Evaluation

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

Before I constructed my front cover, contents page and double page spread, I anlaysed existing magazines. This research enabled me to establish conventions used in existing magazines and therefore gave me ideas of what conventions i should I could use on my own media product.

FRONT COVER:

The first most obvious convention for the front cover is to have the masthead in the top left hand corner. I have seen this in the majority of music magazine so I think it would look silly in another position, for example on the right or bottom. I decided to use a pug which advertised winning tickets for Reading & Leeds Festival. The whole point of a pug is to advertise something or attract customers in. Pugs can be cheesy because they are normally loud bright colours to be eyecatching but I felt this went with my bright colour scheme so therefore didn't look cheap. If my magazine had a black and white serious colour scheme it wouldn't go at all and look completely out of place. I think it made my magazine look more realistic because it is a covention used in a lot of existing magazines. In a lot of magazines I have seen a medium close up of the main model on the front cover. I want to replicate this because I think it makes the main model look dominant and it will really stand out on a shelf. Also it is very important for the image to have great eye contact with the audience as it will attract readers. It creates a personal relationship between the model and the reader. In addition to this I placed the model's head infront of the masthead, meaning that you slightly can't read ERA. However, I made my media productassuming it was a real product which meant that the audience do not need to see the whole of the masthead because they already recognise it from the logo and font style. A lot of existing music magazines do this. Again it puts more focus on the main model.
At the bottom of the page I put the name of the main feature, Harlie Anne. When making the magazine I assumed Harlie Anne was a celebrity so by including a large image of her and her name in a large font, it will attract customers, especially her fans. I got this idea from the Q edition featuring Cheryl Cole.

Another convention I used was including a barcode, date and issue number which are all obvious things that make a magazine look more realistic and every magazine has them. If I didn't use them it would severely impact on the reality of my media product.

There were also some ways that I challenged conventions. When analysing existing magazines, I found that the majority of them had the strapline at the top. However, on my front cover the strapline was on the bottom because I felt that there was more space there and it looked better. Also I included three little images of the main model besides the large image which is very uncommon. Howver, I wanted to emphasise the importance of her and ERA getting an exclusive interview with her. Also it showed her in different situations and outfits which will attract the audience because they may want to see more pictures. I think it is important to not challenge a lot of conventions used by existing magazines because they are obviously very successful and you can still make your magazine look unique using the same conventions. It is important to follow conventions because it's what the consumers know and can relate to.

CONTENTS:

A convention I followed was using the same colour scheme as the front cover so it was inkeeping with the theme. This continuity ties all of the magazine together and the audience will sublimily notice it. I think it makes my front cover appear more professional and realistic. I think it was important to include secondary images to emphasise the point that the magazine isn't whole about the main story, Harlie Anne. It makes the magazine seem more busy and interesting. It is rare to find existing magazines with only images relating to the main story in the contents. I also put numbers on the pictures to make it easy for the audience to navigate through the magazine and it is a convention used by well known magazines.When researching and getting ideas from other magazines, I discovered that a lot of them have capitals or a bold font for the title of the story, followed by a little summary underneath in lower case. This is why I decided to use that convention.

I used ERA in the contents page in the same font style as the masthead to again exaggerate continuity. I then did a similar font style for the word contents so I kept in theme with the edgey and modern impression. Underneath this was a small picture of the front cover which I have seen being used in other magazines. All of these conventions illustrate a professional and realistic impression.

My contents only takes up one page which I suppose could be an example of using coventions or challenging conventions because I have also seen a lot of double page contents. I wanted to create a busy and hectic contents page which I think is best illustrated on a smaller page.

It is very common to see the title contents at the top of the page, which relates to the masthead's position. However, my contents page is unique in the way the

word contents is actually vertical. I think it makes my page look youthful and quirky and at the same time doesn't take up a lot of space. Another way I challenged conventions is the use of the splattered effect background. In a lot of magazines I have looked at, the contents page background has been block colours.

DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD:

My double page spread uses a lot of conventions which include equal columns, a lot of text due to the small font, a little summary before going into the interview, the ERA logo at the end of the interview and the use of page numbers and website at the bottom of the page. My page numbers are in the same style of the ones used in the contents, white numbers inside a red box. Again this emphasises continuity and professionalism. I think all of these coventions make the page seem more realistic and smart.

Again my double page spread is inkeeping with the colour scheme of black, red and white both used on the front cover and contents page.

It is very common for a large image to take up 1 page or nearly 1 page of the double page spread, which relates to mine. I also used smaller images of the same model to express her in different situations and it creates a more interesting appearance of the page.

In a lot of double page spreads I have seen a large quote which is seperated from the rest of the text. It is usually in between a question or text but I placed it near the model's mouth to show that the words are coming from her own mouth. This is important because the interview illustrates how when she was younger she was controlled by other people in everything she did and she didn't no her real self as she was so constrained. A quote attracts people into reading the story because it gives them a little snippet of the extract but not telling enough, making them curious and therefore read on. My quote is an example of this "What 18 year old doesn't..." because you want to find out what this is in reference to. I followed the covention of having the title and columns spread across two pages because it emphasises the point double page spread. The whole point of it is to make like one big page that all relates instead of having two seperate pages. In addition to this I kept within the rule of when the page is folded it will not interrupt any text or images. This is very significant because it would drastically impact on the the page looking unprofessional and make it hard to read the text.

I believe that my extreme close up image used in some way challenges conventions because I believe it is more common to have a longer shot of the model. Close ups are widely used on front covers. In that way, the image makes my double page spread unique compared to existing pages and creates an interesting appearance. I also have a blind effect background which I have never seen before in other magazines. The blind effect creates different shades of colours aswell.

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

My media product represents indie/rock fans. This is portrayed through the look of the model. This includes her black hat, leather jacket and her shaggy bright hair. Also the font style of the ERA masthead relates to the rock genre because it is edgy and quirky. I decided to use white models for all of my models so this shows that my media product represents white people. My media product represents late teenagers which is portrayed through my young main model used on the front cover who is a similar age to the audience. Youth is also expressed through the bright, modern colour scheme. My main model, Harlie Anne attracts men because she is attractive and has a seductive pose. At the same time women would aspire to her and envy her because of her quirky style and good looks. I noticed that using white people for models was a convention of existing rock magazines which is why I did it aswell. Stereotypically, rock magazines are associated with white people whereas rap and R&B magazines are associated with black people.

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

A media institution that might distribute my media product is Kerrang, a rock

music magazine published by Bauer Consumer Media in the United Kingdom. The Bauer Media Group (Bauer Verlagsgruppe) is a large German publishing company based in Hamburg, which operates in 15 countries worldwide. Since the company

was founded in 1875, it has been privately-owned and undermanagement by the Bauer family. It was formerly called Heinrich Bauer Verlag KG, abbreviated to HBV and usually shortened to H.Bauer. Worldwide circulation of Bauer Media Group's magazine titles amount to 38 million magazines a week. I think Bauer Consumer Media might distribute my media product because I think my magazine is very similar to Kerrang. This in the way how they both have a young audience and are both targeted at rock/indie fans. Also Kerrang usually has elements of loud colours and it has a similar font style to ERA. However, these similarities could be a major disdvantage. Bauer Consumer Media may feel that they are too similar and therefore rivals. In that case they will stay loyal to a long running, well known successful magazine opposed to a new substitute.

On the other hand, Bauer Consumer Media distributes magazines that attract more mature audiences aswell, for example Q. Q started out as a music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom. Originally it was to be called Cue (named after the act of cueing a record to play), but the name was changed so that it wouldn't be mistaken for a snooker magazine. Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth felt the music press of the time ignored a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs. Q was first published in 1986, setting itself apart from much of the other music press with monthly production and higher standards of photography and printing, with an emphasis on style. This shows that Bauer Consumer Media distribute a wide range of magazines. Kerrang and Q both are associated with rock music though, similar to my magazine. This means that Bauer Consumer Media may be more open to distributing my magazine as they accept a lot of different magazines.

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

My media product is aimed at older teenagers that follow rock/indie music. A typical person of my audience is outlined in an earlier post on my blog. These images are typical people that I am targeting my media products at.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I wanted my media product to clearly represent the rock/indie music genre to attract my youthful audience. I did this in many ways including having a a young main model, Harlie Anne that has a rocky, quirky style. This is portrayed through her dark clothes including a leather jacket, her pale face, dark smokey eyes, bright red lips and her intimidating pose but at the same time being seductive and mysterious. Also, the bright colour scheme reflects the modern and vibrant audience. But I made sure I used a lot of black elements because the dark colour is stereotypically associated with the rock genre. White is also used a lot in existing magazines because it is a contrast to black and other colours so everything stands out o it. Another way that the rock genre is represented is through the masthead font style. The font is called masterplan which I found on dafont.com. It has a rough, patchy, faded appearance which looks modern and edgey. This relates to my main model and therefore my target audience. Most existing magazines use celebrities as the main image on their front cover because the audience are very interested in celebrities lifestyles so therefore it attracts people as they want to read about there favourite artists. For example, Cheryl Cole's edition in Q. In relation to this I produced by music magazine on the assumption that my main model, Harlie Anne was a famous artist. I made this clear by her name being prominent in a large font on the front cover. In doing this it means it will attract her fans. This is especially significant to the story because it is about her comeback with a new style and attitude. People will be very interested in finding out about her new style. Also Harlie Anne's good looks and endeering pose will attract men into buying the magazine and women who aspire to help. I used persuasive and inviting text to attract people into buying my magazine. This includes having exciting words such as exclusive which make the sentence stand out more. For example my strapline, "exclusive interview and images inside" is far more interesting that just having interview and images inside. There is not a lot of text but enough to give an idea of what is inside. I found that images and colour scheme were more important than text because they stand out more on a shelf. The text uses normal everyday language which attracts readers as it's not intimidating. The readers are more interested about the music than a high use of special vocabulary words. Two of the stories use rheotorical questions which are "Do you know the real Harlie Anne?" and "Just friends?" This is a very clever technique as it is a subtle persuasive way of making the audience read the magazine to find out the answers. In addition to this, my pug is a way of attracting people because it stands out and is about a chance of winning reading & leeds festival tickets. It was important to have a prize that my target audience would want, otherwise it would be pointless. Reading and Leeds festival are both young festivals that mostly include rock/indie artists which relates to young teenage rock/indie fans, my target audience.

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

Before i took my photos I bought a new camera so I could produce high quality photos and therefore make my magazine look realistic. My digital camera is an Olympus FE-5020. It is 12 megapixels and has 5x wide zoom. It was excellent when taking my photos as I could change so many features to suit the image. I did encounter a few problems when taking my photos in the dark. Obviously I had to use the flash but I felt like the flash made the model's face too bright. However, this was easily overcome by changing the flash and lighting effects. It was also very easy to copy the images from the camera onto the computer. The main piece of technology I learnt from was photoshop which I used to produce my media product. I have previous experience on it from GCSE and the preliminary task for this coursework but I still felt like a beginner. I did have a slight advantage over the people with no experience and never had done the subject before. I think it helped with a lot of practise and patience because photoshop can be very irritating when it doesn't do the things you want it to. A thing that was particulary annoying was when I wanted to place the main model's head infront of the masthead. This is because she had to be cut out and then placed perfectly on top so everything matched up correctly. Then I had to neaten up the edges with the eraser. This process did take quite a long time but I think it was worth it as it produced a proffessional and effective appearance to the front cover. I also found little things that I never knew of such as the burning tool. Little things like these made a big impact on my media product such as creating a more dark and powerful impression on the double page spread. The dodge tool does the opposite of this by adding light to specific areas which makes them less dull and prominent. Another piece of technology I used during this project was a blog. Instead of having a folder, I had to upload all my work on a blog. Blogger is very easy to use when adding, editing posts and it allows you to do things such as online polls. Doing a questionnaire by hand would mean printing a lot of copies, handing them out and having to add up all of the results which is time consuming and tedious. Having it online means you can just send people the link and it calculates the results by itself. It is simple and quick. Another advantage of blogger is that it eliminates the large amount of time spent on making a folder look attractive. The main benefits of blogger is that it is simple, quick and teachers can help you at anytime because they have access to this. In relation, I can access it anywhere including my home and school.

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

For my preliminary task I had to produce a front cover and contents page for a school magazine. This was in aid of having a practise on photoshop, to help with the construction of my front cover, contents page and double page spread for my music magazine. This also enabled me to compare the two and therefore show the improvements I made. A major factor distinguishing between the two tasks is the amount of time spent on them. For the preliminary task we only had a few weeks worth of lessons whereas we spent a much longer time period on the full product. I even downloaded a trial version of photoshop on my laptop at home because I felt that lessons were not long enough and enabled me to be detailed with my product. I did all of my preliminary task in the lessons provided. The length of time clearly reflects in the quality of the product. I think my final product looks far more professional and realistic compared to my preliminary task. I think it is important to outline that the preliminary task was done before the analysis of magazines and not a lot of research was done before producing this. For the full product I did a lot of analysis of existing magazines to get ideas and more importantly to make sure my product includes coventions of existing successful magazines. This is a big advantage to the making of my product. Also doing a questionnaire enabled me to see what my target audience like and expect that I could include in my music magazine. It was very important to get feedback on my ideas because I wanted my magazine to be effective and successful.It was very important to get feedback on my ideas because I wanted my magazine to be effective and successful. Overall, alot of research was done before producing the final piece and everything was thought about beforehand in a lot of detail. For example, when it came to the photoshoot I planned it out detailed beforehand which included locations, clothing, make-up, poses, hair, lighting, props, backgrounds and what pages it would be on. When producing my preliminary task I was quite basic with the use of photoshop and I think that came across in the cheesy and cheap appearance of the school magazine. In comparison, I learnt many skills on photoshop when producing my music magazine including opacity levels, blur effects and the tools I mentioned above such as the dodge tool and burning tool. Little effects like this contributed to giving my final product a smart and realistic appearance. I paid attention to every little detail which included postioning, how much to tilt something and making sure everything tied in together. My final product has a clear colour scheme of black, white and red throughout all 2 pages whereas in my preliminary task there was no continued use of a colour scheme or theme.