EvaluationSarah Green

My magazine has many of the conventions found in other magazines of its genre. The front cover, for example contains a masthead, cover lines and the same fonts that are used throughout the other pages. I did this because from my research I found that magazines have a specific house style that they stick to throughout each issue and in some cases throughout the company. From doing this, the audience can clearly see that each page belongs in the same magazine and it looks inviting to read. If all the colours and font are all different, the magazine can look disorganised. Because of this I designed a colour pallet which mainly consisted of blues and black. However, on my front cover I added two different colours which were orange and brown, I did this to make them stand out against the rest of the cover as they were the some of the main features in the magazine.

The main picture on each page is of the band “Every Third Thursday” because of this the readers know that the main feature in this particular issue is them, this provides a sense of continuity. I have however, also included images of different artists so it doesn’t give the impression that the magazine is only about that one band. In reflection, I should have made the images of the other bands bigger so the message was clearer. Also, I should have taken photos of “Every Third Thursday” in different clothes and with different backdrops because then it would be more like other magazines of this genre. Studio photos should also have appeared more throughout the magazine as I only included one which is small and on the front cover. The studio shots look more professional than the others, but the audience of my magazine are teenagers so they would appreciate on site shots rather than studio ones as the latter have connotations of corporate companies.

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

I took this idea of the presentation of the posters on this Kerrang! Magazine front cover and did a version of my own

Another convention that I played to was the use of page numbers which is vital in a magazine, especially on the contents page. I made sure that my double page spread article was numbered correctly in correlation of the contents.

The double page spread articles of the previously existing magazines were generally about something the band had done, I chose to do a written version of a video interview that I had already shot. The writing style I used was colloquial as that is how the people spoke. I did this to make it more realistic and for it to relate to my audience as we are a similar age.

The double page spread contains the pull quote “You’d assume that being the only lad gives you power, but here it’s girl power all the way!” I did this in bold white text so it stand out against the red brick background because it grabs the reader’s attention as they immediately want to know what he is talking about. In addition, from my market research I found that mainly females read music magazine of the rock genre so this quote makes them feel included and empowered.

(Cont.) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The ‘Main Features’ set out of the Rock Sound issue gave me the idea for part of my contents page. But I then used the method for each topic.

The targeted audience for my magazine is mainly teenage girls, I had this is mind when I was constructing it. Typically, magazines that are aimed at females tend to contain stereotypical ‘girl colours’, I did not do this as from a personal perspective, I do not like those colours. Also, from my audience research I found that the colours my audience would prefer in a magazine are bright. One of the most popular suggestions was blue. From knowing this, I made blue my main colour and it appears on all the pages that I constructed. The other colours that were suggested were orange, yellow and purple. All of these colours are in my pages, however there are only small amounts.

In the media, teenagers are continuously represented as being mischievous, I object this allegation and conveyed my opinion through the magazine, particularly through the article. I wrote it from what the ‘band’ actually said so it is a realistic representation of teenagers. The media shines a bad light on alternative teenagers especially as they do not dress to fit in with society’s norms. I did highlight this by picking my models who have brightly dyed hair. I did this to exaggerate the media’s perception of the social group, but then I flipped it to show that they are not how teenagers supposedly act.

My magazine gives information about its audience through the photography and other elements as well. The content and music genre represents the audience’s views on many things from what they might dress like to their opinions on society. A lot of rock music has meaning and the audience understands that, opposing to pop music where the most popular topic is drinking and sex. This challenges the stereotype of people who like rock to be unaware of what is going on around them and care about nothing.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

As well as picking models who have brightly dyed hair, I also asked them to wear clothes that represented the alternative scene. All three members of ‘Every Third Thursday’ wore merchandise of existing bands and both girls wore eyeliner which is a popular feature of this social group. The other pictures I used were of bands that I had seen live and taken the pictures myself, I included these to attract the audience as they are well known in this genre of music. I included a few pictures of members of ‘You Me At Six’ because they are a British band and the ethos of my magazine was to feature new bands and also the more well known ones in Britain.

When planning my models I decided to revert the traditional set up of a single woman at the head of the band in order for the male gaze to occur and males playing the instruments. By having the females being the guitarist and drummer I was able to remove the connotation of masculinity from the instruments and apply them in a feminine manner. The girls in my magazine are not glamorous compared to other magazines, but they do wear makeup to conform the the genre stereotypes, but not the gender stereotypes.

I have represented the age of my audience by including social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. I did this not only to make the information more accessible but also, to appeal to their interests and the internet and technology is very popular among teenagers. In addition, I placed a QR scanner on the double page spread as a short cut to watch a video interview. By doing this, I opened up to different platforms which in turn attracts more people to the magazine. Also, it makes the magazine more modern and enables it to maintain with the advancement of technology.

My magazine was created with no particular class in mind because if I focused on one class potential audience would be cut off from the magazine. From my audience research I found that most people would be willing to spend under £5 a month on music magazines. Knowing this, I made the magazine accessible to all classes by pricing it at £2.99 a month.

(Cont.) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Out of the three publishers I researched at the start of this project, I have chosen Rock Sound LTD to publish my magazine for multiple reasons. Firstly, the magazine has a strong ethic ("Rock Sound magazine champions rock music and aims at giving underground acts the recognition they deserve without over commercialising their work or missing out on the big name in rock music") which I value extremely highly. The Rock Sound magazine also has a formidable focus on British bands that other music magazines do not have.

Rock Sound LTD is my ideal publisher as the Rock Sound magazine is very similar to the magazine I want to have. There are not many music magazines of this genre that cater to the underground musicians and bands that exist. Instead the other big names magazines feature only the big names in rock. I wish to have both, just like Rock Sound, but have more detailed text and include more interviews as from my audience research I found that it was the most wanted feature in a magazine. Also, I would like to have an even bigger focus on smaller bands and even put them on the cover. This is an unusual thing to do as usually well known bands are on the cover, but my audience would know that buying my magazine they would be discovering new bands and music. I believe this would be popular and very attractive to a paying audience. In result of this Rock Sound LTD would benefit hugely from distributing my magazine.

As the Rock Sound magazine is independently published by Rock Sound LTD, by them publishing my magazine it would broaden their market to the audience that I aim to target to. The audience of Rock Sound is 59% female, but I intend to target a larger percentage of females because by my audience research I came to the conclusion that females are willing to spend more on the magazine.

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

The image in the upper left corner is the Rock Sound TV logo. If my magazine was distributed by RS LTD, I could also have access to their TV networks.

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

This is an example of a skill I have developed through this process. Here I am changing the opacity of a shape.

Photoshop

Previous to constructing this product I had never used Photoshop before and found the concept of the programme quite alien. After reading through the Photoshop hand-out provided I began to understand the basic functions such as layers, how to create text and how to change the size of photos. Once I knew these I began experimenting with the magic wand tool to remove blemishes on my models and creating shapes by transforming regular rectangles. I also learnt how to make white text appear over all colours by searching how to on the internet. I decided on creating two rectangles which were 55% opaque and then removing the edges with the rubber tool to take away the sharp and definite edges. On the contents page I created two drawing pins by placing one circle over another and directed the shadow to create the illusion if it being on an angle. I did not search how to do this, and instead discovered it by myself as my confidence with the programme grew.

Scribd.

I had never used Scribd before this magazine project so I had no knowledge of how to use it. I

found it was quite simple, as I just had to upload by word document and it gave me a HTML link. However, this wouldn’t work on my blog so I

resulted in using the snipping tool and saved it as a JPEG which I then uploaded to my blog as if it was a

picture.

Blogger

In order to present all of my work, I created a blog to display it on. This platform gave me the ability to place all the data of multi media in the same place. This included: word documents, PowerPoints, JPEGS, videos and audio. Even the blog itself keeps in with my magazine’s house style as the theme I picked is blue in colour. I found that Blogger as an application is very easy to use with simple steps to publish and edit posts. Through this project I learned how to use HTML links .

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

This is a PowerPoint on the SlideShare website which is now on my blog.

PowerPoint

I have used PowerPoint a series of times in this project and also had previous experience with the programme. However, to make my presentations more attractive for my audience I learned how to manipulate simple shapes to make it interesting. To fit in with my house style I used the same theme throughout this process. This contains blue, however it is not the same shade as on my finished product. I presented a big quantity of my work on PowerPoint as it is basic to use and is effective. It allowed me to add pictures, change fonts and colours and place thing where I wanted them with ease.

SlideShare

Before this project I had never heard of this website so I had not used it before. I found it very simple to use and extremely useful. SlideShare was a very effective way to present my work and I like how it is shown on my blog. Beneath the images, there are four simple buttons: to the start, end, next and previous slide.

USB

To store all of my work, I saved it to the college computer system but also kept a copy on a USB memory stick. By doing this I was able to do work at home with no issues and if something went wrong with the computers at college I would still have my work. Through this project however, I learned to always eject the USB before removing it as it can corrupt the data on there. This happened to me, but luckily I had the work saved on the college computers. On the 4GB memory stick, I created a folder for Media Studies as I have other work there from different lessons. I then made sub folders which are titled after stages of production.

SLR Cameras

I had very little experience with professional camera’s before this project. I had only used one a few times before and knew the basics of taking a simple photo. I have learned how to take video and how to adjust the colouring settings. I also learned how to attach the camera to a tripod and how to maneuverer it around in different angles and what is best for a variety of settings.

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

These are two examples of videos being uploaded to my blog via YouTube.‘

YouTube

I had to upload two videos that I made to YouTube in order to upload them to my blog. First I had to make an account and follow the process of uploading them. There was a problem at first so they would not work. I then realised that the videos had to be formatted before they were uploaded. I also learned that the higher the quality of the video the longer it took to upload and the tags you can put on a video so they are easier to find via a simple search.

iMovie

I had never attempted to make a video before this. Firstly, I followed the programme’s tutorial but I still was not sure of the main functions. I then looked at video tutorials on YouTube and read through some online forums. Soon enough I knew the basics and began editing the video together. I learned how to upload video into the programme, cut pieces of video, joining two clips and how to add title pages. Initially, I had music at the start of both videos, but removed them as they were not needed. I also learned how to change the tone of the video, I did this in the ‘Every Third Thursday Interview’, with the introduction being really bright and the rest of it darker and cooler.