Evaluation

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

In my final product, I emulated the conventions laid out by other music magazines of similar genres, by following a similar layout, style and language usage. For the front cover however, I diverged from the regular convention of using a medium-shot and decided to use a medium-longshot for my feature photograph as I preferred the way in which this incorporated more white space in the final edit.Nevertheless conventions I did follow included the way in which the Masthead is on a layer behind the feature photograph as I liked the way this focused the attention to the centre of the magazine. I also used a pull quote through the feature photograph whilst using a similar colour scheme to this example as it seems the most fitting with the magazine’s genre and also keeps the magazine gender neutral so that it wouldn’t be seen as targeted to a certain gender.From experience of magazines to similar target audiences I recreated the language used, which is colloquial and includes certain words or phrases including ‘buzz words’ on the front cover especially to entice an audience who favour rock music.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

As my target audience are teens and young adults who are interested in rock music, I used my designs and language within the magazine to reflect these particular social groups. I did this by using images of people of similar ages to my target audience so that the subjects of the articles are relatable to the target audience. However using a gender neutral colour scheme, I was able to represent both genders within my magazine which was important in order to make it seem more widely inclusive. The language also represents the age range of the magazine as it is more colloquial and contains more factors of direct speech than a formal piece of writing such as a newspaper that may be aimed a different audiences. The way in which in page has a number of images to break up the text characterises the audience as it reflects the way in which the images are more important to the reader and that the text is simply to inform the reader of current events within the music genre that relate to the images. This therefore also reflects the interests of the younger generation.The style of the magazine and the costumes worn by those in the photographs reflects the style of the particular social group in which the magazine aims to sell to.

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

My media product may be distributed by Teamrock publishers, as it is very similar to most of their other previously published magazines. Therefore they would know the best marketing strategy for a magazine of that particular genre, and they would also have the audience numbers that would be more successful in promoting my media product to. However with such a wide variety of magazines currently being published by them over the rock genre, it may be more difficult to breakthrough with a new magazine that may not seem to differ that far from existing magazines. Where as a publisher such as Time Inc may distribute my product as they do not sell a magazine based around the modern rock genre, this could therefore expand their clientele as it appeals to fans of a different genre of music to that of current magazines published by the company. However, they would not have as much experience in promoting this type of magazine and therefore it may take time to get a good number of sales.

Who would be the audience for your media product?The audience for my magazine would be young adults of no specific gender who enjoyed rock music and going to see live music. Therefore I was able to incorporate events such as festivals into my pages. My magazine reflects how it is gender neutral as the colour scheme is not appealing to a gender specifically as it focuses on using monochrome colours. A lot of the articles mentioned within the contents are reviewing live music which reflects the age range and the type of interests held by those who would buy the product. The age range for my audience is reflected in the rebellious nature of the magazine that is often used to portray young people in other aspects of media. They are often the ones who attend live music events and so the magazine focuses this as well as on the interests that I collected during my audience research. This gave me an idea of what the target audience would be like and so I could reflect this in my pages.

How did you attract/address your audience?

In order to attract the audience that I aimed to sell to, I replicated features of similar pre-existing magazines such as fonts and the style of images used. This gave me a guideline that would allow me to create a layout suitable for the genre of magazine I was creating. To address my audience within the article on my double page spread I used an opinionated voice that was colloquial in a way that was appropriate to the young audience the magazine is aimed towards.I created an inclusive community within my article addressing the audience and authors voice as a collective. ‘flowing through our headphones’ this was to create inclusivity that would form a connection with the audience and writer whilst influencing the opinion of the reader subtly towards the opinion of the article.The photography was also a way in which to address the audience, using a mix of images from live shows to relate with those who enjoy live music and may recognise the performance, and also using studio shots that suggested isolation, this may relate to those feeling lonely as if the images portrayed in the magazine show the achievement of a singular person.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? Creating the final product I developed my skills in two main areas: Photography and Photoshop.From never previously using a professional camera, during this project I was able to use a studio to take photographs of my model and learnt how to adjust the focus, shutter speed and flash settings of the camera improving my image quality.

Blurry and out of focus

In focus, however over exposed

In focus and correct brightness

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? I have also developed my skills in Photoshop, learning how to adjust images and how to layer them in order to create a final piece.

Starting by resizing the original image and transferring the model to the centre.

Using the layer feature I learnt to use, I was able to add a background and the logo and text.

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

Comparing my preliminary task and my final pieces, it is clearly visible that my photography skills have improved vastly as I learnt how to control a camera and its features. I have also learnt the conventions of magazines that were often used as selling techniques as I was able to emulate these in my final piece where as they are not present in the preliminary task. I also developed skills in InDesign and Photoshop that overall made the look of my final pieces more professional than the look of the preliminary task. Whilst learning the conventions of magazines and the readers of certain genres through the audience research.