1. The document discusses the evaluation of final media products created by the student for a school project. 2. It describes how the student's magazine front cover, contents page, and double page spread used conventions from real music magazines while also including some original and unconventional design elements. 3. The student learned about technologies like photo editing and magazine design through constructing their media products using programs like Fireworks and gained experience planning for audience and purpose.

1. Evaluation of final products Jack Barlow

2. Introduction My media products use conventions from many music magazines, although, my main inspiration was “NME” magazine because it seemed like the most conventional, and most popular music magazine on the market I didn’t just get inspiration for layout an pictures, but I also got ideas on what the magazine uses to attract its target audience. Once I had an idea of what to do, I could then get started and use ideas of my own that would appeal to the target audience of my choice Colour scheme, you will notice that on my media products, the colour scheme is black and white, this is an idea of my own as I haven’t seen it used before, but I feel is fitting to my colour scheme, keeping it simple.

3. Front cover As you can see, I have used the same title technique, this NME magazine uses. The titles on music magazines are not normally in the middle, but off to the left hand side, that is why it is there on mine I have also used a banner across the bottom which includes information on the contents of the magazine and a picture, this is also conventional as most other magazines use the same technique The picture in the middle is also a reflection of other magazines, showing a band in a pose. This is used on many magazines and usually refers to what is inside the magazine My main inspiration for my magazine was NME, the music magazine. My title is done in a similar style, except I have customised and changed it 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? The lack of information around the image shows that the magazine is meant to be mysterious The text in the middle of the cover “The Eclipse” is the band’s font, to show it belongs to them. It is in 2 colours, white and black, this makes the name stand out more as the colours contrast the background picture (And still keeping to the black and white colour scheme) Overall, I think that my magazine front cover is in a genre of its own, it uses many conventional techniques, but the colour scheme makes them look unconventional. It is original, and when things look new, people buy them

4. Contents page I have gone with an unusual layout and design for my contents page, this is the most unconventional piece of work I have done, my contents page is not based on any professional ones I have seen The mixture of pictures and text together is widely used in professional contents pages, I have tried to keep it as simple as I could, it still displays all the information needed and nothing else 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? There are not many magazine contents pages that look like mine This magazine is the closest match to mine that I could find, showing that there are not many conventional aspects of my contents page Overall, I think that this piece of work is the most unconventional I have done. I feel that because it is a new design it will attract more people to

5. Double page spread The basic layout of the page is conventional when compared other magazines of its kind. I have taken no risks with my double page spread, keeping it simple, but not too simple. I see it as a usual technique to have the picture cross over between pages and have the text on one of the sides As opposed to the picture below, I have used a texture as a background to the text whereas that uses plain white as a background. The picture is of the band that the text is about, this is what other music magazines do as well and therefore looks “usual” and professional. The torn effect around the outside of the picture and background is something I added afterwards to keep the page interesting and matches up both pages NME double page spread 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

6. 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? In my final products, I have used pictures of teenagers to appeal to my teenage audience, the gender that I feel that the gender represented the most in my magazine is male. Although the pictures have both males and females in I have used black, white and blue as a colour scheme. The age on the other hand I feel is teenagers to late 20’s, any one else would have to be a big music fan to buy this magazine. My younger audience is portrayed in my pictures, but the black and white colour scheme appeals to the older readers, as oppose to bright colours that appeal to younger people. I feel that the contrast between the two will attract the target audience of my choice. I have typed in full, and avoided abbreviations and text speak, this is so my magazine appeals to a wider range of classes, and shouldn’t put off the teenagers or music fans that read my magazine. Although I have left the slang out, my words are still relatable to my younger readers. My final products went through a couple of drafts, and after each one I asked people what they thought of it and what they would change. Over the duration of the course, my magazine has changed a lot until I got it right where I, and other people, wanted it. I made sure that I asked people in the range of my target audience what they thought, and the feedback I got proved to be useful as I made many improvements to my magazine to make it better. This is the pictures I used on my front cover, I think that this pictures is a good representation of the audience I want to attract

7. 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? I have researched a couple of music institutions that might have interesting in distributing my media product, I have compared them and come to the conclusion that “MusicMags” will be best for my music magazine MusicMags - “If we say it, musicians play it” I feel that this institution would be best for distributing my media product because MusicMags starts small and makes the product big. They have the same ideas on their website that I have in my magazine, take something or someone which little is known about, and make it big, so more people hear about them/it This is an extract from their website, and they say that they cover every type of music magazine, I will need this sort of institution as my target audience is niche, and I would need to appeal to them in a precise way When compared to other institutions, they tend to go for the big brands and keep them in business, when as all I need to do is get around and distribute my magazine to more people Above is another extract, the information there reassures me that my magazine will be successful, this is because I advertise new bands into the industry, and if musicians of this amount turn to “MusicMags” then it will give me more of a chance to meet new musicians and make them big

8. 4. Who would be your audience for your media product? My magazine acts as an introduction to most bands and albums in the music industry. For this particular issue, I feel that it appeals to a fans with an interest in rock music. The age for my target audience is from teenagers to late 20’s, I feel that the majority of rock music fans falls under these age limits. Older rock music fans may be put off by the picture of the teenagers of the front cover and double page spread I feel that I have displayed this on the front cover by using a band that no one has seen before and colouring it in black and white. The picture, of a teenage band, shows that the magazine is about a new (young) band, whereas the colours, black and white, relate to rocks music, in my opinion overall, the black and white colours used on that picture shows a new teenage rock band. This means that I am appealing to a niche audience as rock fans is one genre, but new teenage bands is another genre, putting them together reduces the audience by a significant amount. If I was appealing to a bigger audience, I would remove the information on the new teenage rock band and replace it for an interview with a well known rock band, but as this is not my aim, I did not do it.

9. 5. How did you attract/address your audience? Carrying out research on other magazines and asking my target audience questions, I was able to find out what sort of things I could put into my magazine to appeal to my target audience. I found out from my rock music fan friends that a dull, black and white colour scheme would appeal to them, and looking at the magazines of the same type I noticed a pattern. For example, in Kerrang magazine, they have a black and white colour scheme they use mostly, and they want to appeal to a wider range of music fans, from rock to heavy metal, etc. The font and style of my title is a mixture of a teen music magazine “NME” and a rock band music magazine “Kerrang”, I have done this because teen rock is my target audience As explained earlier, the text I have used is formal, although I have not abbreviated words, a couple of words might be intended for my younger audience. My fonts on the other hand tell different stories, large areas of text are in a normal font that I downloaded, this is because the information needed to look professional. Other text, such as the “Meet the Band” text and title were download in the interest of the younger audience to look “younger” but readable and professional The pictures are of a teen rock band, to appeal to my teenage audience, this is a good start to attracting my teenage audience, the formal text, the black and white colour scheme and what the actual pictures show (what the band is wearing) appeal to an older audience, and this is just what I wanted to achieve in my magazine + =

10. 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? I learnt a lot of things about camera angles when it came to taking pictures for my music magazine, I had the chance to take pictures from many angles to see what would work best for my magazine. The picture on my front cover is a good example of this, I took the picture so that both people were in the picture, the light is coming from behind the camera and lighting the people I am taking a picture of. I made sure that nothing else was in the picture to show that the band was new, therefore on their own On the computer, I used picture manipulation programs and other programs to construct my media products, when doing this, I learnt a lot. There were lots of new features introduced to me, like the tear effect and how to make pictures black and white. Fireworks was the main program I used for my media products, with this, I could do everything I needed to do. I have had past experience with Fireworks, but this project still taught me a few things. An example is below I had never used Blogger before, and have learnt what it is and how to use it since the start of the course. It is a good website that allows me to “blog” and keep the school updated with my progress in Media Studies. I feel that I will be using blogger a lot more in future. Another program I have been introduced to is SlideShare, an easy online service that allows me up upload my PowerPoint presentations, then blog them so that they can be marked

11. 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? Adding effect to an ordinary rectangle shape Then I use the line tool to select an outline of white (see below) Then, I used the drop shadow effect to make the shape stand out I used this technique on my contents page to make the text boxes stand out from the rest of the page

12. 7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? When I did my prelim, it felt more like a taster to see what I could achieve with the skills I already knew, with my final products, I learnt how to use more programs to make my final products, but that is only from a design point of view Lots of planning went into my final products, I had to decide on layout, a colour scheme, and even take my own pictures. I had to take into account what needs my magazine had, and so the pictures had to be relevant. In my prelim, I did not have to worry about things like these, when comparing my front covers, you can see where I have improved Since my preliminary task, I have learnt many new things, one of these is the conventions of what makes a music magazine, a music magazine. I had to take some ideas from other magazines to make mine look more professional For this project, I have had more time to research into areas such as target audience, and techniques to attract my audience. From these, I was able to use lots of different ways in my project to make my magazine look more appealing to an age group. This was something I did not achieve in my prelim because that was a practice, and lots of smaller techniques went into making that with no focus on an audience