Evaluation Questions 

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of music magazines).

For my ‘Lazer’ magazine Front cover, Contents and Double Page Spread I based my magazine layout around magazines such as ‘Mixmag’ and ‘Rocksound’ this is because these magazines contain my genre that I have chosen. For my colour scheme I chose the standard Red, Black and White this is because these colours work very well together this is the reason why they are so popular and can be found as the colour scheme on many different magazines. I think that they are also very complimentary to each other as the writing/text is very noticeable and easy to read.

My front cover is based strongly around a front cover of the magazine ‘Rocksound’. I liked the layout more than other layouts that consisted on other magazines because it stood out and had an effective look that I thought looked specific when comparing it to my music genre. The photo I used was also similar to the photo on the template that I used as it shown just one artist that was standing up and portraying quite an Intimidating pose.

My Contents was created from a template that I used from a contents page of the magazine ‘Mixmag’. This magazine also bases it’s genre around a similar one to mine, therefore it I found that it was correct that I used this as a template as that’s the style that the genre is portrayed.

My Double page Spread was also shaped round a similar one to another ‘Mixmag’ template, this is because they made it very eye-catching to an audience and supplied the reader enough information and images to make the Double Page Spread informative as well as interesting and entertaining. This would be very good to contain on a Double Page Spread as this would be the main part in the magazine that someone bought.

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

The audience for my magazine were 15-24 years olds so my magazine would be aimed at them; therefore it shows them to be into the kind of music that I have included in my magazine. The text inside my magazine is fairly informal because then it fits the scene of my social group. I based my magazine structure and layout around a similar product to ‘Mixmag’ this is because this magazine is very much like mine and I prefer their layout compared to other magazines that I have seen and read.  

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

A magazine publisher such as ‘Development Hell’ might publish my magazine because it publishes magazines such as ‘Mixmag’. The reasons why they might publish my magazine would be because it involves the same types of Genres that ‘Mixmag’ contains, also the people that buy ‘Mixmag’ will be interested in mine as they are two similar magazines.  

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

The Audience for my media product (Music Magazine) would be aged about 15-21 this is because I think these ages would prefer my product than others and find it a lot more interesting. I tried to base their age around mine as I know that people my age like these sort of things (Music etc.). The person in the picture is Jake he is currently studying his A-Levels, he is 17 years old and lives with his parents. He likes listening to a varied amount type of music but he mainly likes Electronic music such as Dubstep and House. His favourite artists are Skrillex, Knife Party and Porter Robinson etc. Furthermore, he likes to create his own music once in a while, this mostly consists of Dubstep and House and is taking the influences from the likes of Skrillex and other producers. He shops at his local Skate shops Casino and Ledge; this would be the perfect stereotype because he fits in nicely with the style of my music magazine/Genre that I have chosen.

5. How did you attract/address your audience? I used other music magazine in my work as influence and to gain attention and attract an audience of my choice; the magazine I used and based my work around was ‘Mixmag’, this is because it involved a very similar Genre to what I have picked. I also used a popular colour scheme that many magazine use quite frequently to gain their audiences attention, another way I gained attention and attracted an audience is by including a strapline at the top of my front cover which says ’Exclusive free stickers inside!’ this will entice the audience and make them want to buy my magazine more. I also produced a questionnaire to ask my target audience what they want in a magazine of their choice, this helped me in the production of my magazine as I knew what to include in it and what sort of things my target audience preferred which I needed to include in my magazine.

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

Laptop/Computer: Obviously I needed to use a computer for most if not all of my work, but I also used my Laptop at home which is a Sony Vaio, the software I used was Adobe Photoshop CS5 and on my laptop I used Photoshop Elements 10.0.

Adobe Photoshop CS5: For completing most of my work I used Abode Photoshop CS5; once I sent my works home I used Photoshop Elements 10.0. I have used them both before so I didn’t really have any problems when working as I knew most of the things that each tool did.

DaFont: I also used ‘DaFont’ to get my text font such as my Masthead ‘Lazer’ this font was called ‘Plastic Pill’ and I have used it throughout my magazine Front Cover, Contents Page and Double Page Spread. Also the word ‘Zangola’ was made with ‘DaFont’ the name of the font is called ’Slant’ I only used this once to make the word stand out from everything else on the front cover as he is my main aspect in my magazine.

Paint: Paint is very simplistic, but I rarely used it. When I did use it I cropped the font and then I inverted the colour so it went with my magazines background layer colour.

Camera: I obviously needed a camera because I needed photos on all of my Magazine Cover, Contents page and Double Page Spread. I used a school camera which I borrowed from the library as I hadn’t really got another camera. The photos taken did lack quality but I had to use what resources that I had available to me.

Microsoft Word 2010: I used Microsoft Word 2010 because I found that it gave me a better structure when creating the Article/Interview for my main Artist on my Double Page Spread.

Internet: I used the internet as it was vital for completing my work, One website I used was ‘Blogger’, this is because I had to upload my work once finished onto my blog, also I used ‘Blogger’ to check the other exemplar work so that I c0ould see what other people had done and get some ideas/inspiration. Furthermore, I used ‘Windows Hotmail’ this is because I had to send my work home, at that point I could then work from home to make sure I completed my work and to give it extra improvements.

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

I think that I have become much more capable with Photoshop as I now know where everything is and can navigate around the software fairly well, but I still think there is much to learn. Also, I think in terms of creating a magazine I now know what things to include inside them which go on the front cover and where to locate them on the front cover. I have found out that only some colours compliment others when using them for a colour theme for my magazine. The images that I took for my preliminary were not very good images to include on the front cover of a magazine.

Therefore, I had to make the ones on my full product fitting for a magazine as well as making them fitting for the Genre that I had chosen. Overall, I think I have become much more creative even just by doing these magazines.