Evaluation Of Final Product

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

• Through the masthead I used a form of real media products. This is because most magazines have a large masthead which is one of the first things seen by the audience. I felt I needed to follow this convention because I think it gives an identity that most magazine’s have (examples on the right) so, it shows the audience know the magazine when they see it.

• It conforms to the convention of the worn down letters of the masthead seen in other magazines such has Kerrang and Big cheese to suggest that, the music's being worn down and that there's a lot of bands and artists in the genre of rock music.

• I used a black font colour because it’s a typical stereotype of rock music for somewhere to have the colour black to help show the audience, it’s categorized it to the audience to show that the magazine is in the genre of rock music.

• Page numbersI feel that magazines in a way copyright their page numbers such as kerrang (right). They present it as something they own and something they’ve had for a long time because of the years of production which some magazines have. I however presented the page number in a very basic way because I did want my audience for the magazine, to find their way around it but I felt it wasn’t an important factor towards the magazine when compared to an article itself but, I followed the convention of having a page number within my magazine but I went against the convention of it being a good, necessary feature as to me all it does help the audience find the page of the article they want to read.

• BarcodeThe barcodes are always a necessary feature in a music magazine because it tells you how much an issue costs as well as the issue number.

I presented it at the bottom left of my front cover but I made it small. This is because I wanted the audience to scan the front cover before eventually finding the price. This was because I want the audience to not be put off by the price if they feel it costs too much.

In my double page spread I used images from a gig I attended. This conforms to the conventions of a music magazine such as Big Cheese or Rocksound because somewhere in them, there’ll always be a live review from a gig in a big or small venue from a well known or underground band. I decided to do this because I really enjoy reading about live shows. The pictures really show you the atmosphere of what it’s like and give the readers a good look into the band to see their style but, as well their attitude to their live shows. From the look of kerrang’s (top) and my project (bottom) I feel I've grasped something similar to this. This is because the layout of the image and the composition of the image.

For my style of photography for my front cover I presented it similarly to a typical magazine e.g. kerrang (right) because it’s a mid shot with the splash image (Dave Grohl) looking straight at the camera. I presented my image in a similar but different way because I still had a mid shot which conforms to the convention of a magazine (far right)as well as the clothing (black) .I had my cover star wear a black Evanescence shirt because I wanted the convention and stereotype of black clothing with rock music because it’s a necessary convention as it’s all around the music scene, this is seen in my live gig photos, the lead singer is wearing black. I feel I defiantly follow this convention of the colour black because it’s all over the magazine. The main reason for it being there is because It’s been in rock music for years and I wanted to continue that colour into my magazine.

Cover- Image- style of photography

Columns

Magazines such as kerrang present columns in a different ways such as in multiple columns so, they spread out the text or as one continuous column down one page. I presented this convention as one continuous column (left) because I felt the audience would be satisfied by having the text right there in front of them so they can embrace the images that ere alongside it. Being a live review, I followed this convention as I believed it was the best choice for the magazine article so the audience would remember it as a great show compared with the pictures so they’d re-read it. I followed the a convention of the singular column because I made different designs to how I would present it and decided that it would be best decision to go along with the images so there are no clashing colours within the article I made in Photoshop.

Magazines such as kerrang present their magazines mainly with three simple colours: Red, black and white. This is because they’re the main colours of rock music which can have different conventions and uses. Mainly white’s used for the contents page so it gives the page a clear layout. In my magazine I did this because I wanted my audience to look around the page so they can quickly skip to their favourite parts of the magazine. In this respect the white colour was the best choice for the magazine because it doesn't obscure the readers view of the text. I decided to follow the convention because I did want to make my magazine similar to those already being sold but I wanted to make it different by tying in black and red to work together because they’re also common colours associated with rock music. I did this by having a black background over the red typing because I wanted it to stand out to the audience, I wanted to give every part of the magazine a title so it could introduce the band with what particular segment they’re in so people could know where to find them in every issue.

Colour scheme

Pull Quotes

In magazines such as rocksound or kerrang, the magazine puts emphasis on pull quotes quite a bit because they’re giving the reader a insight into the magazine as they want to give the audience a quick look into the magazine to give the audience another reason to buy it. The publishers want to expose the bands people enjoy in hope that they will buy it. I presented this convention of the magazine in a slightly different way because I felt I didn’t need too many pull quotes to get the readers drawn in. I had a simple statement `we’re ready` because I felt id given a lot of bands to the front cover and with that there was a lot of exposure but the splash image was the band I wanted the pull quote for. I followed this by quickly explaining the quote. I did that because I wanted to draw the reader in, I wanted to give the reader something to think about buying by giving them something simple which is expanded upon by reading the article. In a way I went against this convention because I didn't think it was as a necessary feature as a different convention. This was because some magazines already express themselves greatly by the cover lines for a magazine cover, if people enjoy the artists you put on there then I think they’ll buy it because it’s relative music they enjoy.

In magazines the way they present fonts is through a consistent use of it. I’ve noticed in kerrang (right ) uses the same fonts on different pages so they use a consistent font. In rocksound they do the same thing. This is because they want the audience to recognise a particular font as their own so if the audience will know what to expect. In my magazine, I presented this in a similar way because I kept a consistent font on the front page, the contents page and the double page spread. I decided to follow this convention in this way because I wanted my audience to indentify the font with my magazine, the same way it was done in magazines such as rocksound and kerrang so that they know how the text and pictures go together with the general layout of the magazine. I decided to change my font that was on my style sheet because I felt it didn't look good enough with the contents page or the double page spread. By this I mean it wasn't the best feel for the magazine. They font I changed it to was Times New Roman because it had such a better look to the magazine. I felt the audience would enjoy reading the article so they’d re-read it again in the future and enjoy it to buy another. It went along with it better because my first choice had a colour clash where the audience wouldn’t be able to read it. With the new font, it feels right for the magazine so the font will be identified with my product in the future.

Fonts

Writing style

With my main writing being the article on the double page spread then I viewed different live reviews from rocksound, big cheese and kerrang. One component for their magazine was that it was all written in the third person. I think is an essential tool for writing these types of reviews unless you interview the band directly. I presented the writing style in third person in this way because it places you at the gig, so you have the perspective to give the reader the atmosphere of it all, how it sounded, how you think it went and an insight to the band so you control the mind of the reader to how you present them. So overall yes I did follow the convention of a third person writing style because I wanted to give this aspect of the band(s) to the audience because if you like them, obviously you’ll have positive things to say about them so, I'll have new people enjoying that bands music because of the way I presented them. I think I progressed with the convention because I never had anything bad to say about the band, this is good for them because if there’s nothing wrong and you’re saying good things then I'll have achieved what I've set to do, interest and please people so they’ll listen to the bands music.

Cover linesIn music magazines such as rocksound or big cheese they present cover lines quite large in

order for the audience to see them. As well sometimes they have a consistent font or different fonts to make them notice it but mainly they have more mainstream bands for the cover lines as they hold a significant purpose for the magazine. I presented the cover line in a similar way because I had them quite large so they’d catch the eye of the audience. As well I made them more mainstream bands in the rock genre (We Are The In Crowd) to follow the convention of artists being on cover lines so the audience would be more interested in the magazine. In a way I went against the convention of cover lines because most magazines have a consistent font and colour. Also because there’s always going to be new music and there’s always going to be new was to present music in different ways.

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

• On the front cover my model for the splash image is in the male gaze because I wanted my magazine to apply to a more male audience because women in rock music is becoming a more apparent scene these days so I wanted to cater to a more male audience to do this. In this way it shows my audience gain a pleasure from looking at people like this so they invite themselves in this term of a male desire.

• I feel the male audience in my magazine is seen through the pictures from the double page spread. I have the individual images where it’s the men from different bands where they’re shown to be leaders as they’re really up front and in everyone's faces where it subordinates women. Because there’s more of them, they seem to be the ones doing the hard work because in a few of the images they’re seen playing an instrument (guitar or bass) whereas there’s only one image of a women doing that to say that they may work harder within the band.

• The only ethnic groups I represent are white British and American people. This is because I've never really been to any gigs that include a diverse culture of ethnicity and I’d say the part of York I live in isn’t really ethnically diverse.

• Teenagers are represented in my magazine through the front cover by the splash image. One of the only stereotypes I've used is that teens are loud because of the convention of rock music. This is because most music within the genre is of a loud nature so the audience can enjoy the music. I decided to go against the stereotypes of drugs and alcohol because not everyone who’s a teen smokes or does drugs. There’s plenty of bands out there that don't so I wanted to reflect this upon the magazine to show that not every band conforms to stereotypes.

• In the double page spread I think the band I used (We are the in crowd) are on both sides both teens and adults because they’ve been in the music business for a few years now. They have that sensible quality that not everyone has because they want to show that they’re mature enough to be doing this.

• Both are represented in my magazine because I wanted to show that different generations have been in music, there’s not just new people that are experienced, there’s older and more experienced people that know what to do in the music industry.

The main age group for my media project is teens. This is because of the people around it. The cover star mainly because she’s a young women who will appeal to an audience who enjoy reading about young bands who’re on the underground or mainstream scene. This is because the people who buy the magazine will be around this age (possibly 16-21) as they’ll probably enjoy reading about bands similar to their own age or for different reasons such as their influences, other activates or their backgrounds etc.In my magazine, the stereotypes of the age group I mainly looked at (teens) have the stereotypes of being trouble some, taking drugs or smoking. My magazine challenges this idea because the bands I've expressed don't do this because I wanted to show the audience that you don't need any of these things to put on a great performance. Yes, it’s true that people in bands smoke but this doesn't mean every band member will smoke because everyone has their own identity in the group so nobody’s in each others shadow. They all have their own job to do.

I feel a more working class audience is more dominant in my magazine. This is because this is the main audience which is in education and the main audience which I could reach out to the most so they’ll view it more if they go out to get lunch and stop by the magazine isle. As well it’s possible that this part of the social class has a part time job in which they can use the money to buy the magazine if they’re interested thereby approaching that audience.This reflects my audience because it is mainly this audience I'm looking at, the working class or middle because they could have a disposable income where the magazine doesn't hinder their earnings being a reasonable price for a luxury that they can afford.Social class is represented in my magazine through the front cover because the slash image is of someone who looks like they’re in the middle class. Because I took the image of someone from the college, it supports the idea of the middle class being in a good form of education, mainly being white and less likely to be involved with crime so it mainly supports the idea to conform to the stereotype afflicted with the magazine

My main target audience are students and the working class (E/D demographic) male, white British people. I believe people would use my product because it gets them information about their favourite artists so they’re informed about them first . As well as this it gives a general interest onto to people where they could find a role model of behaviour to mimic whereby if they enjoy their music they can gain a sense of belonging to a group that enjoys this music as well as themselves which have them relax and escape their own problems with music so they find a basis for a conversation starter. From this it represents that the audience can be an isolated group and can use music to base an identity around them where they share a common interest with other people who’re like this.

• My magazine mainly features female artists. This is because I wanted a more male audience because from the media packs they’re seen to be the people in bands so they’re an audience where I'd want people to see what sort of bands are out there in order for them to have a influence for people to aspire to be similar to.

• This meets the initial aim of my audience because I feel rock music is more male dominated from the amount of bands that headline festivals and stadiums to the amount of fans there are at a show where I mostly see a 2:1 male audience. However in my magazine I feel that it’s more female dominated which goes against the stereotypes of women. I went against this view of gender because women in rock music is becoming a more apparent scene. They might not always play an instrument on stage but it follows the theory of the male gaze because they’re in terms of a male desire to their audience along with the rest of the band so they have a growing fan base.

• For a stereotype of men I have that they’re more of a dominant place in music. This is true because in some male dominated bands, they’re mainly seen behind the instruments and doing everything to make sure the shows run smoothly. My products supported this view in my double page spread mostly. In the individual pictures I have individual shots of some bands where it’s just the male members of the band so I could support the theme of hegemonic masculinity within the project.

NMEThe fact that 42% of the NME audience are students supports the thought because they want to enjoy themselves would show the magazine would be a luxury they want. As well, I can see from the media pack that it’s aimed at a more male audience. This could be do with that mainly its more male dominated within bands and we only occasionally see a more mainstream band to a younger audience, an example of this would be Paramore. Because the median age is 23 which represents the main target audience NME has because they could have a job where it would be a luxury to buy the magazine. KerrangFor being such a wide market it still a considerable mean age of 22 years old for the people that still buy it. Due to the increase in online material through Kerrang's website, this could be a factor into the decrease of the circulation figures because some articles they write are in the magazine they publish. Because of this both genders could just see the articles and think that it, I have no reason to buy the magazine because I have the article right here online.

The ethnic groups that have been featured in my magazine are the White British and American people so I have monoculture within my magazine.I think this does reflect my audience because I initially aimed it at the white British ethnicity because that was indeed the dominant group I saw liking the genre of rock music. If I could've done this better I would’ve looked around the college and asked different ethnicities what type of music they liked to have a much broader sense of music taste for the magazine for it to appeal to a more multi-cultural group of people.

In my magazine, the only ethnicities that’s present in my group are white British and American people. Its a good representation I think because it goes against the stereotypes of being arrogant or ignorant. I've shown this in the contents page by having a fictional band pose with smiles so the stereotype of arrogance is non existent because I wanted to show that some bands may be ignorant because their presence in magazines may give them a chance to be arrogant but I go against this because some mainstream band say feel as if a presence of being in a known magazine is very good for them because by being in a magazine they’re getting out to a greater audience.

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

• I think a company such as Future Publishing would benefit from a media product such as my magazine. This is because the do have music magazines but they’re targeted at metal audience because of a magazine such as Metal Hammer whereas my magazine goes in a more varied direction of music (pop-punk, rock and metal) with artists old and new. As well as this, Metal Hammer writes about older bands more than new, because my magazine features bands such as sonic boom six, they’re still on the underground scene where some magazines benefit to appeal to an audience but because of Metal hammers knowledge 2/3 of readers play guitar. It shows how influential they can be with the examples they have in the genre of music so I gives the audience a chance to be in touch with their own music as well. I’d say I'd choose Future publishing over any other publishing institution because it has something for everything of the rock genre which appeals to the older generation and the younger generation. They go in depth to their audiences because of this by having a type of magazine for every rock fan new or old, young or old so they get to the audience further than anyone who has a music magazine sold in shops. The only thing lacking is the wider genre of rock music because they focus onto a certain demographic which is mainly the older generation because of the nature of the look of the magazine which looks more sophisticated than other magazines aimed at a younger audience. Because of this I feel they have a need to get in touch with the younger generation where my magazine does that because it features both young and old musicians for people to aspire to be like.

• A good second choice for a media institution to distribute my media product would be Bauer Media. This is because they have a lot of magazines in their portfolio to add to their amount of consumers but it would be a second choice to future publishing because they already have a magazine similar to mine where it reaches a lot of bands, new and old, mainstream and underground to a large audience with a readership of 421,000. because of this I think it wouldn't be a good direction to go down because they already have a magazine which reaches out to a large audience with a mean age of approximately 22, would they really need another magazine to compete with?

• With kerrang they have extended their magazine into other areas of media brands which maintains an audience because they play what they like. I believe my magazine could be something like this as I'd have my magazine listening to its audience to maintain and eventually grow it. Because of this I believe it the media could go into a media such as the radio as if enough people enjoy what they can attract a bigger audience through a website which displays different news stories for different bands within different sub-genres of music. They extend the content of a magazine because people will be interested by what they see. They’ll know they want to know what to hear about and will listen to what they enjoy.

The main differences between the 2 publishing media brands of Future Publishing and Bauer media is that Future publishing has a boarder magazine range, more suited to the older demographic so it lacks the younger demographic of consumers Kerrang reaches out to. Although with Future publishing they have a age range that reaches out to both the young and older ages because of the instrumental magazines – Rhythm and Guitarist. Because of these, they reach out into the audience in a way Bauer cant, specifically; the instrumental magazines. Because of the classic rock and Mojo magazines both media brands have, there’s not reason for another magazine which applies to the older demographic audience and instead look to the younger demographic because that’s what future publishing lacks because they want their magazines to appeal to a more younger audience where my media product would be a good fit because of its style and to the fact it lists a lot of younger bands which appeal to a younger generation and demographic.

A media institution is an established, often-profit based organization, that deal in the creation and distribution of advertising, entertainment and information services.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?• The audience for my media product would be a teen audience because of the type of bands used, teenagers are mainly the listeners. This is

because of all the festivals some bands in this genre play, the audience mainly seeing them play is a teen audience. Because of this, the bands it generally depends on who the audience is in terms of male or female. This is because some people may enjoy rock music for one reason, some people may enjoy it another but the gender for my magazine is mainly a male audience because I've used more female fronted bands in terms of the male gaze so that the male audience will look at them more than the male people in the magazine. As well as this I wanted the target audience to be the working class ( Class D). This is because some people in that category will be in education where they’re exposed to different genre’s of music from what they hear on the radio or from around friends. Because of this, they have an open perception to what they think to them is good music where if they do enjoy what they’re listening to and they see the bands they enjoy on front covers or in magazines they will most possible buy it.

• What I've seen from media packs while I was researching about the audience showed that some of the audience who follow music will either play an instrument, be in a band or could have a large knowledge. This could be because they aspire to be like a band they’ve seen in magazines so they could do this to. It’s either this or they devote themselves to music because it’s such a massive part of their lives they cant let it go.

• As well some magazines have different brands to help them reach a bigger audience. With kerrang is a great example because they have their on yearly tour (The Kerrang! Tour) which has had quite high profile bands play. Because of this they’ll attract an audience who want to see the bands play and for those who couldn't see them the tour will be reviewed in the magazine to see what the gig was like. They also have a radio show which would have an audience of all ages because they play all sorts of rock music which apply to different generations of listeners so they’ll have a broader range of people always listening to the different presenters who play the music.

To the left is my initial audience profile. The only difference I would make is the specific gender my magazine’s aimed at. I would change it to just men because looking back at the media product I've created I'd say I've aimed it more at the male audience because of the usage of the Male Gaze. Adding to this I felt it was necessary because I feel more rock magazines are aimed at the female because of the stereotype of the female gender wanting to buy something most of the time.

5. How did you attract and address your audience?

•I used different ways to attract the audience with my media product. One way was though the masthead. I used a similar effect big cheese have with their magazine because I enjoyed the wearing away of the letter to signify it was a rock magazine as some rock bands have that effect in their titles so I wanted to use this so I could reach out to the audience to signify this.

• I used freebees as posters to attract the audience because I wanted them to get something out of the magazine similarly to what other magazines in supermarkets offer. I did this through posters because nearly every magazine offers them because of the bands they have on them, so through this I believe that sometimes what a magazine has to do to sell itself is give the audience every piece of information it can to the audience.

•Finally the price attracts the audience because it informs the audience to what sort of magazine it is. Because of it being 2.30, it indicates it’s a weekly magazine so it’ll have recent articles about the genre of music.

• The cover lines attract the audience because they’re full of bands people enjoy. I include them so the audience will look at the whole magazine, not just the more mainstream bands. As well I made them large enough so the audience would see what the initial story concerning the band is to draw the target audience in so they see what it’s all about.

• The layout of the magazine attracted the audience because I used a different layout which gives the audience what it wants. In the contents page I have the table of contents on the left hand page. I have it specifically there so it’ll be the first thing the audience sees. Because of this it doesn't get in the way of clashing with any of the pictures or promotions I have within the page. On the double page spread I have the text on the left hand side of the page because I believe it really sticks out to the audience, its out there so the audience cant get away from reading it. As well as this it doesn't clash with any of the pictures to show the audience what the experience was like at the gig scene from the band I reviewed.

• The colours I used attracted the audience because I used the normal rock magazine features; Black, Red and White. I used these colours because they’re recognised colours within rock music so they’d be recognised by the audience who see the magazine. In my front cover I expose all of the colours to the audience to make them want to look at the magazine and to see what it has to offer, so I can give it the presence of sight it needs in order for people to acknowledge it.

• I used lots of photographs within the magazine to grab the readers attention. I used quite a few of them so they’d be focused on the double page spread mainly to look at the people and see who they are. Because of this, I believe it attracted my audience it would draw people in to see what else the magazine has to offer.

I used words such as debut to address the audience because it signifies that they were new at this. This was because they’d never done this sort of gig over here, it was a new experience which links into the experience of some other bands such as` reborn Britain's finest get ready to tour`. I used a theme of new because people enjoy new things and sometimes enjoy new better than old because they’re similar to other bands that have a similar sound.I used the word `show` because I think it is more of a rock genre word. I used it to tap into the audiences knowledge of rock to signify the magazine is of a rock genre so they’d realise this to the extent of it being what it is. Furthermore, it addresses the audience to show that there’s many sub genres of rock music because in the double page spread, the band I write about (we are the in crowd) their sub genre, to show the audience that there’s more the genre than what they recognise as rock.

When I did my initial research I looked at the writing style of the magazines I researched and looked at the ways they addressed the audience. The writing style I used addressed my audience in terms of a written language. I spoke to my audience in an informal way because I wanted to inform my audience about the genre they enjoy with articles about bands people enjoy. I did this through the use of the cover lines . For example I used we are the in crowd, meet, eat and greet? I used the question mark to spark interest in the readers mind so they’d be intrigued into what the article was about.

•Images I used a white backdrop for my pictures. This says to my audience that they can be in a more relaxed pose if they want to. As there’s no location to the scene, they could do any sort of pose from a serious and outgoing look to a more candid and relaxed. To the effect of a connotation of being there for a magazine shoot for example because many music magazines use studio shots of bands for their magazines throughout an issue.

The style of my pictures was more relaxed id say because it was just of the fictional band doing poses so through this the audience get a feel that they’re not uncomfortable with what they’re doing to say that they’re happy with what they’ve got done. I think this communicates the idea of the bands being relaxed to say to the audience that they know what they’re doing and they’re happy because they’re not being controlled with by the photographer which says that they’re friendly people and they don't get annoyed or angry easily to say that they’re fun people to be around.

Mainly for the image on the front cover I had my model for the fictional band wear black clothing which connotates to rock music because it’s a colour used for the genre of music. It speaks to the audience because they’ll recognise the style of clothing to see the genre of music they’re posing for. They show reality because I’m not showing anything fake, I’m showing what the audience want to see so people can aspire to be similar to to show what sort of dress code rock music is nowadays for men and women.

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

I feel I’ve learnt quite a lot about technologies through the process of constructing this product because for the product Adobe Photoshop was always going to be the likely tool to use .• Research:I feel I could’ve gone without using magazines in my research. Although they were necessary for the research, I never needed a full magazine because there’s lots of examples within Google images in which I could’ve seen. On the other hand I probably wouldn’t have a wider knowledge of different magazines in which I could apply different codes and conventions or stereotypes to different audiences.-I think I couldn’t have done this project without the internet because it was always a necessary feature to use for different purposes through research because it helped me gather information quickly so I could use it to analyse different magazines to different audiences as well as seeing what magazines had in their portfolios to see how they reached out to the different demographics of their audience.Microsoft PowerPoint was always going to be something I couldn’t have worked without because it helped me structure my research and planning in the best possible way so I could organise my answers for every part of the project.

• Planning:PowerPoint- images how to plan images for the magazine, knowing what sort of pictures to take beforehand for a projectCamera- in a way I could've done without using my camera because I already had more than enough live pictures to use for my media project so in a way there was no need but because I had access to a camera. I felt it was necessary for me to use it because then I’d have a range of choice in using different images using the different settings which I had on the camera to show the audience the fictional band I had in my project in different ways. I took many images to show different angles I exposed the band to and took black and white images to express old photographs some music magazines had when they first started, for example kerrang in the 1990’s.

• I feel using magazines in my planning was essential because I looked at different layouts of pages so I could see how they benefitted to the liking of the audience. It showed the different aspects different pages had for example the text to picture ratio which would benefit my choices to the overall appeal of the audience.

• The blog was always going to be needed throughout the planning stage for the media project so I could upload what I've done to show the markers the extent of my research. Through this I could change different parts of the blog so it would be more visually pleasing for the audience. Another example of its use is by inserting multimedia (e.g. audio files) to show the different uses to the benefit of the audience. Through this use of the internet it exposed to how much I could plan for the project to show how different parts would work by gathering different images so I could apply it to the audience.

• Production:• Photoshop was essential because I couldn’t have done it as well as I could've through the use of the different functions to make it

something similar to a magazine such as Kerrang, or Big Cheese. By using it, I feel it shows my professional skills in which I showed every aspect of my planning to make it not just something I wanted, but as well to show how it would appeal to my audience.

• With the production in my blog I uploaded the multimedia (photos) to show the examining board what I accomplished with the use of Photoshop and my planning

EvaluationI’ll use different images in my evaluation to look at what I've done well throughout the project and to look at what I’ve done well and bad in my project.PowerPoint is a necessary feature to show what I feel about my magazine and how well I think I've done with it to show my individual progress of my own knowledge and understanding of my media project.The blog will allow me to upload my media evaluations in different ways through the use of multimedia to draw comparisons with other media products and to show what I’ve done throughout the project.

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

I feel that I have quite a lot about Photoshop from the progression of the preliminary task because the college magazine was just a dummy magazine to get me ready for the creation of the final product. It was a basic magazine where I didn’t have much knowledge of Adobe Photoshop whereas the final project required much more use of Photoshop and we had time to prepare and change anything within the layout such as the columns; I tested different ways it looked but eventually decided I wanted it to be one of the first things the reader would see, the reasons for it being on the left hand side of the page.

Because I read a few music magazines such as Kerrang, Rocksound and Big Cheese, I had an idea of what I wanted to do for the music magazine in terms of the Front page, Contents page and Double page spread but I changed the different colours to go against the conventions of a rock magazine e.g. some cover lines being yellow. From this project I feel I learnt I had to adapt and change my magazine in different ways but still managed to have the genre I wanted through the uses of Photoshop. We were given guidance on how to use Photoshop and I feel that it helped take a great deal of weight off my shoulders as it was different to my past uses of Photoshop. I feel I’ve progressed quite a lot because I know what a music magazine is fully now, I know about the different types of shots I could use from the way pictures are produced to show different conventions. I feel that this experience has taught me how to present something I think is good to me because overall I'm quite proud of what I’ve produced from the positioning of the images to the language used in the magazine in the double page spread. I feel I’m a lot better and more comfortable at doing what I want to do to with a project such as this.

I feel I know how to take better pictures of people in general and when at gigs. This is because of the photography planning stage. There was all different things such as the rule of three and headroom. Because of this I felt my camera use is more varied shown through the choices of photographs I had.

During the planning stage there was a difficulty of choosing the right layout for the media project where I had lots of ideas but eventually narrowed my desired choice to one. Because of this choice I feel the finished product looks more like a magazine I normally read such as Kerrang.

In Photoshop I mainly used Photoshop for all of my production for the magazine. Because of me using this, I feel it’s been getting easier to use throughout the project because it was something I used in every lesson to create so I could develop my magazine to make it look more like a rock magazine you see in a supermarket e.g. Kerrang, Rockshound, Big cheese.