Finished Productions

This is my completed music magazine front cover


This is my completes contents page for my music magazine

This is my completed double page spread for my music magazine

This is my completed front cover for my school magazine


This is my completed contents page for my school magazine

Evaluation - Main Task

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (Still Images and Audio recording)

My media product follows most of the forms and conventions of real products which makes my magazine look like a real magazine that is being distributed. I know this because I have researched different magazines so I could find out how the front cover, contents page and double page spread are laid out and what is mostly used in each thing.

Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
(Video Recording)

My media Product represents the social group of Indie fans. This is because the models I used, wear what a typical Indie person is likely to wear which would consist of converse, rolled up sleeves, jeans, striped tops and cardigans. The layout and contents of my magazine is in the style of other typical indie magazines on the market such as NME, Q and MOJO; so my magazine is following a typical genre of magazine for the Indie style. The content represents the indie social group because the bands that are featured are bands that play with an indie style. The text in my magazine also represents indie fans as it is easy to read and the informal language in it highlights the language that stereotypical indie fans speak with.

Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? (Links to websites and still images)

The media institution that I want to distribute my magazine is IPC media as this is the institution that distributes NME and UNCUT and I want my magazine to be produced in the same way. Even though NME is the same type of magazine and is issued weekly I still want my magazine to go out weekly to try and compete within the company for more profits. UNCUT is issued monthly but contains information on movies as well as music but is still the same type of genre as NME. I want my magazine to be presented within the same level as NME and UNCUT, so that the magazine will be popular and it will be presented well enough to catch the readers attention and make people want to buy my magazine.

Below is a link to the homepage of IPC and to the homepage of bauer.

http://www.ipcmedia.com/

http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/

Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
(Still images and profile information)

The audience that would be interested in my magazine will consist of those who mainly like the Indie genre of music.

This is James, and he is a typical Indie fan who is likely to purchase my magazine. His hobbies include playing the drums, listening to music and using his laptop. He lives at home with his family at the age of 16 and he studies at Birkenhead Sixth Form, currently studying GCSE’s as well as 3 AS levels. Some of his favourite artists include: Arctic monkeys, The Maccabees, Bloc Party, Jack Penate, The Horrors and The Killers. He reads NME weekly and usually attends gigs in Liverpool to see bands that he likes. He shops at Topman and River Island for most of his clothes and usually wears skinny jeans, polo shirts, novelty t-shirts, converse, plimsolls, hooded jackets and wool hats.

This is Aimee, and she is a typical fan of Indie who is likely to purchase my magazine. Her hobbies include listening to music, attending gigs and going out. She lives at home with her family at the age of 17 and attends Weatherhead High School to study Maths, Psycology, philosophy & Ethics and Sociology. Some of her favourite artists include: Arctic Monkeys, The Strokes, Florence and the Machine, The Killers, The White Stripes and Kasabian. She reads NME weekly and is always browsing online to see the news on music. She shops in Topshop, River Island and browses online for products that she likes and she wears skinny jeans, union jack tights, novelty tops, converse, hooded jackets and coloured t-shirts.

Q5. How did you attract/address your audience? (Audio Recording of feedback)

To attract my audience I used the results from my questionnaire to find the favourite colour that most people chose to use as a consistent colour scheme on my magazine. I also used audience feedback to carefully choose the audience’s favourite bands that would be placed on my front cover to draw interest to the magazine for them to buy it. Also I used audience feedback to pick a title for my magazine and used the word that was most associated with Indie music. The results shown that ‘Noticeable’, was the most popular word but it was too long to put as a title so I had to shorten it to ‘Notice’.
I have addressed my audience in an informal way as this is how people who read my magazine would like to be spoken to. Also there are jokes used and witty comments used throughout each article for amusement to the readers. This is what my audience said when i interviewed them with my questionnaire so i knew what they wanted within the magazine.

Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? (Collage)

In this project I have learnt how to use QuarkXPress Passport a lot more and found out how to access more equipment through the tools and drop down menu at the top. I have also learnt how to reduce the ‘red eye’ in photos by using the red eye tool in Adobe Photoshop. I have found that using these Software programs that it is easy to create products that look professional and attracting. I have improved in using these pieces of software as I can navigate the tools easier and can use them more efficiently to create an image that looks more professional than using simple software such as paint. I have also learnt how easy it is to create a professional looking magazine from a desk top computer. This is because the programs you use to create the magazine are easy to use and they save time in creating a full magazine.

Q7. Looking back at your preliminary tasks what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? (Annotation)

Looking at my preliminary tasks and what I have produced now, I can see the differences in what I have produced. Working on this project I felt I have used the space more efficiently and learnt to take a front cover image whilst visualising what my front cover will look like with each coverline positioned around the image. I have realised that with my school magazine I decided to do what I wanted within the magazine and with the music magazine I had to think about what my audience would want from it and what would attract them. This is why I had conducted research so I knew what the audience would want from my magazine and what images and text would attract my target audience to buy my magazine.

Planning and Production

Sketches

this is a sketch of my front cover

this is a sketch of my contents page

this is a sketch of my double page spread

This is my first version of my front cover which i have made changes to improve it



These are screen grabs of my front cover as i produced it



These are screen grabs of my contents page as i produced it

These are screen grabs of my double page spread as i produced it

Pictures

These are the pictures i took to use for my music magazine:

The picture above is a screen capture of how my contents page looked before i made changes

The picture above is a screen capture of how my double page spread looked before i made changes.

The picture above is a screen capture of what my front cover looked like before i made changes

The image above is the one i used for my front cover

The image above is the one i used for my main image in my contents page.

I used the image above in my contents page

I manipulated this image above so that it was in black and white to look like an album cover that already exists

I used the image above in my contents page

I cropped the cross out of this image and put the layer underneath my text on my Double Page Spread

I used the image above on my contents page