MEDIA EVALUATIONJENNA PINDER

Introduction

My final product was a music magazine. I worked individually on this project, taking all the pictures and creating the magazine on my own. I created a front cover, contents page and a double page feature article.

Q1: In What ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

It conforms to magazine conventions by including the bar code, date and price.

The colour scheme I used is black and white to it give a classier feel to the front cover also reflecting on the style of the artist.

At the bottom of the page I have provided information on free gifts that come with the magazine enticing the reader in.

Camera shot is a close-up with eyes as the main focus again catching the reader’s attention.

Music artist is the main feature of the front cover; direct address is used to entice readers.

I have put the main title of the magazine in white and bold. The article style writing I have used suggests an older age range. The text is also contrasted against the background making it stand out more.

I injected the colour purple into the front cover to give it a much brighter feel and again making the artist stand out.

I kept with the theme of the colour purple but no so it over powers the black and white theme

I have split the contents into three headings features, front of book and style

On my contents page I have included the page number next to the artists image, I have followed this typical magazine convention as reader can easily flick to the artist of their choice

I have challenged the conventions of a magazine as rather than filling the contents page leaving no space, I have placed my text and pictures in a concise order leaving space at the bottom of the page.

Like a magazine article, the most important thing is the content and this is what I have focused on here rather than filling most of the page with pictures.

Three images are included to show a variety of camera shots and I have done this to show different personalities to the artist.

I have used grab text ‘you know that kind of generic boring music? I don’t think I could do that’ is a typical magazine convention which catches the readers attention making them want to read on.

I have continued the black and white theme, with a pop of purple, to give it a more a feminine feel, however I have included a mint green which compliments the purple well to highlight the question being asked

I may have challenged magazine conventions by having a longer introduction to give it more a formal like feel.

I have once again included the floral grey background on ¼ of the page reflecting the target audience but still following the greyscale theme.

Rather than just making the artists name stand out, I have also made sure the quote ‘strings attached’ also stands giving an insight into how deep the article will go

Q2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Q2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

In media product I have chosen to represent female indie music artists by choosing to base my feature article on a female article. I have represented this group well by the layout, font style and colour used. However rather than using obvious ‘girly’ colours such as pink, I have chosen colours such as black, white and purple but I believe that the image on the font cover with the floral purple with the slight white sparkle softens the black given it a feminine feel.

In contrast to the outfit chosen for the front cover, I chose to go for a ‘grunge’ twist but because of the way artist is posing it doesn’t override the female social group I was trying to achieve.

In the feature article, the artists answers are polite, well thought out and do not include swear words, they show an ambitious artist with a goal in mind, which is expected in a female artist.

This image may not be direct address, however the way she is looking up, slightly angled to the front so you can see her smiling gives the image a laidback, natural feel rather than just making the image all about the way the artist looks which is how I wanted to represent an indie female artist.

Makeup and hair was kept simple, with the eyes as the main feature. The hair swept to the side frames her face giving her a elegant and innocent side which is typical in a female magazine.

In this image I decided to choose a pose with a little bit more attitude, still keeping in theme with the female social group but trying to portray the indie side to the female artist.

Q3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

After Researching different types of magazine institutions. I believe that Bauer Media would be best to produce and distribute my product. Bauer Media is a division of the Bauer Media Group, Europe’s largest privately owned publishing Group. The Group is a worldwide media empire offering over 300 magazines in 15 countries, as well as online, TV and radio stations. Bauer Media owns more than eighty influential media brands spanning a wide range of interests, including heat, GRAZIA, Closer, MCN, FHM, Parker's, MATCH, Magic 105.4, Kiss 100, Kerrang!, Q and the Big City Network. According to Bauer Kerrang, Q, Mojo and Empire are all aimed at the male market, at this moment in time they don’t produce any music magazines for female market which could benefit then massively as they will be widening there target audience. They will have experience in producing music magazines and they also produce fashion/lifestyle magazines so they will also have experience in that area too.

Q4: Who Would be the audience for your media product?

I chose to target my magazine at middle class sixteen to twenty five year old females of British nationality who are interested in indie music, I focused my magazine on female inspirational composers and song writers such as artists like Eliza Doolittle and Lykke Li. My magazine has a slight fashion slant on it also. Although it has a fashion and lifestyle slant music is the main focus of the magazine. The reason I have chosen the middle class is because I believe that there is a gap in the market for that socio-economic status. My chosen age range means that many of my readers will be students so as they fit into band E in the socio economic scale, the price I decided was cheaper than many other glossy music magazines (£2.25) and as a fortnightly magazine students will be able to afford to buy the magazine and because its every fortnight they will be able to be loyal to the magazine as they wont have long to wait before the next issue comes out whereas if I was too increase the price and make it a monthly issue then I may find it will become less popular.

How did you Attract/Address your audience?

Firstly my title BACKBEAT indicates what genre I am aiming to achieve which is indie. Its short and snappy and by including the word beat it immediately informs the reader that it is a music magazine. This title was a popular choice as 11 out of 16 people from my questionnaire believed that backbeat as the title best fit my magazine.

The image on the front cover of my music artist play a big part in grabbing the readers attention, by using direct address and making the eyes the main focus, I am able to draw in the readers. Through the use of photo editing I was able to create a soft natural feminine picture showing a cool, sophisticated young artist. The front cover makes a statement and by contrasting black and white, the title and the name of the artist stands out which is what a front needs to do.

Also by using the pop of colour on the artist this again makes the image the focal point and also draws your eyes to the free giveaways which again can entice readers in.

Rather than giving too much away I have only included the names of the artists that will be featured in the magazine. By not giving too much away the reader will be interested in how the artists are featured, making them want to read on to find out more. To accommodate for both music and style, I have included a music giveaway and a style insert which will attract a wider audience ultimately gaining more sales.

By including the free giveaway at the bottom again I am enticing the readers in

Not only have I included music artists on the front cover but also from the fashion section and band search for readers to get involved.

On my contents page I attract a wider as I put the music, fashion and front of book into headings so the readers know exactly what they want to read first.

By including a picture of the main artists in the magazine I have added colour to the contents page which so far there hasn’t been. The pictures are simple but interesting and by having a different pose for each one it gives the page variation. I think the pictures would motivate the reader to turn the page to see what the picture is about.

To feel like the reader is getting a lot for there money I have included the quote also this week.…

On my feature article I used grab text to give a snippet of what the interview will be like. I have to use the more controverisial quote to catch the readers attention

For my title I kept it simple but bright and with the font I used it creates a more fun page. The subheading strings attached incorporates a musical instrument but also suggest that nothing will be missed out in the interview and you find out everything you need to know.

The pictures I chose for my feature article reflect different personalities of the artist. She looks friendly on each of the pictures instantly making the readers like her. Not all of the pictures are direct address but I believe the pose in itself makes a big enough statement. Again the pictures are black and white which carry on the theme. Even though the pictures are shot outside, the surroundings don’t take over from the pictures as I have softened the background. The lighting in the pictures highlights the artists face making her seem flawless. The top she is wearing in one of pictures has the slogan heart and soul which shows the artists passion for music, showing that she makes music more than just for money. Overall these factors will mean that audience will like her instantly and when a reader likes an artist they want to read about there lives.

The language I have used in my article is formal but not too formal so that it makes it seem more like a newspaper article. The language fits the target audience well by not asking childish questions. I have included some gossip within the interview but I have it more music based as this magazine is targeting serious music lovers.

By including an introduction I am setting the scene and involving the readers. Including funny facts that the reader may have not known.

Q6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Whilst carrying out this project I have learnt many new things about technology. Firstly I learnt how to create my own blog so that I was able to share my project with other people on the internet. I then learnt how to upload blog posts which I found very simple to use I could simply upload pictures straight from my computer. Blogger.com was also very useful as all my work was on one blog making it fast and easy to find. My teacher was also able to view my blog and leave feedback for me too see.Adobe Photoshop: This program I was able to experiment and enjoy the most as I could adapt my photos to fit with my brief. I was able to play around with colours and if I didn’t like it then I could easily change it back. I didn’t necessarily learn anything new on this program as I have already used this previously but I did find that I could use all of its aspects to a greater capacity. I did howver find that when using some of the editing software that it over edited my images rather than editing them in stages. Also once I saved my image as an adobe file I was then unable to edit it in any other software. This was a big problem as I decided to save my image as a jpeg which merged the image together which meant I was then unable to edit it further so I had to start again.

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

From preliminary task to my final product I have learnt a lot! My preliminary task wasn’t well thought out but it did take a while to simply just place the product into indesign. My background it very plain and there is no obvious colour scheme. I simply just chose red and purple because I liked the colours not because they go well together. My title doesn’t stand out and the font doesn’t necessarily fit the criteria. I have learnt that the layout has a great effect on how the magazine looks and by just randomly placing the quotes it doesn’t give as good effect as my final product where I tried different layout too see which one worked the best.

Overall my final product looks a lot better than my preliminary the direct address of the picture in my final product draws in the audience a lot more rather than the side shot in the preliminary task. By having a lot of white space the magazine seems empty and feels like it is missing something unlike my final piece where I have a close up of the artist which fills the page.

The editing of the pictures is done to a more professional standard, in the way I have smoothed out flaws and made sure the lighting highlights the face and the font works a lot a better for the style I’m trying to create.

Overall I can say I am happy with my final product, I think I have created a music magazine which will attract my target audience and fits well with an indie style magazine. I am most happy with my final photos as I believe they look professional and are not over edited and fit with the magazine well. The layout is simple but effective as I wanted the images to be the main aspect of the magazine to make it seem more glossy and formal.

This final product definitely shows my improvement from my preliminary task I put a lot of thought into how I wanted it to be, through the planning and the research I was able to create a product that I am very happy with.

However one thing that could improved is the size of the mass heading on the front cover as I think its too small and could be quite a lot larger. One other improvement that could be made is the layout in the contents page as it doesn’t necessarily scream music magazine as much as it could do.

Conclusion