Evaluation Question 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?

Throughout my progression from my preliminary to my main task, I feel that I have developed the majority of my knowledge of Adobe Photoshop CS4. Not only have I improved upon this, but the software Adobe InDesign aswell. Throughout the duration of my preliminary task, I struggled to complete it in the time required, due to not knowing much about the software Adobe Photoshop. As for my main task however, I was able to manage my time correctly for my front page and contents page, but I struggled afterwards in creating my double page spread and writing the article, as my writing skills are not as "up to standard" as my design and creating skills. I also happen to prefer working with Adobe Photoshop as opposed to Adobe InDesign. This gave me a slight disadvantage to managing my time correctly for the double page spread, as I had to get used to working with Adobe InDesign more to produce the main page. My first draft of my double page spread article had to be re-written, which also took some time, due to the fact that it sounded nothing like an interview with a rock chick. 

As for my preliminary task, I had no research into what I was doing, so I had to produce the magazine front cover and contents page as quickly as I could with as much thought as possible. Even the contents page of my main task took a lot more thinking about and planning / research in order to find out what features could be included to make the page look more involved, as the contents page of my preliminary task looks a bit plain and simple. It is clear that I have learnt a lot more during the progression from my preliminary to my main task, as I felt more comfortable with the softwares than before, and also due to research, I had a greater idea of how to take the pictures included in my magazine. For this I had to consider the framing, transition of shots and also mode of address whilst taking the pictures. besides from the images, I also had to think about fonts which would be suitable for my magazine genre, as explained in question 1, and also the layouts of the pages which I had a greater knowledge of whilst producing my main task, for example, during the production of my double page spread, I had to consider eye movement across the page, in which case I used columns, and textwrapped the text around images.

Evaluation Question 6

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


I have used many technologies whilst producing my product, such as the softwares Adobe Photoshop CS4 for image manipulation and Adobe InDesign CS4 for written content, along with the Grab tool to grab certain areas of my product in order to complete this evaluation. I also watched many Youtube and downloaded InDesign and Photoshop tutorials in order to help me learn how to use the softwares, and develop my knowledge of the two. I even visited websites such as http://www.good-tutorials.com/ and http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorials/Photoshop/1. I also used a website "dafont", in which I was able to obtain the font "Alias" which I used for my front cover, and also for testing out other fonts when I was choosing my title. In order to obtain information about circulation, I visited the following websites:  Wikipedia (Search Magazine Name and look to the right of the page for it's profile, example below), Bauer Media, and IPC Media. I used this website, Blogger, to document my progress as I advance through the course. In order for me to obtain information about my target audience, I visited the website UK Tribes.

With Adobe Photoshop CS4, I learnt manipulate an image or text in the following ways: To edit an image to clear up a person's face using the spot healing tool of the patch tool, how to use effects with a good use, such as lighting and texturising, drop shadow, bevel and emboss, etc... These are used for both pictures and text. I learnt to distort / re-size pictures, change brightness or contrast and even the exposure of images, to cut out a background of a picture and replace it with something else using the magic wand or/and quick select tool, and to desaturate a picture and then grab colour from certain areas (In the example of a test magazine I created to the right) using the history brush tool. 

To add effects like drop shadow and bevel and emboss, I double clicked on the layer and selected from the checkbox, clicking on the tabs in order to change the depth, distance, colour etc... To cut an image out from the background, I used the magic wand to select the background (backdrop), and deleted it, resulting in a layer with the cut out. I then cleared up any white bits left with the eraser tool or the quickselect tool.

My knowledge of photoshop has grown vastly, as I have been practising creating other bits and pieces in my own time, for instance I edited a picture of my friend to create a blue glowing ball above his hands shining on his face, with his stage name "fourstoriesdown" also lit up by the ball, shown below:

 




With Adobe InDesign, I learnt how to text wrap around an object, for instance a picture, how to drop shadow text and pictures, how to place text on a certain path and also how to make text lead from one box into another.  


Using the Grab tool on the Apple Mac computer, I was able to crop certain pieces of my images in order to create compilations on Photoshop, and present my elements in question 1. Like this for example:


 














Also, using the Apple Mac "Preview" Tool, I was able to study my work in order to inspect features which I may have needed to change.


Beside these technologies, I also had to think about how I were going to take my pictures, in which case I had to think about the background, and zoom of shots. For this I used a 10 mega-pixel digital camera which gave me clear and more accurate results, which would present my magazine much clearer, and be a lot easier to edit. For a clear white background, as on my front cover image, album image and an image from my double page spread, I used a white backdrop (my projector screen) which Vikki stood in front of to pose. Using a white background resulted in a clear and easy way to cut out Vikki from the picture, so I was able to textwrap an image on my double page spread.

Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract my audience, many different aspects have been considered, such as the themes, colours and even including many exciting things which can be found inside the magazine. I have again, introduced my comparison of magazines, but this time I added my unique selling points which are included on the front cover, featuring inside the magazine.

My unique selling point is the monthly knock outs, which is interesting for people who visit gigs and enjoy "moshing", or even voting for bands they prefer against others. Also, the information about bands / artists that YOU have never noticed before, or new singers, such as the main story - Rose Reveals, are considered to be a unique selling point for my magazine, as people will be very interested in finding better and more exciting bands and music to listen to. These points have been further explained in question 1.

I also used the website UK Tribes when considering what to include, which would be of interest of my target audience.

Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my music magazine are preferably 16 - 25 year olds with the interest of rock music. Here are a small selection of people that I think would be interested in buying or reading my music magazine: (Press Play)

These people would be interested in rock music, attending rock concerts or gigs, and therefore would like to read my magazine, as it is aimed at 16 - 25 year olds with an interest of rock music. People like these would wear skinny jeans, have snakebite lip piercings, as do some in the images above, have scene hair also as above, wear ear plugs, fairly thick mascara (even some of the boys) and wear grungy shirts. They would also listen to rock bands or singers, mainly bands though as rock music is mainly written / sung by bands, consisting of a drummer, guitarist, lead guitarist, singer, bassist, etc...

The age range specified is not required, since older or even younger people may even be interested in reading my magazine, but the majority of customers or audience would be within the age range, so it is just an estimation.

As my magazine is more focused on indie/scene/rock/grunge/goth type people, I am targeting a fairly niche audience. This is because mainly people who like to listen to music such as R n B or drum and bass, rap etc, would not really be interested in reading my magazine, as it is of opposite taste and genre.

Evaluation Question 3

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

Magazines in Britain are mainly published by a few dominant companies. I have decided that the institution Bauer media which publishes Kerrang!, Q and Mojo would be best to distribute my magazine, as it is the most successful media publishing company. My magazine is also aimed more at a younger age group, in which case, the majority of my audience will be teenagers, who wouldn't be interested in magazines such as Kerrang! as it has a more older age range as well as young (15 - 44), so it may be more sophisticated towards the older audience and therefore my magazine will be more focused on a younger audience.

As you can see from the table, the majority of magazines distributed by Bauer Media have a higher circulation, apart from NME. This is because NME is more of a general music magazine including more than one genre of music, however, Kerrang!, Mojo and Q are more of a rock genre, and are very popular and successful, with Kerrang! having the second highest monthly circulation, therefore I feel that Bauer would be the best for distributing my magazine, Knocked Out. Also, Like Kerrang, the price of my music magazine is fairly cheap, being £2.89, which is a reasonable price for people such as teenagers to be able to afford, therefore my magazine should be successful being published by Bauer Media. Besides the fact that my target audience will be able to afford my magazine, Kerrang! and NME are sold at low prices compared to the other magazines, leaning towards the fact that the circulation of the two are higher than those of the other magazines. This therefore shows that keeping my price reasonable, my magazine would sell more, and would also recieve a high income at the same time, balancing out the sales.

Evaluation Question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Vikki dressing up casually, but with fashion, defines her individuality, as it shows she is a sophisticated teenager, but also enjoys fashion.

Some of the aspects such as fashion, mentioned with the pictures in question 1, relate to the a lot of singers, such as "Lady Gaga", because the scarf could represent fashion, and Lady GaGa dresses up with fashion in her music videos, to show her individuality.

 










Written on Lady Gaga's glasses, is "The Fame" relating to the title of the album. She is also facing above the camera, like Vikki is in my single CD cover. I felt that Lady Gaga would be best to compare this with, as they both like to show their individuality. Lady Gaga is wearing glasses, hiding her identity to show that she recieves so much fame, as other celebrities do, and do not like the paparazzi always taking pictures of them. However, Lady Gaga enjoys the fame, hint the name of the album, so wears glasses to pretend to hide her identity, only because of the name of her album. I feel that Vikki's pose in this relates to a typical teenage girl, as many like posing and taking pictures of themselves or with friends. This therefore at the same time also relates to the fact that she is still a teenager. Having her hair down in this picture also goes to show glamour, along with her nails being painted red. This shows the typical girl look, but at the same time as I have mentioned, makes her look more sophisticated. Having a more casual and sophisticated goes to show the fact that even though she is a rock singer, she also has a personal life and enjoys being glamorous. This shows her individuality once again. Further expressing this, rock music is mainly produced by bands, as opposed to single artists. This shows that rock music can not only be sung by bands, therefore showing that her music is unique. 

I have researched into Socio economic groups which refer to people's occupations, economic status, education and background. This enabled me to determine which type of category my target audience would be in, and would also help me make sure that the price of my magazine would be reasonable for them:

Market researchers divide the population into 6 socio-economic groups or social grades , which are based on the occupation, or job, of the head of a household. These grades give some idea of a households income and how it might be spent. They are:
A- Higher managerial, administrative, professional e.g. Chief executive, senior civil servant, surgeon
B - Intermediate managerial, administrative, professional e.g. bank manager, teacher
C1- Supervisory, clerical, junior managerial e.g. shop floor supervisor, bank clerk, sales person
C2 - Skilled manual workers e.g. electrician, carpenter
D- Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers e.g. assembly line worker, refuse collector, messenger
E - Casual labourers, pensioners, unemployed e.g. pensoiners without private pensions and anyone living on basic benefits

As most of my target audience would be in C1 or below, depending on whether they have a job or not as most young teenagers will most probably not have a job in which they can recieve a higher monthly income, and due to this, I feel that my price is quite suitable for them to be able to afford.

Also, I visited a website, "UK Tribes", in order to recieve information about the types of people which I feel would be interested in buying my magazine. Visiting this website allowed me to determine the lifestyle and their backgrounds, so I was able to create my magazine in a way suitable for them. For instance, according to this website, most of the people I targeted are in the "Indie Kids" category, containing the selected few highlighted in green.

Evaluation Question 1

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

In order to create my music magazine, I had to make sure my product uses, develops or challenges forms and conventions of real media products. In order to do this, I researched many types of music magazine such as Q the music, NME, Kerrang! and Mojo. I even took a look at Vibe and Uncut, however I realised that they pretty much followed similar conventions. Each aspect of the final product has needed to be deeply thought about to relate it to existing media magazines, in order to make my magazine more realistic. I aimed not to make my magazine boring, so I included things which people may mainly like to read about. 

Masthead and Colours

I will begin by analysing my magazine title, for it is one of the main aspects of a music magazine. First of all, I have used the name "Knocked Out", as it may relate to music in the respect that bands or acts compete with eachother, and by doing so, the better bands or acts succeed, resulting in those that are worst to be "knocked out" of the competition. This is the main reason I chose this title, and also because of the fact that it is easy to remember. Although it has a harsh sound to it, many metal or rock bands/artists are familiar with the term "knock outs", therefore people who are interested in that genre of music will have an interest to read the magazine. Also, some grungers/goths are associated with blood and gore, and "Knocked Out" is also a phrase related to being knocked out in fights, or boxing etc...

This leads on to the reason I have used the colours red, white, yellow and black. Red can strongly represent blood, and therefore is used for the KO which is the well - known abbreviation of "Knock Out". Black and white symbolise gothism, as many goths/grunger type people (If you havn't realised already you will know that I am sometimes very stereotypical) have pale faces and wear black clothing. Some also like having really thick mascara around their eyes, which is black. I have used yellow, because I feel that it blends in well with black white and red, and also is a very bright colour, like white. Red also works very well with black. I felt that only having a 3 coloured theme would make my magazine a bit dull. However, in the masthead, I have only included red, black and white. I decided to use a black background with white text at the start apart from the K and the O as I have mentioned. I used the font "Alias", as this is very simple to read and also is very effective for my masthead. The K and the O have been typed in capitals, allowing the letter to be inverted - by this i mean the letter is a cut out of a block of colour, like below.

This therefore will give an emphasis on the K and the O. The rest of the masthead is written in white, because I feel that white on black is more effective.

I have placed the word "Out" beneath the word "Knocked" and lined the O at the beginning of "Out" directly underneath the K from "Knocked". This gives a further emphasis on the KO effect, and also is slightly more interesting than placing "Out" after "Knocked". 

Here are mastheads of some existing magazines to compare mine to them. I feel that I could have made my masthead a little more interesting, but I also feel that it being simple is very suitable and clear to read.

 

All of these mastheads are simple, Kerrang! maybe being the most involved. This is very interesting and I aimed to achieve something like this, however, when I found my font "Alias", I felt happy with what it was, as it is a very slightly more involved font with jagged edges and the invert effect.

In my final design, however, you may notice that I have changed the font slightly. I have decided not to do a black background, but to add a lighting effect on Vikki's face. Adding this effect dimmed the corners of the page, leaving a shadow behind the masthead anyway. I have also added a drop shadow to make it more effective, and make it look like it is popping out from the background. 

This is not all I done that affected the title. Because of the fact that in the image on the front cover, Vikki is leaning forward, so I have placed her hair slightly over the masthead, as with many existing magazines:

 

 Headline

The main headline follows the conventions of existing magazines, as if is usually a name of the person / band on the front cover and the main story, followed by pull quotes from inside the magazine, or an interesting piece of information for which the story inside is going to be about, showing that there is most likely going to be an interview. Using the colour yellow to make this headline stand out above all extras on the page, besides the masthead, "Vikki Rose" is the name of the chick for which I have based the interview on. 

I have again used the font "Alias", however, I have not used the inverted effect as it wouldn't suit it. Also, it would be a bit over the top having the beginning of every word inverted. This is then followed by a couple of pull quotes from inside the magazine, one of which shown to the left. This quote, "I realised I had something special hidden inside" is very convincing to the audience, as it drags them in to see what exactly it is that the singer, Vikki Rose, has "hidden inside".

This shows that there is an interview inside which many "fans" will be interested in. This therefore attracts the audience to want to buy the magazine and read inside for more.

Imagery
I asked Vikki to wear thick mascara to show the typical goth/emo look, and to make her face look pale by wearing lighter foundation. Also, she put on bright red lipstick to make her mouth stand out, also to give the goth effect. I asked her to wear the scarf, because it shows a sense of uniqueness between her and other music stars. She put her hair up and her fringe across, attempting to give the hair a messy look, showing a typical rock type person. However her clothing represents her individuality. This will be explained further, throughout the duration of my evaluation. Vikki is posing as though she is keeping eye contact, with a "giving evils" expression on her face. She has neither a sad look or a happy expression, but a straight face, as with many other photoshoots of models. The "giving evils" expression further represents a goth look. However, it is clear that she is not an evil person, as it is just a model photoshoot, and also her clothing is casual, showing an expression of her being a casually dressed person, but also likes to show that she is a typical rock chick, by applying make - up as suited, and with messy hair etc... This was further shown by ripped pink striped gloves that she wore, which are visible in the images on the double page spread and my contents page.


I used a plain white background on the background to make the picture look more professional, as though it is a proper photoshoot. This also shows that Vikki being only a teenager, is sophisticated. The white backdrop allowed me to edit my images easily, if I wanted to cut out the background etc... Using a teenager for the front cover picture and story inside, also relates to my target audience, as an audience with an age range between 16 - 25 will be interested in reading about how a teenager herself, has managed to get on the front cover of a magazine, and also will therefore want to read the inside interview, about how she became famous at such a young age.

In this image, the two to right right of my magazine and the one below are more like mine, single people with nothing much in the background. This shows that a clear background is very effective for the mise en scene of a front page, as it is the person that counts. Also, it keeps the page nice and clear rather than full of a lot of things in the background which interferes with the text colours. 

For one of the images from my double page spread, the white backdrop helped a lot when cutting out the image to be textwrapped and being places on a black background. Also, taking pictures of Vikki with a snowy background allowed me to be able to edit the image successfully by cutting away the snow with the eraser and magic wand tool in order for her body to be textwrapped (Yes she was cold, but hopefully it was worth it!). I also used the magic wand tool to edit the picture of Vikki with her mouth wide open, to cut away the background in order to place the image on a black background.

Using the white background helped when it came to the single CD cover, as I was able to add a cool lighting and texture effect, and didn't need to focus so much on it, as it was quite a small image which is only appearing on the front cover. I felt that this was quite effective adding the lighting effect and a lens flare, which makes it look as though she is posing for paparazzi being me.
 
Finally, for the image on the contents page, I felt that having a picture of Vikki standing against a tree would be very effective. This makes it look as though she is completely relaxed. A shed in the background represents a garage where she may practise singing, therefore this looks as though she is relaxed around an area she loves with no nerves controlling her and no paparazzi around interfering with her personal life.


Contents
My contents consisted of four categories, showing what is on "This Week". These were Features, New, Reviews and Live. The features consisted of my cover story, Rose Reveals, the features exclusive of backstage with a famous band, Paramore, and an announce tour of the UK by Snow Patrol, another well - known band. These features are exciting and attract the audience as people will enjoy keeping up to date with the latest gossip. Under the News category, listed are the on stage knock outs, and an exclusive chance to hear a new album by Owl City, a very popular singer. The on stage is a feature classed as my unique selling point, which people would enjoy reading about. Also, Owl City, being a popular singer, of whom's music a lot of people listen to, will be really intersted in hearing songs from a newly released album. 


These relate to the conventions of existing music magazines, as the features and news are to drag people into reading, and as they read the caption underneath each title of the features etc, the audience get more excited into wanting to read it.




Written Content + Layout

The written content in my magazine is not classed as formal, and is therefore more exciting to read as a music magazine compared to a school magazine, or other. I have included some colloqiual language such as the word "bloody", to keep with some of the language used in modern Britain. Also, this language is reasonable, and not as bad as some swear words. This relates to conventions of other magazines, like I have mentioned before when posting research of my double page spread, featuring in a Kerrang! issue article, some colloquial language is included such as "yeah" and "you fucking whore", however, I felt I'd use a more softer language as I wanted to keep it reasonable for my target audience. My double page spread article interests my target audience as Vikki, being only a teenager - the same as my target audience, or slightly younger - has reached the fame at such a young age. This would be a shocking story to read, and as it is more a chatty language as opposed to formal, the audience will be interested. 

 

I included a pull quote to make the page more involved, and because it is an effective quote, it drags the audience to carry on reading the interview. Textwrapping enabled the double page spread to look more professionally designed, and also it allowed me to fit the whole interview in. It was also able to make the pictures bigger and make the page generally look more "fun" or involved yet again. The colour of this page still links in with the themes, and the questions being in the font "Book Antiqua" keep some of the font included on the front page, used for the pull quotes, etc... The layout of my music magazine double page spread is similar to other magazines also, as they mostly have a large picture and writing on the other side. In my magazine however, I have a large picture but my article also covers the left over space. This makes my double page spread slightly more enjoyable.


Unique Selling Point (USP) 
My unique selling points are on stage knock outs and revealing bands which have been un - noticed. these are reasonable unique selling points, as it makes my magazine more exciting reading about which bands have been knocked out monthly, resulting in others to be voted as better bands, and also reading about bands or artists which have been unheard of, who could potentially produce some very interesting and tasteful music. This therefore promotes bands to be listened to, so my magazine also helps bands get noticed. As shown, the colours keep the themes of my magazine, along with the font Alias.

Band Index
Including a band index on my contents page, and a list of some artists/bands on the front cover keeps the audience interested, as they may wish to find out information about other bands, and also keeps my magazine involed. The band index background has a black to white gradient effect, and is embossed at the edges, to give a 3D metal effect, which relates to the themes of my magazine. I have therefore inverted the text on it so instead of black to white, it is white to black, therefore it is easier to read. Also, I have included a red drop shadow, to give a blood effect, again relating to emo's and goths, and keeping to the colour scheme of my music magazine. Magazines like NME include a band index, however my band index includes rock bands and artists relating to the genre of my magazine, as opposed to NME which includes bands of a mixture of genres.

Subscription
Including an option to subscribe to my magazine, gives people the option to have the magazine delivered to their door monthly, which I feel is a good idea because it is slightly cheaper to pay for an overall subscription, rather than buying each magazine seperately. Therefore, if people are interested in my magazine, it gives them more of a reason to keep buying it. Magazines such as NME and Kerrang! include this option, therefore I felt that including it would keep my magazine related to the conventions of others.

Swag 
Adding Swag, acts as an extra to drag the audience in, as it makes the magazine more exciting, with competitions, and also including a "Get your next issue FREE", pursuades the audience to buy the magazine, as it also sounds like a good deal, for example "buy one get one free". Everybody loves doing deals to get free things in life. I have places the swag on shapes which stand out on the front cover. I have rendered these with a ripple effect to make the shape stick to the themes of my magazine (makes it look old and worn out, relating to a rock - metal effect. The iPod competition which I added relates to existing magazines, as they sometimes include competitions to win things, like the example:

I have created a small compilation to show which aspects relate to which conventions on existing magazines: