USP would be the daring stance it takes on issues, to keep with this I used black and red a lot with my design as they are contrasting but dark colours.

Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

In order for a magazine to be successful, it needs to be fully aware of its target audience and market to them accordingly. This is in order to sell as many magazines as possible and for marketing purposes for potential advedtisers. In the March 2011 issue of Kerrang! magazine, almost a third of the pages were made up of advertisments. These adverts are what makes magazine companies most of their money contrary to the common belief that the cover price is the money maker. In order to attract advertisers, magazines have to have a full understanding of their audience and have a high circulation.

A typical member of my target audience is shown below.

Social, young males often talk about music in their day to day lives. They typically wear jeans and hoodies to fit in around their friends. As they talk about music a lot, having knowledge of new events and music news helps. Examples of music that they may listen to include Greenday, Snow Patrol, Paramore, Linkin Park and Zayne England (my cover character).

Evaluation Question 3

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

To find out about distribution for my magazine, I first took a look at the media institutions that are around who distribute the other main music magazines. After some research I found that NME is distributed by IPC whilst KERRANG! and Q are both distributed by the Bauer Music Group.

My magazine, however, will act as a competitor to these magazines (in particular NME and Kerrang!). I think that because of this, although they would have good knowledge of distributing music magazines, neither of these distributors

would be very willing to distribute mine as well as their current magazines as sales of their other magazines could go down as a result. Because of this, I decided to look for other distributors that have experience in distributing music magazines whilst not currently involved with a competitor to NME and Kerrang!.

The distributor 'Future PLC' at the moment distributes a range of magazines including a popular music magazine called 'Hammer'. Due to the fact that Hammer magazine is successful, the distributor must have effective distribution methods for a music magazine and will be able to distribute

mine in a similar way. 'Hammer', however is aimed at a slightly different target audience to mine, (Hammer is about metal rock) and so it will not be a competitor and the company would be likely to want to distribute my magazine.

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

As my music magazine is aimed at a prodominantly male, rock-music loving audience, I tried to design a cover that would represent their culture appropriately to draw them in. This was mainly achieved by emphasising the fame of the cover artist that is obviously widely famous and popular. The potential readers would (hopefully) relate to the artist and be enticed to read further.

My model wears clothing that is similar to popular rock stars' featured on the cover of other magazines and although his clothing is 'plain', it doesn't take away from his image. On the contrary, the plain clothes work well and enhance the image with its simplicity. The image relates well to the particular social groups that the magazine is aimed at due to the age of the musician, his casual clothing style and the guitar he is holding. This all comes together to create the image of a rock star, he fully represents the vision of a real rock star enhanced even further by the 'spotlight' style background

Other aspects of the magazine also help to create the 'rock' feel to the magazine such as the contrasting, dark colour scheme and the large 'shouting' masthead. Examples from other magazines are below.

Evaluation Question 1

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

To answer question 1 I've created a slide show using the online presentation making application, 'SlideRocket'.

Double Page Spread

I did most of the work on the double page spread using InDesign as opposed to Photoshop. This is due to the extra opportunities that InDesign gives to enhance the appearance of professional looking readable materials. The main features of InDesign that I utilized were text wrap and columns. When I first created the document I used an option to make the page A3, landscape and with 6 columns, this set up the pages as a nice template to begin to create the piece. I used the text wrap to wrap the text around the pictures and the 'pulled' quote.

The images on the double page spread were pre-constructed near the beginning of the project in preparation for when I created the double page spread, so I had them ready to import into InDesign when I needed them. The double page spread proved fairly easy to finish and edit to a good standard. After creating a final draft for the script, I copied and pasted it from MS Word into the columns and resized it to fit. I added a drop cap on the first letter of the main article to make it look professional and emboldened the introductory paragraph, highlighting the important word 'exclusive' in red. After the main text was finished, I moved on to adding the title. I chose to have the title running from one end of the double page spread to the other to make it look epic and fitting of the main story of the magazine. To make room for it I had to reduce the column size and resize the text again. After I was happy with the title, I moved on to the photos and the pulled quote. These were dealt with in much the same way, after choosing aesthetics of the text in photoshop I converted the quote with a black background into a picture so that I could import it with my other photos easily. Once they were all imported, I moved them into position and did a text wrap to create the effect of the text curving around them. Lastly, I put the whole image into photoshop for some finishing touches and for the addition of the page number in the lower right corner.