Evaluation G321

Foundation Portfolio

By Ana Kamille Ruiz

1. In what ways does your

media product use, develop or

challenge the forms and

conventions of real media

product?

http://ruizanakamille.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/cod

es-and-conventions-task-m-magazine.html

http://ruizanakamille.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/blo

g-post.html

I have used many different types of generic

conventions in my magazine cover. I was able to work

with the different codes and conventions by applying it

to four different magazines which is linked below.

Front cover My front cover incorporates the generic conventions

of a music magazine as the main cover star is

behind the masthead, the barcode and the puff.

Although, the cover star is going against the general

conventions of a magazines as she is giving an

indirect mode of address.

My front cover was definitely influenced by Q and

ACOUSTIC magazine.

My front cover was influenced by „acoustic GUITAR‟

magazine. In this magazine the cover star is giving an

indirect mode of address so that the audience/target

market could feel that this picture was captured „in the

moment‟. Therefore, while planning my cover page I

wanted to have a similar vibe so I incorporated this to my

cover page where my cover star is looking down and

playing with the guitar.

Contents

My contents page was influenced by Q magazine also. With Q magazine the language and vocabulary is easy to

read and understand which is appealing to the audience. The layout of the contents is very structured and allows

people to look at the page easily therefore, I wanted to do the same thing to my magazine and the layout and its

structure influenced me to do this. In the bottom page of the magazine, I did the same exact thing where I

incorporated the CD albums that fans can get, the different music that they can download and the top charts. I

also incorporated the „every month‟ section as a generic convention in a contents page of a magazine. And

also, the different features that the people will get inside the magazine.

Double page spread

My double page spread was also influenced by Q magazine‟s double page article on

Florence and the Machine. I really like the idea of the fact that Q magazine typed USA across

the page along with her music album. This interested me so I wanted to do the same idea

therefore; I used it on my double page and typed the album name „Newborn‟ across the page

along with the star‟s name. The article was influenced also as it is about Q & A‟s from the

artist itself. Such as asking her what she though of her new album, how she started playing

the guitar etc. This casual and friendly interview allows the star to be admired by the

audience and its target market.

2. How does your media

product represent particular

social groups?

For my magazine, it is aimed to

target teenagers and young older

women who prefer to listen to a

mellow type of music.

I presented quiet, peaceful and

elegant images. The purpose of an

elegant and peaceful vibe from the

images is to let the target audience

have an idea of what they are

expecting in the magazine that they

are about to buy.

Ana-Kathleen is supposed to be

another replica of „Taylor Swift‟. A

girl who sings acoustic songs about

love and relationships.

I have targeted the stereotypical

teenagers in the 21st century that

have fandom over a solo artist.

3. What kind of media

institution might distribute your

media product and why?

http://www.smithsnews.co.uk/smithsnewsgroup/smithsnews

“Smiths News is the UK‟s leading newspaper

and magazine wholesaler. New contract

awards have consolidated our position as the

country‟s largest wholesaler. We‟re a big

organisation, but we care about our customers

and we‟re known for our friendly and open

approach.”

Smiths News PLC distributes different

types of newspapers, magazines, health

care magazines etc. My magazine would

go under the newspaper and magazine

market where they distribute my acoustic

magazine. Smiths News PLC distributes to

30,000 customers everyday therefore, I feel

that ACOUSTIQUE would be distributed by

a major distribution company.

4. Who would be the

audience for your media

product

Target audience

My target audience is mostly aimed at

females at the age of 15-20 who prefer

to listen to acoustic music.

I have given information about solo

artists who do acoustic magazine. Any

thing about this genre is in the

magazine. The majority of people who

enjoy an acoustic vibe would probably

be young adults.

Below is the link to the questionnaire

that I did and how I was able to find out

about my target audience and what

they preferred. http://ruizanakamille.blogspot.co.uk/search?q

=publication+plan

5. How did you

attract/address the audience?

From the front cover itself, I attracted

the audience from the picture that I

took. I used a good quality camera that

would allow the target audience to feel

interested and look at the magazine.

Also, I used different types of colours to

make the words stand out and I tried to

prevent the words from blending into

the picture as the lighting is quite low

on the image. All of the colours I used

are quite different from each other as

the masthead is white, the name of the

artist is peach and the pugg is yellow. I

think all of these compliment each

other. The peach and white colours

compliment each other and the yellow

compliments itself and all of the colours

around it. This is important to me as it

does not look as tacky and neither does

it over power the image too much. The

softness of the yellow, red, peach and

white allows to make the target

audience feel that elegant vibe within

the magazine which is vital to me.

In addition, my masthead is very simple

and not too out of place in cover. It

looks as if it blends well with everything

and overpowers the image from its

colour however, the attraction of the

artist is still complimented.

Furthermore, the layout of the

magazine is simple and it is not

covering the face of the artist as

the words and colours allows

the image to be dominated and

make it vivid and stand out well.

Since there is not a lot going on

with the words it can be easily

understood as the words are

not cluttered and the language

is simple and understandable

for my target audience.

6. What have you learnt

about technologies from the

process of constructing the

product?

I used paint.net to construct my cover page and my contents page and

word document to construct my double page spread and an app on my

phone to edit the pictures.Strengths

Paint.net

• You can get used to it after a few tries

•You can change the selection of the

canvas such as changing it to A4 or A3

•It is easy to import pictures to the software

and edit them by using many different

effects

•Files can be saved as different options

such as; JPEG/PNG/PAINT.NET FILE

•Copy and paste easily

•Take away any unnecessary parts of the

image

Word document

•You can easily add pictures in from

paint.net

•You can add text boxes in the document

easily.

•You have the different options of the fonts

and its sizes and the colours

•It is simple to use

Weaknesses Paint.net

•You cannot change the

words when you make

mistakes when doing a text.

•Sometimes the magic wand

takes out areas that you want

from the image.

•It is easy to over-edit a photo

so you can make mistakes

easily.

Word document

•When you add pictures in,

everything can get all over the

place.

•You have to consider the text

space of the article because

when adding a big letter in the

beginning the next line can

have a big space. So it can

look misplaced.

PhotowonderThis is the app that I used to edit my

pictures from my phone.

Strengths

•You can take the photos and choose the

effects you want straight away.

•Use flash if there is not enough lighting.

•Take a photo using the front camera or

back camera

•Decorate the photo straight from the

phone

•Take photos and make it into a collage

•You can send the photo straight to an

email and be opened online.

Weaknesses

•The effect can change slightly once

opened online

•There is not enough effects

Photographic choices I took many different images to see what looked best for

the contents, the double page spread and the front cover.

I had to consider the lighting and what looked best for

each photo.

For my front cover there were three pictures I had to

choose from which were all different. I wanted to choose

an elegant style, simple and professional. The lighting on

the top right is too bright, the image on the bottom right

was not exactly as perfect as the one I chose which is the

bottom left as the artist is looking at the guitar instead of

somewhere else. So, I made my decision to pick the

bottom one.

Also, with the contents and the double

page I had to consider what looked

best as the lighting of the front camera

and back camera were different. Since

I wanted a simple and elegant one for

my double page I went for the bottom

picture. The contents had the colour

red in it for the background of the fonts

so I chose to pick the darker lighting

for the contents page.

Also, I had to look at the images if the

pose of the artist was awkward or not

therefore, I did not choose the far left

image above as it did not look right to

me.

Blogger was a very easy process as it

was quick when you could add post a

blog entry and publish it in seconds.

Instead of printing off all of the work I did

and wasting paper I could upload it to

blogger and let other people see it

straight away by giving them my URL.

With the 3 elements - my front cover, contents and double page spread. I

found it easy to do it as I as already able to have an idea of what was to

come out of it from the research I did. Also, I was able to sketch out my

contents and double page as a draft to choose which type of layout I

wanted which helped me out quite a lot. With my front cover, I did a sample

of my what I hoped for with my magazine which can be seen in this link

http://ruizanakamille.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=sample+magazine this

sample helped me with editing what looked wrong and helped me realise

what I needed to do for my final work.

7. Looking back to you

preliminary task, what do you

feel that you have learnt in the

progression from it to the full

product?

From my preliminary task compared to my final product it looks very plain and that there is not

enough attraction to the magazine. My idea was to make it look fun and interesting with all the

colours but, because my actual magazine was a different concept I understood that

depending on what your concept and style is, it can depend on the way you present your final

magazine/product. It is about choosing the right target market and the right style that

compliments it.

With my contents also you can tell from the software being used as I used word document for

my preliminary task and paint.net for my actual contents. My school contents looks plain and

boring as the background does not have enough colour to it. The pictures however, are „fun‟

compared to my actual contents although, this probably won‟t attract the students. With my

actual contents it is more put together and everything compliments each other especially the

images and the font.

Overall, I think that my final products were successful and that it fits will

with the brief. I have been able to research and plan all the areas that I

needed and it can be seen from this overall product. I feel that there are

no strengths and weaknesses to any of my final products as they all

compliment each other. I am pleased with the way it turned out as I was

able to represent an acoustic genre.