The evaluation of my coursework

1. EVALUATION
Karis Hays

2. FINAL PRODUCT

3. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP
OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA
PRODUCTS?
My masthead follows the common convention used of having it on the left making it
easier to read and it is also in bold outlined text, I used a black stroke around it to make it
stand out more throughout the rest of my cover. My magazine follows the same house
colours all the way through, making the magazine easy to remember, I also believe that
the colours are quite gender neutral making it look like it’s not just for a specific gender
it’s for everyone; I also believe the colours make the magazine look quite classy. I chose
these colours because they don’t associate with any specific genre of music it’s a mix of
everything as it is chart music that is included in the magazine. I kept the same font all the
way through, with the main titles having a black stroke around the outside.
My magazine development was
based of magazines such as ‘Q’
magazine and ‘NME’ mainly
because I liked the colour scheme
that they followed. I like the way
that some of the ‘Q’ covers were
quite simplistic and that’s what I
wanted my magazine to be about,
to not look to cluttered on the front
cover. My age range is from late
teens to early twenties hopefully
attracting people who listen to
radio stations such as Radio 1 and
Capital. I used a lot of conventions
that come with music magazines
not as such challenging them.
I used the convention of puffs and pull quotes to attract my readers to buy
the magazine like most magazines do, I used more puffs than pull quotes as
I used puff quotes on my contents page on most of my articles to act as
advertisement for each individual article. I used the combination of red and
black on my contents page as in a nice way they contradict each other and
they go well together. I wrote my article in red and white to balance out the
colours and to make it easy to read over the image on the left side of the
double page spread, these link to the house colours throughout my
magazine; red and black are the main colours and white is the a primary
colour to the scheme.

4. Most music magazines use a series of photographs and different
locations for there magazines. I used a studio for my images
because I feel like it gives it a really classy look, the clothing that
they are wearing contrasts each other as I wanted one singer to be
in like pale colours to represent the good things in the article and
the other singer in dark colours to represent the bad that has
happened in their career. I made the images fun and some serious,
the serious images go on the front cover and then as they read
the article the fun images appear, it’s like the magazine is
revealing a new side of the artists. The solo images were made to
be fun and reveal the personality of the individual artists. I took a
wide variety of images, changing what I do with the band on the
cover, I changed it up with going from a band of three to just a
duo as I though a duo are more unique and there is not that many
of them giving my magazine an extra attraction. I then included
the image of the boy to give my magazine a more gender neutral
look inviting boys to read the magazine. I then used the solo
images of the girls to give the magazine a more personal feel to it
as if the reader was really getting to know the band.

5. I used my logo of my magazine throughout the magazine, to
create a feel of continuity and to keep the house colours
through the magazine. I want my readers to remember the
name of my magazine so I will print it throughout the
magazine, it will also become associated with the colours red
and black.
I used columns for my main
article, I also used them with
the images on the right
hand side making it look
neat and clean. I also
changed the colour of who
was talking trying to keep
within my house colours and
to make it easier for the
reader to see. I also made
the article fun and not to
formal so the reader felt as
though they were having an
personal connections with
the band.
A puff was used basically summing up what the
article is about drawing in the readers attention.
It’s in smaller font size to the rest as I wanted
the logo and name of the band to be the main
attention. It gives the reader an insight into
what they will be reading about kind of like a
synopsis.
The same house colours are used throughout the double page spread. I
used the same thickness (4pt) and colour stroke for the name of the
band and for the logo in the corner. I also wrote the article in the same
house colours as used all the way through the magazine making it more
memorable.
I also used none-serious
images for this article as I
wanted it to fit the theme and
make a personal connections
with the reader by being fun. I
also wanted it to contrast with
the front cover image which is
a much more serious image,
making it seem as though they
are revealing all there secrets
within the article, which could
also add as a plug.

6. HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT
PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?
My magazine is aimed at all genders, but I think with the main image being
a girl group it may attract more female attention, because of the image
being girls it shows to young girls that they can be successful and that girl
bands are still around. That’s why on my contents page I include the image
of a male to try and make it more for the male sides of things. The article
also includes things about their success and there relationships which are
mainly things that girls enjoy reading it, which is why I tried to make my
colour scheme gender neutral so all genders will want to pick it up. The
image is them making a sign to shush which symbolises gossip which is
mainly associated with girls and secrets.
There is no imparticular social class aimed for this magazine, but I think with the price being £2.20 you could say it was
more for the working class as it is more affordable than magazines such as NME. With it being so cheap it might attract
other social groups as it is not as expensive as some other magazines and it is therefore cheaper to subscribe to the
app. My main image and the rest of them I took only include white people, this could make all my audience white but
hopefully will attract some white people.
The magazine is aimed at late teenagers to people in their early twenties, mainly because they are the people
who listed to the chart music featured within my magazine. I have chosen trendy colours to match the vibe of
the magazine and to give a sleek, crisp look. The social group is for people who have lively personalities and
don’t have any particular taste in music they listen to a mix of different genres.

7. WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT
DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND WHY?
Many magazine publishers would want to produce my magazine as it
has a wide audience range to attract to, there are many age groups to
attract so they wouldn’t worry about not accumulating an audience.
My magazine follows the same conventions as most music magazines.
My magazine also is a great promoting point as it could be used to
introduce new artists to the charts. I feel as though out off all the
publishers out there, the BBC will be best for my magazine as they
have many different ways of advertising it and they are in direct link to
one of the biggest UK radio stations, they could even introduce a new
audience as with all their radio stations they could get new people
interested. With ages varying to whichever radio station, it could also
give us the opportunity to promote new artists within our magazine
setting there career off and introducing them to a big audience of
people. I feel as though they will be the best publishers for my
magazine as they are a well known brand and have a lot of different
ways of promoting the magazine to people of all ages. My magazine
price is also very low attracting people from different social groups
giving us a different type of audience than other magazines. Out off all
the magazine publishers I feel the BBC has a closer connection with
the type of music involved with my magazine.

8. WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR
MEDIA PRODUCT?
My target audience is any gender in the late teens to
early twenties. I have chosen this age range of people
because I think it gives me a wide variety of people to
target, and these people are the ages I associate with
chart music, as they are the target audience of radio
stations such as Radio 1 and Capital FM.
Also included in my contents page is some people
who were in the charts at the time of me creating my
contents, these are the people who were in popular
charts such as Radio 1 official charts and Billboard.
My style of writing is quite informal trying not to
make it seem to regulated and to create personal
connections with my audience. It also fits what age I
am aiming my magazine out as they are the ages that
mainly use slang and informal language. My writing is
always in a bold font making it easy to read and
fitting with the targeted audience of my magazine.

9. While I was researching for my magazines the majority of people who
took part in my survey were male, but I feel that more females are more
likely to pick up a music magazine than boys, especially with this issue
with the main image including two girls this might put boys of from
picking up the magazine because of it having a girl group on the cover.
I want to change that with my magazine I want more males to want and
pick up the magazine instead of been put of by the gendered content.
The colour scheme I used of red,
black and white was chosen because
I feel that they are gender neutral
colours and may persuade every
gender that the magazine is for
everyone there is not specifically
targeted gender. I also believe that
the colour scheme that I chose gives
my magazine a sleek and
sophisticated look, hopefully
attracting more than one gender.
The majority of the people who took
apart in my survey were ranging
from the ages 16-20 which is the
main audience I am hoping to
target, it also makes everything I
found out in my survey even more
important to the production of my
magazine. I did use some of the
answers they gave for example I
used the majority of the artists that
were in the charts at the time which
people had said they enjoyed
listening too; it’s also what I based
my price of my magazine on.

10. HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR
AUDIENCE?
When I took my pictures I wanted the cover image not to be serious and
too look like they were having a lot of fun making them seem like your
‘girl next door'; I added the guitar as prop as it matched the colour
scheme of the magazine as well as fitting the theme of being a music
magazine. I also dressed the girls in all black clothing I felt like the colour
black connoted mystery through the image and teasing the audience
about what was to be revealed in the issue of ‘REPLAY’ magazine. It adds
a bit of playfulness to the cover as well as some sophistication with the
colour having that meaning too.
The images included within the article I wanted to fun and have a lively
feel to them, the girls are being playful and messing around with each
other and the camera, I think this gives the magazine a personal feel for
the reader as they can feel as though they are apart of the band;
especially for young girls with them seeing two young girls on the cover it
might inspire them or make them want to find out more.

11. I include puffs and plugs throughout my magazine,
especially in my contents page to make people want to go
to that page. I also think competitions are big ways of
getting peoples attention and making them want to buy
your magazine. I include competitions such as winning
tour tickets to see MATRIX the band on my front cover;
with it being on the front cover it is grabbing peoples
attention straight away and instantly makes them want to
know how they can be the winner. Also by using
mainstream artists it makes people more interested in
what is going on in their lives.
I also include them within my contents page, by using
words like ‘exclusive’ it makes the reader feel special as if
the magazine is addressing them directly, by making them
feel special they then want to buy the magazine in favour
of feeling special.
I also feel as though the price is an important selling
price for my magazine because the price of my
magazine is a lot cheaper than a lot of other music
magazines I feel as though this adds as a selling point as
it is much more affordable than bigger branded
magazines.

12. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT
TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF
CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?
At the start of the coursework we did a preliminary task using Photoshop so we could have
a go at developing something before actually doing the real thing. Before this piece of
coursework I had already had experience of using word and PowerPoint but I had never
used InDesign and Photoshop, I found Photoshop easier to use as InDesign and I liked the
finished product more on Photoshop than I did on InDesign. I found InDesign a lot more
complex but I finally got the hang of towards the end of my double page spread, I think this
was down to me using Photoshop for my front cover and my contents making it harder to
move onto a new programme, I did like the finished product that I created on InDesign. I
also liked how easy it was to layer up everything on Photoshop and InDesign making it easy
to use and easy to link in-between each programme to make it easy to transfer images
across, for example my images on my double page spread were edited with Photoshop I
was able to easily import them by using the ‘link’ button on InDesign.
In the planning towards our magazine we used micro technology such as the programme
survey monkey which I personally had never used before, but I really like how the
programme gave you extra details about your surveys making them easier and more
efficient to evaluate. I also like how you could produce a graph so you can really see the
difference between the percentages of each answer. We also had the opportunity to use
cameras to get our photos giving them a much more professional final image and were in
great quality especially with having access to the studio.
All of these programmes made the process of making my magazine easier, they made it
easier to edit and layer on top making my magazine look sleek and professional.

13. I used PowerPoint to put together my ideas for the majority of my
planning, I used it for my: pitch, magazine research and survey analysis.
I have had a lot of experience with using PowerPoint before so I didn’t
find it too hard to create my planning material. With PowerPoint I feel
like it is easy to use for things such as the pitch because you get see all
my ideas in an easy simple way and there is not too much content on
the screen at once.
I used Word documents to create my dummy: front cover,
contents and double page spread, I then copied these into my
pitch. The same as with PowerPoint I have had a lot of experience
before this coursework with this specific programme. I also like
the easiness of the format of this programme as I feel it is very
easy to use and I like how my dummies came out.
I used Excel to create my flat plan for my magazine, I have had
experience with using it before but not as much as I have had
with Word and PowerPoint. It was quite easy to use once I got
the hang of it and I think it gave me a efficient flat plan making
it easy to use for my reader. I colour co-ordinated it categorising
the different sectors of my magazine.

14. When doing my interviews I came across a complication with the
programme Premiere and I wasn’t able to hear the audio. I had
another attempt of doing it and the audio was still unable to hear.
So instead I unloaded my audio to Soundcloud and copied the URL
into my blog so that you can copy it and then paste it into the
search engine and it takes you straight to the page. One of the
downsides is that it doesn’t let you include information like the age
of the person in the interview and you can’t add images to go with
it.
Before this project I had never had experience of uploading things
to Soundcloud or using it to listen to music, so now I have more of
an understanding of using music based sites to upload things. It also
gives me another website that helped me get my final product. The
audio isn’t edited but in a way i8t makes it more real to the people
listening to it as it is in a natural setting.

15. LOOKING BACK AT YOUR
PRELIMINARY TASK, WHAT
DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE
LEARNT IN THE
PROGRESSION FROM IT TO
THE FULL PRODUCT?
My preliminary material was aimed at college students and gave us a chance to have a go at the
programmes that we will have to use in our final pieces. By doing this task it has helped me gain
confidence with using programmes such as Photoshop and helped make my final piece a lot more
structured than my preliminary magazine was. I believe from the start I have gained more
understanding about the layout of magazines and how much different certain conventions make on
targeting your audience.

16. When planning for my magazine I found out that the layout of the
magazine was important, when researching other magazines I understood
that there are certain conventions of magazines such as the name being on
the left hand side and I started to understand the importance of these
conventions and the effect that they have on the buyer. From the start I
knew that on my front cover id didn’t want my magazine to have a
crammed front cover I wanted it to be simple to drag the readers in.
Another important factor I came across was the colour scheme, I
discovered that the colour scheme had the be repeated throughout the
whole magazine to keep a feel of continuity to the magazine and to give
the magazine it’s own connotation. The colour scheme also represents the
music and gender that you are advertising for, from the start I was inspired
from magazines such as ‘Q’ and ‘NME’ I like the colour scheme of ‘NME’
and I like the simplicity of some of the covers created by ‘Q’. I based my
colour scheme on these two magazines and the fact that they are very
gender neutral colours making it not just for one gender.
The final thing that I found out was important was the name of the
magazine, I wanted something that was just on word and was simple but
will be remembered by the buyers, that’s why I chose the name ‘REPLAY’ as
I thought it was well suited for my chosen genre of music and it relates to
music in the sense that the music included in this magazine you will want to
play over and over again. The font of the magazine is in franklin gothic in
italics also making it more memorable.

17. I also found out that planning for who your audience will be
targeting was very important when getting to my final piece, it
helped me to figure out what genre, age and genders I was going
to aim my magazine at. It also helped me know if people were
wanting to pay an expensive amount for a magazine or if they were
still willing to pay for subscriptions. Using survey monkey helped
me to find out what I was going to base my whole magazine on and
everything to go with it for example the artists I could include within
my magazine. It helped me create an image of the people who
would be interested in my magazine and helped me put together
the ideas I would be needing to attract the audience, for example
by including a chance to win V fest tickets would attract my
audience because they are the age associated with festivals.

18. From my preliminary material to my final piece you can see the improvement I have had
with understanding conventions, layout, name and colour scheme has improved since then.
Through my planning I learnt about the different types of images that you can have the
lighting you can use. I also feel with my final piece you can tell my knowledge of Photoshop
has developed as my final piece looks more efficient compared to my preliminary material
and my photos look better in a studio setting they give the magazine a sleek, more
professional look and I prefer them to the images in natural setting. I also feel that planning
has a big impact on your final product, on my preliminary material I did no planning
towards my piece whereas on my actual piece I did a lot of planning towards making it a
better final piece.

19. Since the start my knowledge of Photoshop has developed massively, by being able to
practice with my preliminary helped my understanding of the different tools there are and
how you blend different layers to give it a better look, it also helped my music magazine be
finished to a high standard. It helped me give my images a crisp finish and to look very
professional. I used a lot of the tools like the crop, lasso, stroke and the photo filter, by using
a collection of these tools my magazine was able to look the way I wanted it to look.
Looking back at my preliminary task you can see my development and you can see my
understanding for tools and how they work has grown, as well as my confidence, with using
each tool. My understand of how conventions are used to attract audiences has grown also.