Evaluation QUESTION 7

HOW DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE IMPROVED FROM YOUR PRE LIM TASK?

Overall, looking back at my pre lim task and my final construction pieces for that (see folder) I feel that I have improved most on my knowledge of computer programs and how to use them effectively for this coursework. On the pre lim task I used the program Microsoft Word Document because I felt most familiar with it. However I felt that once I had downloaded Adobe Photoshop, I had so many more options available to me in relation to what I could do such as editing photos etc.
I also feel I have improved on my knowledge of codes and conventions for media and how they are used in the magazine industry. This was helped by doing more analysis pages of magazines and doing them in more depth. It also helped that I did it with friend colleagues in some cases as this gave me more ideas that I wouldn't have thought of myself.
Another way that I think I have improved is my photo taking skills. For the pre liminary task I didn't really know how to take photos at the right angle and I definately didn't know how to choose a good location for my photos. I wasn't really that content with my photos for the pre lim task and I couldn't really edit them really well either but for the proper production task, I learnt more about editing the contrast and saturation of photos in order to make certain things stand out and draw the attention more of the target audience. I was also more happy about my location choices for the production piece and felt that they gave me more effective photos in the end ( see my folder for these photos).

Evaluation QUESTION 6

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?

Whilst creating this product I feel that I have learnt immense amounts of information about computer programs such as Adobe Photoshop. I had no idea how to use it when I first started this project! At first I decided to create my magazine on Microsoft Word seeing as I am very familiar with this program as I use it for most of my work. However, I soon found whilst trying to design my draft that there are many limitations to using this program such as you can't edit photos very well on it and that things overall aren't very easy to move around and position etc. Therefore, I got a friend to download the version of Adobe Photoshop for me as I thought it would really benefit me.
After that I had several days of trying out photoshop and getting used to it, finding out what all of the little icons mean, how to brush over spots, how to change fonts by giving them inner and outer glows, manipualting images etc.

Above you can clearly see the difference between designing a magazine on word and a magazine on photoshop, althoug the one on word on the left is my preliminary task for my school magazine, but I think it reflects well how much I have moved on with my skills and how much more photoshop offers you.
For my final pieces I went and used an Apple Mac as it's quicker than my laptop and I had a deadline to make. I then learnt all the short cuts that magazine designers use in the proper industry such as apple+shift to select things, apple+c to copy an image, apple + v to paste an image or feature and apple +t to transform the image and to rotate it a certain way. This made working a lot quicker. However, the only thing I do wish is that I learnt all this earlier so that I didn't always feel that I was under pressure and pushed for time! This would have made it a lot less stressful but I'm glad that I got access to photoshop at all because otherwise I don't think I would have been as happy with my final outcomes.
Learning all of these new skills for photoshop has also helped me in the future as well because I also take Art at As level so photoshop would be perfect for editing photos :).
Photoshop also helped massively where I was trying to get the right font for my title and text for the front page because I had been looking on websites to download some fonts but had found none that I like. On photoshop though I learnt how to edit just plain fonts to make them look better.You can see more about this and how I edited the title in my folder.
I also learnt about pixelating images and making them fit perfectly on the page so that it didn't stretch the pixels. This was some of the main feedback I got on all my pieces about how the images seemed pixelated. This was because I had set the dimensions for the photoshop page too big compared to the photo dimensions I was trying to put on there. This was something I never knew about before so this will probably come in handy in the future to know. However, this did mean that I had to completely re-do the contents page because the images were just too pixelated. This was time consuming but it was worth it I think :)

Evaluation QUESTION 5

HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE?

I attracted my target audience with the front cover by using graphic features that are bold and would grab their attention. It also helped that I used black a lot on the front page as this contributed towards the bold,graphic and confident atmoshpere given out. I also think that the overall feel of the front cover reflects the personality of my target audience, in it wanting to be bold,attention seeking and confident. For the colour I also used different shades of red on the front cover which I knew was likely to attract the target audience because in my questionnaire the data that came back said that this was one of their favourite colours.
I also tried to keep the text on the front page to a minimum with the image being the main focus seeing as the questionnaire results showed that my population sample for my target audience preferred to have a magazine with more images and less text.

With the DPS I made sure to maintain this graphic feel and I think the photo strip on the side is a good feature as it draws in the eye to the page. I also made the 'exclusive' text one of the first thing the reader would see when they saw the page because I found that this feature excites my target audience when they read it and it makes it more likely that they will read on. I also kept the colours varying between reds, oranges and pinks which appeals to the female gender and also is known to be one of their favourite colours.

For the Contents page, I again kept the brand identity flowing and used the same shades of colours in order to make it appeal still to my female audience. I again included the 'exclusive' text in a big, stamp kind of font which will capture the reader's attention and then make them want to turn to that page. If I had designed it differently however, I would have perhaps included more shots of males in my pages, as girls are obviously interested in this expecially at the age of 16-21. If it had been less difficult to find a male model then I would have definately done this.

Evaluation QUESTION 4

WHO WOULD BE THE TARGET AUDIENCE FOR MY MEDIA PRODUCT?

The target audience for my magazine are people within the age range of 16-21 years old, they could be male or female seeing as I designed it so that I didn't use really bold shades of pink and incorporated a lot of black so that boys wouldn't feel ashamed to buy it either. However, it's contents is mainly aimed towards female interests.
They are interested mainly in gossip and the lives of the music artist as they are at that point where they are not completely sure what they might be doing with their future career so could be looking for inspiration of how people made it 'to the top'. The target audience I aimed my magazine at are also interested in the latest technology available such as Ipods, Iphones and the internet, spending a large majority of their times on social networks in the internet such as FaceBook, Youtube, Twitter.
They are in the top level of middle class in society and will most likely have jobs to support themselves at the age of 16-21 so therefore would be using phones such as Blackberries, Iphones and other quite fashionable phones.
From my questionnaire I know that the majority of them are interested in getting ways of downloading and listening to music as ways to spend their free time, with shopping and gym as the next two favourite hobbies. These are both ways of listening to music and advertising my music magazine as adverts are put out on speakers whilst in shopping malls for magazines and music is played out. Whilst in the gym they also do this whilst the people are working out. The next hobby was TV as well so I could also advertise my magazine to them in that way as well.

Evaluation QUESTION 3

WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION WOULD PROMOTE YOUR PRODUCT AND WHY?

For my magazine, I think the music industry would be most interested in promoting the product as major labels like SONY have huge publishing businesses all over the world and distribution ones too. If my magazine appealed to them enough and a particular genre of music they focused on, they might be interested in promoting my product to my audience in return for some of the profits made. These music lables could also get my magazines distributed out to shops like HMV that people my age and in my target audience age range buy lots of products from already today.
They would also be able to help me in terms of advertising and would get it so that my magazine was advertised on online download sites such as Itunes. I know that my target audience would most likely then know about my music magazine because in my questionnaire results it showed that a large chunk of my population sample used an Ipod to listen to their music, which shows that they must have access to Itunes. The pie chart above shows this.
For my magazine to actually be published in shops like supermarkets etc I would have to get incontact with a newspaper industry, or if I was seen in one of the advertisements on Itunes or something by an already existing magazine company they may get in contact and offer to publish my magazines. This would of course give them a percentage of the profits but if they thought that the magazine appealed to a target audience large enough to bring in profits and if they thought it would be successful then they would get involved.
Magazine companies like DJmagLTD are is it's own organisation so I might be able to do this as well. Or as I said above, big music companies like Axel Springer Verlag AG in Berlin have lots of different magazines linked to them so I could do something like this. This company isn't active in Britain but that could possibly change in the future.

Evaluation QUESTION 2

HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT A SPECIFIC SOCIAL GROUP?

My Media Music magazine targets and represents specific social groups in several ways. Above is a print screen of my summary of this created in Word Document stating how price, name, contents and colour in my magazine represent a particular social group.

My magazine overall represents the social group of teenagers who have an interest in music but don't want to pay too much for it as the majority would be at school and would be needing to save their money. This is why I decided on the price of it being £1.20, seeing as my questionnaire results showed me that a large percentage of the 20 people I asked voted for the price range of £1.01-£.150. Also, already existing magazines out there on the market are priced between £.1.50 and £4.00 so by doing this I would be making my magazine look more appealing to its audience by being cheaper than others. Also, with the price of £1.20, if any other people outside the age group of 16- 21 liked the magazine such as younger people, the price wouldn't put them off. This way my magazine is appealing to a larger net of social groups.
The name of the magazine also appeals to a large social group as it is shortened from it's original name of 'British Music Magazine' to BMM. Already existing magazines such as NME have done this as well and this makes the magazine appeal more to the younger audience if the title is abbreviated as it has more impact. However, the name of it being British Music Magazine also gives it a very patriarchal sense to it, which would obviously appeal to a very large net of social groups.
The contents of my music magazine also appeals to large social groups but specifically, the younger teenage one of age range of 16- 21, as I have ensured that the main story line was first stated as 'exclusive'. I know from personal experience that this text immediately draws someone of my age in. The quote that I pulled out from the text to put on the front cover as well is quite out of context and would make the reader my age make assumptions about what's going on, so would then read on for more of the gossip. Gossip is also something that people my age are keen on in music magazines, as I also found out in my questionnaire.
In my questionnaire I also found that overall from my sample of participants, females read music magazines more than males do. Therefore I designed my magazine to represent the female gender more, using colours that my questionnaire results showed they liked etc. In this way my magazine appeals to the female gender more. However, I made sure not to make the front cover too stereotypically 'girly' by not using very bold pinks etc so that boys wouldn't be immediately repelled by it.

Evaluation QUESTION 1

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE,DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

My music magazine both used, developed and challenged the normal codes and conventions of already existing music magazines I think.

How it used them...

-I designed my logo for my magazine so that it conformed to the normal codes and conventions, as most music magazine have a bold title with sometimes it going slightly behind the main image or another feature. This is normally a sign that the magazine is already well recognised which is why I did it to my magazine, as well it meaning that it is using the conventions.
-My magazine front cover also contains a main image which is similar to most mainstream music magazines already existing.
-My front cover has a main headline quote to focus on which I found also included in many other already existing music magazines.
-My double page spread used the typical feature of the 'exclusive' text to lure the reader in to read more. Lots of DPS that I have read and researched use this feature. I also included it in the contents page as well in my final design to persuade the reader into reading further.
-I set out the text in my DPS in columns as well like existing music magazines do so that my reader wouldn't find the text too overwhelming and not bother reading all of it.

How it developed them...

-Some music magazines I researched only kept their brand identity and colours on the front cover. I developed this by developing throughout all 3 pages, keeping the white,black and pink shade consistently shown in all.
-Some music magazines also only keep the feature of pulling out quotes from the text inside the DPS whereas I decided to develop this and include it on the front page as well. It was also taken slghtly out of context as well deliberately to make the reader more curious about the storyline and therefore more eager to turn the page.

How it challenged them...

-On the front page instead of following the typical codes and conventions for camera angles, I decided to do the photos with the model looking down and making no direct mode of address with the reader. In most existing music magazines the music artist/ subject is making eye contact with the reader to give it an intense atmosphere, with there being a relationship almost between reader and the artist. However, by not making eye contact with the reader, I hoped to get the atmosphere where the reader thinks that perhaps she is not looking at them because she has not spoken or made any relationship with them yet, either because she is new to the music industry or that the music media has attacked her with rumours etc and she doesn't wish to speak out. This heightens the story, making the reader more curious and excited about what they are going to read inside because it says that it is an 'exclusive' article. So in this way, I am going against normal conventions.

-I have also not put any other images on the front page apart from the main one. Most magazines have at least one other image on the page to focus on but for mine I wanted it so that the reader focuses only on the main artist in the centre of the page. This would give the reader the feeling that this artist is somehow very important and that they should be reading about them.

Final DPS, front cover and contents page

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Feedback I got...

Feedback and comments I got back from my target audience/school friends when showing them my pieces:
For the contents page:
"good brand identity colours used, links it back to the front cover and DPS well"
"the main picture is a bit pixelated"
"the font is a bit difficult to read in places"
" a caption could be put underneath the smaller picture to give it more information"
"main picture is unclear"

Most of the comments that I got back from the contents page linked back to the pixelation of it and how unclear the image seemed.

For the front cover:
"an issue number could be included to make it more realistic"
"the title could do with some work to look more professional"
"some of the text is a bit pixelated for some reason?"

Again, most comments I got back referred to pixelated text and images. I need to look into this when I go to improve my pieces.

For the DPS:
"think about putting in page numbers to make it more realistic"
"think about changing the 'exclusive' text, editing how it looks"
"good colour use to link it back to the other pages"

I think the main thing I need to look at here is why my images are pixelated. You can read about this and my improvements in my folder :)

My Drafts of my final pieces

Here are the print screens of all my first drafts of my front page, double page, and contents page. I designed them all on the program Adobe Photoshop. I am now going to show them to people in the age group of my target audience and see what positive and negative feed back I get. I will then add to my pieces in order to improve them :)

Final preparations for the final pieces...

For the final font for the front cover I found a font on the internet called 'Phorssa' on www.dafont.com and downloaded this. This font was as close as I could get to the font I found on the double page spread. The text above is what I'm using for my contents page main story line. This font is also being used though for my quote on the front cover of my magazine.

Inspiration for some of the features going on my final pieces

For the contents page, I found an already existing contents page that had a feature that I liked because it was bold and stood out as a good title for the page. The above photo of the contents page shows the ' this week' text at the top of the page.
For my front cover, I wanted the quote that I am going to use to be graphic and to make the page look a little more busy but not too cluttered. When I was looking on the internet for inspiration I found a double page spread that used a font for it's main headline that really caught my attention. I then printed these off and gave them to my friends to look at so that I could get their opinions :). They really liked the font idea and said it looks really "graphic" which is exactly what I want for my front cover :). The two pages are above.

Layout of the front cover and mock ups

Now that I have finished the photo shoots I can now begin thinking about the layout of my front cover. I drew them out in rough to give the general idea of how I want my final piece to look. When I gave these to some school colleagues to look at they said that they overall preferred the one on the right, because although they are both purposely quite minimilistic designs, they said that the left one perhaps is too empty. With the main image being the background on my front cover, this will leave the white background for the other text to go on, which will make the cover more neat and less 'busy' which was what my other front cover was described as.Therefore the mock up on the right hand side is what I will be basing my final layout on.

Changing my idea slightly...

Once looking at all of my photos, I got comments from school colleagues saying that perhaps one of my models wasn't as photogenic as the other one and that perhaps I should just focus on one model/music artist because this would be easier. I also agreed with this idea when I thought about when I had written my double page spread text and it had been difficult doing two people at a time (see my folder for this text). Therefore I agreed to this idea and stuck with just one model, going with the story line that she has split up from her band and is now going solo in the music industry.
This idea linked well to the fact that for my front cover, I want to use a photo where there is no direct mode of address being made with the reader. This goes against typical codes and conventions but I think it will work well, in that if she has her head down, then it suggests that perhaps she is being silenced or has chosen to be silent until now since the media has been attacking her. I can then incorporate the idea of it being 'exclusive' to the reader which will excite them. The photo here is the final one I have chosen for my front cover.

Editing photos...

As I said in the previous post, some of the photos using the white wall as the background came out slightly gray. Therefore, using the program adobe photoshop I edited the photos so that the contrast was higher and the lighting looked more dramatic on the model's face. Contrasting the colours also heightened the colours on the models clothes, eyes etc.I did this for all of my final photos before deciding which ones to use.

The Photos

These are the photos that came out of the 3 photo shoots I did.The scans of them are quite blurred but the ones in my folder came out fine.I have uploaded one photo though to just show that the background behind wasn't completely white. I found that overall the photos against the white wall worked best because on the day the sun was very intense so overall gave me good lighting and a good photo :). The white wall effect didn't come out quite as well as I had hoped as it is slightly gray but on photoshop I'm hoping that I can just increase the contrast on these photos so that it looks completely white and professional. :)

Problems with the photoshoot

For some of the photos in the first photo shoot, I found that in order to take dramatic photos with the lighting in the garage location, I had to turn the flash off on my digital camera. This blurred the image though as seen below. The face of the model wasn't clear so I would not be able to use it on my magazine front cover. The other photos I took which were blurred are shown here.However the print screen doesn't show it very well but the actual printed out photos are all in my folder.To overcome the problem, I decided to use another one of my cameras which produced photos which still looked dramatic and captured the lighting even though the flash was off...

Shooting Schedule

I have decided to do the photoshoot over the period of 3 days,which will allow me to get the perfect photos. :) Also, because I need them in two different settings I don't want to bore the models and do it all in one day because they may not concentrate throughout the entire day. Instead I will do it over 3 days for short amounts of time. The photos here are of the rough plan I did of the shooting schedule which I kept in my folder until I typed it up neat :). The neat version is now included in my folder.
The third shoot is a combination of both settings I've chosen just incase the weather isn't good for one of them or something unpredictable occurs such as the model is ill for one day.

Evidence of permission letters

I need to send out permission letters to my siblings Tasha and Danni, as they will be the models for my photoshoot. I also need to send out a letter to my neighbour who's garage I need to use as a setting for my photoshoot. Therefore, I typed out some formal letters to each of them on word document, leaving a space at the bottom of each where they could all give their signatures as final confirmation that they agreed to what I had included in each letter.Above are the print screens of the two letters to my neighbour and sisters before I sent it to them. In my folder you will find the signed copies of these :)

Practical, ethical and theoretical issues to consider...

I made a table on Word Document which summarised all of the ethical,practical and theoretical problems I am currently having with my photoshoot and deciding what photos to take. Some of the practical problems include not having the costume and make up I need at the moment in order to do the shoot. Some ethical issues include needing permission from certain people to take the photos and some theoretical issues relate to my magazine as well in how I should make the model look in order to go against or conform to the typical codes and conventions of a music magazine. Below is a print screen of this table.

Preparing for the photoshoot

I have decided that for the main subject of my front cover I am going to take photos of a new music artist that has just entered the music industry. This way the reader will be excited about buying the magazine because I will be able to include the codes and conventions of a magazine on the front such as 'exclusive'. This naturally excites the reader. I'm also considering putting the model against a white background, which suggests that she is new the music industry and hasn't found her place yet. This would also make them look more appealing to the reader.
I now need to begin thinking about the photoshoot schedule, what equipment and costumes I will need and when I am going to do it. I will also need to think about ethical, practical and theoretical issues to do with my photos and other areas of making a magazine.

Target audience profile

From my questionnaire analysis I have now begun to think about what the target audience would be for my music magazine.Above is the print screen of what is included in my folder. The photo shows clearly who my music magazine is being aimed at.
My target audience profile...

My music magazine will target mainly female readers between the age of 16-21. Males may want to read the contents of the magazine but I am not designing the front cover to appeal to males.

The only problem I will have with appealing to this age group is that typically, the main subject on the page is the same age as the target audience, or not much younger. My model is three years younger so I will have to make them look older when I apply their make up for the photo shoot.

The genre of the magazine will be a mixture so will become a hybrid genre magazine, combining hip hop, pop, rock and R&B as these came up as the most popular types of music to listen to in my questionnaire.

My target audience’s main hobbies are listening to music, going to the gym and going shopping according to my questionnaire results. The fact that they like doing these things could also benefit me in that I could include them in the front cover and relate prizes to them, such as winning a new ipod or something similar. This way my magazine can appeal to its target audience even more.

Questionnaire results

In my questionnaire I used a variety of open and closed questions so that I would get a range of answers back. These are the questions I used, after modifying them slightly after getting feedback from class mates.
1)Are you male or female?
2)How old are you?
3)What are your hobbies? *
4)What type of music do you listen to?*
5) Name a music magazine you buy*
6)What type of device do you use to listen to your music?*
7)How do you currently gain access to your music?
8)How much more would you be persuaded to buy magazine if it was a hybrid genre magazine?
9)How often do you buy music magazines?
10)How much would you spend on a music magazine?*
11)How regularly would you like a music magazine published?
12)What features would interest you into buying a magazine? *
13)What adverts do you prefer to see in a magazine?*

However, out of these I only chose some to analyse as I thought these questions would be most beneficial to me. The ones above with an asterix next to them are the ones I chose to analyse. I transferred the results of these particular questions into graphs and tables as well so that I could see the data more clearly and it was more easy to get conclusions about my target audience from it. Above you can see some photos I scanned in of my analysis of my questionnaire :).

My questionnaire

I have designed a questionnaire now that I am going to give out to 20 people to fill in. From this I can get a target audience profile and will know better about what their needs and wants are out of a music magazine. This way I will be able to make my magazine appeal to them more. However, the first questionnaire I handed out to one person was given back but I had comments from her saying that some of the questions weren't clear that perhaps it might look more appealing if some images or colour was given to it. Therefore I went back to edit my questionnaire, and gave it some colour and a bit more layout as well. You can see some screen shots I took of it above. I will now hand this out to 20 people and see what results I get back.