Final Evaluation PresentationBy Ariel Vlatseas

AS Media Studies City College Norwich

Magazine Projectariel-5.blogspot.com

Our Task

• My Task was to create a new music magazine-

• Front Cover

• Contents page

• Double Page spread

• Using Original Images, Text, and design

Preproduction sketches

Pre Production Photography (Not used)

Photography Used

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

My magazine design conforms to all the codes and conventions of a typical music magazine. It’s got the Masthead, main image, cover lines, barcode, price, selling line and so on…..I based my magazine design on that of a issue of NME.

Process of designFor main image design I wanted a medium close. Which was striking and made a statement. I had found that many products (CD’s and Magazines) which used such images came across and being quiet serious about their product. I took the image of a friend of mine who is in fact a drummer in a local punk band in his back garden. I took the image at night and got him to stand against a brick wall to give me some what of a blank canvas to work with.

Using the effects tool I added a ‘satin’ to the image which blacked out the background. The cigarette idea came from the issue of NME which also added to the rock & roll stereotype of not caring .

Front cover Step twoNext I added my Masthead design that I found on dafont.com. I pasted it into paint where I rotated the ‘E’ I wanted an eroded sort of text to give a sense of a well established brand. My magazine was designed at the age group of 20 – 35 year olds who would be interested in the new and old era’s of music. So naming the magazine ‘Encore’ really did reflect this. I used the effect tool and added a ‘drop shadow, Inner shadow and a Bevel and Emboss.’My selling line ‘Giving you more’ was a good analogy of the Masthead and it rhymed so it’s a catchy. Using the effect tool I added a outer glow to bring it from the page.

When creating my cover lines I used the ‘left third’ codes of convention and had the text in one size. It look like a block of text that didn’t have any selling appeal. So changing the size of the text gave it an in house style and changed the whole appeal. Also it didn’t interfere with the main image. So re-sizing wasn’t needed.

Front cover step threeBlake is my main cover line and the image used is to compliment it. It my main feature of the issue and the exclusive interview is based on this.

Continually throughout the magazine I have used a red and white colour scheme and this was no different. I again used dafont.com for my band name design and edited the colouring to keep with the in house style of the magazine. When conducting my survey i found that the majority of people asked wanted to see ‘Exclusive’ info within a magazine purchase so this would be the main idea for my design.Again at the bottom of the page I have my ‘sky line’

which is conventionally shown at the top of magazine. Is in keeping with what my survey results found featuring ‘exclusive interviews and latest News.’

Front cover Step fourThe final stages of my magazine were just stylistic features and essentials to any magazine design. The red band at the bottom was just in keeping with the in house colouring.

The Barcode is an essential as is the price.

Contents designI feel that contents pages don’t really have any conventions other than the obvious. Page numbers and main features.

I wanted to bring colour into the background for the magazine contents page to brighten it up but keep the red and black theme.

I added a image of the person on the front to continue the main article feature.

Instead of using the left third for my page information I decided to bring it over to the right as this would be the first thing you would see when opening contents page.A few stylistic features I used were the encore E icon. The self created ‘LTA awards’ and the ‘Sam’ were all used to highlight different aspects of the magazine and give it a unique image. The bottom of the page is used to give information to potential custom and is shown in many contents page designs.

Double Page spread

The three main codes and conventions of a double page spread interview are Image – In keeping with the black and white front cover design I used this again on the DPS to keep a house style and with the added caption I feel make it look genuine.Text – Is Typically split into three columns and starts with an introduction.Quotes – In many interviews the journalist add quotes to pull in a reader who will typically read quotes to see any main features if these are of any interest they will read the article in full.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The social group I was looking to grab the attention of was a group of Male and Female’s between the ages of 20 – 35.To get the attention of these groups you need to appeal to them. Indie and Rock is quiet a diverse community and stretches into many kinds of music influences.

I feel my magazine has represented this group well. Rock can be seen as:SeriousFunLoudAggressiveAnd simply not giving a fuck!

The images reflect all of these well the Front cover image looks quiet serious and not giving a toss what anyone thinks of him or his band.The contents page image looks fun and happy! As Does the bottom image on the Double Page Spread, The top one on the other hand look loud and Professional.

The double page spread interview is very informal and this is shown quiet often within ‘rock band’ interviews. They get quiet personal which always appeals to the reader and it stay fun! Which is what these kinds of social groups want.

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

I could see this magazine being sold in places such asWHSmiths Tesco’sSainsbury's.................... as well as small convince stores. It isn’t a specialist magazine its just an ordinary Indie rock magazine which you would expect to find in any sort of shelf stocking music magazines. Its target group is diverse and quiet open. It would feature very main stream artist new and old so selling it to it target audience wouldn’t be too much of a problem. Magazine’s such as Q, NME and Kerrang sell in almost any store. So featuring similar artists and appealing to similar audiences would make healthy competition.

I would feature my magazine as an online option. But there would be a charge (smaller than the one for the magazine) for a monthly subscription.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

• Male and Female

• Aged 20 – 35 years

• Into Rock and Indie music

• Have in interest in New and Old artists/ bands

• Middle / Working class

• Enjoy going to live music venues

• Listen to music on television channels such as MTV Q and TMF

• Download more than buying music in store

• Very technological with their music and lives

How did you attract/address your audience? (include evidence of audience feedback

From my survey results a have concluded that I attracted and addressed my preferred audience with a number of techniques.

Firstly 95% of people asked said that they thought my magazine genre was

Rock with 45% and 50% said they thought it was of an indie genre.

100% of people asked agreed that they thought my magazine was aimed between the ages of 16 – 35.

20 – 35 was the age range I was hoping to appeal to and this result was brilliant.

50% of the people asked said that they thought my front cover design was my best.

So there fore I feel that when addressing my target audience I have most definitely met their needs and wants.

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

Throughout the design process I have used many computer programs such as:

PowerPoint - Presentation Production

Photoshop – Using Layers, Image editing and Text editing

Websites such as:

Slideshare.com – For PowerPoint presentations

Issuu.com - For Word documentation issuing

Surveymonkey.com – For the design and production of survey’s for feedback and research methods

Blogger.com – ariel-5.blogspot.com

Dafont.com – For text design

Google.com – Used for research methods

I have had use of cameras, Camcorders, Music CD’s and many more…..

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

• I have learnt how to use Photoshop to fuller extent than I had previous to this and now feel very capable of using this in future production work.

• Getting audience feedback has been very beneficial to my production work and future projects I may undertake.

• Researching existing music magazines has also been very beneficial and I feel I have learnt many stylist features that make a good magazine/CD cover.

Thanks to:

Sam Aghabi (Images)

George Sellers (Fudge)

Ashley Bilverstone (Photoshop help!)

And finally

Jezz Wright (Criticism and Guidance)

By Ariel Vlatseas