1. The document discusses the evaluation of a media product, Taytum Cotton's AS production work. 2. It provides details on how the media product uses unconventional forms, representing various social groups, and the technologies learned through the process. 3. Reflection is given on progress made from the preliminary task to the full product, with lessons learned around instructing models, filling pages with text, and planning cover layouts in more detail before shooting.

1. Evaluation of my AS
Production Work
Taytum Cotton

2. 1. In what ways does your media product
use, develop or challenge forms of real
I have included a duo
on the front cover,
media products?
which is This type of front cover is
unconventional for unconventional as the duo is a
magazines, as there boy and girl, addressing both of
is not a large amount the potential readers, which
of artists which are magazines such as NME and
duos. Kerrang! Ignore.
The colour scheme is conventional,
The rest of the with 3 typical colours of red white
elements on the
and black, although I have added
page are some extra colours to create some
conventional such as bits to stand out.
the centred
headings, the
There is not often a duo seen on
coverlines being
magazine front covers, although
aligned to the side of
this is because there is not a large
the page they are
amount of duo music artists.
closest to etc.

3. 2. How does your media product represent
particular social groups?
• How it represents the artists as well as the audience
• My magazine represents a group of unsigned artists, from the upcoming music scene, although my
magazine does not focus on one specific genre just New music, it represents the music industry as a
whole and therefore they are mostly youth acts, and this represents them as hard working and
talented as this is what it takes to become part of the music scene.
• The youth of today, are represented in my magazine as being hardworking, although also like to
have a good time, as the artists are all trying very hard to get into the music business. You can tell
this from the quote on the front cover “If we had knew it was this hard we wouldn’t have
bothered.” which gives the impression that they have worked really hard to get where they are
today.
• It also gives the impression that the readers of today are passionate about music, otherwise, they
would not be interested in buying the magazine, they also would like to keep up to date with the
current trends as this magazine promotes new and up coming music artists.

4. 3. What kind of media institution might
distribute your media product and why?
• Bauer Media
• Bauer Media is responsible for music
magazines and channels such as Kerrang!, KISS,
Aloud.com, Magic, Smash Hits!, Q, as well as 4Music and
MOJO, therefore they have a lot of experience in the
music industry, and know how to create a successful and popular
magazine.
• Large multinational corporation
• Large focus on music
• Although Bauer music is a German company, and I am focusing on
mostly British music, I would rather have these as they know a large
amount about the music industry and I don’t not feel that having a
German company would affect the quality of the distribution of the
magazine.

5. 4. Who would be the audience for your
Listen to music every This magazine could
where they go, and media product and why? appeal to both male
and female readers of
are very passionate magazines, which
about it. other magazine such
as NME ignore, this
They perhaps want to would give the
be in the music magazine, a largest
business in the future, target readership as
or trying to get into the possible, and
music business and They enjoy many therefore more
want some pointers. different types of possible sales.
Age 16-24 music available, and
often listen to
channels such as
NME, and would
most likely have Would like to
subscriptions, to
consider
streaming sites such
as Spotify. themselves
alternative, pride
themselves on
their image.
They pride
themselves on
being up-to-date
with new music Enjoy festivals and concerts, a
artists, songs and large amount of their
fashions. disposable income goes on
this.

6. 5. How did you attract/address your
My audience is 16-24 year old males The title is bold, modern and
audience?
and females, I have therefore
included this demographic, on the
simple, attracting audiences
which are mostly likely going to be
front cover used to this style, as they spend a
The magazine suggests that large proportion of their time
the target audience already gaming or on the computer
knows a large amount about
the artists featured. As for There is a rhetorical questions
most of them just the name ‘why so Glum?’ which is
of the bands are mentioned directly talking to the
audience and they would
The language on the front cover is not want to know why.
chatty, which would most likely appeal The Models have eye-contact
to a younger audience, although, not a with the camera, addressing the
formal or likely to be above their audience directly
reading level as am newspaper such as
the Times. The title is on a slant which is
unconventional on typical music
magazines and would be eye-catching
for the potential buyer. The title is
Making the artists seem like normal almost like a comic book, which might
people by saying they have couch lead the readers to wonder why they
surfed, and now are living the are being represented as super-heroes.
dream, enticing people to buy it to
find out how they managed it and
how they can do it themselves. I have included a pop-out on the front
A quote is featured on the front cover, they are cover and included the yellow, so that it
addressing the readers directly. stands out on the black background and
catches the potential audiences eye.

7. The page includes 2 pull quotes, which The style of the double page spread is an
address the audience directly and could editorial, with snippets of an interview
grab the reader attention, if they are incorporated within. Which gives it an
informal feel, although it still contains some
flicking through, it also entices the reader
element of formality and structure.
to continue reading the article to find out
why the artist Is “still in shock!”
I have included large,
bold tabs the catch the
readers attention if
flicking through the
magazine quickly.
The page contains the same
colour scheme and fonts as
both the contents page and
front cover, containing
continuity through out the
entirety of the magazine,
the contrast of black white
and red catches the readers
eye.

8. 6. What have you learnt about technologies
from the process of constructing this
product?
• Publisher- before creating my music magazine, I had little knowledge of the Microsoft
windows program publisher, I had briefly used it in the past, although not in nearly as
much depth. I had to create shapes, text, insert images change the backgrounds etc.
although the biggest challenge when using publisher is to work out how to get the
images in the right order, as many had to be overlapping, and working out how to get
the pictures seen, although after working out how to control the order, the rest was
relatively straight forward.
• Weebly – I had never previously used Weebly, there was a small amount of trouble to
access Weebly to begin with on the school computers,
and this often took a large amount of working time to log in
each time I wanted to use it. I found Weebly to be straight
forward, the website was easy to use and step-by-step
instructions as how to create my blog.

9. • Slide share – Again I had never used slideshare previously, and this
was more complicated to use, creating the slides where simple as I
have used PowerPoint a larger amount before, although uploading
them to slideshare.net was a bit tricky and the uploading them to
my Weebly blog was difficult as the embedding codes wouldn’t
work, I had to use the older embedding codes and then after a
couple of attempts it was successful. I think Slideshare is a useful
website, and I think this is good knowledge which I could use in the
future.
• Camera equipment- I have previous experience in using
photography, and programs such as Photoshop therefore I did not
learn a large amount about the technology, although it
did make me think about the studio photography used
on the from the and composition used to portray the
artists.

10. 7. Looking back on your preliminary task, what do
you feel you have learnt in the progression from it
to the full product?
I have learnt that to create a successful From the feedback I received on the preliminary task I was told
image the models need to be more clearly that the page needed filling up further, so when planning the
instructed, for the school magazine I just cover for my music magazine I researched further into the codes
said ‘act as if you are having fun’, I did not and conventions of magazines and found that they actually
instruct them on eye-contact, costume, I did contain a large amount of text, in the for of cover lines and
not take into account costuming, colours, or taglines, and therefore this as necessary for me to act upon this.
how the final image would look on the page.
I acted upon this by creating costumes for
the models in the music magazine, I told
them how to stand, about to
look at the camera, and I planned what the
overall front cover will appear before I’d
taken
the shots.
My preliminary magazine
also contained a weak
variety of colours, the
colour scheme was very
similar to the colours in the
photo, and therefore, many
of he cover lines were lost.