2. In what ways does your media product use, develop, or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? I have a lot of similarities on my magazine compared to magazines like I-D and INDIE. These magazines are not necessarily main stream but they all share the same conventions as you would find in the bigger magazines such as Q. My magazine and indie magazine have a lot of similarities. The magazines both have a bar code, Large upper case titles. Sub titles, a strong image and graffiti writing. They are very simple and keep to a colour scheme. Both of the magazine covers have a very strong demographic to target, they both seem to go towards pleasure seekers, creative/experimentalists.
3. How does your media product represent particular social groups? The colours I have used and the images I have chosen help me to have a wide range on the demographic targets. For example, my opening page is targeted towards the demographic lifestyle groups identified as Pleasure seekers, and experimentalists/creatives. However when you approach my contents page you will see that it also begins to target the demographic group of anti-authority rebels. This theme carries on to my double page spread where it also widens and draws in achievers/leaders. The graphics and images throughout my magazine, represent the indie pop image that had started and grown from the 1950’s (Pop) and 60’s (Indies) and these images will target the above demographics as its the type of music that speaks to them,.
4. What kind of media institution may distribute your media product and why? The type of stores that would want to sell my magazine would be the music stores such as HMV. This is because they have a wide range of audiences that would be interested in my magazine. The Publishing company that would publish my magazine would be Bauer Publishing. This is because they publish magazines such as kerrang. They have a large influence so it has the power to sell my magazine to a large market.
5. Who would be the audience for your media product? My magazine is very diverse and would attract various demographic groups such as creative's/experimentalists, pleasure seekers, admiration seekers, achievers and anti authority rebels. My magazine is targeted at female teens and young adults that have the power to say and do what they believe to achieve, however in my contents it shows indie boy bands such as muse and my chemical romance therefore that would open up my target even wider to males as well. It would be targeted for the middle class/ working class people as it talks about working to get where you are. It would also be targeted to the daily mail readers as it is something that would be interesting for everyday people. The use of colours and the models makes my target for white people however for different issues it would open up to a range of ethnic backgrounds.
6. How did you attract/address your work? To attract my audience I used certain images, graphics and fonts which took allot of time to select to make sure they were perfect. The colour scheme I have used are followed through for my whole magazine which is pink, black and white. I feel these colours reflect my Indie/Pop scene and attract my audience. The fonts I have used also reflect my theme and draw my target audience in.
7. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? By using the different technologies I have learnt and gained lots of new skills. For example, using the adobe software (Photoshop) I really improved my knowledge of it and I now know almost every tool. Also it showed me that every detail can be improved and I now know how important the quality is. I used an SLR camera to take my images and this was important as it showed how important the quality of the images are and how you even edit the images on the actual cameras. The Mac computers are really complicated however they have allot of tools that I found really useful. I learnt allot about the programmes but I did find it difficult. Now I am really comfortable with them.
8. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? When I started doing my preliminary task, I didn't have allot of knowledge of Photoshop, the Macs, or even how effective camera angles and shots are used. The product of this, being a very amateur and cheap looking magazine. I also didn't realise just How important target audience is, and how the magazines image would connote to who my audience would be. From doing the preliminary task to now, I have learnt allot about the tools used and I now know almost everyone of them so I can use them to their maximum potential. I now understand that all media products employ/use codes and conventions to communicate ideas and messages to their target audience. I have identified the needs and desires of my core target audience. I have attempted to show through this evaluation how I have applied my knowledge about how codes and conventions work to reach my core demographic music fans.
