Evaluation Task 7

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

I have evaluated my preliminary task and will then go on to see the differences between that and the evaluation of my main task


However, the comparision of my main task and preliminary task shows that I have progressed in terms of my use of photoshop, as can be seen from the split screen showing the comparision of the two magazine front covers :


Here, it is clearly visible how much I have progressed. I did not cut my photo out efficiently enough for my school magazine, nor did I use any image manipulation, although this was not necessary due to the fact that the girl on the front was a school girl, not a celebrity. I also did not use the same text effects, and definitely did not spend the same amount of time on my masthead! The handwriting style of some of the text would be completely inappropriate for a music magazine, but it fitted the needs of my school magazine relatively well. Moreover, although I eventually chose not to have an additional photograph on my main front cover, I would need to have framed it accuratley, not just put it in like I did for my preliminary. I learnt to do this, which can be seen on my double page spread. I also explored putting text on other backgrounds, making the most of the colour scheme of my front page. My main task is all round a much better task, due to an increase in my photoshop skills and more research into the conventions of music magazines.

Here is an analysis of my front cover and the connotations that this provides

As you can see from my more detailed analysis of my front cover for my main task, my main task depicts much more developed photoshop skills.

I also definatley developed my indesign skills. I opted for using it for my contents page for the preliminary task as there was no other way to practice using indesign. However, I only used basic operations such as the "place" function, inserting text and boxes, and changing the colour. My double page spread shows much more capability with indesign, as can be seen from the split screen below.

For my contents page of my preliminary task, it was not neccessary to include any photos, therefore I just stated where my photos would be with "photo here" boxes. However, for my main task, I had to drag photos in and arrange how I wanted them. Alot of work was done on photoshop aswell, I edited all my photos and made the quotations such as "i'll make the O2 arena sell fajitas" and "the weather is the most adorable thing ever". I also made the masthead and the "exclusive" banner on photoshop, but I used indesign to construct the whole thing. As the name suggests, indesign is an application made to design magazines, leaflets etc, so I did not do any photo editing in this programme. You can see by the comparison that I made the best out of both applications in the main task, but not so much for the preliminary, where I did not understand which one to use!

I also have developed in terms of my knowledge of photography and use of technical machines such as the apple mac. My photography has definitely improved, as I have now learnt that I can align images right and use the appropriate lighting for my images.

Overall, I have definatley progressed alot throughout this project. I have learnt how to apply the magazine to the target audience through extensive research, and have learnt how to stereotype and convey people successfully. I have also dramatically improved my technical skills, going from a complete newbie at photoshop, indesign and all apple computers in general, to being able to produce realistic products. I am very happy with my finished products and feel that I managed my time efficiently, although the deadlines were hard to meet at times, I always managed it! This has helped me organize my work as a whole and I feel that this is expressed in my work.

Evaluation Task 6

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

I have used a range of software and hardware throughout the project. The software I used consists of photoshop, indesign and blogger, and I have used hardware such as apple computers at school, my windows computer at home and my digital camera. I have developed my understanding in both hardware and software; particuarly as I had never used photoshop, indesign or blogger or an apple computer before! I have also developed my understanding of my camera.

Software I have used

I have used various computer programs, and so have devolped my knowledge of programs such as indesign and photoshop. I have also progressed with my knowledge of blogger.


Photoshop


I had never used photoshop before starting on this project and hence did not know anything about it! However, using online video and instruction tutorials I soon grasped the basics of it, which can be seen through my preliminary task. My main task portrays my progressed photoshop skills, as I had learnt alot more by the end of constructing it.




Some of the things I have learnt:

• How to download and open fonts


• Using clone stamp tool to edit pictures


• Using drop shadow, inward shadow, inward glow etc.


• Using the magnetic lasoo tool


• Using the magic wand tool


• The healing brush tool


• Inserting a gradient


• Warping text


• How to use layers


• Making text glow


• Text on a tangent


• Blur tool

These have enabled me to create realistic products; my magazine front cover and contents were all made in photoshop. It has also aided me with the parts for the double page spread; I have been able to edit pictures and make polaroid photo effects, as well as text with text effects, to export to indesign where I have created the main design of the double page spread.

Some of the tools which I have used in photoshop are :

Indesign


Indesign was where the majority of my double page spread creation took place. I found it very different from photoshop, and it took me a while to grasp how to use it after being so used to photoshop. However, after time it was evident that for pages with a vast amount of text, indesign was the best programme to use.

I learnt how to do these taks in indesign:

• How to add columns


• How to export pictures


• How to get rid of the background


• Text wrapping


• Adding text and text effects

This made me able to produce a high quality contents page, with all the conventions expected on one.

Blogger







Blogger was the online blog-hosting site which we used to display our work. It was relitively easy to use and accustom to everything.

I can now perfom these tasks in blogger:

• Make a new post


• Edit old posts


• Upload pictures and videos


• Change text as appropriate


• Add labels to organize my posts


• Add a header


• Add links to other sites
  

As I had never produced or looked at a blog before, it is evident that I have progressed alot, and I can now confidently use blogger as an oppurtunity to showcase my work.
I have also used software built in to photo viewer on windows vista to edit my pictures for the first time, before I put them into photoshop and airbrushed them furthermore. This includes editing the lighting and contrast.

Hardware I have used

Mac Computer

I had never properly used a Mac before, but these were on offer for us at school, fully loaded with photoshop and indesign. Therefore, I had to quickly learn to use one. It was hard at first, as I was so used to using windows, but I quickly learnt my way around everything.

I have learnt how to

• open and close applications


• how to use safari


• the "command" button


• use the grab tool


• use finder effectively

Windows Vista Laptop

This was my own laptop, so I obviously already knew how to work it. I did however learn some new things such as :

• 
  
  


• How to transfer pictures from my camera card to a viewer software on my computer (something which I have previously struggled with!)


• The editing tool which is built in to viewing pictures on windows vista. Using this, I edited the contrast and lighting of pictures as I took them, which was useful to see which pictures I thought were good and which were definatley not as I went.

My fujifilm camera

Again, I had used my camera before but I had not yet discovered the settings, such as

• aperture


• shutter speed


• proper use of the focus button

I used all three of these methods throughout my task, and also learnt more photography skills such as:

• Aligning my pictures appropriatley


• Using flash only when needed


• Motion blur for when capturing a moving image (for my gig photo)

Before this project, I did not know much about aligning images correctly and using creative decisions to express what I wanted my pictures to show. This can be seen from pictures such as this:

Although I did like this picture, I couldn't use it as the wall in the background and the sheet meant that it did not look like a professional picture. This was in the first round of pictures that I took so it is clear that, when comparing this picture to the ones used in my final product, my photography skills have improved.

Evaluation Task 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

I carried out a survey (in my research section) to find out who my potential audience were. I used a variety of my friends, who had different styles of dress sense and music taste to enable my audience to have as wide a variety of tastes as possible.Surveys enabled me to ask my friends what their tastes were and to gain valid information from them towards the genre of music I should have, my music name, title, etc.
I also asked peers in my class what they thought, as the average person viewing my magazine would be the same age as them.

These suggestions and results from my friends influenced my creative decisions as I learnt to tailor the product to suit the majority, not just me. This was a vital part of attracting my audience as they got to have their say and it was easier for me to know what they would want.
I could therefore tailor the magazine to suit their needs, including articles on people which would interest the target audience. I also used a bright colour scheme, with magenta over black, which represented a contrast in the magazine.

while looking at my magazine in comparison to Cheryl Cole in Q, I can see that both the pictures make enigmatic eye contact with the reader. Both magazine front covers use a bright colour and then more neutral colours, to emphasize certain elements of the magazine. There is also a use of a circle, containing a specific part of the magazine, something extra that they get when they buy the magazine. This attracts the reader as it is the possibility of a free item. A strapline is used, mine is at the bottom and Q magazines is at the top, but this is another element of providing more for the reader to view. They are both suitable to their target audience; although mine is slightly younger than Q, and this can be seen in the magazine comparison through Q's more sophisticated colouring and rain effect.

The Q magazine links to Cheryl's more poppy genre than a magazine such as this :









KERRANG magazine uses less vibrant colours to im
ply a more rocky feel. As I do not want this to be conveyed in my magazine, I attracted my viewers by using softer, more sophisticated colours.


I addressed my audience by using cover lines which involved the target audience: such as

This uses the narrative technique, alliteration to interest the reader. It also makes use of my USP, as the "loco" references to another culture in the magazine, which is a trademark of my magazine; it includes work from all spectrums and cultures in Britain's society.

Another technique, a rhetorical question interests the reader as they want to wonder where he has been hiding, and would want to read the rest of the magazine to discover the answer.

The audience was further addressed in the magazine by the chatty, informal language:

This engages the reader more as they can relate to the magazine like a friend, as it uses this style of language.

As my target audience are students/ young workers, I needed to make sure that the magazines text did this. I did this by the chatty, informal language and large fonts.

Evaluation Task 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my product would be late teenage / early twenties females who are interested in a wide variety of music. I wanted a very varied audience, to ensure that the maximum amount of people would enjoy reading it.
While researching music magazines, I have concluded that while Kerrang is more focused on people who enjoy indie/rock genres of music, and is predominantly designed to suit males, magazines such as NME and Rolling Stone focus on a more varied spectrum of music, involving indie bands as well as pop and R&B artists. Therefore, my audience would be a similar audience to the ones that these magazines experience. It is generally linked towards females, as I feel that there is not a music magazine based solely towards females in the British industry at the moment; the USA has Rolling Stone, but Britain is lacking in a version of this magazine. Therefore, I am basing my magazine towards females, but also including some factors that would interest males; for instance panic at the disco, which many men like, are featured in my magazine. Adverts in my magazine would be mainly based towards women, so would contain make up and skincare products etc. There would not be many towards men, but maybe a few unisex ones containing items such as mobile phones etc.

My typical target audience member would be:

• Obviously intrested in popular music


• I feel that their intrest in music would reflect in the way they dress, and they would wear trendy items of clothing. Hence they would shop in topshop, urban outfitters, river island and other high street shops which offer fashionable clothing. They would not shop in places such as designer boutiques, as my magazine is aimed at college/ university students, which is reflected in the reasonable price of £2.99. Therefore, they would only be able to afford high street clothing, but I feel that they would like it to be fashionable.


• They would watch music channels to explore their interest in music. Additionally, they may watch teen dramas such as Skins, as these reflect themselves.


• They would enjoy gigs, parties and socialising, therefore if I was going to design the whole magazine, I would include articles on these topics. This is to some extent reflected in my contents page.

I would imagine my target audience to resemble the characters from the drama "skins", meaning that some would dress in this slightly indie style, where others would be more contempary. I feel that my magazine draws the best aspects from both types of groups involved in the drama so would be of intrest to both of them.

The National Readership Survey has classed people in socio-economic groups of A, B, C1, C2, D and E, which are ordered in terms of wealth mainly. This means that people in A have a higher income than people in E. As my magazine is geared mainly towards students and young people who, if they had a job, would not have the oppurtunity to get far in the business, the magazine would therefore feature in socio-economic groups C2, D and E. My price for my magazine is £2.99, although this is not the cheapest price that it could be, my magazine is released only monthly so this gives some justification for its price.

However, it is useful to remember that the socio economic groups are only a guideline and are not neccesarily accurate for everyone. This gives my magazine some scope to not conform to the style needed for its group.

Evaluation Task 3

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

I have researched several media institutions, such as IPC Media and Bauer Media.

Bauer Media's only main magazines which it publishes are Kerrang! and Q.

These are both music magazines, and from my research I can tell that it produces no lifestyle or health and fitness etc. magazines. However, I feel that the Bauer media group already has enough music magazines, and there is less room for my magazine. It is also not as big a group as IPC media. Q also has a very similar audience to my music magazine. Therefore it may not be appropriate for it to publish my music magazine.

The only other magazine IPC media produces is NME:

This does not have such a similar audience to my magazine, so considering this and the fact that it is the only magazine, I can see a gap in the market for my magazine with IPC media.

Therefore, I have chosen IPC media to publish my magazine.

(screenshot from the wikipedia page on IPC media - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPC_Media)

It is labelled as "one of the United Kingdom's leading media publishers" and sells "over 350 million copies per year". It produces NME, which has a varied music spectrum similar to my product. However, it does not produce any other music magazines, so there is clearly a gap in the market for STRUCK. The other magazines it produces are mainly lifestyle, health and celebrity so there is definatley room to host my music magazine in IPC media.

It publishes magazines such as :

• Look
• Now
• Loaded
• Daily Mirror

As there are two lifestyle magazines, Look and Now, I think that there could also be two music magazines published under IPC media.

I have extracted this quote from the wikipedia article :

"IPC Media groups titles under five magazine divisions: Connect (women's weeklies such as Now Magazine and Look), Inspire (leisure and specialist), Ignite! (men's lifestyle and entertainment), SouthBank (women's lifestyle and home interest) and TX (portfolio of television titles). In addition, there is Marketforce, the UK's leading magazine distribution business. Digitally they have WOTV and goodtoknow."

This means that my specialist group would be Ignite! as my magazine falls under the entertainment sector of the magazine industry.

Evaluation Task 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product represents typical young adults/ late teenagers; Sophia Martinez, my fictional artist and main act, is seventeen. Therefore, she portrays girls of this age, but as she is Mexican, she is expressing people of a different nationality. However, people would want to read the magazine to discover more about her persona and the nationality in general. I have used her as my USP (unique selling point) as the magazine will be known for one that focuses on foreign artists as well as just English ones.

As I used Shakira for my inspiration when creating my artist, I am also going to use her to compare to my artist.


The table shows the similarities and differences between the photo of Shakira and the photo of Sophia.

You can see from the table that Sophia represents some conventions of magazines, but in some ways she is different. Her main difference is her age; she is very young compared to artists such as Shakira. However, in terms of their posture, make up and position, they are similar.

Sophia represents teenagers and how they are not all necessarily bad people, which is the way that they are presented generally. She also conveys some foreign aspects, as she is bringing "Music from mexico". Throughout her double page spread she often calls herself "mental" and describes everyone in Mexico as being the same. She makes us think of Mexicans as happy, positive and bubbly people. Pathetic fallacy is used as she describes how she is "bringing the Mexican sunshine to England", suggesting that she herself is the Mexican sunshine! As many people would not have much knowledge of Mexican people beforehand, she sculpts a good opinion of them through her article.

Evaluation Task 1

In what ways does your media product use, develop

or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Here is a montage of the features used on my music magazine that I have decided to be conventional to a music magazine:

The title resembles the KERRANG logo, having a shattered effect like it. It also shares music connotations with KERRANG, as Kerrang is the supposed sound of an electric guitar and Struck is the sound of a drum being hit. This was my inspiration for my music magazine name, and I think that it is appropriate and conveys music successfully, sharing conventions with already existing music magazines.

The “Subscribe to STRUCK” box that I used is a typical feature of music magazines, promoting the product and persuading the audience to save money by buying the magazine in bulk. This is effective as it commits people to buying the magazine, and I have noticed this in other magazines.

The band index is a common feature of music magazines, which sets them apart from lifestyle or fitness magazine. My band index features a diversity of acts, such as JLS but also the red hot chilli peppers. This conveys the mix of artists could draw in the wide array of artists in my magazine and people, as something appeals to everybody. This is stereotypical of a music magazine and determines that my magazine is definitely a music magazine.

I used a quote from the interview on my front cover line for my interview with Sophia Martinez, and then used the alliterative line “Latino Loco”. The quote gives the audience a preview for the interview, so they can gain insight to the singer’s personality and immediately give the picture of her a personality.

The live gig photo that I have used in my contents conveys the separatism of genres in my music magazine, as the genre, which Sophia is, is quite specific and needs some broadening. I have seen this technique employed in various magazines, such as Q, which has quite a varied genre base; it has interviewed acts such as Cheryl Cole and also rock bands such as My Chemical Romance. This in turn attracts more readers as people with varied tastes will want to read the music magazine.

The quote “I’ll Make the O2 arena sell Fajitas” is set out apart from the text, in pink and black. This is a common feature of music magazines, as it draws emphasis to words in the text. The font also compliments the house style as it is the same and uses the same effect. This represents continuity throughout my music magazine.

The picture of Cheryl Cole's eyes bears some resemblance to the picture I used of Sophie. Both are making enigmatic eye contact with the reader, enhanced through a lot of eye makeup and a mysterious gaze.

The part of writing, "oh, it's amazing, isn't it? everything is so cute!" is very informal and this is typical of a music magazine. It is as if the artist is actually having a conversation with the reader, taking the form of a friend. The casual conversation present in the magazine is suggestive of a music magazine.

The polaroid-look photo adds a "personal" feel to the magazine ; as it looks as if they have just been placed there rather than an artificial computer feel. There are three photos, each showing Sophia in the same outfit but in a different pose, which conveys the different sides and complexity of her character.

I also used text wrap in indesign, which is frequently a feature of double page spreads.

I have also chose to compare my entire contents page with one of NME, which I feel bears some similarities:

As i have previously identified in my planning, I had to use these features of music magazines, as they were ones which featured in both Kerrang! and NME

Therefore I :

• Made my title start from the left and go to the right
• I used a strapline, although it didn't suit my magazine photo and layout to have it at the top, so I put it at the bottom instead.
• I used a circle with an 'extra' : "2010 calander"
• I added my artist names at the top
• I put Sophia Martinez, my main act, in a bigger font, I included a quote and a summary of the article to convey her importance.

Here is my front page compared to other front pages. As you can see, it uses conventions of a front cover well.