Full Evaluation

For my magazine front cover, I looked at the metal magazines that follow a common convention. My front cover includes a long shot of the model, cover lines, promotions, mast head, colour scheme, features, date price, bar code and additional photos of the interior. I kept these traditional conventions in order to appeal to my target audience, yet interest a wider audience. 

I also used the advice from my Target Audience Questionnaires, that can be found, here, here and here.

The masthead I used follows the common conventions of any magazine. I followed the typical conventions of columns on my contents page also; however I wasn't satisfied with just using those. So I then decided to examine various magazines in order to get an idea of how to make my magazine look professional. I looked at a variety of different magazines such as music and fashion.

Whilst doing my primary research, I found out that my target audience preferred simple layout, and also discovered that the majority were most attracted to a magazine by its front cover, so I worked hard to make this part of the product look right.  Through my research into magazine front covers, I found out that magazine layouts can vary massively. However, I decided to stick with the views of my audience and that is why I chose to have a simple, but very effective front cover, contents page and double page spread. I also decided to stick with one main image on the front cover with two smaller at the side, in order to make my magazine cover look concise and not too crowded and to also advertise the posters inside it.

When photographing my main image, I decided to stick with conventions and have a full body long shot, as whilst I was conducting my research of magazines on the market this type of image was frequently used to show what they are wearing and what they are doing/holding.  

In my research when I was looking at magazines, I found that my target audience liked a distinct colour scheme throughout magazines, and whilst the majority preferred darker tones, many also liked to see bright bold colours, so I decided to include a mixture of both, and chose a bold red against subtle colours.

My front cover, contents page and double page spread all had the same colour schemes of red, black, whites. I decided to choose these colours specifically as I thought they would entice the audience; however they also matched well with my main image.

As I mentioned before, I placed my masthead at the top of my magazine’s front cover, as this was a frequent convention used. This was more appealing in my opinion. On my contents page I followed the conventions of using columns of information and right hand third. Finally, on my double page spread, I have the name of the magazine and a page number at the bottom of the page following the magazine’s colours scheme. I also took some quotes out from the interview and made them larger.  I used these conventions, because after looking at the magazines already established – most of them seem to follow these conventions and they work well. Also, it was really important to come up with a good name for my magazine that would reflect the style of my media text

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

For my contents page, I also included the traditional conventions of this media product. I included distinct columns with features of the magazine, striking images, a colour scheme, texts boxes with mini thumbnails and logos for bands in the magazine. I included captions under my thumbnail images as I found this was a frequent convention used by magazines available of a similar genre, Kerrang, Terrorizer and Metal Hammer.

I also followed the conventions by using columns of information contents page, as it correlated with my primary research that shown audiences like to see a magazine with clear and concise presentation of information. I also examined at other work of my peers around me and asked for their feedback, whilst they all agreed it would look unprofessional to disregard the traditional column format, so I stuck to the convention.

From this, for my final draft I added more traditional conventions that would attract readers and make it more enticing. I found that analysing a range of magazines on the market enabled me to study what works and what doesn’t, giving me more knowledge of what techniques would benefit my own magazine.

For my Double Page Spread, I included a variety of typical conventions however I also wanted to create more of an alternative look for this area to suit my target audience and music genre. To do this, I included traditional conventions such as a main image and page numbers, but I added 3 smaller images to the bottom and experimented with fonts and also with font size to produce a more creative unique look. In addition to this, I continued the colour scheme I have used throughout for continuity in order to make my media product to appear more professional and sophisticated. I also made sure the design was not too childish and fitted my audience of people aged 16-28.

Double page spread

I made sure my image for my double page spread was similar to the one on the front page, showing they were connected. I chose to go with a different model for my double page spread as my new model suited a different version of my target audience.

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

I think my media product represents particular social groups in a variety of ways. Firstly, the music genre of my magazine as a heavy metal music magazine is very appropriate and appealing towards teenagers and young adults and is a very popular genre at the moment. 

I think this helps to highlight the interest many people within this age range have for this genre. Additionally, I think the outfits and accessories I used on my models for my images were important, as many young adults and teenagers are fashion conscious today despite their individual style. 

Alternative fashion, stood with guitar. 

Long hair, typical band tee, leather jacket, cameos and chains

Head band, Guitar, dark tee and combats

Prosthetic horns and skull mask

I also feel that the theme I used throughout my magazine relates to the style that my audience would admire and prefer.  My images all have a simplistic appeal yet they have the ability to look bold, look eye-catching and effective due to the contrast of the model against the white space and some images have a contrasting, busy background to represent their lives. I feel this nature helps to reflect the social group I appealed to whilst corresponding with my primary research, in which audience said they preferred a concise and cool appearance throughout the product, yet the contrasting images and layout can also be appealing. The contrast of colours makes the pages come to life, as the (lack of) brightness and contrast edits have helped portray my target audience.

Colour curves

Furthermore, when producing my media product, I also took into thought what sort of layout my target audience would prefer. For example I placed the double page spread in a quite alternative way, as I felt this would attract my target group and make them want to look at more of the magazine. When creating my magazine, I also aimed to my piece looking over-crowded, so included a minimal amount of white space, by gradating a white pattern on the black background, to ensure that my product gave off a professional and presentable appearance, yet also appealing to my target audience. 

Screen shot of the gradient on my DPS

I also feel that the articles and content of my interview will help to represent particular social groups and make them attract to the magazine due to the descriptive style I wrote it in. By taking into consideration my target audience opinions I will help my magazine appeal to them as well as being relevant.

Where most magazines use the male gaze, I don't. I don't even use women in my magazine, because this eliminates the illusion women create. This is because the majority of my audience is male and are looking for music related information and articles, instead of women.

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

My media product would be distributed in small shops. It could also be sold at festivals and other concerts, as lovers of the magazine’s target audience would most likely visit these events frequently. My product could also be sold as a webzine, as it is mainly aimed at the 16-30 age range that would be able to access the magazine via smartphone or tablet. 

I would also have my magazine distributed during music gigs or festivals, as it is a large platform for my product and would attract a wide variety of people, making it more popular. I could also consider having the magazine sold at gigs and concerts as during society today an extremely wide range of people attend concerts, which is a large advantage as it increases the likeliness of the magazine becoming noticed and developing into a large name as the extensive publicity it has gained.

I would use a smaller distribution company to distribute my magazine into shops; I would do this because I want to keep the price of my magazine low so that my target audience of students can afford it and a bigger company may exploit this and increase the price. I would bring out my magazine every two weeks because I would not want my target audience spending money every week on my magazine because they may become fed up of having to spend the money every week so they may be glad to have the week gap and it will leave them waiting to buy the next issue. I decided not to have the magazine monthly because my audience may not want to wait that long so they may buy other music magazines that my magazine is in competition with.  I could also design a website for people who do not buy magazines often so that it would be a multi-media magazine making it more popular on the web, and also it would be seen by more people as the internet is one of the fastest growing forms of media. 

My magazine would promote the website inside of it and the website would promote the magazine, this would show two different mediums working together. I would have to use a small production company as well since my magazine would be new on the market I would not be able to be vertically or horizontally integrated, so I would have to use a separate company for both distribution and production.   

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

I chose my target audience because they are the audience that I fit into, and they would be the easiest to interview when I would need my audience feedback. I also chose this target audience because they provide a wide range of variation in the metal stereotypes. This was shown by the reader profiles, from them, it made my initial peer research and questionnaires easier. 

I found that most people my age distinctively knew what they looked for in a music magazine, which made my research easier to conduct. I then made my magazine to target my own age group as I would know what appeals to this age and above, so concluded to the 16-30 age criteria. 

I found it considerably easy to appeal to this audience as I correspond to the target, enabling me to use my own personal preference as to what would appeal to me in a music magazine of the Heavy metal genre, so my choice in specific genre was also due to my personal influence, as well as the majority of people who completed my questionnaire. I felt that the mixed genre offered a lot of opportunities in style as it is a versatile and evidently very appealing to the majority, so tried a punk feel to my front cover. The varieties can be found here.

The typical reader for my magazine would be student criteria who are interested in heavy metal, death metal, dijent and other core genres. They would enjoy going to concerts and discovering new music from upcoming artists whilst being passionate about hearing from their old favorites too. 

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I addressed my audience by using such things as gig guides and competitions on the front cover of the magazine and by using a title that would catch student’s eyes. My audience feedback showed that my target audience liked the layout of the magazine and the font but nearly all the people I asked said that they would like a much better gig guide. 

I used a large photo of a band member on the front cover but some of my audience feedback said that it was too out of focus, I think this may have been due to the print out but I could edit the photo on the computer to make this photo better. The main thing that my audience feedback showed was that my target audience like a wide range of music so if I did another issue of the magazine I would include many more genres. In order to make my magazine appealing to my audience, I looked in detail at the questionnaires and interviews I gave so I could be certain at what my target audience wanted. 

From my primary research I concluded that the target audience was most attracted to a concise layout that was not too cluttered with information and images. 

As my research also shown that the audience was most attracted to the front cover when buying a magazine I made sure that the cover was striking enough to stand out on a shelf against competitors. From this I decided on an unusual but musically related name such as ‘Insurrection’, and made sure my masthead stood out against the page yet looked classy and professional, and coupled with its meaning (violent uprising). I done this as I felt it would help attract the reader, rather than over-powering them with a distracting masthead that took away from the magazines image and content. This colour scheme also helped to create a sophisticated theme, which flowed throughout my magazine, included on the front cover, contents page and double page spread.

I also feel that the appropriate images i used help to attract my readers and make them want to read on. I tried to make my images look professional as possible, and did a considerable amount of manipulation in Photoshop in order to make them appeal hard-core, which was a favorable quality according to my primary research, as the target audience are edgy and hard-core. 

I also feel that the price is a significant element to attract readers, as from my primary research I found the majority would be willing to pay between £2.00 to £3.99. I also wanted to keep to this price as I found it quite reasonable and thought that if it were any more expensive, people within my age range would not be willing to pay. For my DPS i specifically chose to make the article more text heavy than just filled with pictures as I felt this appeared more professional and would suit the needs of the music fans that would read my magazine and want to know all the latest news in a specific detail.

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

I have learnt a lot more about technology such as Photoshop while I have been making the music magazine, when I started I had a very limited use of Photoshop but I can now use many different tools to my advantage to make the magazine look better. I have also expanded my knowledge of Microsoft paint as I used this for the layouts of my drafts and the drafts themselves. I still have a lot more to learn with Photoshop but I have learnt enough to be able to do this project again but to a better level. I learned to use sites light DaFont slightly because I needed to edit some text for the titles on the top of each page of my magazine. 

This helped because it let me use another editing program other than Photoshop so gave me a wider range of skills on the computer. We also used blogger to record all our planning and put our final products on the site, this taught us how to use a new method instead of just printing the work off. I like how we use blogger as it is an easy way to display all the work we had done in one place and it also made it easy to organised work and not to lose it. 

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

I have improved my skills in media since the introduction assignment we did which was the front cover for the Haggerston sixth form magazine. When I did this it was very basic because my use of Photoshop was very limited and I did not know much about the conventions of a magazine. But by doing the music magazine project I have learned about the conventions and my use of Photoshop has greatly improved. If I was to do the college magazine work again I am sure that I could improve it by using the skills that I have learnt and get it to a better quality.

This project has taught me some good skills that I could use in future projects if I wanted to go into media related work of line or into an other faction . I also feel where i had not done media before, i was limited in the technical ways, language and procedure, but this course has helped a lot. 

Question 1

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

For my contents page, I also included the traditional conventions of this media product. I included distinct columns with features of the magazine, striking images, a colour scheme, texts boxes with mini thumbnails and logos for bands in the magazine. I included captions under my thumbnail images as I found this was a frequent convention used by magazines available of a similar genre, Kerrang, Terrorizer and Metal Hammer.

I also followed the conventions by using columns of information contents page, as it correlated with my primary research that shown audiences like to see a magazine with clear and concise presentation of information. I also examined at other work of my peers around me and asked for their feedback, whilst they all agreed it would look unprofessional to disregard the traditional column format, so I stuck to the convention.

From this, for my final draft I added more traditional conventions that would attract readers and make it more enticing. I found that analysing a range of magazines on the market enabled me to study what works and what doesn’t, giving me more knowledge of what techniques would benefit my own magazine.

For my Double Page Spread, I included a variety of typical conventions however I also wanted to create more of an alternative look for this area to suit my target audience and music genre. To do this, I included traditional conventions such as a main image and page numbers, but I added 3 smaller images to the bottom and experimented with fonts and also with font size to produce a more creative unique look. In addition to this, I continued the colour scheme I have used throughout for continuity in order to make my media product to appear more professional and sophisticated. I also made sure the design was not too childish and fitted my audience of people aged 16-28.

Double page spread

I made sure my image for my double page spread was similar to the one on the front page, showing they were connected. I chose to go with a different model for my double page spread as my new model suited a different version of my target audience.