MEDIA EVALUATION

By Max Schofield

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions or real media products: Front Cover

My Music Magazine follows many of the different codes and conventions that you find on any other music magazines being sold in the world today.

The main First convention is the mast head which I used, the masthead is used to create yours brands identity and it has to be able to stand out so it will catch peoples eyes when it is on the shelves, due to the fact that the mast is one of the most important features on a music magazine when I was creating it I didn’t want it to be to difficulty and over complicate it, the font which I choose to create my mast head in is the ‘Royal Acidbath’ font this is because it had on old style to it also it was easy to read and it stood out because you could have to colours the back ground colour of the text and the text colour itself, it is similar to the main research magazines I used which are the Rolling Stones Magazine and the Magazine Classic Rock, these two both have simple mastheads that both stand out and catch the eye of the reader, my mast head is in a white text colour with a blue background text colour on the main picture background this is makes it stand out because the picture has been photo shopped to black and white so it makes the text on the page stand out more.

 

The rest of music magazine my main image as the background has been edited to black and white and this is also used in different magazines such as Rolling stones and Classic Rock to give it a more old effect, to do this I sued Photoshop were the tool was in image-adjustment-black and white.

I also used another convention called Lure this is where something is used to attract the reader’s attention and tries to persuade them to buy your product, the one which I have used on my media product is ‘Beatles poster inside!’ this is displayed at the bottom left of the page and it is blue text to stand out and catch the reader’s attention.

I have also followed another convention when creating my music Magazine and this is where all the text is not covering any of the band members faces I have followed this through research on the majority of music magazines no text is on the main characters faces this is so the reader can have a clear look at the main image to do this I used Adobe Photoshop to create the text and adjust the size and placement so it did not cover the face of the band members. Another convention which I followed is the cover lines which have used on my front cover are placed on top of the image in a stand out colour this is because then it makes it easier to read and see for the readers, the text has also been placed in an organised form so it is not spaced all over the magazine.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions or real media products: Contents Page

My Contents page didn’t have any changes to the theme of the magazine a kept the main house style colours (Blue, white and red) these are used on my front cover as well the reason is used blue and white because this relates to the main band ‘The What’ who’s logo is blue and white so the colour scheme relates to the main article I also use red because this stands out and catches the attention of the reader.

 

The mast head of the contents page is the font (Royal Acidbath) as the front cover I have done this to show the strong brand identity in the magazine

The page numbers and headings on the contents page give this page a sense of organization and it helps the reader navigate themselves through the magazine if there is a particular article they want to read at the bottom of the contents page

I have incorporated the magazine’s website so the reader can visits the website and then it if they like the website then they might tell friends and family then this spread the brands name round viral marketing.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions or real media products: Double Page Spread

My double page spread I have included a folio which is in the bottom left corner and I had seen this on the Rolling Stones magazine, the mast head for this page is still the same text (Royal Acid bath) this is to keep the brand identity and also again I have kept to the to the same font this article has the same similar layout to the classic rock double page spread with the main image on the right hand side in the top right hand corner with the text on the left and underneath the picture.

I had also used different quotes and made them bigger than the text so it catches the readers eye and gets them more involved with the articles.

I have also split my article into columns I have done this because it looks like more of an interview and it gives the choice to the reader to which one they want to read, to keep up with the old generation theme to my magazine I had also edited the picture to be black and white.

I have also used a drop capital which indicates the starting of the article these are also used in the classic rock magazines and the rolling stones ones as well.

My article is a question and answer all of the questions are in bold and red this is because it will catch the eye of the reader and the answers are in black this is so it is clear to the reader.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine is aimed at an older audience and people interested in the classic rock genre. So my product will represent the type of audience I will relate and want to read my magazine. For my main article on the double page spread I created a band similar to one of the most famous classic rock bands in history ‘The Who’ and the band I created is called The What so I captured them in black and white so it gave a old generation feel. I did this by dressing my models in old clothes that would have been wore in the time of The Who and the Beatles e.g. Jeans shirt, t shirt bomber coats long hair. An because of this theme it gives the audience a laid back theme and this is show in the type of music I have decided to include in my magazine. My magazine represents the teenagers to younger adults it shows the male characters as laid back cool characters and it almost shows a higher class representation. My product clearly shows that the chosen genre of the magazine is Classic Rock and this is proven with the use of mentioning bands such as The Beatles and the Kinks and dressing the band in older style clothes.

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

TeamRock is an international publisher they own one of the most famous music magazines ‘Classic Rock’. I would choose this company this is because they own one of the best music magazines and one of the best from the genre I have chosen, they are very clever when it comes to advertising and the content they include in the magazine gets seen by a worldwide audience, this would help in the aid of my publications because it is extra publicity it would boost market sales and the popularity and it would changes JUKEBOX into a brand and expand from just a music magazine.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience which my music magazine is going to aimed at is the older teenagers to younger adults of 15-21 years old; it will be aimed at both genders both male and female, however it will be more focused towards the male audience this is because I believe the colour scheme and the style of the magazine favours towards the male side.  The genre which my music magazine is going to be about is Classic Rock so it will look at different bands such as: Beatles, The Who, The Jam and the Kinks etc.  The price of my magazine is 4.99 this is because of the content inside and would attract the middle class and maybe the higher because of the middle income. The name of my music magazine is going to be called Jukebox the reason for this is because it links in with my genre of classic rock old type of music and it is also related to music to get this name a created a mind map with name in the middle and branched different ideas of it.

How did you attract and address your audience.  The front cover of my music

magazine is the main aspect of my magazine because it is the first thing the reader will see so it needs to be able to attract my audience. The different kind of techniques which I used to attract my reader one of them is I used the main image as the background and edited it to be black and white this then makes it stand out because the text will bounce of the black and white background and then this will make the text stand out and then catch the reader’s

attention and tries to make them buy it.

The puff which is also used relates to one of the bands on the front cover and it is aimed at the fans of this genre (Classic Rock). In the contents page I attracted the audience by making sure they get enough information because this is important that they get learn about the article and understand it, the way I did this is by making it have bold captions and it had a contrasting colour scheme and in the main image I included the contents mast head and this was the same font as the front cover.

The mention of popular and famous bands such as the Kinks and the Beatles this will grab the attention of the reader and they might want to find out more because of the bands mentioned. The language which is used on the front cover is punchy and imaginative and became of the red and blue font colour it is striking and

eye catching.

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

The majority of my project (Music Magazine) was all produced with the use of a computer so I had to use different pieces of software to produce this product the different pieces of software that I used was, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Publisher and Adobe Photoshop CS5, these were all used in the creation of my media product.

Microsoft Publisher

A little overview of Publisher this is a piece of soft ware this is in the higher ends of Microsoft office and this application is an easy to use and is not as expensive as other Microsoft programmes and it focuses on small business market which the firms do not have professional design software which is available for marketing materials and other documents. Although it has a relatively small share on the market because this is dominated by Adobe and others, Publisher has been less liked among the high end print shops compared to desktop publishing applications. Microsoft Publisher was the main software tool which was used during the creation of my media project, this software was used because it was the most accessible tool and easy tool to use for the task we had been given. The reason why this was the most useful tool was because on the software it sell it creates the layout of the pages as a magazine so it will have one single sheet then a double for the double page spread then another single for the contents page.

Adobe Photoshop CS5

Adobe Photoshop CS5

A little overview of Adobe Photoshop CS5 this is a graphics editing programmes and was developed and published by Adobe Systems. I used Photo shop in the creation of editing my photos I had taken in my photo-shoot I had organised and also used it to edit: Mt Front cover, Contents Page, Double Page Spread, In prior to using photo shop in our media lessons we had lessons teaching us the basics of photo shops and the main tools to be used I had not used photo shop before so it was a new type of software to me but due to learning about it I learnt how to use different aspects of it such as:

Move Tool

The move tool allows me to move aspects of my pictures which have been selected, and with the use of this tool I can select layers and objects this toll will move them when clicked on and dragged.

Type Layers

Any of the text which you on my project is put on with the use of the type layers tool this tool is were text is entered and placed on the layer of your choice.

Magic Wand Tool

This tool was the most used tool in my use of Photo shop this toll when sele3cted will select the block of color this is based on where you click it and if you want to remove the selected space you simply click delete.

Clone Stamp Tool

This is another tool and it is very similar to the healing brush tool. This tool does not blend like the healing brush. It copy’s another section of the picture you have previously selected.

Blogger

Blogger is the main type of technology which was used throughout my entire coursework in media I would use this software to make posts to show my work, would also use it to show my research and when it is all completed there is a tool called labels which allows the user to edit the post it to different sections so it makes the blog more organised and this allows people to click on the label and underneath will be the work in that section listed below.

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

The use of the preliminary product allowed me to get the use of Photoshop and learn how to use the different tools in Photoshop and see how far I can go editing a picture and also editing text. It gave me a idea of what my pages would look like with the use of Photoshop, it made me realise that when it came to layering in Photoshop because if you wanted something on top of each other so it requires tampering with the layers till they become correct, and I had to follow the normal conventions of a music magazine and use the software to my advantage, with the use of the preliminary task I get me the chance to use columns and the control this effect. I learnt about how the use of white space has to be used I used a white background on my contents page and double page spread this is used because the colour of the text I used stands out better and I learnt this with the help from my preliminary text. This gave my magazine unique style and its own qualities. In the making of my magazine (Jukebox) I had gained confidence and knowledge in creating it and this is because I had gathered this knowledge when creating my preliminary task and trying to make it the best it can be, an because of this it gave me an idea of my abilities’ to show my taste of what a music magazine should look like.

Inspiration for different techniques used for music magazine

Progression form Preliminary task to Music Magazine

1. With the use of creating my preminalry task it gave me some ideas for when it came to creating my Music Magazine I was able to give my priminlary task to a target audince for which my music magazine is going to be aimed at (15-21) and they gave the suggestion that when it came to creating my logo for the magazine keep it in the same place top left hand corner but make the title more creative and so it is able to stand out and cath theattetion of the possible buyers eye.

2. When I was being given suggestions by the group one of them was to move the barcode to the bottom of the page becaseu it was unsual to see thae barcode in the top right hand corner.

3. Another suggestion given to me was to keep the same colour for the text RED becaseu they thought it was an eye catching colour and it would grap the attention of the reader.

4. They thought the use of the motto was a good idea but the placement of it needed to be changed they thought instead of the motto being at the bottom of the page it should be moved near the top underneath the title so it stands out and it will be one of the first things seen by the reader and they suggested again that it should be in the colour RED.

5. The final sugestion they gave to me was to use the same technique as using a main image as the backgorund for the front cover but to relate back to the motto “Bringing back to bthe old Generation.” I should edit the picture in Photo-shop and make the piture black and white to give it the old genberation feel to the magazine but also it makes the rest of the text on the page stand out better and eye catching.