Evaluation

Powered by Issuu

Publish for Free

Final Magazine

Powered by Issuu

Publish for Free

Process: Removing The Background

 This is a video presenting how I was able to remove the background from the images I took of my model Vanessa. In this example, I removed the background of my cover image on Photoshop, using a selection of various tool inluding the 'Magic Wand Tool' and the 'Eraser Tool'. As you can see, it was clearly very easy to do and proved to be beneficial for the duration of my project. The skills I have learnt on Photoshop will also help me in the future with other media related products and similar software.

Final Cover Comparison

 These are further improvements I made of my music magazine front cover. In my 'Cover Drafts' post which I posted before, I presented the transformation of my cover page - from my sketch version to the third draft however I made it clear at the end of the post that I still needed to make improvements in order to create the best cover I possible could. These are two final drafts of my magazine cover with the absolute final version at the bottom. You can see that even after many versions of my cover, I still continued to make significant changes whether it was the font/size of the sell lines, adding extra sell lines, making the image bigger or even changing my magazine's name. As I have mentioned before in my production dairies, when improving my magazine I changed many of the serif fonts to sans-serif fonts which you can clearly see from the two images above. I also created the sell line 'Free Lawson Poster Inside' which I personally believe is another sell line that can attract my target audience. Overall, I am now happy with my final front cover even if it required many improvements and a variety of different ideas.

Production Diary

01/03/14 - Finishing My Project

 Today and over the past week, I have been constantly improving my magazine and finishing off my evaluation - this includes copying my answers to the questions in a magazine format and adding pictures of where I got my ideas from, what software I used, comparisons and extra pictures of my model . I am also making sure every other post is complete and up to standard. I have also made a post of my audience feedback to show what they liked about my magazine and what I have also done to improve it in order to create my final draft magazine. Overall, I am now happy with my completed magazine as I think it looks realistic, interesting and represents the indie genre well.

Audience Feedback

 This is the feedback I gained from my target audience who assessed my magazine and told me what they thought were the best parts as well as what I could improve. These results were from a survey I created on the website 'Survey Monkey' where my audience answered questions about my magazine. I then took the responses on board, carrying out any final improvements I could to make my magazine better plus creating this survey was also an opportunity to present what people thought about my product and how successful it might be.

Production Diary

20/02/14 - Final Touches To My Magazine

 As it is leading up to the deadline date, I have been focusing on how to make my magazine look as professional as it can. I have done this by looking at all of my survey responses I have collected from my 'Audience Feedback' survey over time and also taking into consideration my teacher's feedback he gave me before.
 Some of my improvements included changing some of the fonts from serif fonts to sans-serif as these are more common in magazines. I have also made some of my images and pull out quotes larger in order to change the look/layout of my magazine because this was one of the main aspects my audience touched on that I needed to improve. Furthermore, I have also added more box out texts to separate some of my article's text and to make it look more like a realistic and interesting magazine.

Production Diary

15/02/14 - Creating My Evaluation

 During this week, I have started to change the format of my evaluations into something a bit more interesting. Personally, I believe the best way to do this would be to make my evaluation in a magazine format similar to my actual music magazine. Therefore I will include the same type of fonts, colour scheme and extra pictures of my model I took in my photo shoot. I think this is a good way to organise and present my questions about how I have created my magazine and my ideas throughout the project.

 I have started to create my evaluation on InDesign (the same programme I created my magazine as I have already learnt how to use this programme efficiently) and have started off with a simple cover including a large picture of my model I haven't used before as well as a masthead and a main sell line. I then moved onto the contents page where I made the text bigger than usual to fill up the whole page about where the different questions are in my evaluation magazine.

Production Diary

07/02/14 - Collecting Audience Data

Penultimate Version

Production Diary

30/01/14- Adding To My Blog & Improving My Magazine

 This week, I have continued to organise my blog by adding more posts such as my 'Cover Drafts'. I thought it was appropriate to create a PowerPoint showing the transformation of my cover page from my sketches to the various different drafts as I changed my ideas a lot. For example, I was unsure how to lay out my sell lines as well as being unsure about my cover image. This PowerPoint explains why I have changed my ideas and displays all the other ideas I had (including the selection of images).

 I have also continued to improve my magazine, for example I finally added some social media content to my content page. I added a way my audience can get involved with my magazine via Twitter and Facebook and also added both logos so my readers can clearly identify with the opportunity. I have also started to include headers and footers on each of my double page spreads to make the overall page look more interesting/more typical of a real life magazine.

Cover Drafts

This is the transformation of my cover page including my sketches and previous ideas. As you can see, my ideas about my cover page have changed a lot, yet this is still not the final draft as I feel there is still room for improvement to make it look more like a realistic music magazine.

Image Manipulation/Process: Before and After

 

These are two of the images I used on my third double page spread. The original images were in colour however I edited them in my magazine to make them look more original. On my double page spread, I include five photos of my model with the second and forth image being in black and white to contrast with the other images in colour. I managed this effect in Photoshop by first of all removing the background and then turning the image black and white. To remove the background, I used the magic wand tool and to change the colour I went onto the layers section to create a new fill or adjustment layer. I then selected black and white. I found removing the background the hardest task because of the way my model’s hair was styled – this meant I had to go in between the gaps to remove any excess background.

Production Diary

 
21/01/14 - Organising My Blog

This week, I continued to improve the posts on my blog as well as creating ones I hadn't yet posted. I made sure each blog post had the appropriate label such as 'Audience' or 'Research' and added any relevant information to explain each of my posts.

I also created another survey aimed at my target audience, asking what improvements I could make and what they liked best about my draft magazine. I personally think I still have a lot to add and improve so I will consider all comments and feedback that I receive. Personally I think it is important to contain some sort of social media that my audience can use to get involved with my magazine so I will add this to my contents page.

Audience Feedback Survey

Click here to take survey

This is the link to my survey that I will use to gain feedback from my target audience about my music magazine, including what parts of my magazine I could improve and what parts they liked best. I will send this survey out to my friends and my fellow media students who can give me their own range of ideas as well as constructive criticism and feedback. I will also interview people about my magazine as part of my feedback so I can ask them my own questions face to face.

Chosen Images

Production Diary

04/01/14 - Completing My Evaluation

 During the holidays I have been working on my evaluation as well as improving some of my blog posts and overall keeping up with my blog. For my evaluation, I have completed all seven questions in draft form and plan to edit them later on. I made sure all my answers were lengthy and included as much information as possible to explain why and how I made my music magazine. I also had to research some magazine companies and publishers for some of the evaluation tasks as well as looking back at the equipment I used and comparing my preliminary task to my final magazine.
 After I had completed my evaluation I continued to add other posts onto my blog. I made sure I added my sketches and wrote about them - explaining about what I drawn and I also added the first draft copy of my magazine. At this point, I can see a few improvements I can make so when it comes to posting my final draft I know my final magazine will look significantly better however at the moment I am happy with what my first draft looks like.

Evaluation Draft

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression

from it to the full product?

Since my preliminary task, I feel like I have learnt a lot on how to successfully create a magazine. For my preliminary task, I created a magazine for my school which included a cover page and a contents page. When I created this in September, I created a simple magazine name, used a main cover image and sell lines. However now that I look back at them I feel like I could improve them so they looked professional. At the time, I didn’t take into account the type of font I was using or the size therefore I feel as though the layout didn’t look right, especially on my cover page. However for my music magazine, I took into account the layout and tried to make it look as professional as I could by the selection of tools I used on InDesign. The guide lines and columns helped me achieved this however I failed to use these for my preliminary task.

 Although I thought the contents page for my preliminary task looked much better than the cover page, I still feel my full product looks a lot more effective and more like a realistic magazine. This is because the overall look and different conventions I included were more suited to my audience such as the headings, the editor’s note and the wide selection of interesting images. Even simple things such as the font and house style made my final product look better therefore my overall progress was more recognisable. I’ve learnt about what is typically seen in a music magazine and while researching my audience I have considered what I will include in my own music magazine. I felt like I considered my audience a lot more when creating my final product as this is shown through the type of style my music magazine is.

 During this project, I have also gained a lot of skills on how to use particular software and what to expect when creating music magazines. This is because I used a wider variety of tools in my final product such as learning how to create different paragraph styles, how to change the style of the text and also how to wrap it around images. I feel this has given my final product an overall more professional look; making it look more like a realistic magazine. However, during the making of my preliminary task I didn’t change the style of the text as much, keeping it quite basic and simple. I didn’t include any different paragraph styles and when it came down to the layout, I kept everything very simple.

 For my preliminary task I also feel the images I used weren’t very interesting and the different shots and angles weren’t taken into consideration as I didn’t think they were important. On the other hand, now I realise that having a good set of images plays a big role into the production of your magazine and are one of the main aspects when looking at how realistic and successful your magazine is.  For my final product I also used a much better camera, allowing the pictures I took to be in seen in high quality on my music magazine. This wasn’t the case for my preliminary task however as I used the camera on my phone, rather than using a professional camera that is vital to use in photo shoots for real life magazines. Without  a doubt, the images I took for my final product were much more entertaining as the facial expressions and clothes my model wore were very unusual which helped engaged the audience more, unlike the first set of photos I used for the school magazine.

  I also planned by music magazine a lot more than my first school magazine I produced. I was given a lot more time to organise and think of interesting and new ideas that I could use in my final product. In this time I was able to draw rough sketches of what my final magazine might look like, come up with different name ideas for the magazine using different name categories and think of my own colour scheme that I would use for my house style. All of this made it a lot easier to create my final magazine instead of having to come up with lots of random ideas on the spot without much time and thought.

Another skill I gained was researching real music magazines, whether this is researching the cover pages, the contents pages or the articles. For my preliminary task I failed to do this therefore my end result looked very unrealistic. Yet, when I looked at magazines such a ‘Q’, ‘NME and ‘Kerrang’, this helped be a lot when starting to think of ideas for my own music magazine. This way I was able to think of a similar layout and style and also make sure I included every type of convention that was necessary to create a favourable looking magazine.

 In conclusion, it is clear that I have made a lot of progress in both the planning and the making of my final magazine and you can see this by looking at the differences between my preliminary task and my final task. This obviously was helped a lot by researching my type of magazine as well as the various skills I learnt throughout the project. 

Evaluation Draft

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

 Throughout the making of my magazine, I have mainly used the software Adobe InDesign as it is much quicker and simpler to use than Photoshop. At the beginning, I created a simple template on InDesign with the help of the guide lines which I used for columns throughout the different pages of my magazine. As I went on, I started to fill this template in with my own ideas for the content. Creating the basic template was very easy. As soon as I set up the page, I used the shape tools to create boxes and then filled them in with certain colours with the specific editing tool at the top where you could choose what colour you wanted from the options or indeed find your own. On InDesign you could also save specific colours that you wanted to use again as colour swatches. This helped me with the house style of my magazine and also made it easier to click my colour instead of having to find it again. These boxes that I made for my template would later be images which I would choose and edit. I also created text boxes for where my text would go; again the columns and the guide lines helped me.

 When I later placed my images and text in, it was extremely simple. All I had to do was go to ‘file’ then press ‘place’ and choose my image I wanted in the boxes. Placing the text in was just as easy; all I had to do was copy and paste the text I had written in the text boxes and if there was any leftover that didn’t fit, I could simply put it in the box beside. On my front cover I also used the shape tool to act as a border for my names of different bands I listed. On InDesign it was also easy to change the size of the text as well as move it up or down and side to side. I found this particularly helpful when creating my sell lines as I wanted some parts of text to be bigger than others or more spread out. For my specific magazine, I also created a paragraph style that I could use on my contents page and for pull quotes. Creating this would simply put a red line under my text if I selected it however if I didn’t want it to appear I would simple click the normal paragraph style option. This was a much faster way to design my magazine, especially my contents page instead of having to make a new red line for every page.

 Software I also used for my magazine which I used a lot before during GCSE was Photoshop. I used this for editing my chosen images and removing the backgrounds of them so there wasn’t a white box surrounding my images. I edited my photos by airbrushing them and adding effects to others. For my last double page, I used black and white images of Vanessa and these were accomplished in Photoshop then placed into InDesign. Although Photoshop is ideal for editing my images, when creating my entire magazine I feel as though InDesign was much more useful and quicker.

 The hardware I used was the equipment I used during my photo shoot. The camera I used was a Canon SLR camera as this took high quality photos which would later make my magazine look more effective and professional.  When I was taking my photos I could also adjust the focus to blur out the background and make my model the main focus. I also used lighting during my photo shoot and changed the positions of the lights depending on the type of shots I took. All my photos were taken against the white screen to make it easier to edit them later on. 

Overall, it is clear that InDesign is very beneficial to use as many popular magazines use this Software when creating their own media products. Using this type of technology will also help me design and create other media related products later on plus the different effects and short cuts I have learnt throughout this project will make my work easier and quicker.

Evaluation Draft

5.         How did you attract/address your audience?

 Personally I consider my target audience as one of the main focuses of my magazine as this will ensure whether or not my magazine will sell. I used different features within my magazine to attract my audience and made sure I did this successfully by looking back at my survey results to see the certain features and aspects of my magazine that people would like to see. I made sure the people who took part in my survey were as similar to my target audience as possible by getting my friends to take part and also posting it on my twitter. I feel these types of people will have the same if not a fairly similar style to my audience and also listen to the same type of alternative and up to date music.

 As I mentioned in my last question, the model that I used for my cover page and my main article will be a big selling technique for my product. Not only does she persuade males to buy my magazine as she is attractive, she can also be a role model towards females through her style and confident approach. This will therefore cause my audience to buy the magazine, especially if I use quite unique and eye catching images throughout and on the front cover.

One of the features I thought was important to include in my magazine would be reviews. I feel these will play a big role in persuading my audience to go ahead and read the magazine, therefore making readership statistics higher. From reading reviews, my audience will gain a wider knowledge in different bands and artists, perhaps impressing their friends and helping them decide on which specific gigs and festivals to attend. This in particular will help my audience build relationships with their friends and maybe even family as they can go on to tell the opinions and suggestions expressed in the reviews to help them choose which concerts they can all attend plus making the reader feel they are more aware of events taking place within the music industry. This also makes reviews a perfect source of information for my audience.

 On the front cover, my magazine will also contain a list of artists. I feel this is also a great way to persuade my audience to buy my magazine as from my research; my survey results show many people would want this as a sell line. The list of artists presented which will then be included in my magazine gives the reader an exclusive insight to what they may expect. I also believe including a fair amount of different bands will further make the reader more interested as they may see more than one of their favourite artists. However, seeing a particular artist they haven’t heard of may also make them intrigued so therefore make them want to find out more about the musicians they have no yet heard of.

 Competitions will also play a massive role in the selling of my magazine. These will attract and address the audience personally as the type of my prizes that will be on offer in my music magazine will be tickets to a range of festivals. As my target audience enjoy going to festivals and taking part in these types of events, this type of reward will be ideal and many of my readers will enjoy taking part for an opportunity to win. Every time these types of competitions are presented in my magazine, there will always be two of more tickets on offer, meaning they can take their friends who have the same music interest as them along. This can further help build their relationships as they can both attend the festival together.

 Throughout my magazine, I have also included various opportunities for my audience to reach and contact my magazine through the use of new media such as different social networking sites like facebook and twitter. I feel my target audience in particular use these sites on a regular basis therefore attracting my own audience through these will be a successful way of promoting my magazine. On these sites my audience will be able to leave their own comments and opinions as well as find out information about the release and content of the next issue. In terms of the uses and gratifications theory, my magazine’s own facebook page and twitter account will supply my audience with information such as ways to enter competitions, who the next cover star will be and a summary of the next issue. I feel both these sites are also a fantastic way for my audience to interact with my magazine so they feel more involved so overall new media is another way to address my audience personally.

 Moreover, using new media I will also have an own app for my magazine that my target audience will be able to access available on all smart phones and tablets for a small price. This app will allow my audience to read some of the main articles included in my magazine and a small preview of the cover star’s interview. This will therefore persuade my audience to go ahead and buy the magazine themselves if they like what they see. Also in the app, there will be quizzes and competitions for the users to take part in. This will be about the music industry and any current or upcoming bands. This is again an excellent way for my audience to get involved plus challenge them to see if they really know their music. Furthermore if they get a good score, it may make them feel good about themselves – this could act as a persuasive tool, therefore making them buy and read my magazine. I think this will attract my audience as people within their age range will most likely own a smart phone or tablet and will be able to take part in these activities on the app. I also feel my target audience lead pretty busy and hectic schedules so having an app they use while they are travelling or ‘on the go’ is ideal. This app will be mentioned throughout the pages of my magazine to make my audience so my audience are aware.

Overall, mentioning the uses and gratifications theory again, my magazine will attract my audience through personal relationships. This can be by discussing the magazine with people who have the same music interests or indeed attending festivals together when winning competitions. My magazine can also help my audience build their own personal identity as they may feel the music they read about and the style they see presented from the different artist and music bands in my magazine can help them shape themselves. They may aspire to be like these artists and even see them as their role models if they reflect similar values to their own. Through entertainment, my audience may enjoy reading the magazine as it is a way to escape their real life worries temporarily therefore they will continue to buy the magazine to create this type of enjoyment. Information also plays a big role in my magazine as I have already discussed, through reviews and different features that give out lots of detail. This could be gig listings or features about a range of artists.

Evaluation Draft

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

 The audience for my media product will be mostly females however there will also be significant mix of both genders as there is not a clear specific aspect of my magazine that will only be aimed for females (for example, I have used a main neutral colour scheme, avoiding stereotypical girl colours like pink). More statistically, around 60% of my audience will be females so the other 40% will be males. My audience will also consist of young adults around the ages 17-28; making the target age 22. I feel people around this age will still display a strong interest towards current music, especially based around the indie genre. Older teenagers will be at the perfect age to attend indie music festivals and gigs with their friends as this is seen as a popular social event. Young adults may also see this as a typical social activity therefore including a gig listing sell line on my front cover will prove to be very effective in attracting these types of people. The majority of my audience will also have jobs – this is clear on their age and also their social class. My audience will be of a lower middle class if they are indeed a student or working class as they may have apprenticeships or a part time job as a shop assistant for example, therefore they will able to buy their own music in the form of CDs or online.  

 According to research, it is clear this particular age group use the internet and more specifically certain social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter as a huge part of their daily lives. Whether this is to do work, catch up with friends or indeed listen to their favourite music; young adults rely on the internet for almost anything. Taking this into account, throughout my magazine I have included opportunities to get involved with my own magazine via Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other social media sites that are easy to access on a wide range of gadgets. As these sites are available on phones and on tablets as apps, they are necessary to include in my magazine as my target audience will mostly likely own one of this devices and use them on a daily basis.

 For my magazine, I have also used a female model for my main article including my front cover to appeal to both genders therefore attracting my specific target audience. My model will appeal to females as she can be seen as a role model or inspiration. The female side of my audience may aspire to be like her by following her fashion trends such as the way she looks or the type of music she produces. However, the male side will find her attractive, again a persuasive tool to get my audience to read and purchase my product. This again supports my idea of my target audience not being gender specific as my model is advertised for both genders.

 In terms of psychographics (meaning the attitudes and aspirations of the people who read and purchase my magazine), my audience will consist of mainly individualists. Although my magazine will present and give off an edgy style to my consumers, concluding that people who go on to buy my magazine will have an different and unique style – especially in fashion and in the music industry, some of my audience may also belong to the mainstreamers and conformists group. Of course, most of my target audience will include people of this particular individual lifestyle as they are interested in new bands, particularly bands that are yet unheard of and want to stand out from the crowd. They may do this through the clothes they wear or the alternative music they listen to, yet many of these people may also buy from well-known brands and keep up with popular trends. Taking this into account, some of my target audience will be mainstreamers and in some ways this is hard to avoid as statistics show 40% of consumers make up this category. Overall, it is clear my target audience enjoy wearing quirky and original pieces of clothing but they may still like to keep up with fashion and trends.

 I have already mentioned some of the social habits and activities my audience may go ahead with, such as attending gigs and festivals. More of these social habits may include shopping with mates (this focuses mainly on girls) to use their own earned money to buy the latest and most stylish clothes. My audience may go on to buy unusual yet fashionable clothes as a way of expressing their individual style. Obviously, most of my audience will spend most of their time either at college or University. It may be clear that they take an interest in fashion through the creative subjects they study or they may take subjects that link to music if they are truly passionate about the industry. Whether my audience is male or female, they will both care strongly about their appearance therefore including a stylish model for my magazine was appropriate.

 My audience will also enjoy buying merchandise- this may be purchased at concerts they attend or even on the web. As I have mentioned before, the internet is hugely popular within the age range of my target audience. Even though this is true, I personally believe my audience will still prefer to buy merchandise from their favourite bands and artists at shows they attend as this will mean more to them and remind them of their day out.  Therefore I will not include websites for merchandise in my magazine and instead provide reviews to help them decide on which gigs to attend so can buy their products there as well as seeing their artist live. 

(I will discuss the use of reviews in more detail in the next question of the evaluation)

Evaluation Draft

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

I wanted to choose an institution company that didn’t already distribute a magazine similar to mine to avoid competition, yet I wanted to pick one that I knew was successful in promoting my product in order to gain successful readership numbers and sales. Even though IPC Media is clearly a very popular and successful company as it creates content for many different platforms including both print and online and is the UK’s leading consumer for magazines and digital publishers, it already publishes NME. Although I didn’t base my own magazine completely on this existing media product, I still believe NME is similar to my own magazine down to its type of layout and music genre. Plus NME is very well known amongst music fans therefore this could cause my sales to be poor as many music fans already buy a trustworthy and respected magazine, therefore wouldn’t need to start buying a new one.

 I also considered the National Magazine Company as they clearly know how to distribute and promote magazines very well as some of their magazines include very famous products like Company, Cosmopolitan and Elle. This straight away makes the company look very trustworthy however as they aren’t many magazines published by this company and the ones that are, are mostly about woman’s lifestyle or fitness, I thought my own magazine wouldn’t particularly fit into this institution and there also wouldn’t be a certain type of audience appropriate for it therefore wouldn’t be ideal, especially for promotion.

 Another company that I thought was very successful as well as being very music related was Bauer Media as their brands included various radio stations like kiss, magic and FHM. It’s also important to take into account that Bauer Media reaches over 19 million UK adults every week through many platforms and influential media brands like Heat, Closer and 4Music. One of their main aims is to connect to their readers or listeners and they clearly do this very successfully as all their brands are very well known throughout the UK. The only reason I didn’t choose this company for my own company was because they already promote and distribute Q and Kerrang. I based my own product on Q therefore having another music magazine similar to this style could cause competition, especially as Q already has a very large fan base.

Taking all this into account, I have chosen Future PLC. Straight away I found out this specific company was digital publisher of 2013 – meaning not only it is reliable, it is also up to date with promotional methods as this award was won only last year. It is a leading digital business, reaching more than 58 million international consumers online, on tablet and smartphone and on print. That is an incredible amount of people and the fact it works international, also makes it a more favoured choice for publishing companies. They hold leading positions in a wide range of technology, photography and of course music. Future was also BMA Media Company of the year. One of the main reasons I picked this company was that although it includes popular magazines like Total Film and a magazine which helps you create music called Computer Music, there wasn’t a magazine that was simply about a certain music genre that supplied readers with lots of music content. Therefore I felt my magazine would fill this market gap as well as being published and promoted successfully in this company as Future is also involved a lot with the latest technology such as iPads and viewing magazines on devices such as these. As my target audience are young, they most likely use/own tablets and smartphones so they would be able to read my magazine on them. My magazine can also be promoted this way on social networks like twitter and facebook by having it’s own account and page that people can follow/add. My readers will use these sites a lot therefore they are an appropriate way to promote new artists that will appear on my magazine as well finding out more information about my magazine. Although print versions of my magazine will be very important, online versions that my audience can read on their devices is a new and exciting way of experiencing magazines.

Evaluation Draft

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

 The type of social groups my magazine particularly represents are of course indie fans and people who enjoy attending festivals and going out with their mates. I feel as though I have done this successfully throughout my magazine as the type of model and images of her I have chosen to include are similar to the type of people who actually read my magazine therefore they may look up to her and in some way connect with her. The musician I have wanted to present in my magazine gives off a quirky and even cheeky appearance, similar to the type of characteristics my target audience portray. This is shown by the types of angry and fun facial expressions my model has in the images included in my magazine. The type of clothes my model is also wearing can come across as original and unique, especially by the types of different accessories she is wearing and she may also have the same fashion as my readers. Taking this into account, my magazine clearly promotes itself towards indie fans as they have their own individual look however they love keeping up the date with the latest styles and expressing these in their own way which I feel my model does. When deciding on who my model should be, I choose someone who wouldn’t mind going ahead with silly and quite unusual poses so she could look as much like an indie artist as possible as indie stars seem to have quite wacky and fun personalities. Therefore seeing a typical indie artist as part of the main feature in my magazine, my target audience will be more likely to purchase my product because they can see an artist who they most likely know they will enjoy reading about.

 Furthermore in some of my images, Vanessa uses strong bold poses as part of her body language to show she is confident and daring. In many of the photos I have chosen she is looking directly at the camera to draw the audience in as well as letting the public know she is not afraid to be herself. This again links to my target audience and the social groups I represent through my magazine as many of my readers will also be loud and have some form of self-confidence as they clearly enjoy showing off their unique style to others and don’t seem to care what other people think of them. This can also be expressed through the different props I used such as the hats my model wears. I feel these again give her a different look and make her unique compared to other artists. The make-up she is wearing is also quite bold such as the bright red lipstick and dark eye-shadow; these again give her similar qualities to my target audience as they also want to show off their looks, not only through their clothes but also through their hair and make-up also.

 Overall I think my model gives an interesting yet sometimes controversial look as she is sometimes giving off quite strange facial expressions (especially on my cover page) plus she never seems to smile in my chosen photos as this I feel would give off the wrong impression and make her look more like a pop artist than anything else. Although some may argue this can make her look less approachable, therefore steering people away from buying my magazine, I think it makes indie fans want to find out more about this striking and engaging character. Moreover, she continues to give off the same type of style as her fans and more specifically the indie music social groups.

 Not only does my model represent these particular social groups, the other type of content I have also included such as the sell line on my front cover ‘A-Z of Gig Listing’ do too. These further supports the idea of indie fans and festivals lovers buying my magazine as they will be instantly drawn to this on the cover page as they will enjoying reading about gigs so they can later maybe attend them with their other friends with the same music interests. I have also included a puff at the top of my cover page, allowing the readers to have an opportunity to win tickets to reading. As my target audience love going to festivals, their chance to win a trip to one of the biggest festivals in the UK would definitely appeal to them and further describes my social groups as typical festival goers. In my article I have also included my artist’s life while growing up as well as her own inspirations and role models. As other content besides the music is something my readers wanted to see from the research I did about my articles, I feel this was appropriate to include and therefore made the tone of my article sound less serious – giving off the same feel as my captivating images.

Evaluation Draft

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of

real media products?

.I researched other magazines to find out typical conventions of a music magazine, this included looking at covers, contents and article pages. I looked at many different styles of music magazines when undergoing this task such as ‘Top Of The Pops’, ‘NME’ and ‘Kerrang’ however I wanted to base my own magazine mostly on ‘Q’. I used interesting images like ‘Q’, a similar colour scheme and layout (especially my front cover and contents). I looked at cover page from the issue of Cheryl Cole and took ideas from this real life media product. I liked the idea of having a list of bands on one side and sell lines on the other with the artist in the middle so the main focus is on her. The facial expression of Vanessa also captures the audience’s attention as does Cheryl’s pose in ‘Q’ therefore I think this is a way of my own magazine developing these types of conventions.  However, unlike ‘Q’ my masthead is placed across the entire top part of the page instead of just in the corner as this may have not looked professional because my magazine name wasn’t an acronym such as ‘Q’. I also felt having the main sell line of my artist present on the cover of my magazine at the bottom in a large font was ideal and many other magazines take on this type of approach therefore it must be successful. This is a way to advertise the feature article in the magazine, persuading people to buy and read it.

 Looking at the front cover of my magazine, I feel it is clear to tell what type of music genre my product will include by the image used and the style fonts I also presented. I feel using a rough and edgy type of font for my masthead will make it clear to my audience that this music magazine will include an alternative indie genre of music because of its unique look. As many magazines include plain and usual looking mastheads and hardly ever include interesting fonts, this is a way I challenge forms and conventions of typical magazines you see printed on shelves. This could also be used as a unique selling point of my magazine as people may be persuaded to buy it because of its fresh and interesting look. As for the image, I have used a mid-shot of Vanessa as I feel this went better with the overall layout of my cover instead of using close up images like many other music magazines.

On my contents page, I also feel like I used the most appropriate codes and conventions of a typical contents page by going ahead with a structured layout set out in columns with other normally smaller images to display what the audience are expected to read about in the magazine. My page numbers are also presented on each image so if the reader likes the look of one particular picture, they can go there straight away to find out what the page will be about. This makes it easy and simple for my audience as perhaps they won’t have time to read the entire content of the magazine. Another convention that makes it easier for the reader is indeed the headings for each type of page – for my magazine these were ‘On The Cover’, ‘Regulars’ and ‘Features’. These work for both new and existing consumers of my magazine as if they normally purchase the magazine and are looking for a page that they enjoy reading they can find it in the ‘Regulars’ however new interviews and other exciting articles will be under the ‘Features’ heading. Of course, at the top of the page I have included the magazine’s name as well as the issue number. However instead of simply writing ‘contents’, I have written ‘What’s Inside’. I feel this is a better explanation of what this specific page is about instead of vaguely writing ‘contents’ as this is boring and unoriginal. I want to keep my audience interested in order to keep them reading my magazine so they can go and buy it again. I also have included subscription details and information as this is another way to persuade my audience to continue purchasing my product for a better value and price, bringing in a wider audience. This supplies them with information to contact the magazine which I feel is vital for every magazine. Again it typically presents my music genre by the type of images I have used. Of course, I have used an image of my main artist in my feature article as she is a main aspect of this issue as well as other artists and venues. My image I have placed on my contents page is again an interesting photo of Vanessa because of her pose, hair and outfit and links to the alternative indie genre because of is interesting look. The fact she is wearing black also makes it clear this isn’t a type of pop magazine as pop artists tend to wear bright and colourful colours especially in pop magazines. The colour black is a type of symbolic sign that represents fear and evil, concluding that my magazine's genre will in fact be a type of edgy indie sound - not sweet and girly like pop music. I have also included an editor’s note as I feel this personally addresses the reader and makes the entire feel of the magazine friendlier as well as giving the reader a summary of what is inside. I have also used social media as I way of involving my audience and developing the typical forms and conventions of a successful fresh magazine. Again I have used the same house-style throughout and have based my contents page on ‘Q’, mostly down to the layout and appearance.

On my first double page spread I have simply used a large image of my model with a pull quote on the right hand side. I feel using this type of layout to begin my feature article is successful as it grabs the reader’s full attention and makes them want to find out more about the artist as all they know at this stage is what she looks like and a quote she has said in the interview. I also feel that starting with a double spread with hardly any text makes the article look more appealing, again persuading my audience to read on so they can find out more.

(include page numbers when I add them)

On my next double page spread, I have started with a short brief paragraph summarising my artist to fully introduce her to the reader. As my artist is new I feel it is appropriate to include this type of introduction to make the fans intrigued enough to read her story as well as making her sound very interesting and successful. I also made this piece of text bold and in red to make it stand out from the rest of the text on the page. Again, my image dominates the page like many other features in magazines as typically the image is always the main aspect. This time I have used a close up image, allowing the reader to focus on what she looks like plus I think the particular image I used shows off her make-up, giving her a more professional music artist look. As I have used three columns on one page to present my text, I feel as if this follows the standard codes and conventions of any magazine. The use of my pull quote separates the text to avoid my magazine looking too plain and lets the reader get a taster of what the artist is like and what the interview will include. I have used the same colour scheme to give my magazine a specific feel and to make it more recognisable for the reader. The type of text I have included such as the swearing 'if they like it and even go on to purchase my music then that's fucking awesome' goes against the hegenomic norm of how artists are supposed to be role models for young teenagers. However, in this case I think it was acceptable as the genre of music my artist normally sings would typically be aimed at older readers.

 For my final double page spread I used a variety of different images at the top part of my pages, going across both. I presented these in different colours – some in full colour and some in black and white to again make my magazine look more original and unique, challenging the normal conventions of music magazines as the images they include are normally only presented in one type of colour (e.g. only in full colour or only in black and white). However ‘Q’ sometimes tends to include black and white images as they can look more simple yet effective. I used a total of five images of my artist as during the production of my magazine I found it hard to decide on which photos to use therefore for my last double page spread, I wanted to include as many as possible. The images I have used for this page also include photos of Vanessa wearing a t-shirt with the word ‘music’ on. This links back to the type of magazine mine is and again makes it clear to the reader. I have also included a box out text, displaying the artist’s own opinions on other bands in the same genre. Many magazines use this therefore I thought it was appropriate as a way of again separating the text, adding more variety to the page and presenting the indie music genre.