G321

By Luke Barnacle

AS Media Evaluation

QUESTION 1 In what ways does your media product use, develop or

challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

1. Use, develop or challenge forms and conventionsFront coverWhen creating my magazine I used various generic codes and conventions that I had recognised through tasks set on analysing codes and conventions: http://lukebarnacle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/conventions-of-magazine-cover.htmlI then practised adding codes and conventions to existing magazine templates to familiarise myself with the features I would need on my magazine cover:http://lukebarnacle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/codes-and-conventions-task.html

After completion of these tasks analysing magazines and using these codes and conventions I got an understanding of the

layout for a music magazine.I followed a lot of the genetic codes and conventions typically

seen on music magazines.For example, I have followed the ‘left third’ rule with the ‘CMM’

masthead and I have highlighted the artist’s importance by covering a part of the masthead with the main image.

Also, I have learnt and ensured that the main cover line is shown as the most important information on the cover as I have made

it the largest and put it on top of the main image.I have included other codes and conventions such as, barcode,

pug, date line, price and cover lines.

1. Use, develop or challenge forms and conventions

Challenges and developments

Some of the codes and conventions I used were not generic or the typical ones

you would expect to see in a music magazine.

For example I used a white border around my maid cover line as I felt that it

provided a unique edge to the cover and put emphasis on the main cover line.Also, rather than a mid shot which is

often seen on music magazines I used a full body shot of the band as I really

wanted them to take up the space and have the most importance on the cover.

Also this allowed me to use an effect as if they were fading in which linked it to the main cover line. This also helped me to make my magazine more unique and

different.

1. Use, develop or challenge forms and conventions

InfluencesA massive influence throughout the construction of my magazine was ‘NME’. Particularly editions of the magazine with Arctic Monkeys on the cover as I felt they’re very

similar to the band I have created.I like the plain bold NME masthead and decided to use a very similar

design for mine just with a different shade of red.

I was also influenced by the blocking of the main images for

NME so decided to have my lead singer at up front with the rest of

the band behind him.

1. Use, develop or challenge forms and conventionsContents

The layout of the contents was also inspired by NME magazine as I did research in to contents pages:http://lukebarnacle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/contents-page-research.html

In the NME contents page (right) I liked the layout and in my magazine I followed this including a similar colour scheme.I also had a similar banner at the top of the page with the masthead and title.However, I decided to have two artist’s images on the page with less informative writing as I felt this would be a good feature for a magazine ‘teasing’ on stories.I thought the small amount of writing made it easy to read and more attractive.

1. Use, develop or challenge forms and conventions

ContentsMy contents page continued with the house style and linked in with the front cover as it had the same colour scheme and artists featured on the cover were also mentioned here with another image of my band and other artists in the ‘features’ section.

Although my contents page was different to NME which heavily influenced me as I had two artists on the page there were a lot of similarities such as the banner at the top and the way the typical conventions are laid out.

To maintain the importance of the main band on the cover I have ensured that they have the biggest section of page with their picture and the ‘teaser of information underneath.

1. Use, develop or challenge forms and conventionsDouble page spread

My initial influence for a double page spread was ‘Rolling Stones’ magazine:http://lukebarnacle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/rolling-stones-magazine-double-spread.html

However, I was then mainly influenced my NME again for my double page spread in the sense that I had a picture on one page and the interview on the other.

The house colours of red, white and black remain on the double page spread which brings the front cover, contents page and this together and makes the magazine feel real.

I have dedicated one whole page for an image of one of my band’s members with a headline for the interview as I felt this was more attractive and would interest potential fans of the band and the target audience for my magazine.

The interview is in a question and answer format as I feel this is easier to read and makes it more interesting and also the layout is more attractive. Certain parts of the answers are bold to highlight them as main parts of the answers the

artist is giving. I included a picture relevant to one of the answers to separate all the writing and ensure it wasn’t boring.

QUESTION 2 How does your media product represent particular

social groups?

2. Representing particular social groups

My magazine is targeted at older teenagers such as 16-19 year olds as they are likely to be going through an ‘indie/rock’ phase and favour young rebellious bands like ‘Faux fur’ who I have created. NME helped me when researching how I could appeal to this target audience:http://lukebarnacle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/magazine-genre-research.html

Cover starsThe cover stars are a band I created called ‘faux fur’ who have a Rebellious indie style, leather and denim.They are an up and coming indie/rock band and their style represents life as young teenagers to be fun and care free doing what they want. In these images they are shown to be looking away which I wanted to highlight how care free and young they are and I chose to have one of the artists smoking to show the rebelliousness of the band.

2. Representing particular social groups

With my main supporting artist I used very similar photography to that used with the cover stars. This was so the

genre was consistent and I was ensuring that the whole magazine appealed to the target audience. This female has a similar ‘indie’ style to the main band

wearing leather and denim and is also smoking to show her care free attitude.

I feel that she appears to be quite strong and individual and this

challenges stereotypes that females are more dependant and passive.

QUESTION 3 What kind of media institution might distribute your

media product and why?

3. Media institution

Due to the influence that NME magazine had on me whist constructing my music magazine they are similar in genre and target audience that would be buying the

product therefore I think they would be published and distributed by similar major distributing companies.

I found a variety of magazine genres online: http://www.slideshare.net/eejc1993/what-kind-of-media-institution-might-

distribute-swagger-magazine

I looked at a variety of magazines from different genres and who distributes them:

3. Media institution

I’ve chosen IPC Media to distribute my magazine: http://www.ipcmedia.com/

The main reason I’ve chose IPC Media as my distribution company is due to the influence that NME has had on me whilst constructing my magazine as NME is distributed by IPC

media. I feel that CMM will be good for this company as they know how to advertise to my target audience being young ‘indie/rock’ music lovers in various ways mainly through the use of

modern technology.

QUESTION 4 What would be the audience for your media product?

4. Audience for media product

I think I'll aim my music magazine at a similar target audience as popular magazines like NME. Indie/Rock artists and bands are most commonly the cover stars on the issues of NME, for example, Arctic Monkeys have featured on the cover of the magazine many times throughout their career. This makes me think that the magazine is mainly targeted at older teenagers/young adults as people around this age group, male or female, can relate to the music featured in NME. However, whilst NME is aimed at a mass market on a whole, I'll aim my magazine at more of a niche market, sticking to indie/rock music.I asked people around the age of 16-19 years old questions that are relevant to the construction of my music magazine:http://lukebarnacle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/analysis-of-questionnaire.html

QUESTION 5 How did you attract/address your audience?

5. Attracting/Addressing audience

ColoursI used mature and simple colours for my magazine due to the influence of NME as I find the NME layout very attractive and appealing.

I feel that the three colours together are attractive and therefore would appeal to anyone. However, I think the darkness of the black and the connotations of danger with red suit the young rebellious style I aimed to achieve to suit my target audience.Red is often used to make text stand out as it requires special attention.

MastheadThe name CMM is an acronym for ‘Cobain Melodic Method’ named after Nirvana who are iconic to the indie/rock genre.

I also think the simplicity of the acronym would appeal to the younger target audience and is easily memorable therefore attractive for the audience.

5. Attracting/Addressing audience

Cover linesThe cover lines and the pug include phrases such as ‘free’ in bold capital letters to grab the audiences attention because most people would be intrigued by what they could have for free.The wording is informal, such as ‘clean up at the brits’ to satisfy the young target audience and keep it simple and make it an easy read.The cover line titles are in a bold eccentric font that I think give it a ‘rock’ edge and attitude that would appeal to the target audience of my music magazine.

ImagesThe majority of the images are to highlight the youth and

rebelliousness of the artists featured in my magazine. The main image has a fading effect on to appeal to the audience

as it links with the cover line that the band are ‘fading in to charts’. It also has a red tint which I feel connotes danger and

fits in with the youthful rebelliousness that would appeal to my target audience.

QUESTION 6 What have you learnt about technologies from the

process of constructing the product?

6. Technologies from the process of constructing the product

During the process of constructing my magazine I used various different technology including, paint.net, PagePlus and Microsoft Word.

Strengths of each programme:

Paint.net PagePlus Microsoft Publisher

Easy to use and understand Good photo cut out studio Very easy to use

Very easy effective when cropping, removing the backgrounds and editing pictures

Easy to create template for front cover, contents page and double page spread

Easy to save as JPEG photo ready to post on my blog

Able to add text and shapes

Good choice of fonts on ‘text’ tool

Spell check preventsgrammatical mistakes

Paint.net PagePlus Microsoft Publisher

Text can’t be edited after deselecting a layer

‘Text’tool is hard to use No photo editing tools

Limited choice of simple tools like shapes

Imported images don’t always have good quality

Difficult to reposition text and images

Images don’t always save in great quality

6. Technologies from the process of constructing the product

Weaknesses of each programme:

Each programme had uses when constructing my magazine. Paint.net was useful for cropping and editing images. Microsoft word was good when I wanted to use basic tools and group images

together. PagePlus was useful for the final construction of my magazine and putting everything together making it look professional.

6. Technologies from the process of constructing the product

Drafting and planning:After creating my very first magazine draft a lot went wrong and a lot of errors needed to be dealt with, I highlighted this in my first draft analysis:http://lukebarnacle.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/analysis-of-first-magazine-draft.html

After assessing the final draft of my magazine I realised there was still errors that needed to be dealt with and before my front cover, contents page and double page spread were completed.There were too many fonts on the cover so I decided on one to make it more simple.Also, I felt there was too much negative space on the contents page and I needed more to fill it so I added a supporting artist.I also had difficulty cropping the background out of the images without it looking unprofessional, so I used the ‘feathering’ effect to soften the edges.

6. Technologies from the process of constructing the product

Photographic choicesBefore thinking about taking the

photographs for my front page, contents page and double page spread I had to plan how the image would fit in with the genre and layout of the magazine. Also I had to

plan for the photo itself including the artist’s outfits, location and blocking in the

photo.

This planning meant that one photo shoot was enough to get the perfect pictures to fit on my front cover, contents page and double page spread. Not much editing was required to improve the photos initially but after cutting the background out I had to edit the brightness and use a tool called ‘feathering’ to improve the photo and make it look more professional.

6. Technologies from the process of constructing the product

BloggerBlogger was very useful throughout the process of constructing my magazine and it makes the whole process of the construction very clear.My blog is always accessible and it is much more simple and easy to store work on the blog rather than saving everything in a folder.Also, this makes it a lot easier to post, delete and edit work.My blog address: http://lukebarnacle.blogspot.co.uk/

QUESTION 7 Looking back to your preliminary task, what do you feel

that you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

7. What I have learnt since the preliminary task

PRELIMINARY TASK FINAL PRODUCT

The preliminary task is to dull, plain and unprofessional. There are missing or wrong codes and conventions such as the face that the masthead doesn’t follow the left third rule and there is no pug. Also, the main cover line does

not stand out from the other cover lines.

7. What I have learnt since the preliminary task

PRELIMINARY TASK FINAL PRODUCT

The preliminary task is extremely dull and boring with a lot of negative space. It follows hardly any codes and conventions and suggests that the magazine is 9 pages long.

QUESTION 8 How successful do you feel your end product is in

fulfilling the task? How well does it fit the brief?

8. How successful is my end product?

I feel that my end product is successful in fulfilling the task to construct a music magazine. After all the research in to similar products such as music magazines like NME

which heavily influenced me I feel that I have created a front cover, contents page and double page spread for an indie/rock music magazine that I think would appeal to the

target audience of people in their late teens/early adult years.