AS Media Coursework Evaluation

Music Magazine

This image is of my finished magazine, my masthead uses two main colours. Red & black. The colour red stands out to the target audience as it is a very bright colour, the brightness of the colour puts an effect on my magazine that makes it stand out from other magazines.

The colour scheme that I have used is red and black because it is a good combination to make it stand out to the reader more.

I have put some texts on the front cover of my magazine in red so that it stands out more to the reader than the other texts. The artists name ‘RAMZY’, has a bigger font size compared to the other texts on the page, I have done this so it stands out the most to the reader, they can tell straight away that it’s the main story inside the magazine.

I have put a quote on the front cover to make the reader aware of what they are going to find inside the magazine, making them want to read more inside.

On the right side of the magazine I have written ‘Win Tickets To See R&B Artists Live On Stage’, this is to get the reader to buy the magazine in order to have the chance to win tickets

I have included a QR reader onto my front cover so that smart phone users could get a copy of the front cover of the magazine.

Front Cover

On my contents page I have used 1 image, the image is of the main story inside the magazine.

I got the idea of my contents page from the magazine ‘VIBE’, I liked their layout of the contents page, this made me layout my contents page like that.

When you look at my magazine, the first thing that attracts your attention is the ‘U’ in red. The ‘U’ stands for the name of the magazine.

The colour scheme that I have used here is red, black and orange because it really attracts the reader.

On my contents page I have used a large image to show the reader what the main story is about.

I have put a subheading and heading underneath it with a little bit of information to encourage my reader to read on.

Contents Page

On my double page spread I have used two images, I made one large to fit half of the page to make it on the other half I have made a questionnaire interviewing the R&B Artist with a smaller picture.

My double page spread has two columns as magazines normally have 3 columns maximum however I wanted to be more unique on my double page spread and not make it similar to the other magazine. I’ve done an interview of three columns with the R&B Artist.

Here again I'm using the colour scheme of white red and black to make it similar to the colour scheme I have used on the other pages.

I have used page numbers on my double page spread so that the reader would know what page they are reading, all magazines have page numbers on each of their pages on the magazine.

Double Page Spread

I have learnt a variety of different photography skills to help me make my magazine that I didn't know before I started the course.

Conception: I made sure that in my photographs I had a white background in order for it to go with my background for my magazine. I have used a white background in order to edit it easily when using Photoshop.

Distance shot: when I was taking the pictures for my magazine, I used the zoom button on my camera so I could have close up shots and other different shots. I mostly used medium shot because in R&B music magazines they normally just use medium shot in the front cover of their magazine. It also makes it looks more professional like the other music magazines.

Framing and Composition: For my photos I have taken around 50 different photos so that I could choose from a variety of different photos. I asked the individual to mostly look at the camera because in music magazines you always see the artist looking at the camera , so that it would feel as if they are looking at the target audience.

Mise en scene: I didn’t really want ant props and background scenes in my photos as it would make it easier for me to edit when I put it up on photoshop.

My Photography

My Photos

I have learnt a variety of different skills using Photoshop at the beginning of the course when we had to practice using Photoshop so that when we make our magazine we have a basic idea of using Photoshop.

Crop tool: I used the crop tool to get rid of the edges I didn’t need so that it could fit onto the page perfectly. You just had to drag onto the bits you didn’t want and it would cut it.

Photoshop

I have made a questionnaire with 5 different questions, attached to it I had my front cover, double page spread and contents page. This was so I could gain some feedback from the audience. The 5 questions were:

1-Are you male or female?

2- Would you buy my magazine?

3-What type of music do you listen to?

4-How much would you pay for my magazine?

5-How old are you?

Audience Feedback

1-female 2-yes 3-mostly R&B and Hip hop 4-£3 max 5-17

1-male 2-no 3-don’t listen to music 4-maybe £1 5-23

1-female 2-yes 3-R&B 4-£3 5-18

Results

1-male 2-yes 3-classic 4-£2 5-25

1-female 2-yes 3-indie 4-£2.50 5-17

Results

My magazine attracts my target audience because I made sure that the colours attracted them, it wasn’t too dull. I used eye catching colours so that my target audience would find the colours very satisfying in order for them to read on. I also put in a competition so that they could win tickets to see R&B artists.

My magazine included R&B artist which the target audience would be interested in because they are more familiar.

How does my magazine attract my target audience?

My magazine uses forms and convections of similar to the other music magazines that are really popular, it informs the reader about R&B artist and the top 10 artists.

How does your magazine use, develop and challenge forms and convections?

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

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

Evaluation of skills

What have I learnt since preliminary task ?