- Antonia Roberts

EVALUATION

EVALUATIONGENERIC CONVENTIONS

• Before creating my media product I looked at many existing music magazines, to see what generic

conventions existed. I came across the following:

- Images

- Titles

- Layout

- Colours

- Language

EVALUATIONGENERIC CONVENTIONS

Many music magazines, and other magazines are effective because of the generic conventions that are featured throughout them. When an audience

sees certain generic conventions it makes them feel more comfortable with the media, making the product more successful. An audience buying a magazine, will have certain ideas about what it should look like, whether the audience is

media or socially grouped. We therefore decided to follow the generic conventions of titles, images and colour scheme, making the front covers of our

magazines similar to those that are already in the market.

We also chose to break some generic conventions, are magazines are much more styled to attract someone from a fashion background, rather than just

music, as we wanted our magazine to edge slightly more to a female audience, who wanted more gossip and style relating to the music scene. This is why our magazines follow some generic conventions of fashion magazines, compared to just music magazines, the font for example is similar to that of vogue, as is

the layout.

EVALUATIONGENERIC CONVENTIONS

Many of the conventions that I became familiar with I chose to recreate in my final media product…

The recognisable font displaying the magazine name becomes iconic,

and like many magazines, I chose to

place the title in the top left hand corner to create a sense of

familiarity.

The large central photograph represents the main feature article on many front covers

and it’s something that I chose to use also.

The simple combination of a small selection of colours makes many music magazine front covers look very effective, I chose

to use 3 main colours that I feel work well together.

EVALUATIONREPRESENTATION

I chose to represent the music stars in my magazines as young and stylish. The model in the main feature article, who is also on the front cover of the magazine, represents our target audience. She is female and within our

target audience age group, making her appeal to the readers as they can relate to her.

I presented her to be glamorous, whilst also trying to keep her style fitting to the music genre we chose; this slightly rock chick look, with a hint of fashion is portrayed by the clothes and make-up used in the photo shoots. The red and black colours are used in many music magazines, especially those with a rock/indie genre, which is why I chose clothes which were these colours,

where as the red lipstick added a touch of allure to the photo shoot.

I also wanted the article to reflect her as a down to earth and realistic person, so although she has been successful with her career she is still a normal

person, making her easier to relate to for our target audience.

The font is quite feminine and with the use of colours that are typically feminine, it attracts our target audience. The pinks and purples are sophisticated but gender stereotypical.

EVALUATIONREPRESENTATION

The font is also modern and easy to read, appealing to the younger generations.

The photos of the ‘music

star’ are fun, girly and

glamorous, appealing to

young females, who may aspire to

be like her.

The content of the article

is a light-hearted

interview, which would

appeal to our younger

target audience who

The hint of red on the page also attracts the attention of males, as well as an attractive female that would appeal to that small proportion of our target audience.

may not be attracted by a huge amount of text on the page, which is why the large photographs may

appeal to them also.

EVALUATIONIDENTIFICATION OF TARGET AUDIENCE

To identify our target audience we used Burton’s social and media grouping concepts. We looked at grouping our target audience for their social similarities

such as age and gender, yet also for their music tastes.

We decided the following after looking closely at Burton’s theory:

Age: 16-24 year oldsGender: Unisex, leaning more towards female

Class: ABC1Location: Western

These are the social groupings we chose, but we also decided our target audience would be grouped for the genre of music they listened to:

Type of music: Rock/IndieWe have also decided to aim our magazine towards the female social group, we plan to do this by including more gossip and female orientated articles that will

attract females.

EVALUATIONAPPEALING TO MY TARGET AUDIENCE

To appeal to my target audience of young females aged 16-24, we conducted interviews and collected information from questionnaires to give us an insight on what our target

audience actually wanted in their media product. The results from the questionnaires about layout ideas, helped me to design my front cover and double page spread.

When asked which magazine cover they preferred many people said they liked ‘Clash’ - so I used the same concept of 1 large image taking up the majority of the front page, with the title in the top in a bright bold colour.

The results showed that many people found bigger images and less text appealing, which is what I tried to portray in my double page spread.

The colour scheme that was most popular was black, white and red which I also used but added some variation to it, with a slightly more pink shade of red and a plum colour

which appeal to my female target audience.

EVALUATIONTECHNOLOGICAL SIDE

I used my Lumix DMC-FS30 digital camera to take the photographs that I used throughout my media product. I edited these photos on Photoshop, by slightly changing

the contrast and brightness to create a professional appearance.

To create the entire product I used mainly Photoshop, using different elements to add a variety of texts in different fonts, styles, colours and sizes, yet also to crop and resize

various images.

The photos that I took I also edited using Photoshop.

The collage of Polaroid's used on my contents page was created on Photoshop, using a brush that I downloaded.

I created the text on the contents page using Photoshop, which allowed me to use an appropriate font in different colours and sizes.

I filled the Polaroid’s with the photos I took using the crop, cut and paste tools on Photoshop.

EVALUATIONTECHNOLOGICAL SIDE

- making my contents page…

I used the copy, paste and rotate

tools to create this layout of Polaroid's. The Polaroid's were

created from a stamp I downloaded

for Photoshop.

I then used the text tool to create the

information featured on the contents

page, it allowed me to use the same

font but in different colours and sizes.

I then started to add photographs into

the Polaroid's, using the copy, paste and

crop tools.

The next slide shows what I did

exactly…

After I finished filling every Polaroid with a photograph my

contents page was finished!

EVALUATIONTECHNOLOGICAL SIDE

- making my contents page…

I copied and pasted the Polaroid into a blank file on Photoshop...

I then pasted my photograph into the same file…

I then shrank and rotated my photograph and moved the layer of the photograph underneath the layer which the Polaroid was on, so that I could see the outline of the Polaroid and what shape I needed to cut the Photograph in…

I then cut around the photograph making it the shape I wanted, by using the Polygonal Lasso Tool.

These 4 steps led me to this photograph which I copied and pasted back into the contents page layout and moved into place in front of the Polaroid.

The preliminary task, showcased are basic skills using Photoshop, I feel I

strongly improved with newly learnt skills on Photoshop to

use on my main product.

By creating a preliminary product it allowed me to see the different aspects of creating a magazine front cover, it also gave me the opportunity to see what my target audience wanted and to improve things to make it more appealing. I used different fonts, added

more articles and improved the photography.

The basic layout is very similar, we stuck with one

model on the front page, with different sized text framing it.

The font I chose to use on my front page is much more

interesting, and appealing for my target audience, it is more feminine than the font used

on my preliminary.

EVALUATIONFROM PRELIMINARY TO MAIN PRODUCT

EVALUATIONMEDIA INSTITUTIONS

•The type of media institution that might distribute our magazine would be a multi-national company.

•Their priorities are to inform readers of the latest music news whilst also making a profit.

•A possible publisher would be Bauer Media Group, the publisher of Q, or IPC Media, the publisher of NME, as

these magazines are similar to our magazine. They also have other magazines aimed at a similar target audience

so the advertising costs of or new magazine would be lower.