Evaluation Questions

Q1. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My magazine cover, contents and double page spread use and develop the forms and conventions of real magazines like Q and Metal Hammer. I did this by paying attention to detail in different magazines of different genres like Rolling Stone for indie and Metal Hammer for rock, and interpreted some of the ideas into my design, but changing them to fit into the style of my magazine. Overall in this media project I used conventional methods on near enough the whole finished product, but did experiment with different, unconventional ideas. For example with my first contents page, however I did not choose to use this. Instead I kept to a very formal theme with pictures on the left and the text on the right of the page, as well as keeping with the red, black and white colour theme.

My old contents. Kerrang contents. My final contents.

I chose these colours based on my research as my magazine is rock and indie, I noticed rock magazines like metal hammer use a lot of black, but indie magazines like Q use white and red mainly so I merged the two together.

Q Magazine Metal Hammer My Magazine

Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My magazine is fairly representative of the 'indie groups of people, as there seems to be a lot more festivals aimed at that audience and a lot more bands in this genre as well. My magazine represents these social groups well as it is mainly aimed at that genre of music, plus also focuses on festivals.

Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Through my research I found out that other magazines, like Q magazine, are being sold in newsagents and supermarkets, and i think my magazine would join them as more of the public visits these shops and would be interested in buying it, plus these kind of shops would want to sell my magazine as they know it is different from other magazines and would get vast interest. As well as these i believe music shops like HMV would also sell this magazine as it is a music magazine with a difference. Targeting indie and rock with a festival theme running through it. They would realise the potential market for this kind of magazine and be keen on getting in their shops.

Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
The target for my magazine would be mainly boys in the age range of 16-25whom like indie/ rock music. The reason being is that everyone in this age range are progressing with their life's, going to college and university and these are new experiences, like this magazine would be. They would be able to keep up to date with the music whilst scheduling a busy life, especially at university. On top of this i have noticed that this age range are the main 'festival go-ers' with their friendship groups, so this is also why i have targeted a large section of my magazine to festivals.

Finally they would be able to relate this magazine to their personal interests and tastes, but also find out things like band and concert details plus any festival info they wouldn't have previous knowladge about, which would appeal to them.

Q5. How did you attract/ address your audience?

My magazine is a very modern and formal one, letting the audience know exactly what is in it, but not letting them know enough just by looking at the cover, therefore making them want to buy it. Also i have directly targeted the attraction of a huge percentage of the population with my festival theme. People who either go to festivals or are interested in going to one can find out everything they need to know and would want this magazine as it relates directly to them.

The sub heading 'Brothers Reunited' gets the public interested but what does it actually mean? Surely thats not a strange thing. This is why people will want to read the magazine to find out.

Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Through this process, i have learnt a lot about magazine production, but the main bit being the use of Photoshop to create my magazine. Previously i had only used the software once or twice, and did not really understand the seperate tools, for example the 'magic wand' tool. Before knowing, i would not have had a clue, but i have now learnt that it allows you to select an area of an image based on colour and then work with this selected area, not affecting anything else on the page other than what has now been selected.

It was fairly easy to come to grips with all the tools, and i learnt new things about the programme near enough every time i was on it. Also i learnt how to set up and shoot a photoshoot with the three point lighting, and from experience have learnt to take more shots than you think you need incase your ideas change or you simply end up needing to fill space. The hard bit of this process was the arrangement of layers in Photoshop and also the change in roughness in the edges of a picture. When making the magazine, some layers overlapped others, which meant re-arranging them, but by doing this near enough every time something else went out of place and i was difficult/ confusing to get it all right. Also the edges to the images, when background colour was changed and more often than not on the models hair, became ridged and rough. Obviously i had to sort this out so i found the 'smudge tool' and went around each image blending the image into the background to give it a smoother look.


Q7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I think i have come a long way from the preliminary task in terms of knowladge and finished product look. Obviously when doing the preliminary task i did not have the greatest knowladge of Photoshop so everything i did was basic. Also the lack of things going on in the front cover was poor, and when I did my research I noticed this and developed it in to my final project. I am very pleased with my final cover, contents and double page spread and feel it is a new look and theme for a magazine, but still follows the same basic idea of all magazines, for example having a masthead, main image and cover lines on my front cover. I have learnt a lot about Photoshop, what other magazines do and photoshoot techniques. From this experience, I believe if i was to do it again, my finished product would be even better.