Emily Jones

Evaluation

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

When I was creating my magazine I mainly stuck to the conventions of real media products, for the from cover I used the rule of thirds where I put more cover-lines on the left hand side due to knowing that many magazines do this because when the magazine is placed on the shelf in the shop it shows the left side of the magazine, they put a lot of colourful interesting cover-lines to attract the audience into wanting to pick up the magazine. When taking the photo of the artist, I made sure that the artist gave direct address to the camera so it makes the audience feel connected with the artist which most magazines do because they believe that the audience should feel that connection with the person on the front cover. I used a masthead which was like a banner that took over the top of the magazine, it is large and bold to make sure it stands out to the audience. Another typical convention that many magazines use, the artist/model is usually in the middle of the magazine to show the importance of the artist/ band in this week’s magazine, with my magazine I put the image of Gabby in the middle of the front cover, with the cover lines etc around her to show she is important in this weeks magazine like many popular professional magazines do. Also I did the most conventional part of a magazine, the barcode, the date, issue number and price is on the corner of the magazine, usually at the bottom right corner, which I have put at the bottom right corner on my front cover, it is to show the audience the information they need about this magazine, they want to know that it is the up to date magazine that they wish to buy, the price which is always needed on anything to show the audience how much the magazine is. I don’t think with the front cover I did anything challenging or developed anything to the conventions of real media product.

For my content page I made a black rectangle shape to put the sub-headings/grouping titles of my pages like for example: bands, news etc. like many other magazines do to help out the audience when trying to find something in the magazine that they are looking for, it also gives a preview of what going to be in the magazine. I had two images on the right side to give a preview of what would be in the magazine, like some other real media products; they tend to have images on the content page to make the page more interesting and again the idea of giving a preview to the audience. I have again put the date at the top of the page so there is a link between the front cover date and the content page date to make sure they are the same date. Another conventional part is having the title of the magazine in the content page to show its importance and show its their content page which I did in my content page also having a sub heading “content” to show it is the content page, to show it is the content page. I don’t feel like I did anything again in this that was challenging or developing the conventions of real media products again like my front cover.

In my double page spread I did actually see a development, usually in double page spreads there is one page took up of the artist/band’s photo, they tend to be usually doing something to link to the article of the magazine, in mine Wilson, my friend who is modelling as a artist, is not doing anything really, he is just facing the camera, we cannot see if he is giving direct address due to the fact his

sunglasses are too dark to see if he is looking at us or is not, also the text is put around him, it isn’t on a separate page also the background is just black there is no props or background its just black, this shows that in some ways I have developed forms of the conventions of real media products. I did put some conventional things into the double page spread like a heading and a sub heading, quotations to give the audience a taste of what’s said in the interview and also the credits, saying who took the photographs and who did the interview. So for my double page spread I did develop forms of the conventions of real media products but not by much.

In conclusion of this question, I feel I haven’t really challenged but I have slightly developed the conventions of real media products, mainly in the double page spread, but in the front cover and content page I didn’t want to really develop or challenge the conventions of real media products because I wanted the audience to feel comfortable with the front cover and the content page due to them being the two main front pages where the audience is going to look at.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

For this I was looking to aim my magazines mainly towards indie rock fans, people who enjoy indie rock music, it was aimed for one group in particular, I didn’t try and aim my magazine at more than one social group due to he fact it would clash, for example, if I was to do a magazine that was aimed at classical and emo groups, it wouldn’t go due to the fact they are completely different, so for me if I was to aim my magazine to more than one social group it wouldn’t work, I feel it may be able to be aimed at some rock fans and indie fans, since they are a combination of the two. My magazine represents indie rock culture or hipsters, this maybe a stereotypical view from a different social group. I don’t feel like my magazine would appeal to emos due to the fact I know many people who are stereotyped as emos usually go for magazines like Kerrang, they tend to have a very violent looking and eye capturing with jagged writing etc. whereas with my magazine I have a very professional looking magazine, the odd few eye capturing fonts or images. I feel that my magazine is able to deal with issues like race, gender and also sexuality, I feel that it deals with the issues of race because my front cover has Gabby who is a mix race girl, stereotypically indie rock/indie groups tend to be mainly white people so I feel I have kind of changed this image of indie rock/indie stereotypes, I felt that my magazine should accept people for who they are including their race. I have also looked at gender, I have a female for my front cover and content page, I have a male for my content page and double page spread, this is showing both men and women are equal, they don’t have different rules for one and the other, it shows that the magazine is accepting both females and males which will broaden the audience due to it having both males and females but also the fact that the magazine accepts both male and female as a audience to the magazine. I also said that my magazine deals with the issue of sexuality, me knowing both the models who had come for the photo shoot being gay and lesbian, I also added in the double page spread about how Wilson deals with homophobic abuse, I felt that I wanted to include this because I feel that the issue of homophobia is still a major thing in society, I wanted to show my magazine wasn’t against anyone’s sexuality.

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

When looking at magazines that wear close to mine, magazines like Q, NME, Kerrang! And clash, I was able to find out that clash is a independent company that have do not have a media institution that distribute their magazine because it isn’t as big as some magazines, like Q and NME and Kerrang. Q and Kerrang! There was two main companies, Bauer Media Group who distribute Kerrang!, Q magazine, Planet Rock, Mojo, MCN and more. IPC Media distributes NME, Uncut and many more. Bauer Media group is a world wide company, the headquarters in Germany with other offices in places such as USA, Poland, UK, Mexico, Spain, Russia, etc. this shows that Bauer is a worldwide company whereas IPC media is a UK based company. I feel when looking at what kinds of media brands Bauer do, it seems to have a mixture of both female and male, they also have a lot more popular brands whereas IPC have more of a female approach, I feel that I would suit more with picking Bauer Media group due to the fact it is a worldwide company but also it has a balance of both females and males so it is suitable for both, also I tried to mainly base my magazine more like Q magazine.

4. Who would the audience be for your media product?

For my target audience I would see my magazine aimed at a younger generation, when looking at my magazine and then looking at figures from Q and NME magazine that I used as inspiration for my magazine, I was able to see that mainly 16-30 was the age range of the magazines roughly, I wish to put my target audience at 16-24, I feel that my magazine is for this age rage due to seeing that I know that my magazine wouldn’t appeal to mature older people due to seeing the figures of Q magazine and NME, also indie rock/indie doesn’t appeal to older people due to looking into detail of indie/indie rock history etc. I feel that my target audience’s social class would be more working class/middle class because if we look at the age of my target audience of 16-24, this means that my target audience would still be in education whether that be school/college/university and probably don’t get a lot of money if so they may get their money from a part time job or parents, or they may have started working but won’t have a very highly paid job due to not long finishing their education. The gender of my target audience I wish to aim at both male and female, I feel that maybe putting in about a homosexual artist in my magazine this may aim more towards women due to women being more understanding maybe of homosexuals or more excepting, some men sometimes can be a bit okay but unsure of it slightly. The ethnicity of my target audience, stereotypically it would be white due to the idea of indie/indie rock social groups being white, but for my magazine I wish to have any ethnicity to wish to read this but I feel that people who may have a strong faith and more of a different lifestyle such as the Asian community may not wish to read or except my type of magazine so I don’t feel that my magazine would appeal to some people.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

When looking firstly at my front cover, when researching indie rock and indie rock magazines the colour scheme is very important, the use of reds, greys, gold and black, slightly dull colours is something common in a indie rock magazine so when trying to make my magazine attract to those who like or wish to buy a indie rock/indie/rock magazine I had to use this colour scheme to attract this kind of audience. The image itself had to look a professional looking one, usually of just one person, giving direct address, wearing casual clothing and not really doing anything, usually just standing and looking towards the camera, that’s what I did for my front cover, my artist didn’t have

bold fancy clothing on, she had casual clothes on, she was giving direct address and not doing any actions just standing, although you can’t see much of her due to the fact it is a mid close shot, many indie rock/rock/indie magazines use also mid close ups of the artist. The masthead is a simple font, along with the rest of the font in the magazine, it is a simple easy to read font, the masthead of the magazine is bold, black font to stand out but also look professional looking so it does appeal to young adults and not young children. The whole idea of ethnicity issue and stereotypes of indie rock social groups being just mainly white people, the artist on the front cover being a mix race girl, also dealing with the gender issue too, I wish to make sure my magazine gives a positive attitude towards people with different backgrounds. I feel the layout of my front cover is very professional, not too bold and eye capturing like some magazines which shows its not aimed really young people but instead.

The content page, when looking at other magazines such as Q and NME content page, I was able to use their style to try and make a very indie/rock/indie rock content page, they tend to again use a lot of dull colours with images to stand out and not make the page look boring and just full of writing, also giving a preview of what is going to be in this weeks magazine, I wanted to put a social section where the audience could connect on the internet with this magazine, putting social links to their twitter, facebook and their website to connect with the modern day society. I still did what every other magazine does and have group titles/sub headings of the sections of the magazines like news, gossip etc.

When creating my double page spread I looked at many examples of double page spreads from magazines such as Q, NME, Clash etc. I was able to see that they keep their double page spreads simple, they don’t have loads of images on the double page, it tends to have just the one main image of the artist/band, not really doing anything like some magazines who have the artist/band doing something to link to the article like when for example when Dizzee Rascal’s double page spread in NME he links the idea of tags in graffiti to the pose he is doing in the image of using a spray can on a wall, in mine the image just shows the artist with a black background and white writing. The black background makes the writing and the artist to stand out to show their importance to the magazine. Although I feel that maybe my double page spread isn’t very indie rock like due to the black background, it being not a natural background or a very professional photoshoot image.

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

When creating my magazine I used different software’s and hardware’s to create my final product, some new to me but some I had already had experience in using. When taking the photos I used a camera, I planned firstly on using my own camera from home but due to the changes from hearing we had to take photos with the college cameras in college times by booking them in and out, I took a college camera to Birmingham City Centre, I firstly took images of Gabby in town, I felt the camera I was using was very professional looking even without editing, I then later met Wilson, I had the camera over night and took images of Wilson outside in the dark with a flash light making sure he was shown and the background was dark around him, I also felt the camera used was a very good quality camera. I soon had the images up on the computer, I edited them using photoshop, I had already used photoshop before at school and also at home due to already having it, I was able to soften the images, use the blur tool, spot healing brush tool, paint brush, darkening tools etc. also

using brightness and contrast tool to add contrast and brightness to my photos. When creating my front cover I created it in photoshop, using things like text, etc. I also did my content page on photoshop, using text tool, shape tool, inserting edited images, etc. I then had to import the front cover piece, content page piece, and also the edited image for my double page spread into In design software which I had never used before, I found it slightly confusing at first to do things such as wrap the text around the image of the artist or to make sure the pages were the right size, which I had to get help with but I found it okay once I was instructed on what to do, I found the simple things easy like adding text, rotating object, etc. it was easy to understand once shown, I was able to learn how to wrap text around a selected object, add columns, enhance quality of the image/double page. I also used basic normal software’s such as internet explorer to find text on the internet to insert in my magazine or for my research section. I also used word document to create my article.

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

I feel that I was able to develop a lot more better since my preliminary task, when looking back I have seen dramatic changes in my work, firstly there was the research, even though we didn’t really have to do any research for our college magazine apart from the feedback at the end about our final piece, I was able to research before hand about what I wanted to do, what kind of genre of music I wished to do, I was able to look at examples of real magazines and see how this would attract a target audience and then be able to use that in my actual music magazine, I was able to research my target audience that I had selected, looking at the type of style, the stereotypical aspect of my target audience, I was able to also research the figures of popular magazines that I classed as indie rock/indie/rock magazines, being able to see who their target audience were and knowing information about them, also knowing what company distributes their magazine and able to research more into detail about the company. I was then able to research what types of bands I would wish to put into my magazine, I felt I had more time to plan what I would have in my magazine instead of kind of feeling clueless like I did in my preliminary task. Also we did a questionnaire to a few people to ask what they would like in a magazine, again this helped me a lot to understand what people would want in a magazine so it wasn’t guess work, but also I could see what would sell more to people.

When creating my magazine I was able to have a small amount of time, and be able to go out and take photos, also after having a few weeks of learning different types of shots example long shot, mid shot, etc. I was able to try out these new skills I had learnt and also ask people who I wanted to take part in my photos. When editing, I was able to try out new things, before I had to make it very

college like, with my music magazine I had to make sure it was professional good quality type of images. I felt when creating my actual magazine I felt we had more time to develop our skills and have more time to play about with editing and creating, whereas before it we only had two weeks to completely finish our work. Also when editing and creating my work I was able to try out new software’s to create my final piece.

I also learnt a lot of new things when planning as well, like learning how to fill in a risk assessment, being able to realise what would be a risk or how to avoid any harm to happen to anyone who was involved in taking photos, I was able to draw out my plan and say what I wanted to be on my magazine and have a reason why and being able to look at magazines like Q and NME to try and get ideas and see what would make my magazine look like a good quality magazine.

Overall, I feel I have developed my knowledge since a preliminary task, I have been able to experiment more with different software’s such as In Design, photoshop etc. and able to develop my understanding in how to use the tools. I feel I have also developed my skills in taking photos, understanding different types of shots and angles, I was able to take different types of photos which I feel looked a lot better quality than my photos in the preliminary task. I was able to use and show my skills in editing and was able to learn more skills. I was able to also learn how to research more into depth, to look at already selling magazines and their figures, I was able to question people who maybe classed as target audience, I feel I was able to learn a lot more into depth about the planning of my magazine.