Evaluation Draft

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

My magazine name is "Major" and it is of the genre Hip hop and r'n'b. I decided on this genre as it is the genre I felt most comfortable with as I am one of the main audiences for that type of music and it’s the type I listen most to. I also chosen that name because the genre is very huge and popular in the music industry and also it makes my magazine stand out from the rest with such a bold title. The name also relates to music as well. I chose many names such as "Musik", "Example" but eventually I found one that felt right for the magazine as I wanted one related to music and the genre. I did a lot of research about the genres and the magazines within it. For my case studies I looked at a hip hop magazine and a rock magazine, “XXL” and “Q”. I got inspiration from both of them but most from XXL because it contains the genre I am working with. I got inspired by factors such as colours, layout, cover lines, shot types and many more. As you can see I used most of the colours xxl has used like red, white and black. This is because these are very simple but powerful colours as the complement each other very well. They do not clash or make one harder to see than another however I decided to add yellow instead of the gold that is shown on the cover. This is because I wanted to make my magazine stand out as much as possible by using a bright fourth colour as with the other reasons it goes very well with the other colours. For my model I used a medium shot as did xxl with jay z because I wanted to show as much of him as possible but without taking up too much space on the cover. He is in that pose because it links to the cover line “I’ve finally made it” and is wearing sunglasses to represent a bright future. I have both conformed and broken the rules of the stereotype of the hip hop and r’n’b genre by have a black male on the front cover. This is because this is the type of person that is most related to the genre as he represents most of the audience and the artists. However other artists have more representation of power with things like money, gold chains and other jewellary while my model stays bare.  I made the masthead go behind my model as I wanted to big attention to him but I still made the masthead viewable like in the xxl magazine. I added a skyline and different colour cover lines to make it look very eye catching. I made the name of the artist big and bold making it stand out like jay z’s in the xxl magazine.  

For my contents page I decided to make a double page spread instead of a single page. I’ve done this as I realised from my preliminary task that a single page of contents is differently not a lot of space. Especially because I have a lot of stuff to add to get the best grade possible. I’ve added many images and extra information the two pages. The main image of the contents page is the one of the left which is of me. I am a young black male just like the main model of the magazine; this is because I represent the audience of the magazine and both of the music genres. Therefore making the image stand out and catch the eyes of the readers reinforces the fact that the magazine is a hip hop and r’n’b one. The pose I am doing connotes that I am having fun which reflects the music. Hip hop is very lively and is very dance worthy and this is shown through the iconography of the picture. I’ve added social media links because it is a big part of mist young people’s lives and it would widen the audience of the magazine and benefit them as they can see what is going on without even reading. I kept the colour scheme consistent as it makes the whole magazine flow very well. This was concerned the best part of the three parts of my magazine from the feedback I got from my peers. This is because of the clear layout which is major improvement from my previous contents page I made for my preliminary. This proves that doing a double page was very appropriate for my music magazine. I have an image of drake and my sister on the top right of the second page. This fits in perfectly with the magazine as it is a hip hop and r’n’b one, as he is one of most famous artist from the genres this was highly appropriate. This would definitely attract my audience to read the magazine. I laid out my contents pages in a similar style to one of my case studies “Q” magazine. As you can see I have one main image on the first contents page and with lots of other images around on the second contents. I also did the text in a similar design too as I found it very clean and easy to see where everything is. Although it is of a different genre the layout was still a very good inspiration and helped me improve from my college magazine contents page. I made the text and editorials different colours to make it stand out as well as the images while still using the same colour scheme. I’ve added simple conventions of a contents page such as page numbers on the corners and on the images too, contents title, and headlines for each of them too.

I’ve laid out my double page spread in a very similar way to “XXL” double page spread for jay z. One side has the main title and the journalistic text while the other side has the main image and the pull quote supporting the text and the image. I kept the magazine flowing by using the same colour scheme and all the conventions of a double page spread as well as the conventions of a magazine. I used a similar layout to the xxl magazine because I found it simple yet very effective. For example I put the title behind a black background while having the journalistic text underneath. I wanted to separate them from the image as it would be too much and might overwhelm the reader, making them not want to read the article. I used the same model from the front cover on the double page spread as “xxl” did as he is the main attraction. This is because he is probably the reason the audience would pick up the magazine so it would be right to put him on the main article. The first page includes the name of the main model and description about the text below. The text is an interview that includes seven questions which is in red and answers which is in black. This is so the reader knows which is which and does not get confused. One the second page I added a pull quote from the interview as it anchors the main photo. He is seen looking to one side while laughing while the quote denotes “They thought I would never make it here”. This tells the readers that he is laughing at the people that didn’t believe in him and now he is where they thought he would never get to. This links to the main theme of the article which is, if you believe and work hard enough you will get to where you want to be. This will inspire young readers to follow him and give them the confidence to believe in themselves too. I added the usual conventions such as the page numbers, magazine title and website. In addition I added credit to the photographer who took the main image. To be honest I added this because it slightly filled in the page.

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

Linking to NRS, most of my audience will be working class as most of them will be students attending college or university. So doing this, it will be affordable as most of them may not be working or employed. My audience will range from age 16 to 32. Most of them will be teens and young adults. My model represents the audience of the magazine as he is a black male and they are the type of people that are the most likely to listen to r’n’b and hip hop. By doing this, it reinforces the codes and conventions of the genre. However it is aimed at both male and females as lots of females do listen to r’n’b music. The back story for my model is that he ‘started from the bottom’ as he has been working his way up to get to where he is. This is anchored by when he says on the front cover of the magazine “I’ve finally made it” showing that not all teenagers are stereotypically lazy and can’t be bothered to do anything. He represents that if you believe in yourself you can achieve great things in life.

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

My magazine will be sold through retail stores such as Sainsburys, Asda. As well as newsstand which other music magazines are sold too.  This is because it would be much easier for the younger audience, for example teenagers to access and much more convenient too.

I will be available to read online as it will attract a lot more people from the magazines audience. As we live in a technology age where most people would find it easy and more enjoyable to read on the computer, phone or even tablet. This would be very useful for young adults (university students) as they are probably employed.

This is the last way to get the magazine and it is very quick and easy. this is too make a customer know for sure that they will getting every new issue, even before it is offically realised in stores. This will be online as well as to their doorstop.

I selected this publisher because it was very suitable for my choice of genre for my music magazine. This is an American publisher and because R'n'B/HipHop is hugely popular there it, I thought it would only be appropriate for them to be my publisher. They're also the publishers of 'XXL' which was one my case studies.

This is one of the magazine companies that 'Harries Publisher'. This is similar to my magazine so it was a right choice.

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

Teenagers / Young Adults

Female (35%)Male (65%)

Age

The age of the target audience is 16-34 but the main ages would be people in their 20's. this is the age most people would be able to relate to the lyrics of the music of the genre.

SecondaryCollegeUniversity0102030

Education

The higher the education instition the more likely the people would actually buy the magazine. This could be due to the fact  that the older people get the interested they are.

16 - 2526-34

Example : Nicholas

-Lives in London. -From the Caribbean (Jamaican) -Aged 20 -Interested in women -Very live and out going -Loves to party and socialise

5.         How did you attract/address your audience?

I have used (Dermarion Brown) for my main model as he is black and male which represents who most of the audience would be. He also is a teenager which a lot of the audience are. He represents a stereotypical hip hop and R'n'B listener and most of the actual hip hop and R'n'B artist in the music industry. So using him to attract my target audience to my magazine was a good a idea as most of them would identify with him. He is wearing a hoodie and some jeans as most black males which anchors the point of representing the actual audience.

I have used the colours red, white and black which are similarly used in both of my case studies which was "XXL" and "Q" so I have taken inspiration from those magazines. I have also added yellow as it is a very eye catching colour. This is so people will take a second glance thus dragging the audience attention.

Most of the magazines audience are young adults and teenagers which similarly are the people that use social media the most. We live in a period where all of this can be accessed with a click of a button so to make it easy to keep up to date with the magazine so "Major" has social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. It also has a website with links to all of them and even more information. This makes it much easier for the audience to interact with the magazine itself.

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

I used this to upload all my AS Media coursework to. You can post almost anything to blogger which is why it's such a great way to keep all your work in check. People can also view my work and give me feedback by commenting, which i can then edit my work. I found blogger very useful for these reasons and that its was very easy to use and not complicated. Because of this, posting was never a problem which made it quick to get into the habit of uploading my work to my blog regularly.

I used this to create my front page and edit images and fonts used for the rest of my magazine. In GSCE media i used this software to create a CD cover however it took me a while to get used how to use it. I have learnt many things about photoshop this time around, such as alignment, brightness, contrast, effects, erase and how to layer properly. This software was very appropriate for a front cover because of all those tools and options. It took time but eventually i got my front cover to actually look like a magazine which made me confident about the rest of my magazine.

This was very similar to photoshop although at the same time it was different. I've never used indesign before this course so it took a good while to get used to everything that the software had to offer. I used this to create my contents page and my double page spread. I learnt so much and eventually it became much more easier to use than photoshop. This was due to the fact that used it more regularly as i made both my contents and dps using this software. i found that indesign was laid out better and felt more user friendly than photoshop in my opinion. This was because of the amount of different options there were to choose from. One thing that bothered me about the software was the fact that when placing images during construction they would be pixelated and remain that way until it was exported as a JPEG but other than that, it was very much a pleasure.

I took pictures for my magazine in the photography studio. I used a Nikon D-7000 (DSLR) for this and it was pretty simple to use for the most part as I actually do photography. I had to take some notes about the camera and the whole studio before shooting. This includes notes about lighting effects and options on the actual camera.

I also learned about the different angles and shots for our pictures. If I didn't get this right, it could potentially affect my whole image. For each of the pages for the magazine there were different standards required such as different angles and shot types.

I used this to present my magazine proposal to my peers and teacher. I've never used this program before so it actually was a bit tricky to use at the start. But eventually I got the hang of it as I would. It's actually very fun and interactive for making presentations, such as adding lots of media like images, videos but it is much more advanced than powerpoint.

I didn't use this for my magazine, as I was planning to. I planned to make my masthead using this software but I found it too difficult and ending up finding out I could do it in photoshop instead. However using this gave me inspiration of what i wanted my masthead to look like.

Timetoast was used to enter all my deadlines for all my tasks. It definatly helped as I would check it regularly and make sure I am up to date with all of my work.

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

In my preliminary task, I’ve had very little idea on how to make a magazine. One of the developments ive made is my photography. This picture for my magazine was taken with a Samsung galaxy s4 and the image was zoomed in for the magazine which made it very low quality. As you can see it is very blurred and is definately not a good image for a magazine cover. Another thing I improved on is location choice. This was taken outside of my college and as you can see the background does not fit the magazine at all. It doesn’t go with the colours I’ve chosen and it is very gloomy and dark. This takes away the attraction from the magazine and makes it looks less appealing then actually planned. Finally my photoshop skills where not the best when i constructing the college magazine. As you can see the colours for the masthead, cover lines, skyline etc, do not go with the background. I didn’t add any effects or edit the image at all as I was not very confident when using the software. It looks very unprofessional but it was my first attempt at making a front cover of a magazine.

There have been a many improvements from my college magazine to my music magazine by the photography, the photoshop skills and other little decisions that have been made to make it look the best it possibly can. First improvement is the photography; the image was taken in the photography studio with a Nikon. With the set such as the backdrop and the lighting it made it much more suitable for a magazine cover.  Another development was my photoshop skills; I’ve gotten more confident when using the software and actually started experimenting with the editing technics. I fixed the main image by adjusting the brightness, contrast and the saturation as the original was too dark and had too many shadows. I also started playing with effects such as adding drop shadows to the cover lines and the masthead. Finally the simple decisions such as the colour scheme were definatly an improvement as it sits the magazine. As well as where to place the cover lines and the sizing of each piece of text. Overall all this has made the final product much better than the college magazine.

In my opinion my college magazine contents page is much better than my college front cover. However the two are very different, so much they look like two separate magazines. Different colour scheme, layout and appearance. I was more confident using indesign as appose to photoshop as I find it much easier to use.  This is due to the clearer layout and it is less intimidating because you know exactly where everything is. There are also some downfalls to my contents page as it looks very blocky and too crammed together. This is because everything was done on a single page instead of a double page. If I did a double, everything would be much more spaced out and much clearer to see all the text and pictures. Some of the text blocks are even on top of the two images. Some of the text isn’t even clear due to the colour I’ve chosen, for example the white text does not go well with the grey background.

On to my music magazine contents page which turned out really well in the end. As this was my third time using indesign and I have mad many improvements from the second time. Firstly the layout is so much better, it is very clear as the space was used. You can see the text and the images because I paid close attention to where to place them and what colours to use for each of the text used. This was so I didn’t make the same mistakes I made when making the college. This was a possible because I decided to use a double page instead of a single page.  This has enabled me to add more images and information such as the social media links, website masthead logo and more columns. I used mostly dark colours for the text as the background is very light.

In conclusion I have improved a huge deal from the preliminary task all the way to now, in more ways than one. For example my photography skills and decision making improved, such as what angles and shot types use when taking photos. This includes where to take the photos and how it will affect the rest of the magazine. My software skills developed when using photoshop and indesign like how to edit certain images and text. Where to place items and how they will affect the rest of the project, such as the photos and the text.