Sophie Williams- AS Media Magazine Evaluation

Introduction• For this section of the course we was given the responsibility to

create our own music magazine. We started with research and planning gaining knowledge of what needs to be included into a magazine and the different layouts that consists of a magazine. Research of specific my target audience was carried out from the use of a questionnaire this initially helped with my overall product as to what should be and shouldn’t be included in my magazine.

• We eventually began to create our magazine through the likes of Photoshop, we continued each week to progress looking into photo manipulation and eventually ended up with a finished product.

Stages of production- Research For the research part of the task I based my ideas around the three magazines, Q, Kerrang and Rolling Stones. I focused on colours, articles , fonts used , images and what the magazine contained overall. Each of these magazines seemed to use the colours red, blue, black and white so I felt this was the way you would recognise a rock magazine blue and black must represent rock so I made the decision to use these colours on my magazine. I then took into consideration all of the models poses they all seemed to be giving direct address or indirect. At that point I knew I wanted my model to not give direct address due to the fact I wanted them to grab the readers attention.

How has this research informed your understanding of what was required in your production? What I‘ve learnt

This research help me chose specific colours and font as well as the initial layout of my final product. The research made me realise a lot needed to be put into a magazine until it was spot of to declare finished. Fonts had to be on-going, the article had to be adjusted more than one changing questions, making sure it applied to my specific audience and was slightly relatable, the colours had to be on going everything had to be perfect and precise. I learnt that audience feedback is a key essential when creating a magazine, it is crucial to find out what exactly the audience enjoys and looks for in a magazine. This helped me along my journey as I felt I could meet the audiences standards and keep satisfactory to what they wanted. I also learnt that the choice of colours is also important to a magazine as the whole product has to link together and at least relate to the magazines genre I chose to use blue, black and white as the colours matched my cover models outfit also because my magazine was based around acoustic/classic rock I wanted to give off a chilled rock vibe.

Conventions of chosen genre

•Rock A simple colour scheme of black, white , yellow and red have been used for this contents page. Images of the magazines contents to inform the reader what they can expect from the magazine. The word contents is in the same text as the magazines masthead, but the colour yellow is used with a black box around for it to stand out from the rest of the text. The masthead is printed on the contents but smaller. There are page numbers on some of the images indicating they are the must read article, pages. The Kerrang text is carried on for the ‘THIS WEEK’ but the colour yellow is used again carrying on the magazines theme. There are yellow headings with black box backgrounds to separate the type of content. There are smaller images used on the contents, some of the images contain captions and information underneath to explain what's going on or if the musician in the picture has made a comment .

What research did you conduct in your target audience?• The research I carried out for my target audience was a questionnaire, this

way I felt I could ask specific questions and was able to finalise any of my yet undecided plans for my magazine due to me gaining the audiences feedback of color decisions etc.

• The types of questions I asked were…

• Colour they preferred • Selection of fonts for the title• Price of magazine • Types of music they was in to

• Age

How effective was it and how did it inform your production?

• The feedback I received from my research I found was rather effective. I found that most people preferred the colours blue and black, they liked the title Classic and the price of £1-£2.50 was a winner. Instantly I felt I would go with the audiences decisions and put all those points into the magazine. This made production rather fast paced as the more important features of the magazine had already been finalised. As audience feedback was essential I wanted to meet their needs and give them exactly what they looked for in a rock magazine.

Choices made when creating the magazine

Fonts- After working with a few of these fonts I finally decided to use number 1, I felt this would suit rock a lot more than the others and would instantly attract attention, i felt number 5 would suit either a pop or RnB magazine best and number 4 I could see on a comic or a children's magazine.

Classic

Classic

Classic Classic

1

2

3

4

5

1

2

3

Colours- An important choice I had to make was the colour theme for my magazine, after researching I felt number 1 would fit best as all rock magazines seemed to feature those colours I realisedthat was the unique way of identifying a rock magazine on the market, and would attract the audience due to the bright colours.

A main choice I had to make was what would be my cover image.

From the ideas that you had and choices made explain which were successful and why

Choice of cover image. I chose this image as I felt it would appeal more to the audience and outline what the genre of magazine is.

I chose these colours due to their brightness and link with the rock genre, the colours also match the models clothing. I felt this title would

attract the audience because its easily relatable to the music style and is similar to the a typical rock logo which is recognisable to every rock legend or fan. I felt the fire coming off would reflect the genre.

The final product- Analysis of final product

Offers available to reader

Date of when it came on sale

Barcode

Cover image, model is giving indirect address, grabs the readers attention.

Masthead, stands out from rest of text

Models clothing indicates that she aspires her music to be classic/ alternative rock. The pose indicates she is looking into her future of rock. She’s controlling the reader wanting them to know what she’s looking at.

Natural background

Guitar Relates to music genre

Different font carried out on contents (goudy stout)

Magazines title still appears throughout

Page numbers to direct which page to flick to

Lines used to divide text and images

Still includes the cover feature throughout

Second editor speaks to audience.

Editing of images

Font continues throughout Pull out

quote

More personal image of the cover star, extreme close up

Writing includes the stars biggest secrets, grabs readers/ fans attention

Basic overview of what the article contains

Offer available to the reader

Cover star is giving indirect address, reflects personal life, struggles, also links to the articles content.

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

• My magazine is unique from other rock magazines in the market due to its simple layout. The age group is 15+. I have kept my magazine rather basic and this is because I didn’t want it to be hard to understand and so there is not too many things going off at once in it. There is one main image and there not too many quotes. I have used the layout similar to other magazines but designed it very unique so my magazine stands out in the market. From my research I used a range of colours similar to other rock magazines and similar layouts and image poses.

I also felt I had attracted my audience through the use of my cover model I felt as she was more natural and laid back the audience could feel comfortable and respect how they look rather than aspiring to be a showing bone, unattractive model.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?• My media product represents particular social groups due to the

stereotypical colours and contents I chose for the magazine. The product would appeal to stereotypical rockers who are into the rock genre. I chose a rather typical lady rocker for my cover so it was obvious what type of magazine it was. The way she is acting quite relaxed sends off a calm vibe allowing the age range 15+ to look up to her as a role model. I hope the teens find inspiration within my magazines double page spread interview and be able to relate at some point if they are interested in becoming a musician. Pull out quotes and inspirational stories hopefully make my magazine relatable to an audience.

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

• When I first began with the process I had no knowledge whatsoever what a music magazine had to include, I was unaware of how to use Photoshop and had little ideas of the correct terms of magazines (masthead-title). From the process I have learnt how to edit photographs, use the lasso tool to cut out images and merge them together. I also gained great knowledge of what to include in a magazine which resulted in my magazine being successful.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?• At the start of the I had very little knowledge of how to even start

a magazine and what types of things were included in to a magazine. I had no understanding whatsoever of how to use Photoshop. I had no clue of the correct terminology and felt I would find this task quite difficult.

• By doing the preliminary task I gained confidence and my knowledge began to progress. I was becoming much more familiar with Photoshop and was finally able to use all the tools correctly.

• Overall since starting the course I feel I have gained much knowledge to creating a music magazine, I was at first rather unconfident with the whole task until my knowledge progressed. I feel rather pleased with my finished product and would be successful if it was to go out in to the rock market.