Monday, 23 April 2012

Preliminary task evaluation


Preliminary task Evaluation Questions
1.     In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My media product develops forms and conventions of real media products as it represents young adults between the ages of 16 and 19, it relates to other school magazines such as the “Bexley magazine”, however focuses more on influencing students between the ages of 16 and 19 to study frequently, whist adding a sense of humour and energy to study time…
2.      How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My media product represents a particular social group through the front cover, in which it demonstrates students around the ages of 16-19 studying with a sense of humour.

3.     What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
A media institution that focuses on developing students may institute my media product as it can be perceived as an influential magazine that intends on attracting and engaging with students to encourage them to study. My media product may also be distributed to parents as a form to develop their sense of understanding towards their young adults as students, and persuade them to encourage their children’s further study,

4.     Who would be the audience of your media product?
My audience for my media product would be students between the ages of 16 to 19 because it focuses on study in sixth form. Although my photos are of young women in sixth form, my school magazine is also targeted at male sixth form which is demonstrated through the colours I used on my magazine.

5.     How did it attract and address your audience?
I attracted and addressed my audience mainly though my use of colour, my photos and the whole atmosphere shown within my photo’s, for instance, my images mainly include books, computers and both learning and studying facilities which are definitely symbolic to who my target audience is. Therefore, someone who does study is likely to pick up this magazine because that what it represents.

6.     What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt that technology is essential when making a product to relate to a specific target audience. Technology allowed me to research and find examples that would benefit me when it came to making my final product. Also in actually producing my product, I learnt that there is allot more to technology and it makes a huge difference in what would be classified as unattractive and what can attract.

7.     Looking back at your preliminary task, what have you learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back at my preliminary task, I have learnt that research is vital and allows you to have wider knowledge on what is actually preferred in society. I have learnt that you need to have a focus point and stick to it rather than going on a tangent because when you stick to one thing, it is easier and more likely for your work to progress. Furthermore, I have learnt that importance of your targeted audience and being able to understand what would attract them and different groups.  


Second photoshoot



From this image, I like the fact that my models are diverse in terms of culture; however from observing the image I can see that settings of the models are too far apart and I specifically need to focus on bringing my models together and incorporating a mixture of people: girls and boys/ people of different cultures. I also notice the colour is very dull therefore when taking new pictures I will use a more vibrant settings in order to make my pictures more alive.




Thursday, 19 April 2012

Friday, 13 April 2012

Evaluation of contents page

Drawing relates to contents page outcome?

I feel my drawing relates to my contents page outcome, however because I didn't include colour onto my drawing I tended to tryout different colours which I felt was better because It was easier for me to relate to my front page magazine and use different colours, that were not use on my front page magazine. In addition, my content page outcome still linked with the front page magazine, it was just further extended in terms of colour scheme to keep my readers interested.


Research relates to contents page outcome?

I feel my research did relate to my contents page outcome, however I didn't want it to specifically link to it and therefore the main link is the structure and the fact that the creator of the Q magazine contents page used pictures to identify a specific page. Furthermore, because my research was a different genre in terms of music, I couldn't be precise, but I didn't want to use a magazine content page that was exactly the same genre as mine because it would be as creative. Additionally, the images I used and took are very different to the ones used in my research therefore, I feel the images structure makes the content more distinctive as there isn't really one like it.

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

My media product uses forms of media conventions through pictures. For example, the pictures I used represent my target audience (girls between 14-19) and the type of genre my music magazine is (R&B and Hip Hop) which is what I learnt from my general research on music magazines, for example NME and Kerrang have a target audience of around 18-23 years which you can see from the type of pictures they use, also people who are indie and into rock music. Additionally, my images relate to girls who want to be seen as assertive, outgoing and fierce which is what music magazines such as Billboard and V magazine do in order to appeal to women. Furthermore, my the models in the picture on my content page are aged 17 which is in between the age of my target audience which is another thing I noticed music magazines do, they use models or artists that are around similar ages to their target audience in order to appeal to their target audience.
Secondly, my product (content page) including quizzes and competitions for example, 'vaults quiz' on pages 81 and 'vault extravaganza' to appeals to a wider audience. I noticed allot of music magazines, from general content page research, done this in order to make the content page lively as opposed to just text; different features on the content page make it more appealing which would encourage the target audience to read on. I also stated newcomers (latest R&B/ Hip Hop artists), latest albums, latest events which is the main aspects of real media products; real media products try to vary in terms of what they portray to attract their audience.
 In terms of what my Media product developed of real media products was limited. My main aim was to challenge real media products and therefore use mainly female models to appeal to my limited target audience. Whereas most media products try to appeal to a wide audience, I wanted my media product to appeal to girls that were confident, unique and fierce which is why I one, very small image of a boy. I also wanted to give the impression that girls are just as creative as boys which is another reason why my target audience were girls. However, it can also be argued that I didn't challenge forms and  conventions of real media products as I didn't risk using mainly colours that were seen as quite masculine, I therefore, conventionally used colours such as purple and red which are hugely associated with girls and young women.

2. How does your media product represent a particular social group?
  • Pictures
  • Text
  • What is written in the text
  • Colours
  • Layout of the pictures and text
  • Size of numbers


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

I feel that is the type of media institution that might distribute my media product because it is centred in the UK, US and Australia and is centred around diverse products that represent different people and particular social groups. The company was founded in 1985 with one magazine and today their operations create over 180 special-interest publications, websites and events for people who are passionate about their interests. Like my product, Future publishing aims to attract people who are passionate about their interests as opposed to people who have little passion for their interests, in addition they aim to attract people by focusing on a specific interest as opposed to many, this is what my products do.
Furthermore, Future hold market-leading positions in games, film, music, technology, cycling, automotive and crafts and is therefore a very creative and diverse company.In addition to this because the company mainly has music magazine with rock being their main genre, I feel my magazine will appeal to this company as it is different to other R&B and Hip Hop magazines, and it focuses on strong women which allot music magazines fail to do. Because their aim is to be the number one provider of trusted editorial services for enthusiasts in every one of our specialist sectors, and to be the number one partner of the companies who want to do business with these enthusiasts, I feel this institution may distribute my product because their industry does not have one like it at the moment.
Lastly, I feel my magazine will attract more people to the institution because they currently do not have magazines based on young women with R&B and Hip Hop being the genre.Future sells 3.2 million magazines each month, feel this could increase to about 4 million in the first year and even higher later because the genre of my magazine relates to allot of people that are not being represented through magazines.

4. Who would be the audience of your Media product?
  • Girls
  • Aged 14-19
  • Creative girls
  • Girls who are assertive and confident
  • Girls who use their feminine assets to represent power
  • Girls who are int to R&B and Hip Hop, urban music
  • Girls who are outgoing
5. How did it attract and address your audience?

6. What you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Photoshop
I learnt how to use Photoshop to edit my photos. I often found myself using clone stamp to hide scars. At first Photoshop was a struggle for me because I was impatient, I therefore kept starting again. However once I got use to Photoshop it wasn't hard at all, I was also a lot quicker when it came to editing using clone stamp, all it took was patience.
Here is an example of part of an image I edited using Photoshop: (using clone stamp tool)













7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what have you learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Here is my content page from my preliminary task:
From comparing this to my final music magazine contents page I can see that I have made allot of progress in terms of the aspects of my product and what it looks like in general. For example, the quality of the above photograph is not as high as the quality of the pictures on my music magazine. However, both products- school contents and music contents clearly address who the magazine is aimed at through the pictures. I have learnt however, that it is better to represent your target audience without specifically using objects, for example my school magazine contents used computers, books, table etc to show who my target audience are. Whereas, my music magazine uses facial expressions, colours, clothing etc to show who my target audience is, I feel this is allot more distinctive in comparison to my school contents because it shows that I have thought about others ways to represent my target audience.
Furthermore, I terms of font, I have learnt through a wider range of research how to appeal to a target audience and how to make important aspects stand out, for example, the bigger fonts are usually more important in comparison to smaller fonts.

Final version of contents page

Early version of contents page with evaluation


Here is where I divided my content page which is also a double page spread in consideration of the rule of thirds

Here is my double page spread before I made changes using the rule of thirds as a structure to make sure my images and text were correctly placed

Here is my content page with the rule of third guidelines

Here is my final content page

Proof of how I made my contents page

Focused drawing of contents page idea

Perliminary drawing of contents page idea

Used photos for contents page

Specific and detailed Research on Contents page

General Research on Contents page





What I have learnt from my content page research:

  • It is important to have a clear connection between the content page and front cover in terms of maybe: colours, picture and text or even have a small image of the front cover on the content page. 
  • It is better to categories the pages because people don't always have time to look through everything, or perhaps even use pictures to represent different pages rather than just small written descriptions, which also attract readers.
  • Competitions, deals and offers make content pages more edgy and attractive
  • Page numbers are vital
  • Images also suggest whats coming up 
  • Content pages need to be clear and not too plain 
  • The colour scheme needs to be no more than for colour and no less than two colours
  • Statistics are vital because they attract attention
  • Writing needs to be short and simple in order to make the reader want to read on 

Friday, 9 March 2012

Evaluation of double page spread

Drawing relates to double page spread outcome
My drwaing definately relates to my double page spread outcome, however because I didnt use colour on my drawing I played around iwth the colours when producing my product, I feel this was an advatage because I could make sure they relate to my front page and still look apporpriatre for the genre of my magazine, but yet different.
Research relates to double page spread outcome

 My double page spread outcome relates to my reserch, however mainly the format of my research, I also developed the convention by including some other research which is where the red A behind the text comes from. My images are also different which makes it more unidue and different from my research.





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

As you can see above, in the final product- my double page spread, I have made an attempt to reproduce this writing style, therefore my media product uses conventions of real media products. I mixed a range of different research together to form something a little different and I have therefore developed forms of conventions. I however, failed to challenge conventions of real media products.
2. How does your media product represent a particular social group?
My media product represents a particular social group mainly through the pictures, for example, the fact that you can only see pictures of young women suggests that the social group it is aimed at are girls. The expressions on my models faces suggests that my product is aim at girls that carry a sense of aggression, this is also shown through the colour red- the red 'A'. The social group is also shown through the text, for example if you read the interview its states the type of artist my model is and who she aims to work with in the future; this suggests the genre of her music.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? 4. Who would be the audience of your Media product?
The audience of my media product would be girls between the ages of 14-19 that appear quite assertive and creative through their body language and appearance in general. And mainly girls who are into R&B and Hip Hop music.

5. How did it attract and address your audience?
6. What you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
Indesign
I was never aware of the programme indesign. When I used it in the preliminary task in which I produced a school magazine I was never really confident with it, for example, I struggled to change font size and colour. However, I started to use it more often and in order to familiarise myself with the programme I would occasionally make a new document and play around with the buttons. Once, I got use to Indesign, I could do practically everything from change font size and colour to changing the tolerance of picture using clipping path and placing objects over objects, changing the picture from a normal one to black and white, or washed out etc. I generally accept that in order to feel confident with technologies it is useful to explore them and use the Internet research how they function. Furthermore, I learnt whilst using Indesign that the picture sizes needed to be changed either on phtotshop or programme itself in order to fit within the guideline. I often found myself going on to photoshop to change the size of my pictures. Also, I viewed my product on overprint preview to make sure that it looked okay because the normal view displayed guidelines.










Bauer Media
I feel this institution may distribute my product because it foccusses on a variety of music magazines and it very popular for that. Bauer is best know for distributing magazines such as Q magazine and the institution is a worldwide media empire offering over 300 magazines in 15 countries, as well as online, TV and radio stations, in addition to this I think because my magazine represents girls from all around the world who enjoy Hip Hop and R&B music my product would definately appeal to the institution.
I feel my product does have personal relationships with dfferent people and would therefore attract the readers and listeners that Bauer Media is looking for and aim to find. My product also connect audiences with excellent content through what it displays and offers, and because I have allot of knowledge on what my audience want, it is shown through my products.

Final version of double page spread


Proof of how I made my double page spread

Stages of making my double page spread

Stage 1

Stage 2


Stage 3

Stage 4

Stage 5














Stage 6














Stage 7




Early version of double page spread with evaluation

Focused drawings of double page spread idea

Preliminary drawings of double page spread idea

Conclusion of font research



I feel these fonts are distinctive and I will try to reproduce each one into my product as they are very appealing and unique.



Used photos for double page spread

Specific and Detailed research on double page double


General Research on double page spread

 The three examples below are double page spreads from 'Status magazine'.  All three doble page spreads feature the same person- Cassie Ventura who is a Music artist. My reason for observing these double page spreads is simply because the model is a similar colour to my model, therefore the detail in these double page spreads will help me when I come to actually produce my double page spread. Also, the double page spreads below clearly relate to music, which is the type magazine I will be producing. In terms of genre, because my magazine relates to diverse types of music including, urban, classic R&B, Hip hop ect. I feel that these double page spreads clearly relate to different style of music which the model portrays well.