Product Evaluation.

David Miles.

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

• The ways in which my media product challenges the forms and conventions of an existing product is clearly seen in the technological aspect, the Use of “Adobe In Design” to a new user such as myself has had a large influence on the way I've been able to design my product. I personally believe the stretch from the preliminary task to the final product has shown my growth in understanding of the programme and has helped me further develop the aesthetics of my product, allowing it to follow some type of conventional standards set by an existing magazine.The ways in which my media product uses forms and conventions of a real media product are shown by the use of photography, location, setting and costumes; baring in mind that I had to relate these all to the genre of music my magazine specialised in.A conventional magazine is shown to attract an audience initially through the genre is publicises and then we secondly take into account the aesthetics of it. E.g. If it where a mainstream music magazine such as my product is a flashy cover is not needed to attract readership as it would probably off put the reader at first there bye not allowing them to take the product seriously.In addition to all this, I finally believe the ways in which my product develops the forms and conventions of a music magazine is seen through the application of knowledge I have as a young person myself and applying this knowledge to my magazine: in effect I “know” what the audience would want to see in my magazine, and how they would react to some of the written aspects.

Therefore I conclude that my magazine Uses, Develops and Challenges the forms and conventions of a traditionally media product which helps increase the authentic aspect of it all on a whole.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

• My media product represents a variety of social groups, which can be noted through language aspects of the magazine, visual aspects such as the clothing of the artist on further elaborates the proposed genre my magazine is publicising in.

Analysis of my product and the existing media product I looked into showed that particular social groups are represented by language used in magazine, pictorial representations in magazines taken in various locations e.g. Shoddy estates full of hooded people predominantly males closely related to the grime genre or skinny slim-like models with long hair and drugs closely related to the indie genre.The Social group in which my product is representing is most probably the indie-rock genre although it is quite a mainstreamed product, I purposefully manufactured it in such a way that I made the indie genre culturally diverse basically meaning any type of people can be indie-rockers, not just the typical long haired white male aged 16-24.Speaking in the specifics of Social classes in the image below...

• The social class my magazine would mostprobably represent and be aimed at would bebetween D and C2 as these are realisticworking class artist who we’d be reporting on.

intentional improvisation of they’re costumesduring photo shoots, to fit the indie-rock registerand to reinforce the idea that these artist are middle classed people being re-presented inconjunction to my product genre.

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

• The type of institution to distribute my product would be a major corporation with a subsidiary dealings in the magazine production e.g. Time Warner with the subsidiary Time Inc, then under that company another subsidiary IPC media would be the most likely choice for a magazine to be distributed by them. IPC media have a large selling portfolio of over 350 million copies every year. So I'd be initially dealing with the global conglomerate Time Warner who are Vertically integrated with Time inc, who own the subsidiary IPC media who would then distribute my magazine.Promotion through IPC would consist of advertisements of my magazine in they’re other range of magazines which could save cost as all cost and more profit would be recued. Large cost of printing manufacture, sales in specific regions would save the company alot of money also.

• Taking into account the demographics, my product would not be something of a global seller, but be marketed in a more territorial – due to the fact that it is a UK known genre and is even more recognisable around the London inner city/suburbs.

Who would be the audience for your media?

• Taking into account the demographics and the area of distribution, the audience for my media would be people in social classes D to C2 and my product would be in the regional sector of suburban London.In my case study of my product I found that, the audience of my product would primarily be males of all ethnicity’s aged 16-24. Taking into account that because the image I used on my front cover depicts two Asian boys – viewers may initially think this is product aimed at the Asian masses. I only used this affect to stress the idea of cultural diversity and that the culturally diverse can function in a range of genre’s.

I adapted my magazine to be culturally diverse and had to show this through keeping the same type of verbal register all types of people would use, but instead of using the conventional long haired white male to represent my indie-rock genre I placed the image of two casually dressed Asian boys aged 18 and above. In doing this I may have broken some conventions that many media products hold up, and this may cause problems in the whole circulatory aspect of sales & distribution.

Looking at the audience my case study magazine is aimed at, my magazine is technically a different genre from that particular product however following the basic guidelines I being to notice a trend. The audience of my particular product are of a wide minded musical background accepting all types of music that they here and not being to critical of them. My product is not for a niche audience but for a wide register of people in those social classes who would recognise the music being reported on in my product as mainstream.

How did you attract/address your audience?

• Attracting the audience to myproduct was not to difficult asI survey ideas between differentversions of front covers I previouslyhad. In all this I had to bare in mindthe Photography, Colour,typography, Codes and Conventions how I'd re-presentall this to produce meaning as wellas aesthetic pleasure.

Photography was taken in a brightlylit area to increase realism, location was a toilet, to furtheremphasise the girmey life of an indie-rocker artist.Cover line shows the name of themain band being interviewed, to give the reader a clear ideaof what the priorities of thisproduct are. Positioning of thecover line in the front coverelaborates importance of the bandmembers being interviewed, basically draws most of the attention to them on the page.Mise en scene of the whole page shows a careful composition of product details pushedto the side to further emphasise the importance of the band members, Colours chosen workwell with each other, no striking off putting colours, but warm colours that compliment the whole composition.

Mast printed in “stencil” font to individualise my magazine seeing as each and every magazine is well noted and differentiate by they're Masthead designs. I kept my design simple to increase effectiveness and allow more room for the artist. Typography used to increase Legibility basically meaning “ease of reading” and understanding to draw alot more focus and attention into the magazine eventually. And not off putting readers.

Underneath masthead shows a sale line to further individualise the product.

The poses struck by the artist’s on the front cover go hand in hand with the register they are portraying

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

• In the development of my product, I realised that the Desk Top Publishers “Adobe In Design” and “Adobe Photoshop” are used in the designing and manufacture of most or all existing media products we see today. In knowing this I frequently viewed secondary existing products (similar existing products made by people in the previous years) and saw that they’re products also where best designed by using either or both Adobe programs.

I had taken alot of photographs for try outs for my products pages, and saw that using these D.T.P’s (Desk Top Publishers) I could achieve great image manipulation. These programs also possessed word processing benefits to a degree such as being able to automatically create a new column when word space ran out in the primary column you would be filling out ( Adobe In Design feature). Using In Design proved easy to use when it came to text, image placement but some parts just did not agree well and the in using the programme I found it sometimes a bit difficult to have images and texts in the specific places I wanted it.

I made great use of a variety of search engines to help me understand how to function the D.T.P’s more, and found that it was really quite easy to work once I got the hang of it and at one point realised you could move images and text from one of the programmes to another (In Design to Photoshop). In Design was a better D.T.P for final page designs and exportations in JPEG files, also I personally found it a much easier programme to function that Photoshop – whereas Photoshop was primarily regarded as a programme more for the precise edit of photographs and mast head creations.

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

• The progression from the preliminary to final production station has been vastly recognised. As seen in the pictorial evidence below, we clearly see how I started off with a few tutorials and over the months ended up with a lot more knowledge than before.

In media, publicist and magazine makers go by a fundamental production process known as “mediation” which is to re-present the images they have taken to create meaning and to position to the audience to the way they’d like they’re product to be read.

As seen by the magazine covers adjacent , I gained a better grasp of technology as time went on and eventually managed to produce a product which can pass off as an actual existing product or even make it into production. Taking into account the Codes and Conventions of an actual product I found that, the production of magazines is quite difficult, and takes a degree of skill to know where you would want to place all the different aspects on a page e.g. Colours, mast head, main pictures, cover lines all of these have to be taken into account to create meaning jut by a first hand view at the product