Evaluation: Question 7

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

    The progress I made from the preliminary task of creating the college magazine to my final piece, the Indie music magazine, has been huge. I have greatly improved my abilities when using the software at hand.
    Looking back at my preliminary task, I feel that I have now learnt and understand the forms and conventions of a magazine. I can now put this into practice to make a successful magazine. I understand how music magazines use unique techniques and features to draw their target audience in.
    For my research I did the bare minimum for my preliminary task, I briefly browsed the internet to find some college magazines. I found one called, 'College', it was an american magazine but it had all the concepts that I liked. Other than the inspiration I took from that, my college magazine was purely based upon my own ideas for a magazine. For my final piece, the research was meticulous. I researched the cover, contents and double page spreads of other media products such as 'Q' and 'NME'. Thus giving me knowledge about codes and conventions. I gathered knowledge of props, models and locations that I should use for the mise-en-scene of my final piece. I also researched institutions such as IPC Media and Bauer Media. This gave me quantitative and qualitative information about the media industry. I have posted all of my research on blogger. This allowed me to find any information I needed during the process of making my magazine. You can see my research was of a much higher level than when I started with my preliminary task.
    When starting the production of  my preliminary task I had a limited amount of skill on Photoshop and InDesign making my product a poor quality. When it came to my final piece I had vastly improved my computer skills. I could now use the software to a decent level which helped improve the look of my magazine. The biggest changes from my preliminary to final product were seen in the contents page. I believe my final contents page was a massive improvement on my preliminary product. In the images used on my cover, contents and double page spread , there was evidence of my knowledge of mise-en-scene by using the guitar microphone and other props as well as location and costumes. Other improvements in my production was due to the demonstration of media conventions through all three pieces. I used some ideas taken from the contents page and double page spreads of 'NME' and 'Q' to influence my own. But at the same time I managed to keep my style 'Indie' and unique which follows the genre of the magazine. All the fonts I used throughout the magazine I found through using InDesign and believe that they would help to represent the style of my magazine. I kept a house font throughout my product it was called 'Baskerville' I tried to use this as much as possible to keep a theme. As well as producing my products I have produced many articles on my blog documenting my progress. When I finished producing each article I posted it straight to Blogger.
      From looking back at what I have achieved to  now I feel that I have vastly improved every aspect of my ability. My use of InDesign and my knowledge of how to use it has greatly increase. I now have a decent understanding of how to create an authentic looking magazine. I now know how to edit photos and use Photoshop to a reasonable level. An example of this can be seen in my double page spread where an image has been edited and has improved significantly. 
    Overall, I think I had a varied experience completing my coursework, I think I've made huge leaps from my preliminary piece to my final product. I think have managed to convey the codes and conventions of similar media products very successfully in my final piece. My improvements in the use of Photoshop have made an overall improvement to the quality of my product in contrast with the preliminary and arguably displayed the biggest difference in the two pieces. My skills using things such as Photoshop, InDesign and SLR Camera have improved dramatically as has my general knowledge of the media. If I were to attempt this task again, I would feel extremely confident and more capable of doing it in a shorter time and to a higher quality. I am overall very proud of what I have achieved. 

I have placed all my work below.

I then moved onto my final product

Evaluation: Question 6

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

    Throughout the process of making my product, a music magazine, I have learnt a lot about the technologies that are an essential part of making these forms of media. Technology has also helped to improved my skills significantly. 

     All the way through the creation of my music magazine I used Blogger to record my progress. This is a very useful part of technology as it helps me to keep a track of what I need to do and what I have already completed. It also shows the improvement in my work over the time. 

     In the process of making my product I have used a number of different forms of technologies. The majority of the time I used a computer, but I also used some others technology including,

• A Digital Camera
• Microsoft Word 
• Microsoft Powerpoint
• Google Chrome (Blogger and other similar musical magazines)
• Adobe Photoshop 
• Adobe InDesign
• Apple Mac

     I used a SLR digital camera, this was to take the photos for my magazine. I find using a digital camera is much easier than using a traditional camera, because with the digital camera you instantly can tell if the image you have captured is what you want and if it isn't you can go and try again to capture the desired shot. I used a very high tech camera which meant that I could use the extra features which helped me change the setting of the camera to achieve different affects to my own taste.

     Using Microsoft Word helped me to draft my interview for my double page spread which overall took me a long time to arrange. I would not have been able to hand write the majority of this media coursework, because of it's volume, therefore saving me a lot of time. I also used Microsoft Powerpoint to answer many of my evaluation questions by annotating pictures in Powerpoint and exporting them to my Blogger account. This proved very handy as I would otherwise not have been able to answer the questions. I find the creating slides better than writing out big essay styled answers.

      Right from the beginning I used Google Chrome to help me with my research. Google Chrome allowed me to research the codes and conventions of magazines. I also checked out similar magazines to help me take inspiration. Google Chrome also helped me to access my blog whenever I needed to answer a question of upload something that was important to the creation of my product.

     Photoshop helped me to make my pictures of a higher quality and also more appropriate to the genre of my magazine.  In the long run it helped my final product to be more successful as it looked more authentic and is like a real magazine. On my double page spread you can see the big image on the right has clearly been Photoshoped, but without the Photoshopping the effect that the image gives out wouldn't be quite as powerful. I found Photoshop very very useful and I enjoyed using it in the production of my product.

      InDesign is a program designed to help you create your own publications. I used InDesign to help me deign all of my magazine. It is quick and easy to use and without it I would have no magazine at all.

      I used an Apple Mac at college and my Macbook at home, without these two I wouldn't have been able to create anything of any use, they had everything I needed to use. 

       Overall this technology has helped me complete all the tasks at hand. Without this technology my final product would have been considerably less professional and would not have been as successful. It helped me keep organised and in control of what I was doing, and without it I would not have been able to show how I have improved and progressed from the beginning.

      

Evaluation: Question 4 & 5

Who would be the audience for your media product? And, How did you address/attract your audience?

    With my magazine being based on 'Indie' music, I would have a very specific target audience. It is young males and females aged around 15-23 years old who have a taste for 'Indie' music as well as the 'Indie' style. This audience would also use Facebook/Twitter and other social media sites to interact with one another as well as my magazine. They would listen to stations like BBC Radio 1, as it broadcasts appropriate music for this genre. The audience would attend local gigs and enjoy local music as well as the more mainstream bands.
    The way I have addressed my audience is by reporting on the music they like. I have used a small 'Indie' band, thus attracting the target audience who will like this band because they are 'different', and this is part of the concept of being 'Indie'. Also this attracts them as they like to find new music  that other people haven't heard of before. I have also addressed the audience by using a young person on my front cover, this is because my target audience is pretty young. I have also addressed them by putting links to Facebook and Twitter into my product. Using social networking positively affects both the consumer and the producer, this is because the audience can get in touch with us and let us know what they want/think for the magazine and we can respond to this quickly and get information on gigs etc out to the audience. Social networking is instant and that makes it a very useful tool. Other ways I have tried to address the audience are by making sure the people who appear in my magazine are dressed correctly in an 'Indie' way, this helps the people who are reading the magazine connect with the articles. With my interview I have addressed the the audience by giving them an insight into someone who could be an idol or just someone they like to listen to, either way I believe they will like the interview.
    Overall I believe I have successfully addressed the audience and made it clear who my target audience would be for my product.

Evaluation: Question 3

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

   Media institutions are organisations that are responsible for the production, marketing, distribution and regulating of media texts. There are lots of different media institutions including IPC, Bauer and Future.
   I believe that my product would have to be distributed by a institution which has links to music and preferably of a similar or the same genre as my magazine. This is why I believe my magazine should be distributed by IPC. This is because IPC is a large institution which produces over 85 iconic media brands, including 'NME'. The main reason I believe that IPC would be right for my product is that it produces NME which is a very similar genre of magazine and has the same sort of target audience. NME is distributed to a mainstream audience rather than niche, it is sold in stores nation wide. The only negative factor with IPC is that they only publish a few music magazine like 'NME' and 'Uncut', but IPC have lots of knowledge and experience in publishing and advertising music magazines and knowing what features of a magazine would be appropriate for the target audience. IPC could advertise my product through their corresponding radio station, T.V. channel, websites, mobile apps and videos. These tools are useful in reaching a large commercial audience as most young adults regularly  interact  with these forms of media and therefore see are exposed to the advertisements.
    Another possible institution for the distribution of my product could be Bauer as it has more experience of working with different genres of music like 'Mojo', 'Kerrang', 'Q' among others. Since they cover a wider range of audiences they could attract more people to my product using horizontal intergration. Bauer also publishes magazines at lower prices than IPC, therefore making it more affordable for my younger target audience. I also believe that my product would be suitable for any of the big institutions as it is very versatile.
    But overall I would pick IPC to distribute my product. Further reasons for my choice of why I would chose IPC  are stated below in my case study.

Case study on IPC

• IPC Media produces over 85 iconic media brands 
• Their print brands alone reach almost two thirds of UK women and 44% of UK men and almost 27 million UK adults
• The online brands collectively reach 20 million users every month
• The International Publishing Corporation Ltd was formed in 1963. Showing it is a well established company
• Some of the first magazines for IPC were Country Life, Women’s Weekly, The Field and T.V. Times. These are all very successful magazines.
• NME became one of the most successful music magazines in 2011

Evaluation: Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

   When creating my product I thought about what genre of music I wanted to appeal to and what is the social group I would be targeting. The audience I decided to aim my product at was young 15-23 year old 'Indie' music supporters. My media product represents this 15-23 year old social group through the use of images, mise-en-scene, cover lines and also through the colours I have chosen to print in. The ethos of the Indie genre is to try and be different from the norm, whether that's through the way they dress, their hairstyles or tastes in music. This is what I am trying to represent through this product.

Overall I believe that I have accurately represented the Indie social group through my product. I supported the dominant ideologies of this social group. I supported the dominant ideologies by making sure my picture and people in the picture had the right clothing and apparatus that goes with the genre of Indie. 

Evaluation: Question 1

Question 1: In what way does your product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of media products?

  When I was starting my media project I had to decide weather or not to conform to media conventions or contradict them. I believe my product has both developed and challenged the forms and conventions of media products, but overall it develops them.The reason I did was so that the final outcome would have a mix of everything, old and new and would therefore help to make my final product a success.
  The product develops and also reinforces the current popularity in the Indie music genre. This is on a rise at the moment due to some big new artist in this genre including Bastille, The 1975, Jake Bugg and many more. I chose this genre as I have a passion for it myself and it is a popular genre of music. My product reinforces the commonly used style of front covers that other indie music bands use.The main image of the band member is surrounded by cover lines and one big main cover line in the middle at the bottom of the page. I made sure the person on the my front cover was stereotypically dressed in a Indie style, this is so you would instantly recognize it as that genre. The masthead of the magazine is in a bright colour and with a red background. This is similar to the NME magazine style. The masthead only covers the left corner of the magazine, this is a common convention of Indie magazines, unlike other magazines where the masthead is usually spread across the top of the cover. I have used a local 'up-and-coming' band for my main image, which is a typical thing for Indie magazines to do.

Here is an annotated picture of my front cover it shows how I developed and reinforced the forms and conventions.

 

  

Here my Contents page is annotated to show how I have reinforced conventions

My double page spread show my annotations on how I have reinforced the codes and conventions.

Overall I believe my product has successfully developed and reinforced the codes, conventions and forms of a real media products well.