Pre-Liminary task Magazine.

My School magazine front cover.

The contents page for my School magazine, 

Pre-liminary Task - Photos

I took around 15 photos for my school magazine. None of these photos were taken in an organized photo shoot. i could have taken much better pictures. I had a lesson on taking good photos after the pre-liminary task had been competed. if i did not take photos for my school magazine, the images i got for my music magazine would have been of low standard. 

My Final Image

Before edit. 

After edit.

I edited this image in Adobe Photoshop. I had to edit out the background lighting and take away any blemishes on Paul's face.

My Magazine. Double page spread.

My Magazine. Contents page.

My Magazine. Front cover.

Evaluation - Music magazine

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

I have structured and created my magazine, using codes and conventions of Media. some of the codes and conventions i have used and portrayed in my magazine are; The Masthead, the layout of a music magazine and some of the pictures i have used.

 

I have used many different fonts throughout my magazine. I done this to make the magazine look more interesting, however, i decided to use a minimum amount of different fonts. 

- My contents page.

- The Contents Page Font.

 - The main headline on my front cover.

My contents page is original and simple. I started to form my contents page from a contents page i saw in the Top Of The Pops magazine. However i thought i would make my contents page different to other magazines. This is what makes my contents page original.

My theme for my music magazine is the genre of Pop. I think that my front cover makes that clear to the reader. I have previews of articles that will be in the magazine, E.g. Review of the charts. The background colour is suitable to a pop type magazine as it is bright and outstanding. This helped my pic the font and the colours of my fonts for the rest of the magazine. 

For my contents, i have listed what is going to be in the magazine and what page number. i also have various pictures on my contents page, this makes the contents page interesting. 

For my main headline i have used a separate font to the rest of the magazine, i did this to make the headline stand out and attract the readers attention. I downloaded this font on www.dafont.com. this website has been very useful to me, in making my music magazine. I like many things about this font. I particularly like that this font is simple and can be read easily

My Double page spread is much like, that of a professional magazine. I looked at many Pop magazines, as well as other magazines. i chose to base my double page spread on one that i saw in NME magazine. On my Double page spread i have the main article on one side of the double page and then on the other page i have a main picture that represents the article. 

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

When i was creating my music magazine, i was thinking of all the different social groups that would need to be thought about. The different social groups such as male, female, age, sex etc, will make up my target audience. I wanted to make my music magazine, so that it appeals to all social groups. If my magazine does appeal to all social groups then it will be successful and sell. i need to include suitable content, the layout of the magazine and the design. Different layouts, designs and content of a magazine will appeal to different social groups. On my contents page i have included the website of my magazine. This is where anyone can find out information about the magazine. I have also stated the Twitter and Facebook page. This makes the magazine more suitable to the social people, as they will know about my magazine via social websites. On my contents page i have outlined that there is a free soundtrack CD, that comes with the magazine. This makes my magazine unique as my not all magazines include a free soundtrack in their magazines. The ideology of my magazine is relatively clear from the font cover of my magazine. It is about gossip, mainly celebrity gossip. 

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

I have done a wide range of institutional research. During my time of making my music magazine, i have taken on many different roles; An editor, photographer, an interviewer and a journalist. This helped me to construct my magazine to my full potential. The institutional roles that i took on, fit perfectly into a professional practise context.  I think that my magazine could be sold by a big publishing group or an independent group, however i think that my magazine would sell better if it is sold by a large publishing group such as IPC Media and bauer media group. As the Web (Internet), is quickly advancing, i thought that, not all of my potential target audience will buy my magazine. This is why i have included a website page, a Facebook page and a Twitter page. This is where my audience can read about the current issue of the magazine as well as other things that revolve about my magazine.

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

When i thought about my target audience for my magazine, i was unsure. If i had a younger teen audience, then not many magazines would get sold, as the typical average teen would not buy a magazine, they would just look this up on the web. i found this out from my survey and questionnaire, If i had an older audience then i would have to make my magazine sophisticated and not to fun. If the magazine contained lots of competitions pictures etc, then not many adults would look to buy the magazine. This is why i chose my target audience to be in the age range of 12-22. This is my age range, so this way i can include what i would want to read in the magazine, it can be well adapted to my age group. My survey also told me that most of the 12-22 year age range preferred 'pop' music. Demographically i found out that my magazine would classify with the categories B, C1 and C2. 

and psychographically are for people known as 'Yaks' (Outgoing, Young, Single) or 'Yuppies' (Professional, young).I feel that other people that are not included within my target audience, would look at my magazine and the context of the magazine as unsophisticated. Some of the fonts i have used, wouldn't be used in a high class' magazine. The fonts are retro. My audience research was completely how i expected it to be. I thought that my target audience would be teenagers to young adults. 

 

5.How did you attract/address your audience?

I feel that the main thing that attracts my target audience to my magazine is the features of my magazine. I have listed some of the articles on the front cover of the magazine. This gives the reader information on what the magazine consists of. I have used the codes and conventions of media, to attract my audience. The 'hotspot' of the magazine is the top half of the magazine. This is where i have included the subtitles, the mast head and the teaser of a free CD. The 'hotspots' are at the top, because when the magazine is on a shelf, it can be visible. My magazine has a unique selling point, as i have free gift included, and i have repeated it on on front cover and contents. On my magazine, the picture of the two man band takes up the nearly the whole page. As the 'Superstars' are nearly taking up the whole page, this is the first thing the reader will see. This is what will make the reader buy the magazine. The colours i have used are also unique. The picture and the masthead stands out from the background. This makes the front cover easily visible. The mode of address i have adopted for my front cover is relatively straight forward. I have made it so it stands out, i have also included information on it, so that the reader knows what they are going to be reading. As for the contents page, i have adopted a stylistic mode of address. I have used many pictures, to make the contents page eye catching. The double page spread is straight to the point with the text, it also has a picture that takes up a whole page. 

I want my magazine to be recognised throughout the UK. This is why i would market my magazine, where ever possible. I would start to market my magazine in local newsagents, and then take it up to big supermarkets. If my magazine was on an advert on the television or the radio, then it would gain popularity

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

I had no experience of using the Apple Mac, before i started Media Studies. I have had to learn and adapt to using the Apple Mac over a standard Windows PC. I have learnt to use most of the Apple Mac applications/software. Pages, Photoshop and iPhoto have been the main programs i have learnt to use in constructing my music magazine. 

Adobe Photoshop.

iPhoto

I also have learnt to use professional cameras. My teacher also gave me a lesson on how to structure a photo shot. I learnt that i need to plan the lighting and the angles of the shot. This makes the image more precise and professional. Without such applications such as Adobe Photoshop and Pages, i would not have been able to construct a decent magazine. For instance, Adobe Photoshop is needed to edit photos. I needed the programme Pages, to construct and put together my magazine. I could not have made my magazine on any other programme. I have learnt to use this software from the start of the school year. I do not think i had any limitations, as i did not know how to use the software and technologies before i started this course. I think this was mainly because the Apple Macs have so many useful programmes. However if i had learnt how to use such software as Photoshop and Pages more fluently, then i feel i would have been able to make my magazine look more professional. 

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

When i first took on the Pre-liminary task, i was unconfident about Media Studies. I did not know how to use the Apple Macs, I did not know of any software that was on the Apple Macs. Therefore i had to learn how to use the Macs. This decreased my time to complete my Pre-liminary task. This is why my front cover of the school magazine was rushed and put together at the last minute. My school magazine looked dull as my picture were scattered all over the place i have text over text, this is going against the codes and conventions of Media. Their wasn't enough detail on the front cover either, i have learnt, that there needs to be information on articles inside the magazines on the front cover as sub titles, this entices the reader in to buying the magazine. As for the contents page, there was a picture as the background, and coloured text boxes overlapping the picture. The picture was of a girl, it had no relevance to the contents page. My contents page had random colours and fonts, it did not match my front cover at all. This goes against the codes and conventions of media. I felt that i did not have much time to complete me school magazine, this is why it was of low quality.

If i compare my Preliminary task to my music magazine, there is a huge difference is quality and the understanding of codes and conventions. After having a greater knowledge on the music industry, cameras and a 'good' photo shot, i was set on accomplishing my music magazine to a high order. My music magazine follows most of the codes and conventions of Media such as; the 'Hotspots' of a magazine. An example of a problem-solving decision i made was to re-create an image i found in another magazine for my magazine article. As i had taken various diffrent pictures in mass, i had a few images that fit in perfect with my article. However placing the text and knowing what to write on the article was the real challenge. The ammount i have learnt over this term about the Media industry and the many technologies that surronded by it is extrodianary. 

The link to our conversation about moving from the Pre-Liminary task to the Music magazine:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeKRtVZ_MVg