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

When looking at my first magazine I had ever produced (to the left) you can see I was not familiar with all the media conventions of a magazine and was not aware of pixlr to edit my photos or apply text. So as time went by I played around with lots of different ways of putting text in different places, the colour font, the actual font and photos to choose from. In my preliminary task the school magazine you can see I was not as thoughtful of the process, I chose this model as you could see she was wearing a school shirt however if I was to change this i would make sure you could see the school logo just to make it that more clearer that she was a pupil. 

I also wish I had played around with the fonts as this lacks creativity and looks very boring I have mixed san-serif and serif fonts on the same page which doesn't look very professional at all as at this point I was unaware of the differences. One good point that is that I kept the same colour scheme throughout the page (house-style) which I think looks professional.

During the process I feel my skills have improved immensely whether it be the media terms or just making my products look a lot more professional.

My final front cover is much more like a conventional magazine with the master head at the top of the page as like my preliminary task, and applying sell lines around the long mid shot photo of my model, I kept a colour scheme through this front cover and the colours i chose were purple and a mustard yellow as I felt they complimented each other and the colour yellow and purple are very carefree and peaceful referring back to my genre 'indie'. I prefer the fonts I have used in this piece as I think its more appropriate to the magazine. I also looked into the sell lines I put in my final task, as I wanted to draw the reader in so applied sell lines they would be interested in.

I felt that my worst part of my final task was producing the context page as I found it extremely hard to look more professional compared to the other pieces. I like the edited photo I produced in the top right hand corner as I think it has a very indie vibe.


My favourite piece I created was my double page spread.

I think this looks very professional and I used a lot of media aspects throughout the piece.

EVALUATION 5 - WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND WHY?

My magazine is aimed at a niche group so it would be harder to sell, as it wouldn't appeal to as many people as for example pop magazines, so I wanted to get a distribution company that was big and knew what they were doing.  I looked into 2 top media institutions Bauer and IPC media both distributing hundreds of magazines. I then researched further into both of them. Even thought I did base most of my ideas on the magazine Q I feel that my genre is more closer to NME in aspects, which is distributed by IPC media. Also IPC media distribute well known magazines but are very niche markets. Customers that already by IPC media products would most probably trust the company i decide that maybe they might try out one of there new magazines they have started publishing already having good publicity for my magazine.                                                                                        

I would like my magazine to be published in WHSmith as they sell a wide range of magazines and a lot of people go to WHSmith for magazines to buy and if they saw a new magazine on the shelves they might be attracted to it. People would like niche magazines would shop here knowing there is a wide range of variety. I would also like to supply some to supermarkets such as ASDA, TESCO and SAINBURY'S as my target audience are mostly students so will be having to shop in these stores due to lack of money.

EVALUATION 6 - WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?

During the course of making my final product I used various different forms of technology, 

Firstly I used a computer to research all the different types of genre of magazines and the distributors and lots of other information to do with music magazines. The only problem with using a mac at school is that I didn't have the same software at home so it would take me a little while to find out how to save it so I could use it at home on my PC.

So I also used safari which is the Internet on an apple product. Whilst on safari GOOGLE was my main researcher as its such a easy way to get information and pictures to use throughout my process.

Secondly I had to take the picture that would be on my music magazine I decide that the I phone camera was suitable for this as it was very clear and easy to connect to the computer and transfer on to my magazine. 

Once I had transferred the pictures on to the computer I had to edit my pictures.

I used pixlr which is a very simple and easy online image editor. Enables to fix, adjust, and filter images. I didn't want to try out another site as I felt this site helped me do most of my editing, I also produced my hole front cover on pixlr as you can apply text and they had a great range of fonts. 

EVALUATION 4 - HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?

Choice of images

My photos were the key piece of the magazine as that's what people look for first even if the text was fantastic if the photos let it down people wouldn't bother reading it. That's why I chose a appropriate model for my magazine I kept her in the target audience age and ask her to wear clothes that portray my genre. I chose my poses to be very stereotypical to the indie genre, So when looking at the magazine so you automatically know what genre it is.

Indie Genre

 Indie genre is typically know as carefree, sub-rock, post-punk and unique and it isn't very talked about in the media. Also being another reason of why I chose 'indie' to make my genre as I saw an opportunity in the market.

Social Group



The social group I chose for my magazine was 16-28 males and females. Mostly focusing on students, which would be in the socio-economic group, E subsistence level. Also groups D and C2 which are working class and skilled working class would be in my target audience as my aged range can reach these classes to.

Conclusion

In conclusion I represent my social group in a positive way I kept to a very stereotypical style of pictures for this genre and the text I used was appropite for my social group as I didn't want to use to complex words that the reader may not understand. I also wanted to make sure the audience was not affended by any of my text so I kept it clean.



EVALUATION 3 - HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE?

EVALUATION 2 - WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA?

My genre indie has a younger audience which is why my target audience would be 16-28 year old's mostly focusing on students, which would be in the socio-economic group, E subsistence level. Where they can only just afford the bare necessities of life. That's the reason of why I priced my magazine at only £2.50, It's not to pricey so students would still be able to afford it after all there other payments have gone out. Also groups D and C2 which are working class and skilled working class would be in my target audience as my aged range can reach these classes to. 

I don't have a specific genre that the magazine is aimed at but I can imagine it varying depending on who is on the front cover of the magazine, for example if it was a women then male's may be more intrigued to have a look in side but also women could be to. whereas a male being on the front women may be more eager to purchase it.

My target audience will be interested in indie music, musical instruments, going to gigs and interested in a different kind of fashion not being the 'mainstream' sort, Being different. As I dressed my model on my double page spread.

The lifestyle my audience will have is predominantly a uni life style as I manly aim the magazine more at students at university or starting out there career another reason why I kept the price of the magazine low.

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

Front cover

This is my final front cover.

I chose to use a purple and a mustard colour font as I felt  they complimented each other. I asked Joanna (the model) to look directly at the camera so the reader engages with her, and she was speaking with the reader and having a direct mode of address. 

'Top 50 albums chosen by you' I used personal pronouns for this sell lines so the reader feels involved with the magazine and feels apart of a community.

'Win Reading tickets inside' I've included this as it's giving the reader a sense of being given to, attracting them to buy the magazine as this opportunity could not arise again. 

'Exclusive look in to Gabrielle Aplins tour life' I used this sell line because the reader could be interested in a celebrities lifestyle and they can read about someone else's life to make them know more about them and feel apart of them.

I placed the barcode in the bottom right corner so it didn't distract the readers eyes away from the model.

I decided to call my magazine 'V!NTAGE' because the word vintage can be referred to being unimportant and people who may like this genre may feel like there is no where to find out about it as the songs are never played in the charts or radio stations. So I thought by making a magazine for this genre they could find out about the latest songs and up and coming artists.

I choose to keep the picture black and white so it looked professional and then the colour of the sell lines and title would catch the readers eye's.

I edited the photo and inserted the text on pixlr as I found it very easy to do so and thought it looked very presentable and eye catching.

I based my final piece on billboard's Taylor Swifts' issue.  The way Taylor is looking directly at the camera I thought grabbed the readers attention. The way the text around her is coloured but the photo its self is in black and white. I choose to take a long mid shot of my model as I thought it would catch the male gaze as its something that males find attractive and look upon in a women. Also a lot of women aspire to look like her which would catch there gaze to.

I put the masthead at the top of the front cover as it is the first thing people would see and I wanted it to be recognisable, if and when more copies would be sold. I used a San-serif font so it didn't look formal so it would stand out and the reader would feel more comfortable reading it, my target audience are students and young professionals, so they would be doing a lot of studying so by putting the font as San-serif they could enjoy reading it as its something they are enjoying to read and not just reading it because they have to.

I put the sell lines down the sides of the cover so it wouldn't take all the view off the model. 

I decided against having a slogan so instead I put 'Joanna Rose edition' As every month I would have a different artist to put on the front cover so who ever it is I would put their name and call it 'their' edition. I didn't want to have too many sell lines as I thought it would make the cover look to crowded and tacky and my genre of my magazine is Indie so I feel the front cover looks very laid back. I wanted Joanna's hair to look natural, and not too set, like she tried too hard to make it look perfect so it looks carefree like most Indie people do.

Contents page

My final contents page.

I based my final product on the contents of Q magazine, I found this the hardest thing to do as many drafts I completed didn't look like a conventional magazine contents page so I felt it didn't look particularly great. I placed the largest photograph of the page of Joanna as she is the main article in the magazine and placed a quote from the artists article so people would want to find out more. I used the same font from the front cover to keep the same house style through out the magazine to maintain consistency. I took Q's idea of putting the writing in the first column I then added further photographs at the bottom of the page, just so there wasn't much writing to have to read through and you can visually tell what was going to be inside the magazine. I placed the numbers on the page bigger than the text so they stand out and are clear.

Double Page spread

As you can tell I based my double page spread on the Q's double page spread of Lady Gaga. I liked how there is only a picture on the left and them writing on the right I wanted to duplicate this however I thought my photo needed a little bit of writing in the top right hand corner so I put one of the questions that I put as a sell line on my front cover. I then chose to put 2 columns instead of 3 so its didn't look so crowded. I loved the L they put behind the text in Q magazine and wanted to duplicate it so I decided to place a white J. I chose the colour white so it didn't take all the attention away from the photo and text. 

I saw this double page spread and loved the way there was a quote from the article which you would first look at before reading the text which would then intrigue you to want to read more, so I placed a quote in the middle of the text hopefully having that effect. I asked my model to hold a guitar as this is what a stereotypical indie person is know for, playing the guitar. She is also wearing a checked shirt which would be another stereotypical view, with her hair the same as the front cover. I took the photo on a plain wall but added a gradient effect to the photo as I thought it was appropriate to the magazine. I made the question of the interview in bold so it was obvious and would stand out being easy on the eye.

THE EDITED PHOTO

These are the photos that I have edited, which I will be using in my final product whether it be the front cover contents page or double page spread.

PHOTOS

I decided to keep my photos quite plain so they looked professional, I just chose a white background. My model I used was around the target age I want my readers to be 17-21 and I dressed her in a checked shirt in some photos as I felt it gave off a indie vibe and in others I dressed her in a pair of dungarees to have the same effect. Here are the photos unedited.