Evaluation Q7 - Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

From creating my preliminary task of the college magazine to my final product of my music magazine, I feel that I have learnt a great deal about the research process and creating progress and I think that my technical ability has grown a lot.

Research into other products on my preliminary task was scarce, I thought that a minimum amount would be acceptable and all that I needed to make a good product, I was very wrong. I have learnt that the research process is the most important part as this is what will make your product realistic and helps you realise what it is you need to do to attract your specific target audience and make a profit. Along with making me realise and understand how to ‘target’ my target market using aspects like Demographics, Reader Profiles and statistics. I have also learnt to research into the conventions of magazines which is what makes the magazine realistic and eye catching which changes a product from being amateur to professional. Things that would seem simple to the untrained eye like the placing of the masthead or image are crucial to the effect it has on the audience and therefore would affect profit. The masthead in my music magazine is placed correctly in the top left hand corner where as in my college magazine it is central, which is not conventional and does not look realistic. On closer inspection I can see that my college magazine does not include the price, an issue number or a website address, these things are what make the magazine a lot more realistic and professional. The text in my college magazine does not follow conventions, the font does not stand out and the colour makes it difficult to read. There are no bar lines or blocks of colour behind the text to separate the text for easier reading. I have included these things in my final product and I think it looks a lot better for it.

This process has also made me think a lot about images and their importance, the use of iconography, the attitudes they display and how they attract the audience. I had to consider the use of mise en scene in relation to costume, setting and props. In my preliminary task, the image does relate to its purpose however it certainly does not attract an audience, firstly, the simple idea of the model's eye line. In most magazines, including my final product, the model is looking at the camera to give the impression that s/he is looking at the audience, this straight away pulls in the audience whereas in the preliminary magazine, it does not have the same instant affect. The clothing and setting also are more prominent in my final product, as my magazine's target audience is a smaller subgroup in society than simply college students, the clothing an setting are more specialised and relate more to the specific people I am addressing. The iconography is also important, in my final product my model is pictured with a cigarette which is stereotyped with my target audience, the young, indie/rock section of society and is poised at the forefront of the image, however my college magazine has little iconography, a computer, which can be associated with a wide range of society, not just specifically students. It is also not as visible as the cigarette in my other image so does not stand out.

I think I have probably learnt the most about the use of Photoshop during this project. As you can see, my preliminary task has very little editing, the only editing used was for the text and even that was minimal and because of this, the product looks incredibly amateur. My final product on the other hand, looks reasonably professional in my opinion, I think this is mainly down to the image, as shown in the Photoshop question of my evaluation, you can see that many changes were made to the original image like changes in contrast, levels and the colour which was changed to black and white. I also learnt how to remove blemishes which is conventional, as no magazine models will have spots unless they are intentional. I learnt how to make my text more realistic by changing the blending options and using glows and emboss to make text 3D.

Overall I have learnt a lot since starting my preliminary task, from research, production and technical elements, there has been a lot of work but I have enjoyed all of it!

Evaluation Q6 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Evaluation Q5 - How did you attract/address your audience

Evaluation Q4 - Who would be the audience for your media product?

In the research stage before creating my product, I determined my target audience, basically who I was going to aim my product at and who would be interested in and buy my product. This was decided on what my magazine was about and the people it is stereotyped or associated with. On deciding to make my magazine based on Indie/Rock music, I then proceeded to find the types of people that are most commonly associated with this genre, I found this to be a relatively easy thing to do as I, myself fit into this category. I then went on to research existing magazines and ones that are similar to my own to find their reader profiles, mood boards, focus groups and demographics to locate their specific target audience and applied it to my own magazine and created my own reader profile, mood board, focus groups and demographics seen below.

By using these, I could then determine the general age range, sex, class, occupation and social group in society. My results came to show that my target audience would generally be within the age range of 16-24, a median age of 19. There will generally be more males buying my magazine than females and they will be between the upper middle and lower middle classes. Their occupation would predominantly be a student and the social groups in society that will buy my magazine will be 'Indie' and 'Grunge' this particular social group is associated and stereotyped with things like Doc Martens, drugs/smoking and festivals which will help me to target them specifically.

Evaluation Q3 - Who would distribute your media product and why?

On researching different distributors of media and magazine I came across the company IPC Media. They are a company that is very much horizontally integrated and hold business in distribution, advertising and publishing.  I thought this would be the perfect distributor for my magazine for many reasons. Firstly, they are also the distributor for a competing music magazine NME which I have modelled my own magazine around. This already shows that if other existing, successful companies are using this source then it is likely to be reliable. IPC Market force is the distributing section of IPC, it is a British company so is easy for us to use and helps support the British distribution industry.

Along with NME, IPC is also behind many other companies which cover a wide range of genres and themes, these include famous women's weeklies including Now, Chat and Woman; TV entertainment brands including What's on TV, TVTimes and TV & Satellite Week and the goodtoknow network. Leisure brands including Country Life, Horse & Hound, Rugby World and Decanter, as well as lifestyle brands including Nuts and Mousebreaker . Luxury fashion brands including Marie Claire and InStyle, lifestyle brands including woman&home and Essentials and home interest brands including Ideal Home, Livingetc and housetohome. These well-known magazines show that IPC is a trustworthy, reliable and experienced distributor that cover every target market and specifically appeal to mine with the lifestyle genre of magazines by selling like products including NME.

IPC reaches a gigantic audience being the UK's leading consumer magazine publisher. They engage with 26m UK adults - almost two thirds of UK women and 42% of UK men. Their websites reaches over 25 million users globally every month. This reassures me that my magazine will have the best chance possible at reaching the wider audience and maximum profit.

Evaluation Q2 - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Double page spread Conventions analysis

My Main Image is conventional to existing products in relation to layout, effects, and iconography. The image is positioned on the left page so that it is the first thing you see when turning the page, it leads well on to the text that follows. It takes up the whole page as this is conventional for other magazines to do so, it reinforces the artist mentioned and could promote a new album or product. The picture again follows the iconography and stereotype of this genre. She is holding the cigarette and wearing leather, usually associated with the rebels and an indie rock genre. The black and white and the deep contrast adds an edgy feel to the mood which reflects the genre of the artist and magazine. I think the black and white also makes the pages flow more which improves the continuity, this is also shown throughout the magazine as the front cover image is also black and white, linking the two pages.

I have used a Pull quote as my title on this page. This has been used by a lot of other existing magazines as it draws the audience straight into the article. The text is fun and intriguing so it leaves the readers wanting to read on. It is in large text at the top of the page so the reader can see it straight away. Some of the text is in bigger lettering than the rest, this is because they are the words that will attract the readers so again will stand out better.

The Colour scheme and Layout are consistent throughout all the pages to show continuity and help the product flow. It shows that they are from the same magazine and improves the aesthetics. This is conventional to all existing magazines as they too want to keep consistent.

The Features I have used like page numbering, credits, ‘exclusive’ and the stand first are little things that can differentiate between an amateur and professional product. All existing magazines use these features  to help the reader navigate the page and inform them of important aspects. The use of ‘EXCLUSIVE’ on a red background informs them that it is an important interview and the stand first that usually goes unnoticed is a conventional feature used to briefly tell the reader what the article is about. Credits are always used on the images for legal reasons so are definitely needed. Page numbers are another think that may go unnoticed but are vital for any magazine. They are placed at either the top or bottom of the page and subtly help the reader find certain articles.

The Text is simple all the way through in century gothic font. This makes it easy to read and conforms to the text in existing products. The text is white on a black background which helps it stand out while looking more sophisticated than the usual black text on white background. Other existing products like from kerrang magazine have used this technique. The text in bold are the questions from the interview, I think this makes it easy for the reader to differentiate between the interviewer and the artist and helps them to navigate around the page. The text is in columns so that it is easy to read and is conventional to all other magazines as it splits the writing into manageable sections, looking less daunting to the reader. I have used a pull quote in the middle of the page, this highlights an interesting part of the interview and stands out and makes the reader intrigued and want to find out more. I have also included the artist’s name behind some of the text in a calligraphic font. I think this feature makes the page look more sophisticated and aesthetically pleasing. Other magazines like NME and Q have used this to make the page look more interesting and professional. The text ‘EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW’ is in capital letters and is in a very simple font simply to stand out and attract readers.