Evaluation

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

My magazine front cover uses the codes and conventions of real media products. I have used a specific colour scheme of blue, white and black which i thought worked well together and i used effects to make all these colours bold and stand out. It features a masthead which is very bold and stands out. It consists of one main image, which i feel attracts the audience due to the angle its taken at, it draws your attention to the guitar the person is holding which is eye catching. It also has a main title at the bottom of the page which is effective due to the use of the bevel and emboss tool which makes it stand out against the background. I have filled up the space of the whole page in many ways which i found was another code and convention of a magazine front cover.

I kept my contents page quite simple which was something i found when researching similar media texts. It works well because its easy to read and would make the magazine accessible. It features a few images which give a good balance with the amount of writing. I have used up the space of the contents page quite well so there are plenty things to look at, which is important for a magazine. Another code and convention i used was underneath the titles of all my features i wrote a sentance or two about what was on the page. This would give the reader insight about what to expect on the page and ultimatly make them decide whether to turn to read that page, this meant it was important to use sentances and phrases which sounded appealing to an audience.

For my double page spread i used one main image which filled up half the page. I found this was a regular code and convention of double page spreads in my research. I used an eye catching image of the band taken from a low angle, looking up at them. I also included a fact file about the band which would be useful to a reader if they didnt know who the band was. I used a very basic font on the write up of my interview becuase i felt this would be a very important code and convention of a double page spread as it would need to be clear for the reader to be able to read. I also included a few smaller images on the right hand side of the page to make it a bit more interesting.

• How does your media product represent particular social groups?

By making my magazine a pop/rock magazine aimed at young people, it represents young people in general which makes it appealing to them because if young people are involved in the magazine it may pursuade other young people to buy it as they have something in common with them. I have featured a young person on the front cover aswell wearing cool clothes which fit in with the style of the magazine. It brings young people into the music scene and also gives them a specific style due to the colour design and clothes i have used.

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

Most English media institutions would distribute my magazine. Probably media institutions which are aimed at the younger generation would mostly be in favour of distributing my magazine as its aimed at the 14-25 age group. An example of a media institution that would distribute my magazine would be EMAP which is a multi platform media group based in the UK. Some examples of magazines they distribute are Match, Digital Photo and Bliss. Another media distribution company which might distribute my magazine is IPC Media. They distribute magazines such as Marie Claire and NME.

I think media institutions would be interested in distributing this magazine because you dont see many music magazines specifically aimed at young people. I could also get a lot of funding to distribute this magazine through people who want to promote or advertise a product through the magazine because young people are a good target audience to sell new products/clothes too, so if the magazine was popular this would benefit them a lot.

• Who would be the audience for your media product?

I would be aiming my magazine mostly at the younger age group from about 14-25. Although the magazine would really be aimed at boys and girls, I think my magazine would mostly attract girls due to the fact it features a lot more features that girls would appreciate e.g pop/rock music and fashion and the main feature of the magazine is an interview about a new young girl band. Ultimatley my magazine will be aimed towards a target/niche audience due to the fact its a music magazine aimed at the 14-25 age category.

• How did you attract/address your audience?

I made my magazine look quite young, by making it look quite cool with bright bold colours. I also used an image of a band which would be in the same age category of people buying the magazine so this could be something which would encourage people to buy it, as it includes people they might have something in common with. All the images i used were taken with a strong background or at a good angle so it made the magazine stand out amongst others. I also added several effects to images and pages of the magaizne to make it look more proffesional and attractive to the audience. I also used specific phrashes and features to attract the reader, for example, "Win a Trip To New York" was on the front cover. This would definatly attract the reader to buy my magazine becuase they have a chance of winning something if they buy it.

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

I have been using photoshop to create my project. This has enabled me to learn how to use all the tools. I have learnt how to use effects such as outer glow, drop shadow and bevel + emboss which all helped to enhance all my titles and text across my project. I also used photoshop brushes to create patterns around my titles which made them look a lot more interesting.

I also learned how to use the magnetic lasoo tool with feathering to cut out all my images.

I used layering to help me edit my project appropriatly and enable me to use and delete what i like, also to put images or text in front of objects.

I also used image adjustments on all the photos i used for example the curves and levels tool helped me to increase the saturation, contrast, vibrance and exposure of my images which helped to make the colours stand out.

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

I feel i have learnt how to use the photoshop tools at a higher level. Also by doing extra research i think i have become more aware about what makes a good magazine and the correct codes and conventions a magazine should feature. My whole main task it set out a lot better than the preliminary task and due to the effects i have learned to use at a higher level in photoshop it has made the magazine look a lot more proffesional. I have also used better photography skills in terms of the images i used in my project. For example the backgrounds i took the photo against and the angle i took the pictures from to make them more eyecatching.

My Finished Double Page Spread(click to see larger image)

I also used adobe illustrator to create brush patterns. I first selected the brush tool and then artistic ink brushes. This gave me brushes with a spatter pattern. I dotted these around a blob of the black brush. By doing this in illustrator it made the pattern look more proffesional because illustrator uses vector art which gives the brushes a smooth edge. 
I then chose several different types of the artistic ink brushes to create a pattern to fill the gap on my double page spread. 
I also used the artistic calligraphic brush strokes to create simple line patterns of the black brush pattern i used. 
For the title of my double page spread, i simply used the band name. I used the outer glow effect to give the name an outline. The colour's are also the same colour design i have stuck to throughout the magazine. underneath the title i have put some information about the bands new album and next to it i have made an image which is the album cover of the bands new album. This would be useful to the reader as they will know what to look for when going out to buy the album. I also used the brush tool to create the patterns around the title. 
For the text of my interview with the band, i wanted to use something which was easy to read. This was another one of the codes and conventions i found when researching double page spreads. Having a simple font means that all the readers of the magazine are able to read it without any trouble. I chose the font named Arial because its a common font, it has gaps in between letters which makes it much clearer then other fonts but at the same time it still looks proffesional. 
I used the gradient tool to create the background of my double page spread, i used black blending into white. I think this made the background a little bit more interesting than just having it plain white. This is what the gradient background looked like(below):

I chose this image to use as the main image on my double page spread because i think it catches the audience's eye due to the angle the photo is taken at. Its also taken on a good background with the old grey stairs and old building. I adjusted the photo using the levels tool in photoshop and increased the saturation of the image, this made the colour's stand out a lot more. I have also included the magazine name in the top left hand cover, this was a regular code and convention of a double page spread that i found in my research. I included a fact file of the band because this would maybe give the reader an idea about what the interview was about if they didn't know who the band was, they could decide whether its something they could be interested in.  I used the bevel and emboss tool and the drop shadow tool(black outline) on the box of the fact file to make it stand out against the picture.

My Finished Contents Page(Click to see larger image)

Making My Contents Page

I downloaded some fonts that i thought would look good for my contents page. I have used the bevel and emboss effect and the outer glow effect on my contents title, this made it much more bold. I also used photoshop brushes again to create the graffiti look. I have also used different fonts to put which issue of the magazine it is, this is one of the codes and conventions of a contents page that i found, also the magazine name. 
I used the titles features, every month and events to show information about what's inside the magazine. I still kept to the colour design of blue black and white. I used the rectangle tool to create a shape to go behind the titles because i think this made them clearer and separated the titles from the page numbers/titles. I also used photoshop brushes to get the image of the buildings at the bottom of the page, i thought this made the contents page look quite appealing. 
I also featured some images on my contents page, i used the rectangle tool to create an outline around the image because i thought this made it stand out. I also put the page number connected to the image on it because this could be useful if the reader wanted to quickly jump to that page. I also made a banner across the image showing that it was the cover story. I adjusted the image's curves to make it a bit brighter and contrast the colour's in the picture. I also used the bevel and emboss effect to make the picture stand out against the black outline.
I chose the image below because i thought it was really bright and colourful, therefore contrasted with the rest of the page. I also used the magnetic lasso tool with feathering to cut the image out. I have also put a page number next to it to show that there is an article or story to do with that image on a certain page. In this case the page is about festivals, so i thought the image was also appropriate as its taken from a festival. 

My Finished Magazine Front Cover(Click to see larger image)

Making my front cover

I chose this picture for my front cover because i think it stands out and fits in with the genre of my magazine. I planned to use an image of 3 people on the front cover in a band but i decided to use this image becuase it only features one person, this means it would be easier to capture 

the readers attention as its the main focus of the front cover. I think the angle its taken at also attracts the reader because it draws your attention to the guitar. I have also edited this picture by using the adjustments tool in photoshop and changed the vibrance and saturation of the picture to make the colours stand out. 

I then used the magnetic lasso tool to cut out the part of the image that i wanted for my front cover. I did this so i could get the main part of the image and place it on a black background which would make it contrast with the rest of the front cover, if i

 had kept the original image as the background image for the cover it wouldn't have worked as well because of other things going on in the image, so the readers attention wouldn't be all on the main picture of the girl playing the guitar. When using the magnetic lasso tool i also used feathering and changed it to about 5px to make the image's edges less harsher so that the image would blend in well with the background.

To create the title for my homepage, i used a font which was in 

capitals and very bold to draw the readers attention to the magazine. I also used the spatter brush stroke effect on the title to blend the two colours i used together.

I used the outer glow effect on the title to create a white outline around it to make the title stand out and contrast against the black background. I used the black background because i thought lots of colours would contrast against it and images and text would stand out more, this would fit in with the typical codes and conventions of a magazine front cover. I changed the opacity to 100% so that the white line would be bold, i also changed the size and spread of the glow to make the line thicker. 

Here is my final title. I used photoshop brushes to get my title to have a graffiti effect around it. I think this made my title a bit more exiting and could attract the readers attention. I also made sure i did the brushes on different layers to the

 title so i could get the graffiti shapes to be behind the title to blend in.

I used the bevel and emboss tool for the masthead cover story name. This gave the title an edge and made it bolder to stand out on top of the main image. I used the name domination for the band featured on the cover as i think its an appropriate name for a pop/rock group and is a word which would stand out to a reader because its very strong. Underneath the band name i used the rectangle shape tool to create a banner showing what other features are in the magazine. This is another typical code and convention of a magazine front cover.

I also have added a barcode and a price to the front cover as these are one of the main codes and conventions of a front cover. I have also added sub headings filling up the gaps on the front cover showing features inside the magazine, which would also contribute to getting the readers attention as if they see something they are interested in, they will want to read more.

Here is an example of some of the original photos i took to feature on my magazine.

I plan for the main image on my front cover to be an image of a girl band wearing appropriate clothes that fit in with the genre of the music i have chosen. They will also be on an old building background to make them stand out and make the photo interesting. I plan to call the band Domination because i feel this is a name which could work well for a girl band because its a word which could be memorable. I will also have titles either side of the main image telling the reader about what's inside my magazine. I will make the title of my magazine stand out by adding effects to it, i have learnt from researching similar media texts that having a title that stands out is very important.

I plan to keep the design of my contents page very simple so its accessible to the reader. It will feature a few main images showing a taster of what's inside the magazine and i plan to have three columns of features, they will be; every month, features and events. I think these three are appropriate titles as shown in my similar text research. My double page spread will feature one main image on the left hand side of the page. This will take up the whole page and attract the readers attention. I then plan to have an interview with the band domination on the right hand side of the page, in this i will include questions to the band asking them what life is like on the music scene etc. I will also feature two smaller images around the write up to make the page more interesting.

The genre i have chosen for my music magazine is going to be Pop/Rock. Also the target audience for my magazine will be males+females aged 14-25, i therefore are aiming my magazine at a target/niche audience as its a music magazine aimed at a specific age group.
This means that the design of my magazine will be affected by the audience im aiming to read my magazine. I will do a questionnare/poll to reserch into what the name of my magazine should be called. This will help to give me an idea about what to put on my magazine and will eventually meet the expectations of the target audience. Here is an example of some questions i asked people to decide what i should put in my magazine;

Which genre do you think would be best for a new music magazine?

• Hip Hop
  
• Rock


• Indie


• Pop


• Drum + Bass


• Dance
• All genres

After asking this question i found that the most people thought that pop and rock would be best for a new music magazine. I therefore thought i would combine the two to create a sub-genre for my magazine.

Would you be interested in purchasing a magazine to find out news and information about any these genres?

• yes
  
• no

Out of the 40 people i asked 28 said yes they would be interested in purchasing a magazine about the genre they chose. 19 of these chose the genre pop/rock.

How much would you be expecting to pay for a music magazine?

• 50p
  
• £1.00


• £1.20


• £1.50


• £1.75


• £2.00 or over

The majority of people said they would be expecting to pay £1.50 and £1.75 for a new music magazine. I think i will price mine at about £2.00 because researching magazines this seems to be a common price of music magazines.

How often do you buy magazines?

• everyday


• once a week


• once a month


• once a year

24 out of 40 people said they bought a magazine once a week. This would give me an indication about how often to release a new issue of the magazine to enable it to sell well.

The genre i have chosen for my magazine is pop/rock i will need to take appropriate pictures using colour design and mise-en-scene to fit in with the style of my magazine. I plan to take an image of a band or an artist to feature on the front cover of my magazine. I was originally going to have an image of a band with about 3 people featuring on the front cover but now i think i will probably only use one person for the front cover of my magazine as by looking at my research it works better than an image of several people because you only concentrate on one thing. I plan to call my magazine The Beat as i think its a good name for a music magazine and fits in well with the genre of the music magazine which is pop/rock. I will also stick to a colour design but use a few titles in colours which contrast to make them stand out to the reader.
My contents page will have several images on and will list the main features of the magazine. It will also stick to the same sort of colour design as the magazine front cover to keep in the same context.
I plan to have an interview of the band I picutred on the front cover as my double page spread.

By researhing similar media texts i have found that the main codes and conventions for a music magazine front cover are:

• Bold and bright colours which contrast with each other to make it stand out and attract an audience.
• A masthead which is fairly big and bold.
• Usually one image which takes up the whole page or a few images but one which mainly stands out over the others.
• Lots of titles/features on the page about whats inside the magazine, these should also be bold and stand out to the audience, some more than others for example the main title for the cover story.
• A barcode so people can purchase the magazine.
• Most of the magazines i researched used phrases which attracted an audience to buy the magazine such as "Free..if you buy this months issue" or "exculsive only in (thier magazine)"

The main codes and conventions of a contents page are:

• Usually very simple design, featuring only a few pictures.
• The main titles are usually features- which is a story or interview only featured in that issue of the magazine. Monthly features which appear in the magazine every issue.
• The page title is usually something which is used to attract the reader to that page, it could be a phrase or quote from the page and then underneath it there is usually a sentance explaining a bit more about whats on the certain page.
• Some magazine's also featured pictures for example of a certain band which then had a page number on, so if the reader liked that certain band they would go straight to that page.

The main codes and conventions of a double page spread are:

• Usually one main image which is fairly big, in most of the magazines i have annalysed they have chosen to take up one whole page with one image. This is done to draw the reader towards that page.
• They also use bold writing and colours which stand out.
• They normally feature interviews on a certain artist or double page about an event or something like "10 ten songs to listen to this week".#

The main title on this double page spread stands out more than anything else because of its black bold writing which is made to stand out because of the light blue backing to it. This is the first thing you look at and exlpains that the double page is about the band called "the teenagers". It also has a small black star shape next to the title which says NME loves, this would draw the readers attention becuase if the magazine loved the band it would make them a bit more high profile. The small light blue box on the image of the band also attracts the reader because it contrasts with the picture and the phrase "need to know" has been used to make the reader want to read the small factfile about the band. This will then determine the reader whether they would like to read the whole story about the band, as the main facts would sum up what the band are like. The black column on the side shows bands which maybe arent as well known but are similar to "The Teenagers". They have attracted the reader by putting "Everyones talking about it" in capital white letters at the top of the column. The picture like other double page spreads ive annalsyed takes up the whole page so the reader cant help but look at it, the pose the artists are doing makes them looked very chilled out and makes them look quite cool.

This contents page is kept quite simple, each of the pictures has a page number on. This means that if a person has a certain interest in the band or artist in the picture, they would automatically go to that page. This is a good way to attract the reader as its very simple. The contents list doesnt list all the features in the magazine, it only lists the main features of the magazine. The titles of the articles/interviews are done in red which is a bold colour and would automatically attract the readers attention. Also like the other contents page i analysed from Q magazine, the titles have a word or phrase which sums up the story on a certain page and then underneath in black font it explains a bit more about it, this means the reader can have a chance to read a bit more about the page and see whether they unltimatly turn to read the page.

This double page spread from NME magazine is an interview with Lilly Allen, an interview is an example of somthing which may feature in a double page spread of a magazine. They have also used the whole right page to take up the image of Lilly. The shirt shes wearing particulary helps to make the image stand out because it contrasts with the white background used on the page. The design they have used is very simple but works because it makes the title and image stand out. The Title has been done effectively because the black squares which are the background to each letter give it more impact and make it stand out as one of the main features on the page. The fact that all the letters are different sizes also makes the title stand out because it looks quite different to what you might normally see as a titles. They have also used a quote from her interview as the title for the interview, "People think im an attention seeker but im just honest". This is good because the reader may see this and want to read into it more and see why she says this.

When you look at this magazine front cover of "Scratch" magazine, it is clearly a magazine which is specificly about HipHop and Rap music. You can tell this because of many of the names featured on the front cover such as Snoop Dogg and the main feature of the magazine being Lil Wayne who is a hiphop artist. This shows that they are aiming thier magzine at a specific target audience being people who are interested in this specific genre of music. The image of Lil Wayne stands out as they have used layering to get the image of him to come in front of the masthead. His name is then done in capital letters and in white which is made to stand out by the black outer glow used on it. The masthead also uses colours which contrast, the yellow title "Scratch" is made to look bolder also by the black outer shadow. This magazine has also stuck to a specific colour design being white, yellow, black and blue. This front cover also pictures two main images on the fron cover, they have used layering and editing to get the image of the DJ in the background. They have used the phrase "Simply the best" to make the audience of the magazine attracted to buying the magazine. They have used up most of the mage but unlike other magazine covers which i have annalysed they have chosen not to fill up the page as much and dont have as many features written on the front cover, this works becuase it draws your attention more to the image and subheading about Lil Wayne which seems to be the main story in the magazine.

This Issue of NME magazine has used layering to get the image of "The Last shadow puppets" to be put in front of the masthead, this is the main focus of the magazine, the fact that thier eyes are looking towards to the reader makes the reader drawn to this magazine. Also the fact that they are back to back and thier name is written in bold white capitals and is placed in front of each of them is effective because it fits in well with the position they are in.

The masthead uses the white and black outline to make the red text reading NME to stand out. Its quite a plain front cover but by using a lot of red text and bold font it makes the front cover stand out.

They have used specific phrases to make the reader by the magazine such as "First major interview as..The last shadow puppets" by doing this people buy the magazine because they think this is the only magazine where you could find this sort of information.

They have also put a quote from the interview which gives inside information from the band which encourages people to buy the magazine and read in to it more. The black circle shape which has "Jack Whites shock new album" written on it stands out because they have used yellow text which contrasts with all the other colours used on the page.

This double page spread has used very large bold fond to attract the reader to this page. They have taken up a wh0le page with an image of Pete Docherty, By using the whole page it draws the reader to the story about his new album. The clothes hes wearing and the pose hes doing is also very eye catching. The colour of his clothes particulary fits in with the colour design of the whole page. The red paint on his chest stands out due to his eyes looking down to it and the red contrasts with all the other colours. The style used to create the "D" in the title helps to draw the reader to the page. They have also changed some of the colour on the "D" which is overlaying the picture of Pete to keep it standing out because his jacket is also black.

This example of a contents page from Q magazine is kept very simple, with only two pictures on the whole page, one taking up quite a lot of room and the rest is used for text showing whats inside the magazine. It has again kept to the colour design of the Q magazine front cover which is red black and white. The contents has 3 main sections "Features" which is articles put into this specific issue of Q which makes it different to any of the other issues. "Every Month" which is pages of the magazine that feature in every months issue of Q. "Review" which seems to be about music reviews and new albums which have been rated on how good they are. All of the titles for articles in the magazine fit in with the style of a music magazine and are what people whos interest is music would want to read about. All the main subtitles about pages in the magazine consist of a catching phrase in big black bold writing to make it stand out and catch the eye of the reader, there is then a sentance or two underneath explaining a bit more about whats on that page. Your eye is automatically drawn to the picture on this contents page which is eye catching because of the setting the picture is taken in and the angle is taken from which is looking up at them, it is probably one of the main stories in the magazine and having the picture taking up most of the page is going to draw the audience to that page, on the picture there is then a subtitle with the bands name on it and a sentance about what the articles about.

Main Task

This example of Q magazines front cover is eye catching due to the large image of madonna which stands out because her eyes are looking at the reader whos picking up the magazine, this is also helped by the bright red capital heading with her name on. By using the colour red they are attracting the reader as red is generally a colour which stands out. They have used editing to get the image of madonna to be put in front of the "Q" logo. They have used up all the room there is on the cover, there isnt really space for anything else to be shown on the cover. This suggests to the reader that there is a lot of things to look at and read about in the magazine. They have put the phrase "FREE INSIDE!" in capitals and in black because they are using it to help sell the magazine because people will think as they are getting something free they are getting extra stuff for what they payed for. They have kept to a few colours when designing the cover, the main colours being black, red, grey and white. These colours are quite bold and work well contrasting against each other.