Friday, 11 March 2011
Evaluation
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
To start with, i needed to research an array of different music magazines. By looking at a wide range (different genre's, target audiences, ect.) i could see the similarities and most important of all, differences in the development, layout, colour schemes and so on. Several magazines inspired me with good designs, Q for example and it's excellent colour scheme of Red, black, grey and white. After looking through the magazines i had to decide on my genre. I went for Big band/pop because it is very popular and it is relatively uncovered in music magazines. But i did decide later on that i would also include Indie and regular pop to my list of genre's as it gives the people reading the magazine more choice and is generally a safe option. Most of the music magazines that i researched featured a regular interview of an artist. This, in most cases, came in the form of a DPS. I figured they did this because it looks proffesional, looks more and includes big, glossy pictures of the artist. i figured that a good DPS interview was essential as it was the highlight of the magazine to a lot of young buyers of the magazine. The DPS usually followed a colour scheme which was carried on throughout the magazine. I decided not to in my magazine DPS i liked the DPS to be about the artist and the layout, colours and so on to resemble the person of whom the article was based on. Also, although a colour scheme can look proffessional, it can be a bit repetitive at times, which is were my magazine challenges others.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
To start with, i needed to research an array of different music magazines. By looking at a wide range (different genre's, target audiences, ect.) i could see the similarities and most important of all, differences in the development, layout, colour schemes and so on. Several magazines inspired me with good designs, Q for example and it's excellent colour scheme of Red, black, grey and white. After looking through the magazines i had to decide on my genre. I went for Big band/pop because it is very popular and it is relatively uncovered in music magazines. But i did decide later on that i would also include Indie and regular pop to my list of genre's as it gives the people reading the magazine more choice and is generally a safe option. Most of the music magazines that i researched featured a regular interview of an artist. This, in most cases, came in the form of a DPS. I figured they did this because it looks proffesional, looks more and includes big, glossy pictures of the artist. i figured that a good DPS interview was essential as it was the highlight of the magazine to a lot of young buyers of the magazine. The DPS usually followed a colour scheme which was carried on throughout the magazine. I decided not to in my magazine DPS i liked the DPS to be about the artist and the layout, colours and so on to resemble the person of whom the article was based on. Also, although a colour scheme can look proffessional, it can be a bit repetitive at times, which is were my magazine challenges others.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
As mentioned in my treatment sheet, i will be iming the magazine at "the young generation", ages 16-25. I feel that my magazine can be enjoyed by a much wider range but my main target audience is late-teens. I used a refreshing colour scheme (as the title suggests a refreshing read!) of Blue, green and silver. The main word was "fresh" and so i wanted an uncluttered and simple front cover and to let the colour scheme and picture attract the readers eye instead of the words. However, this magazine is not for what some people would call "the stereotypical teenager". This is a genre of music growing in popularity amongst young people and as no other current music magazine specialises in it, there is a massive gap in the market. I have kept text to a minimum because typical teenagers prefer images rather than acres of dull text. The right images can also give out a lot of information. Any text is eyecatching, informative and kept to a minimum.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
I have aimed my music magazine at people of both genders in their late-teens. I have done so because both male and female tennagers are starting to grow an interest in the genre covered in my magazine. The magazine and articles are not biased to a single gender and regularly feature both male and female bands/artists. The design is also not based on what one gender would prefer, for example, pink colour scheme for the girls. By taking this all on board i hope that i have created a magazine that is for both genders to read and enjoy!
How did you attract/address your audience?
My audience was people in their late-teens and so i used pictures to attract them to the front cover. I felt that a good colour scheme was essential and i feel that is were my magazine is strong. It is professional looking and that encourages the reader to carry on through the rest of the magazine. Addressing a teen is a challenge but i decided the best way was not to cram the page with information, use plenty of colour and pictures, and keep text to a minimum. Also, the names of the featured artists in big, attractive fonts attracted tem to viewing my magazine.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
As i mentioned before, students and people in their-late teens are who the magazine is aimed at but it can be enjoyed by anybody of any age. The magazine is affordable as it comes out once a month andis packed full of lot's of music related articles ect. the reason why i say it is full all ages (14 + really) is because it features serious articles and reviews as well as music and funny, light-hearted stuff.
What kind of media institution might distribute your magazine and why?
The likely institutes are colleges, universities and maybe shops like HMV or Zavvi as they, like my magazine, target the same teenage audience. Also, around a college word will spread quickly about the quality of the magazine and students are more likely to give feedback on how we could improve the magazine. they would distribute my magazine for many reasons. One of the main being that mine covers different genre's than the usual mag but also because they are more likely to distribute it than shops as shop's have a reputation to keep, they have plenty of other magazines and they will probably be more difficult to impress and will want more copies than a college or university. Also, colleges want to give new mags a chance and once the mag is well known then students could help create it. Maybe for free so it can go on their CV, or as a task for the media/graphics students.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product
I used GIMP 2.6 for a lot of my work on designing the magazine. I used it for my preliminary task aswell but i used things new to me this time such as editing the colour and cropping the pictures. The result of this technology was that i was able to manipulate my images into more proffessional and desired images which then made the magazine look more proffessional. As before i used Publisher for my actual designs and drafts of covers, contents and DPS's. I learnt two new tricks which improved my magazine and those were the transparancy tool and the image order tool. I used a 12 mega pixel camera in this progect, considerably more than the last time. This meant that the quality of the images was higher. Overall, this time around i felt much more confident about using the technology and needed little assisstance.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back i think that the main thing that has changed is my confidence to use more advanced technology. I feel that this has been shown in the quality of my work and compared to last time there is a noticable difference. Programs like GIMP 2.6 and Publisher have become much easier for me to use thanks to the practice of the preliminary tasks. Furthermore, i have learnt about identifying my target audience and creating the magazine to THEIR design. I have also learnt that if you don't stick to a plan, the work piles up- fast!
FINAL CONTENTS PAGE!!!
This is my finished contents page. A little different than what i first planned but came out better than what i was expecting.
Definetly the FINAL COVER!!!
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