The document describes the progression of the student's skills and understanding in creating a music magazine from their preliminary task to the full product. They learned more advanced photography, photo editing, and magazine layout skills. Specifically, they gained experience with camera functions, Adobe Photoshop, conducting research, and addressing their target audience. The student noticed significant improvements in the quality of their photos, magazine layout, and ability to edit images from their initial practice magazines to the final professional-looking product.

1. Evaluation – Music
magazine

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

3. Masthead: The masthead is something
that all magazines have and is something that
stands out on the page and is always very
noticeable. The masthead helps to clarify
which make each magazine is. My masthead
follows the colour schemes I have used in on
my front cover which is popular feature of
Music Magazines.
Sell line: The sell line takes up the top right
side of the magazines front cover and I have
done mine reasonably small. Magazines will
normally have either a large section of the
sell line, I chose to challenge this convention
as it felt with the image I have chosen and
edited, the sell line fits well with the design.
Puff: The puff is another stand out feature of the
magazine front cover and will usually be showing
some kind of give away or special offer. The puff I
have done stands out due to the recognisable logo
of apple however, it also fits in well with size and
spacing. I’ve also tried to stick with the colour
scheme I have used.
Pull quote: The pull quote I have gone for isn’t similar
to the most magazines with the artists name in with largest
writing on the page. I chose to integrate my quote with the
numerous sell lines. I chose this because I felt big large
writing and a quote would fit with everything else I have
done on the front cover.
Front cover

4. Main image: This main image is quite a
common image in terms of how magazines have
the artist, with them facing straight on at the
camera. I haven’t chose to use a prop as the
images I had taken with props didn’t allow the
layout I wanted for the front cover. I am pleased
that the product is directly centre as it allowed
me to fit all the sell lines, puff and barcode etc.
all around it.
Banner: The banner is in a style which a lot of
magazines use, towards the bottom so it is not
taking away the attention from the main features
of the magazine and the main artist, but it is still
easily noticeable. I chose to locate my banner at
the top of the page above the masthead, this is
because I already had writing at the bottom of
the page and I didn’t want to cramp the lower
half of the front cover with all the features of a
magazine.
Date line/Issue number/Price line/
barcode: I have separated my issue number from
the price line and barcode, this again challenges
conventions of a music magazine however I put the
price next to the barcode as they are related. I put the
issue number in the top left as it is not of great interest
to the reader, it also subtly fills space making the page
look complete.
Front cover

5. Masthead: The masthead is something
that all magazines have and is something that
stands out on the page and is always very
noticeable. I haven’t used the tile of the
magazine in the contents as I felt it was
unnecessary as the reader will already know
what magazine they are reading.
Contents title: in order to make the reader
aware that they are on the contents page I
have used a ‘contents’ title. This reflects
features of a music magazine.
Contents list: The contents
list that I am doing is one that is
similar to the one that NME use.
The sections are in bold writing
with the green, red and white
theme which matches the ‘colour
splash affect I have used on the
main image.
Contents page

6. Images: the first image on this page is the
main image. This image is of the artist who is
featured in the magazine. This is something
that magazines very often do and they will
also link it to the front page of the magazine.
This will be the main article so they make sure
they audience is aware of that by making
various pages have them as the main image.
The other image I have used refers to an
article featured in the magazine. These are
also important, that is the reason they have
images on the contents page, however they
aren't as important. Therefore they do not
have images too large or images that might
take attention form the main image.

7. Doublepage spread
Pull quote: The pull quote is something that I have
picked up on from most other magazines and is something
that nearly always comes up on a featuring double page
spread of an artist. To make mine stand out I have used a
large section of the left side of the page to have my pull
quote making it obvious to the reader as it is the purpose
for the article below.
Secondary Image: The
secondary image on the left
hand page fills space and fits
with the article about a
YouTube artist. This is
something that isn’t often
seen on contents pages but I
am glad I have included this
image as I feel it works well
with the page structure.
Heading and article: the heading is a large
heading taking up the top left section of the page.
This acts as a quick brief explanation of what it is
this article is going to be about. The article is in
side by side columns which all magazines do.
Main image: this takes up a full page
and has only and a few extra featuring
images

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

9. Social groups
My genre is an acoustic genre that has a calm vibe unlike rock music, this music style is smooth and
respected. My media production represents the younger generation that have more modern
interests that aren’t fully focused on knowing every detail on the pop starts lives and what they
had for tea last week. This is more involving the student interests and things that are relevant to
there lifestyle.
Over recent years the fan base for acoustic artist has increased massively as these artists are
controlling the charts. However as these artists have got some quite crazy fans I have include some
vivid colours and styles to stay relevant to the current status of the acoustic genre.
As the genre is quite well respected and seen as calm and smooth, I used some images that
weren’t too vivid and contrasting, the colours fit well together.

10. Here you can see two of the magazines that I have used as and indicator of
what age boundaries I should be aiming at. Both of the magazines have
three main colours for the house style. The one on the left is just orange,
black and white with plain tops to make up the background for two thirds
of the page. The CLASH magazine is also a three colour theme of yellow,
white and black with a fading background behind the artist. Both of these
have strong colours. Showing that it isn't made for younger children. This is
something I have tried to show as well. Apart from the puff image, which is
chose to be a little bit brighter and stand out, my front cover is also a three
colour house style with a slightly faded background behind the artist. This is
because I am aiming towards the same target audience.

11. What kind of media
institutions might distribute
your product and why?

13. Bauer are a famous distributor that currently
distribute magazines such as kerrang and Q. I
think these might be a good distributor as they
don’t have an acoustic genre and it might be a
new area of the market for them to access.
This would be wise because acoustic artists
such as passenger, ed sheeran, james bay and
george ezra are taking the charts by storm and
the genre is becoming an extremely popular
style of music.
Blaze Publishing inc. Specialises in niche
magazines, I think this would be a good
distributor for my magazines as they already
publish an acoustic magazine called ‘acoustic’.
They have a niche market as acoustic is slightly
verging over into the pop genre as its
becoming more popular and taking it back to
its roots of acoustic.

14. Who would be the audience for
your media product?

15. The desired audience for my magazine would be roughly 16-30 as the
way I have structured all aspects of my magazine are reference to quite
modern features within society such as YouTube and Twitter. Which also
is the main fan base age rage for the most popular artists of my genre
(acoustic). I included things in my audience profile that would be
relevant to the type of person that would be interested in the ‘fusion’
magazine.
Michael loves to listen to
music therefore he
would probably be
interested in winning
iTunes vouchers.
One of molly’s favourite
artists is George Ezra and I
have included him into my
contents page. This is a prime
example of what may interest
people like molly to buy the
magazine.

16. To try and see what type
of person, and their
interests I created a
survey that I put on
survey monkey. I told
people in my class to
complete and also left it
available online so I
would get random
responses. The findings I
had got for the acoustic
genre was around the
16-19 age, I do think
that this data was
polluted by the fact that
most of my class and
people who would use
survey monkey would be
that age. Despite this I
used my findings and
then started on my next
area of discovering what
age range would find the
images most interesting.
This was a vital part of
my research as if not
conducted then I
wouldn’t be sure what
image would be most
suitable for the age
range for the largest
amount of viewers.

17. How did you attract/address
your audience?

18. By using modern aspects that interest the targeted audience with reference to YouTube and Twitter which
something the will be familiar with so the can have a connection to the inside articles unlike something they
have no close relation to such as pop stars luxurious lives. , also the competitive price will appeal to the
audience.
Modern features they can relate too.
A way of attracting an audience would be to include something they can closely relate to, as the surveys
revealed that the majority of my audience would be older teens to young adults I included things that
stereotypically that age range commonly use and can relate to.
I integrated YouTube into my double page spread as YouTube is very common for artists being discovered,
Justin Bieber was discovered on YouTube and is one of the most famous pop stars in the world. Therefore it
would be a good way to merge an article in my double page spread to something that is very current. This
makes the reader comfortable and intrigued therefore attracting them to the magazine.
With the images, he images were the images I a had narrowed down to try use in my cover page, contents
page and double page spread. There reason why I knew that they were the image I would be using is
because during lesson I went around the college asking students and staff which images they preferred.
Image one had a mixed base of support evenly distributed between the adults and the teenagers this was
good because I knew that my audience wouldn’t completely be the 16-19 year olds my survey had
discovered so this would attract a wider audience. Image two had approximately a 70(student)/30(adult)
split, due to the survey I decided the image would be a good cover image because the majority of the
support was from the largest audience I had found, also I had an idea for a cover story that would relate
closely to the image which was something I had found was popular from previous surveys I had done on
cover pages. Image three again an even split as both ages like the image so I knew this would help entertain
all potential readers. Image four was fairly evenly spilt but was leaning more towards the younger age range.
Despite it being favoured more by the students I felt that the way the image was taken would be perfect for
a contents page because the faded black and the image with an open space beside would give me plenty of
room to write without worry of not being able to see the writing because of the image behind, also it fitted
similar conventions to existing music magazine contents page. Image five was liked by mainly the adults
because of the calmness of the photo, I was unsure on whether to use this image as despite liking it I was
sure on what part of the magazine it would be appropriate to put it in. Finally image six was again popular
with both age groups so I knew it again would be a sensible idea to include this at some point in the
magazine to help interest and entertain the audience.

19. Another way I attracted an audience was by ‘product
dropping’. This means that certain people who have
these headphones may relate to the magazine and
the artist. Another way I attracted an audience was
buy using artists in the contents which they might
like therefore read certain articles.

20. How have you learnt about
technologies from the process
of constructing this product?

21. The amount of images required to just to find that one photo is far more than I had
expected. The testing for taking was I painstakingly long process, this is because there is
a fine line between a photo looking unprofessional and professional. Everything should
be taken into account when taking a photo, the background needs to be not to detailed
as you want the focus to be purely on the characters in the image, also having a
reasonably neutral background allows space for editing and writing space. The lighting
needs to be correct as the lighting can cause too much irritation with the photo such as
unintended lens flare, or the image isn’t bright enough as. As we couldn’t control the
weather at times of taking photos we used a reflect, this was a professional method of
getting more light onto the models. This method would be more appropriate as it looked
more professional than using the flash feature on the cameras we used. In addition the I
learnt the clothing was a vital component in taking the correct image. It would be un-
realistic if the magazine was a rap genre and the main cover image was someone in a
suit holding a guitar. So the props and clothing were crucial in the process.

23. I had become very familiar with this image editing software developed by Adobe.
Photoshop is considered one of the leaders in photo editing software. The software
allows users to manipulate, crop, resize, and correct colour on digital photos. The
software is particularly popular amongst professional photographers and graphic
designers. This is why to create a realistic magazine you needed to be able to manipulate
and edit images so the support your magazine. Over the process of creating the
magazine I had mastered some features which meant I could integrate these features
into my magazine. Due to the research I had previously done on existing magazines I had
discovered a recurring convention of images was an overlay. This is where the image is
slightly covering some writing or something on the page. This makes the image or
writing stand out from the page giving a 3D effect to the magazine to differentiate the
writing from the images

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

25. • I found out over the course of the task that the planning into
creating magazine was a lot more in depth than I had initially
thought.
• How to use professional camera
• A developed understanding on how to use adobe Photoshop
• Learnt how to blog- update post, create pages, convert media
files and imbed images.
• Learnt the correct way in which to take a photo under certain
lighting and camera modes.
• Learnt how to structure a cover page of a music magazine
• Creating and having discussions with people whilst taking
advice .
• Understanding the importance of planning

26. • PHOTOGRAPHS - Because it was easy to learn how to use all
the different functions on the camera I think that the photos
on both my preliminary and main product were of a good
quality, and in my preliminary shoot I managed to get clear
and focused centred close up shot, despite this I am pleased
that I have progressed because if I hadn’t learnt how to use
the new features on the camera I wouldn’t have tried to take
certain photos which I have used in my magazine.
• LAYOUT - I think there is an enormous difference between the
layouts of my preliminary and main product, showing how
much progression I had made. Layout was something I found
difficult to grasp as with magazines you can have a brilliant
photo and a rubbish layout making the overall look of the
magazine very tacky and unprofessional. Therefore I chose to
do large amounts of research into the layout to make sure my
final product wasn’t poorly constructed.

27. • EDITING – Editing was something I was very hesitant to do however, after I
had watched some YouTube tutorials on tips and tricks for Photoshop it was
the most enjoyable and rewarding part of the production for me. Especially
the contents page, the ‘colour splash’ effect I have put onto the image
makes it unique and makes the artist really stand out. Other edits I have
done are on the front cover, the background was originally white, I wanted
something more interesting and thanks to my progression with editing
images I have managed to change to colour without creating a badly
photoshoped image.
• ADDRESSING THE AUDIENCE- In order to address the audience I relied
heavily on the image, this was something I spent a lot more time and effort
working on as through questioners and feedback, the reader bases there
decision on the photo and if my photo wasn’t something the reader thought
was professional than it would distract their attention. Secondly what the
magazine included therefore the sell lines needed to look professional and
contain relevant content. Both the image and the sell lines have changed
drastically from my practice magazines to me final product, this was down
to research and trial and error with images and layout