Evaluation.

Tiffany Malcolm.

The Questions.

In the evaluation the following questions must be answered:

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

2. How does your media product represent particular?

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

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

5. How did you attract/ address your audience?

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

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

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

media products?

To follow the conventions is when you go along with the flow, follow the rules and to do what everyone else is doing. Changing the conventions is when you do something different to create an effect such as interest and surprise.

The way I decided to follow the conventions is by looking at two pop magazines. The ones I decided to focus on and look at were, “Top Of The Pops” and “We <3 POP”. From these two magazines I looked at the front cover, contents page and double page spread. The reason I decided to look at more than one music magazine was so that I could look at the different structures. I decided that by doing this it would enable me to have more options and hopefully make my music layout better than what I was looking at in the magazines.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys96G6gmHJ8

Comparison on conventions.

I decided that I would try and use different inspirations from the two magazines. The masthead on the ‘Top of the pops’ magazine is very bold and girly. It has stars all the way around it, which symbolizes the fact that this magazine is aimed at young girls.

The ‘We <3 POP’ magazine is very bold and stands out. It is always in a speech bubble as this is easier for the audience to spot this out on the shelf. I decided that my masthead would be very girly. As it is called ‘Diamonds’ this relates to girls as they all like diamonds. The ‘I’ is doted with a heart as most girls do this or something like this.

Front Cover.

• Colour scheme: the main colour scheme is very girly colours, it has mainly the colour purple. The bar at the bottom and the masthead is both purple. This means it all links together. This shows that is has a house style.

• Style of photography: this is a mid-shot, a mid-shot is when it cuts off at the waist. I chose this sort of image because I think that it works well. If I had used a full body shot I don’t think that it would of worked as well. A closer shot is a lot more personal as though it is directed to you. By the main photo looking at you in your eyes it makes it look like she is looking directly at you. The other image of Robert Patterson is a close shot which is cut off at the shoulders. If it was any larger it wouldn’t look in proportion to the rest of the page and weird. I think it works well because it is close and suits the style.

• Pull Quotes: one quote which I find good is “ It’s amazing I have been in the same room as people I have watched on the TV; Rita Ora being one of them!” this is very direct because even if you haven’t heard of Rhi, you will know who Rita Ora is. This will make you want to know she has been mentioned.

On both of my magazines they use pull quotes from the chosen artist who the main feature on the magazine. For example on the ‘Top Of The Pops’ magazine it has ‘One of these girls has a SECRET… Find out who’. This makes us wonder what the secret is and who it is with. However on the ‘We <3 POP’ magazine it says ‘ Katy Perry, “he hasn’t told me”’ this makes us think that Katy could of been lied to or something else. The way both of these magazines have been placed on the ride is very similar. I decided against putting it on the right hand side because both of them have already done this. By me placing it on the left hand side is a way of me developing the forms.

This is my final magazine front cover, I am very happy with the form’s and conventions I have used. I have developed it to a way in which I think works well as I am using professional idea’s as inspiration and then modifying it with my own ideas as well.

These are two barcodes from my chosen magazines (WE <3 POP and Top Of The Pops). I personally think that both of these magazines are very similar with there barcodes as they both straight across. Both of them have a web- address near to it. I wasn’t over keen on. So one of my ways I decided to make mine look better was by not adding a web-address on the front page. I also decided to add the issue number and date at the bottom where as my chosen research ones are at the side or above it.

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_pQMFYIPpU

Sorry I made a mistake. I said 'Bhangra music@ instead of 'Pop Music'

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpOP9F5tRgE

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0jqYQ5FrgQ

5)How did you attract/ address your audience?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Jn_p7_b0x8

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

Just before I started on my full music magazine product I didn't really have much experience using manipulation programmes such as In-design and Photo-shop While I was constructing the music magazine I learnt a lot about these two programmes as I thought that they would be really useful and it would help me create the best music magazine possible. For the main image on my front cover I took the photo myself and used the magic wand tool. I then decided to smooth the edges out using the rubber tool on a low opacity. The way I got into photo-shop and in-design was by playing with all the different tools and figuring out what each tool did. I also watched a lot of You-tube video which enabled me to figure out what was going on during this process and I could work along side with it. I used basic things such as shapes,and different symbols.There are many different images on my contents pages. I took loads of different photos of my friends in many different photos. I then edited all the photos to make it look like my chosen artists groups. I used the same method as my the one I did on my front cover which was cutting around the photo with the magic wand tool then smoothing over the edges. Another thing I learnt how to do was by using many different fonts from dafonts.com this website was very useful as it gave me a selection to chose from which would suit my magazine better.

Many other things I learnt how to do was take photos on a professional camera. These images I took to use on my front cover, contents page and double page spread. I learnt how important the different angle an all the different shot types as well as how I should portray them in my magazine.During the whole of my coursework portfolio I had to update my personal blog. My personal blog address of http://0512tiffanymalcolm.blogspot.co.uk/This is a way that my media teachers could keep an eye on my work and they could see the progress I was making. However the first time I used blogger I didn't know how to post things and how I checked who viewed my profile However I got used to it and did research online and I also asked my media teachers for help. I finally learnt how to update, add photos, files just using blogger alone.However for longer pieces of work I used “Scribd” few times. I think this was more effective as it allowed me to upload it easier.

Another up loader I was suggested to use was 'Prezi' however I tried to grasp it by watching you-tube tutorials and online research however I personally thought it was very confusing and I didn't understand it. So in the end I never used 'Prezi'I also made a 'Slideshare' account. I understood Slideshare very easy and I was able to put my power-point presentations on there easier. This was one website I used quiet a lot during my coursework.

7)Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression

from it to the full product?My front cover on my preliminary task was very basic as I had never used photo-shop before so it was done unprofessionally Because I had no idea how to use these design programmes so I used Microsoft word instead. I think that it looks very basic and unprofessional as my knowledge about magazine front covers and contents pages where very minimal I think that I have made a lot of progression on both pieces. on my front cover for the final production I had to think about layouts, colour scheme, images and loads of other points. However on my preliminary task I didn't take any of these into consideration and just flung a photo on there and thought it looked good. I think that the main progression from my preliminary task to my final piece was very significant As I took a lot more time on it and a lot more care rather then just throwing it together in one hour. I have learnt many different things for example the significant of conventions of music magazines. Another one I learnt was about all the different house styles and all the codes and conventions of a certain magazine. By me understanding these aspects and many more it helped me make my full front cover and contents page look a lot more professional rather then a magazine that looks like it was made by 12 year old's.

My front cover from my preliminary task is very basic and is done on Microsoft words which has very many limitations. However I passed my expectations because I never thought I would be able to create something I would be able to sell on a magazine stand.

This is the difference from my preliminary task contents page and my final piece contents page. I think that I have made a huge improvement as it looks a lot more professional.