Front Cover

Contents page

double page spread

Resit

I am resitting my As Media Coursework and everything posted from now on will be brand new work

Evaluation Question 7 - What do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to a full product?

When looking back at the task to create a front cover, contents page for a college magazine, I had learnt a number of skills on Photoshop and information which helped me and gave me a better opportunity to create my final products.

When I look back when I started the first task to make a college magazine I think I spent my time much better in organising and management skills as I felt comfortably introduced to the task which made me feel more relaxed and made it easier to get on with the task but in making the full product I felt rushed and I didn’t organise time as well as I did in the beginning but I think I could have done much better. When preparing for the full product I knew which models I wanted to use before I started to take pictures but because of finding a right time to schedule the room to take the photos and when my models were free it lead to me taking my own photos using my own cannon camera and only using a few models when there should have been more. What should have done to solve the problem would have to plan the times I needed to take photos more carefully and much early so that when creating the magazine it would have run smoothly and not roughly done.

Through the decisions I made I think that I did make a suitable music magazine that fits the genre that I set it out to be and also that I captured the audience with the style of the magazine and the use of expressions of the models and different photos used. I think the concept was very good and also the use of props from pictures and the models made my magazine seem more realistic.

   

   

Audience feedback:

To see how successful I was in creating my front cover, contents page and double page spread, feedback from people aged 16-25 was needed to see if I attracted the target audience. By posting my work on my wall on Face Book it allowed my friends and others to comment on my working stating the positives and negatives or if I should improve on my work. Once people responded I found that the comments were highly useful as they supplied me with mostly positive points but also negative points showing where I went wrong.

As I looked through the comments the most common negative point that occurred was that there were some spelling and font size mistakes. I would agree with that since it was rushed but it was easily fixed. Many people thought that my magazine looked like a real one for example one person said ‘that’s looks exactly like Kerrang would make’. Another improvement that was suggested was that the double page spread and the front cover were much stronger when compared to the contents page because the other two looked more professional and the contents page was said that it was basically the same thing that Kerrang did. I would agree with what they said because I was inspired by Kerrang magazine and I may have copied the style too much, but the way I would intend to fix it would be to have a collage of images on the left hand side making it more appealing to the audience and to change the fonts as they were to plain and dull.

The strengths of my work were the photos used in the magazines pages and also the how the magazine fitted the genre that I was going for.

The weaknesses of my work would be that I didn’t plan and managed my time correctly but I would be happy if I was given more time so I could improve it to its best potential.

However, when we finished the second task I think that my worked improved by a lot, in terms of skill, creativity and quality. Also it was down to learning how to focus the camera we were given to take such high res pictures.

Evaluation Question 2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine follows the genre of rock so when I have made it, it will appeal to the people of that subculture. After collecting my information from the audience research I decided to make the magazine targeted at people aged 16-25 who have general interest in rock music and by making my target audience between age 16-25 I will be competing with Kerrang magazine as they are do same. Also since the magazine reviews bands that are from a young age and include images of teens aged 16 and upwards this how the magazine shows what age group they want to be targeting.

This model on the left was used in the double page spread and he represents the type of audience that my magazine is targeted audience. From the image taken you can see that he ties in with the genre of the magazine as his hair and expressions shown in the picture show rebellion which rock is all about.

When looking at other types of magazines genres like hip hop or RnB they show their status through explicit lyrics and what they wear for example, jewellery and money. When you look at rock artists today you can see that they are not concerned by having expensive and shiny things to show who they are but they rather show individuality. As you can see from the model on the right which was used in my contents page the simplicity of his style to make other features like the long hair to stand out to show individuality. The style of clothing was done deliberately to show the independence of the model and how little effort is put into the style, this was done because rockers don’t wear fancy things to show who they are but wear simple things and let their music tell what they are like and this is expected by the audience because they wouldn’t see a rock star dress up like a rapper.  Also, in the picture you can see that I planned for the model to give a fierce presence through his expressions to show how rough and wild rock music is and how the model ties in with genre. The expression on the face also shows anger which ties in with rock music since loads anger is put into singing the songs.  

With my knowledge of rock stars and through my research I have found out that most rock stars have certain features that show they rebel against the law because they have difficulty obeying the law because of what they earn.  The way I have shown how rebellious that can be is by picking a model that doesn’t meet the stereotypical idea of boys hair (short) in the picture he has long hair and also by the expressions on the face you can see he is a rebel.  I think this is a picture chosen for the target audience because it is a very stereotypical image of a rock star. This picture was taken for the double page spread and represents two subcultures which are the rock community and teenagers. Also through the models stance and expressions you can see that he has angry attitude which can tie in with most teenagers today.

In my magazine you could see that they all looked the same so you can tell they tie in with the rock genre so it meets what the target audience expect to see.

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

Before I created my media products in my magazine that I designed, I researched and observed different professional magazines such as Kerrang and this helped me realise what conventions were and what was needed to make a good magazine.

Also when creating the media products, the textual analysis I did helped as it gave me ideas on how the magazine should be structured and helped me visualize what my magazine should look like.

In the magazine I designed I had many different media products which used many different forms and conventions so it can attract the target audience by its professional/ recognisable format.

First of all you can see that my masthead is placed at the top of the magazine in the centre. This is a standard convention used by all magazines to make the title clear and recognisable to the public. The masthead is always uses larger text compared to the other pieces of text on the magazine and also written in a different font to make it standout, to give the magazine originality and to attract the reader’s attention. Also by using a bold font which I used, it helps it stand out which is another convention which links with the masthead.

My magazine masthead

Since the genre of my magazine was rock, I decided to use the magazine Kerrang as a case study as it is the most familiar one to me. Kerrang guided me to create my media products and helped me base my design round the same way they design their magazine and this made them one of realistic competitors.  As you can see from above it is similar to how Kerrang present who will be featured in their magazine by framing the text and using contrasting colours to help it stand out to the reader. Also this is placed at the bottom so you don’t take the focus from the main image.

My magazine also has the convention of having a colour scheme. During my research of magazines I found out many magazines like NME or Q have a constant colour scheme of red, black and white but when I looked at Kerrang magazine I saw they liked to change their colour scheme every time they release a new magazine, this is done because they would want to keep their magazine fresh and exciting but they keep the same colour scheme throughout the magazine. I followed what all these magazines did and kept the colour scheme throughout the magazine, the colours I used was black, grey and yellow as I thought that these colours go together and create a neutral and inviting feel towards the magazine. Also I included a bar code on my magazine as I could see from research if you are going to be selling your magazine it will need a bar code. By doing this it made my magazine seem more realistic and professional.

Also in my magazine i thought I would include a selling line on the front cover. I think this is very important as it would be used as a marketing technique as it challenges the reader and make them feel like they need to read the magazine as it challenges the reader. For example the selling line is ‘TAKE A CHANCE ON THE WILD SIDE’ as shown below.

By using a selling line it shows what the magazines view on music is and from the selling point I used the reader would thing that they feel music is wild.

Throughout the magazine I followed the different forms and conventions that I was able to use. On my magazine I used a typical feature that all magazines used which is the date and selling price but I didn’t put both together I thought it would be more useful to keep them apart because I thought it would give it better structure and presentation.