Preliminary Task

Before starting to produce the main cover of our magazine we learnt how to use photoshop by making a practice school magazine image

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

Evaluation: Question 7

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

Blog

• An account for the research and planning was all uploaded onto my blog including the complete magazine and evaluation. I had never used this sort of technology before and it was completely new to me but simply done. After some time I eventually learnt my way around the blog and managed to upload slide shows and other images.

Powerpoint

• I used Microsoft Powerpoint to create slide shows for my questionnaire results and some other evaluation questions. It helped me neaten up my Blog and separate the different sections within each question.

Studio images

• For the first time I used professional camera and the complete settings to take the photos of my models, this was an experience and I learnt how difficult and time consuming it can be to find and take one perfectly acceptable photo.

Adobe photoshop

• Adobe photoshop helped me create the four pages of my music magazine as well as the readers profile. Out of all the other technologies I found photoshop to be the most difficult one to use, however I did eventually get the whole concept and managed to experiment with it in order to create my magazine.

Slideshare

• Slideshare was completely unfamiliar to me and it helped me upload Powerpoint presentations onto my Blog, I found this very helpful and it was also very simple. I uploaded the presentations onto www.slideshare.com and then embedded the code given into my Blog.

Excel

• I used Microsoft Excel to make the graphs for my questionnaire results, it was not difficult as I am very familiar with it.

Evaluation: How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation question 5

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Evaluation: what kind of media institution would distribute your media product?

I believe that the media institute which would distribute my media product is IPC MEDIA. This institute publishes a variety of different magazines that are targeted at a younger audience and they are very successful magazines in the music industry. An example of one of their brands is NME which has been a success for a long period of time and it is also a R&B genre, this means they publish similar magazines like my media product. They have experience and are successful in what they do.

Evaluation: Who would be the audience for your media product?

This is based on data from the questionnaire and audience feedback which was a part of research and planning that helped to make important decisions in the production process.

Evaluation: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My music magazine attracts particular social groups by the use of language and images. The main target audience was generally aimed at people of the age 14 and above as R&B and Hip-Hop has huge likeability and age can not be specified too much.

• The social groups (target audience) is represented by what they would more likely prefer to see, by this I mean the questionnaire helped to understand how to represent the product to a wider audience.

• I would say that the magazine is targeted at both males and females but as the front cover is an image of a male, females may possibly be more interested, however this is not always the case as millions of males could also be drawn to the magazine due to idolising artists.

• By using props and specific costumes for the main artist, I represented particular social groups stereotypically. This was done by mimicry of other R&B or Hip Hop artists, superior poses are also used to represent the social groups that may be interested in the music artist.

• The magazine has also represented the younger audience by using an image of a young artist on the cover, as well as other images on the contents page whom are also young. This was done to show the fresh and edgy side of R&B as there are many young popular artists new to the music industry, such as Souljah boy and Lil Romeo who eventually grew to become very successful.

• My main article also appeals to specific social groups due to the informal yet mature language being used, also the content is seen to be highly worthy and the target audience is likely to find it interesting because the topics being talked about are common and popular.

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

Question 1

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Contents Production

Working Progress - Continued (screen shots)

Working Process

During the last several lessons I have been working on my front cover and contents page whilst making changes to the fonts and image positioning. It took me quite a while to make the background suit the main image and it involved a lot of adjusting. I started the contents page but eventually changed the complete image positioning and colours due to quick decision making. I asked people surrounding me for advise on what image the page gives to a public audience, nd using their response I made some changes in the process.

Working Process - Front Cover

Working Process - Front Cover

Working Progress

We started off designing a questionnaire to obtain information based of the public audiences view on music magazines, we then used some of the data to make important decisions concerning the name, genre and design of the magazine. We practised how to use photoshop by playing around with it in order to make a practice front cover of a school magazine and contents page. In addition, i experimented with the different types of fonts which linked in to the name 'neon', using a blue colour, after finding the right one i chose a background and main image after several complications including different opinions and blurry photos. Then I started the production process of the main cover of the magazine after analysing several covers and front covers.

Final image for front cover

I have chosen this as my main cover image because the modelis looking at the camera properly with sufficient eye contact involved, also it is the most clear photo taken compared to the rest of the images.

Rejected Photos

The model is occupied which makes them look busy and possibly popular, this image could be used as a smaller additional image in the contents page.




This picture is very blurry which makes it an unacceptable image to use for the main cover of my magazine.



The models face and eyes is not seen properly and this can not be used as eye contact is essential to complete the image.



The model is not looking towards the camera which makes it unusual to use to the cover.

Final Masthead Design

This is the final design for the masthead which we chose as the most appropriate because it was the most vibrant and bright design compared to the other templates. The name neon was finalised after a hard decision making process as the name of the magazine is a very important factor which had to be taken into account in terms of linking in with the genre.
The genre of the magazine is a mixture of R&B and Hip-Hop which is currently known to be mainsteam genres in the music industry and the definition of neon generally refers to the ignition of the 'vibrant' unique colours made by specific gases. Compared to different more dull colours, neon stands out and is noticeably brighter. Similarly to the genres of our magazine which stand out compared to other standards genres.

Targets

You need to show more evidence of work in progress i.e. screen shots of various stages of the construction of each magazine page. In addition, use the blog checklist to complete all other tasks.

Textual Analysis

Your research into similar texts shows real insight and a sound understanding of how presentational devices are used effectively to convey genre and target an audience - well done. You should now add an analysis of a main article.

Audience Research

Samira your questionnaire analysis is well presented and informative. Well done for using some of the responses to inform your production. You should now upload your focus group findings.

Ideas for masthead/font

I have experimented on different font styles to suit my magazine cover as the masthead. It was fairly difficult to make a neon effect and I have chosen the last font as our final design.

Background Ideas

For my front cover I wanted a dark background preferably all covered in black therefore I took photos of an vague environment in a low lot area. Here are some examples.

Conventions Of A Music Magazine

IDEOLOGY:

The music magazine must give the audience what they want to see and intake.
The main way to do this is to use the audiences likes and dislikes to produce the magazine but also including originality and extra aspects which are unique to its genre.

INSTITUTION:

The aim of the publishers is to make money and prices would depend on magazine contents, size, quality and audience in particular. They can also make money by advertising other products within the magazine from other companies, this can also cause a lot of competition.

LANGUAGE:

The text and language of the magazine must relate strictly to its target audience, however formal language is always necessary. The main image and masthead would also relate to the audience and relevance to the genre. Similarly, the stories within the magazine must relate to the ideology and must be entertaining.

AUDIENCE:

The institution must target a certain group as it is impossible to target everybody, it also depends on the genre of the music magazine. The target audience must be interested in the magazine and must be able to relate to its contents.

REPRESENTATION:

Artists must all represent the genre of the magazine in all ways possible, and all the representation must reflect the artists and audience, so people are interested in the magazine.