Oliver Skelland evaluated their media product, a metal magazine called "Thorcore." They used a medieval font style to fit the genre and attract readers. The magazine uses black, white, and red colors and a formal layout. Photographs depict bands as hard rock rather than metal. Images were manipulated by removing backgrounds and editing colors and exposure. Articles are written formally without slang. The magazine represents young, working class males who follow alternative music. Bauer Media would be suited to distribute the magazine due to their similar titles. The target audience is ages 17-25 who like hard rock and metal genres. The house style and layout aim to look professional and tidy to attract readers. Oliver learned skills in Photoshop,

1. Oliver Skelland
Evaluation
Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
Magazine Title
My magazine called ‘Thorcore.’ Thor is the God of War featured in Viking eras and
Scandinavian Mythology. He is depicted to be a fearsome male figure. He wields ‘The
Mountain Crushing Hammer’ which is associated with wars and battles. The word core can
be used to describe a sub-genre of metal as there are styles such as hardcore and
metalcore. The word Thorcore together suggests a hard metal based magazine and the
name fits well with the overall genre of metal. My magazine covers genres from hard rock to
most metal genres. This lexis attracts the target audience because the word Thorcore can be
easily related to metal and its sub-genres. The font style is of medieval design with crack and
shatter effects added to it to make it look less formal and fit in with the magazine style.
Design and Layout/House Style
My house style uses three colours which are black, white and red. These fit in with the genre
as they are basic colours that can be associated with danger and a dark style of music. The
Guttenberg principle attracts the audience as the information on the cover is placed in
specific areas so that the audience reads the relevant coverlines first so they are attracted
to what’s inside the magazine. My layout is more of a formal and tidy layout. This makes the
magazine look more professional and less cluttered.
Photography
The photographs I have taken can be better. My magazine is mainly focused on metal but
also covers hard rock styles and the photos I have taken depict the band to be more of a
hard rock band than a metal band. This could challenge normal conventions as my
photographs don’t depict the classic look of a metal band that would be wearing full black.
They look more like a modern hard rock/hardcore band. I have incorporated the rule of
thirds into my photos ensuring that important areas such as the models are across
intersecting lines on the grid. My mise en scene like my photos could he been more accurate
on the clothing styles and location.
Special Effects and Image Manipulation
I have manipulated most of my images by removing the basic background and editing the
colours. I removed the original whitewall background from my images and added a gradient
background going from black to white. This looks more interesting and fits my house style
better than just a plain white background. I also edited the brightness and exposure on my
images so the colours appear brighter and less washed out. This makes my images look
more professional.
Written Article
My article is written in a formal tone with very little slang. I prefer this way as I think it adds
to the magazine appearing more professional. The layout of my columns is three vertical
columns per page with and image on each page. One image is the larger main image and the
other is a smaller one. I have made it clear in the text what the interviewers name and the

2. Oliver Skelland
interviewees name is by changing the font colour to red, and this relates to my colour
scheme. I have also made the question bold so it’s clear what the question is and what the
response is.
Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My magazine will mostly representyoung males that are most commonly students that
follow and listen to alternative music and live alternative lifestyles. These social groups are
represented to be rebellious against the ‘standard’ lifestyles and social groups and this has
been the way for many years and they are sometimes discriminated against for being
‘different ‘from the majority of people. These people most probably come from lower
middle class and working class families. There can be many stereotypes against people of
this type, mostly negative. This is because they like a style of music that is considered
aggressive. The metal fan base has been described as ‘largely young, white, male, and blue-
collar’ which fits in with the working class group of people in group C2. Example of this is
manual workers.
Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I think that Bauer Media would be more suited to distribute my magazine as they already
distribute similar magazines such as Kerrang which is similar to my magazine as they cover
genres such as Alternative/Metal. The target audience for Kerrang is mainly people that
listen to metal and alternative music. Readers of Kerrang could see my magazine and also
give it a read if it interests them. Bauer media already has experience distributing magazines
of alternative genres; therefore I think they are more suited to distributing my
magazine.Bauer Media is a division of the Bauer Media Group; Europe’s largest privately
owned publishing Group. The Group is a worldwide media empire offering over 300
magazines in 15 countries, as well as online, TV and radio stations.Bauer Media joined the
Bauer Media Group in January 2008 following acquisition of Emapplc’s consumer and
specialist magazines, radio, TV, online and digital businesses. Collectively, the Group
employs some 6,400 people.Bauer Media is a multi-platform UK-based media Group
consisting of many companies collected around two main divisions – Magazines and Radio -
widely recognized and rewarded as being industry innovators.
Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?
My magazine is aimed at the alternative audience that listen to music such as metal and
alternative rock. My magazine is similar to Kerrang and Metal Hammer. The magazine is
aimed at age groups of around 17-25 as these people are very up to date with new artists
and releases. This magazine can appeal to anybody who listens to alternative music. My
magazine will cover music such as hard rock and many types of metal such as hardcore and
metalcore. This will attract a wide audience along the alternative music scene.
Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?
I kept my house style simple and only used 3 colours. This makes for a clean magazine look
that isn’t too cartoonish. The 3 colours mean that the magazine looks uniform. Too many
colours can make it look unprofessional, especially if they use a combination of bright
colours. The Guttenberg principle was used to ensure that as the reader’s viewpoint moves
left to right so that all the necessary information can be seen. My house style was based on
my magazine analysis where I looked at front covers and contents pages. Keeping my house

3. Oliver Skelland
style similar to existing magazines means that my magazine will look as professional as it
can.
Secondly I looked at my market research and my magazine analysis work and noticed
specific features of metal style magazines. These features where that they usually had a
masthead with an informal type of font that was large and bold. I used this in my masthead
and added shatter and crack effects to my font. The font I used was a Celtic/Medieval styled
font that gave the impression that my magazine covers metal genres. Adding the crack
effects again makes my magazine masthead less formal. Again I looked at my analysis work
and saw that existing magazines had fonts that included cracks, shatters or untidy edges
Thirdly I made sure that my magazine is tidy and uncluttered so that it looks professional. I
did this by making layout plans so that my mastheads, coverlines and images were all placed
properly and lined up. I used guidelines in Photoshop to ensure that the different areas of
the magazine were positioned correctly
Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing
this product?
I have learnt how to use Photoshop in more depth. This means I can use more of the tools
and do more editing to a better standard. The skills I have learnt are how to properly use
tools such as the lasso tool to neaten the edges of edited photos and improve the overall
appearance of them. I have learnt how to use the clone stamp tool to edit/airbrush photos
so that they have a more professional look to them.
I now know how to use blogger and how to upload my work and publish it. This also
included the use of Slideshare. This allows me to upload word documents to Slideshare then
embed them into the blogger page using HTML. This was my first time using blogger so at
first I didn’t know how to upload files or create posts. I now know how to do this.
I used Microsoft software such as Word and Excel to publish my market research and to do
my magazine analysis. I typed my market research into Word and then used Excel to make
Pie and Bar charts to visualise the results so they are clear to understand. I also used Word
to do my magazine analysis. This consisted on analysing 3 front covers and 2 double page
spreads. After this I again used Word to do my band image analysis.
As well as using software I also used cameras to take pictures for my magazine. I learnt how
to use the camera itself and put principles to use such as the rule of thirds. I never knew of
such principles or how to put them to use until doing this course. I have never used a
professional camera before to take pictures, so this was also a challenge for me.
Question 7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the
progression from it to the full product?
I have learnt better use of cameras and taking photos based on the rule of thirds and this
has helped me in taking photos for my actual magazine. I have previously never used a
camera in this way so at the start of the course this was a challenge for me.

4. Oliver Skelland
I have learnt how to use blogger and Slideshare so that I can upload my coursework to these
sites. Again I have never used blogger or Slideshare before doing this course. The use of
blogger and Slideshare was easy to pick up as the sites aren’t that complicated to use
I have developed my knowledge of Photoshop which has helped my create layout designs
for my magazine pages. It has also helped my develop skills in photo editing and image
manipulation. I have used tools such as ‘lasso’ to make images look smoother around the
edges and this has helped me edit my images in my actual magazine.I have also learnt how
to remove backgrounds from images and to make the images look more professional by
editing their colours.
I have also learnt theory of magazine design from analysing front covers and contents pages.
This has helped me in my magazine design because this allows me to create a layout that
looks professional and neat.