PRODUCT EVALUATION PAIGE TROMBLEY

1. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

1. USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTSFrom research I have conducted, I have learnt generic codes of conventions that are included in making a magazine. I have used that research to produce my own magazine.

On my front cover, I have included a masthead in the left third, which is used in most magazines, to make the product easily recognisable on a magazine rack, which would therefore show it’s popularity. I also made sure my cover line was large, so was the centre of attention so would reflect that the main cover star was the main cover story. I also included cover lines to help advertise other stories in the magazine, so therefore followed the generic conventions. I included a barcode and date line in usual places so therefore conforms to the usual conventions of a magazine. I also included a pug to entice the reader in to purchasing my magazine and attracting fans of Royal Blood.

1. CHALLENGING AND DEVELOPINGI looked at different indie rock magazines to look at how they used the conventions for their own purposes (conventions research task). However I found ways to challenge this and develop my own ideas to make my product more unique. Magazines such as NME and Q rarely use a ‘free poster’ pug on the cover of their magazines so I thought I would incorporate this into my own magazine as I thought it would appeal more to my target audience so that they can decorate their rooms with free merchandise. Through my research, I also noticed that magazines tend to use bright colours on their cover. However I have taken a minimalistic approach to my magazine and have kept a low-key house style to make it more memorable. Most mastheads are usually colourful too, i.e. with a red background, however I kept mine white and black which challenges the conventions and I did this as I thought the simplicity made it stand out more.

1. INFLUENCESWhen I was making my magazine, I was influenced by magazines such as Q, Spin and NME as they are parallel with my genre of magazine. I liked the cover line design Spin used as I thought it added a bit of extra colour to the cover and helped show the house style of the magazine. It also made the band name stand out more to make what’s inside the magazine, clear to the reader and that is what I wanted in my magazine. I also liked the idea of having a very different font on the cover, like the Ian Curtis cover of NME, as it helped to fill in negative space and I thought that it looked nice, so would be a goodway to bring attention to the magazine. My magazine also uses direct address, like the 3 magazine shown, so creates a connection between the audience and the cover star.

1. USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS

Looking at the contents pages of Q and NME inspired me when making my own contents page. The large page numbers that are used in on both contents pages was something that I liked and so incorporated it into my own magazine to make it clear to the viewer what page the main the cover story is on. I also liked how both magazines used a large image on their contents page so I used that too, to make themagazine consistent with the front cover as I used my cover star. As seen in NME, I found that creating asubscription box would help to makethe magazine seem more successful and professional as it has an online presence and it is something that almost all magazines have. I carried my masthead onto my contents page too, which was also a feature of NME and Q contents pages. I liked this idea as it, again, keeps it consistent and makes the magazines identity clear.

1. INFLUENCESWhen looking at double page spreads, I found that I liked the idea of have a title that covered both pages, as I thought that this would make it clear to the viewer that it’s the main story and would really stand out when opening it up on that page. I also liked how the text fitted in between Miles Kane and Alex Turner as it does not conform to the usual double page spread layout, so I chose to incorporate this into my own spread. I used the last shadow puppets spread as my main inspiration as this spread really stood out to me compared to others that have been produced. I also liked how Alex Turner isn’t using direct address and so I incorporated this with my own spread as I thought that it could reflect a rebellious manner.

1. USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS

On my own double page spread, I included a pull quote to draw the viewer into reading the article. I kept the colour scheme consistent throughout my page and even used the twitter logo and changed it to fit my scheme. I did this as it gives the artist an online presence too so makes it seem more realistic and making the bird white makes my magazine more coherent. My cover star is not using direct address. I did this to make it seem as though the artist has a secret to hide, so could intrigue the audience as to what it is.

2. HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?

2. REPRESENTING PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPSMy magazine is aimed at teenagers who are interested in indie rock music. By looking at Q and NME, I found a way to appeal to a target audience and fit the music genre into my own magazine (Target audience-NME research 1 & 2).Cover StarMy cover star ‘Lily of the Valley’ is portrayed as a troubled and mysterious man through the images I have of him. This does not conform to the usual stereotype of a male as they are usually shown as strong-minded and have a lack of emotion.

2. REPRESENTING PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPSIn other photos I have used, it portrays teenagers in another way. The top image presents teenagers as moody, which is a stereotypical view on them. That could also reflect the type of music too as some aspects of it can be seen as depressing. However the second image reflects teens as friendly and positive as ‘The Charmers’ are smiling at each other.

3. WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND WHY?

3. MEDIA INSTITUTION

As my magazine is mainly influenced by NME, I have decided that the distributor to use would be IPC Media. Many popular magazines have been distributed from here such as NME, Empire and Total Film.

(I looked into this whilst filling out my publication plan)

4. WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?

4. THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT

My magazine is aimed at men an women aged 17-30 years old.

To find out more, I made a questionnaire for people who are within the target audience to answer, to see what would be successful in my magazine.http://paigetrombley.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/target-audience-questionnaire.html

This questionnaire helped me tailor my magazine to attract the target audience I want.

NME also has the same target audience as me so I took ideas from NME to help attract them

5. HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE?

5. ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE

MastheadI think the name ‘Deep’ is catchy and it can symbolise how deeply people can love music. It’s a simple name so would make it an easy name to remember.

ColoursMy house style is grey, white and black which are very mature colours. This would appeal to the older end of my target audience. The black connotes a sinister and dark meaning, so can reflect the darker side of indie music. The grey connotes sadness and depression and coldness which again, can represent the sadness in some of the music of the genre, and also how teenagers can feel. The white can connote purity and also makes the text stand out more. The colour scheme I chose in the end was different to what I had originally planned (colour scheme planning) as I didn’t think it would fit with my main cover image.

5. ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE ImagesMost images included in my magazine are of my cover star. He is a young man so would appeal to a young audience as they could associate with the star. Attitude is shown in my photo, especially through the use of direct address as it looks as though he is reluctant and can show an attitude of not conforming to rules and expectations and so could reflect the target audience in this way. (Research into cover stars)

Cover LinesThe cover lines I have used are simple and don’t give much away to the viewer. By having a different font in the bottom right corner of my magazine it makes it stands out more. I have emphasised the names of the bands so that they stand out, so would attract my target audience as they would be interested in the bands mentioned.

6. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THE PRODUCT?

6. TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS

Publisher Page Plus Paint.net

Easy to use and understand.

Easy to use and understand.

Easy to use and understand.

Able to use a range of fonts and shapes.

Able to add text and shapes.

Able to add text and shapes.

Able to save an image as a JPEG file.

Good at editing images i.e. filters, cut-out studio and has a range of tools to use.

Able to use tools such as magic wand.

Already familiar with the program so was able to navigate it well and use it well.

Allows you to save as a PDF or a JPEG or PNG file.

Layers are used to help edit every part of the document.

I used many programs whilst making my product such as publisher, page plus and paint.net. Here are the strengths of each.

6. TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS

Publisher Page Plus Paint.net

Can’t use cropping tools to remove the background.

Effects don’t appear in good quality on the photo.

Magic wand can be a frustrating tool to use as it can take the image as well as the background.

Only has basic tools. Limited choice of shapes. Hard to use at first.

Here are the weaknesses of the programs I used.

6. TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS

Some difficulties I faced when making my magazine was using the cut-out studio on page plus to make my cover star be on top of my masthead. I wasn’t too sure about how to do it so I used the guidelines that my teacher set to help me do it and I also practiced using the cut-out studio to try and improve my skills with it (Page plus practice)

6. PHOTOGRAPHIC CHOICES

To figure out how I wanted my cover star to look in my magazine, I looked at previous covers for inspiration. I also looked at photo-shoots of different bands and this allowed me to make a decision on what I thought was suitable for my cover star to wear.

6. BLOGGERTo show my progress throughout the project, I kept a blog on Blogger in which I posted my research and ideas and plans for my magazine. I found blogger an easy site to use as it was self-explanatory. I found it a effective as all of my work was in one place in which I could go through my blog post list to find anything I needed, which I find more effective than scrolling through documents in a file on a computer. It was also easy to edit and delete any posts I wanted which made it easy for when I had a new idea or changed my mind about something.

7. LOOKING BACK TO YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK, WHAT DO YOU FEEL THAT YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO THE FULL PRODUCT?

7. LOOKING BACK TO THE PRELIMINARY TASK

Preliminary Task

Final Task

In my preliminary task, my photo is in poor quality and the background leaves littles space for cover lines, which therefore creates negative space and a lack of cover lines. There are also no secondary images and I have used the same font throughout the cover so it quite a boring cover to look at. My main image on my preliminary cover also looks like a pair of friends which you wouldn’t see on the cover of a magazine whereas the image on my final cover has a serious cover star that looks like he could be an artist. In my final task, I have improved all of these mistakes and have made it look more professional and realistic.

8. HOW SUCCESSFUL DO YOU FEEL YOUR END PRODUCT IS IN FULFILLING THE TASK? HOW WELL DOES IT FIT THE BRIEF?

8. OVERALLOverall I am happy with my end product and I feel that it fits the brief well. My research has led me to create an indie rock music magazine that attracts a target audience. I have created a magazine that is unique due to it’s minimalism but is also typical due to it’s similarities to NME. I think that my strongest page is my front cover as my image is a strong image and it also features different fonts in a way that isn’t overwhelming. I think that my magazine is successful overall.