The document provides details about a student's media magazine project. It discusses the design conventions used in the magazine, including placing the title in the top left corner of the cover and using left-to-right reading. It also discusses representing the target audience of 16-25 year olds interested in indie music. The student learned new skills in Photoshop and how magazines are increasingly distributed online. Overall, the progression from the preliminary project to the final magazine improved the professional design and layout.

1. Media EvaluationLewis Cooke

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?My magazine uses some of the same conventions as in other indie magazines but it also has other devices that do not appear in other indie magazines.My magazine title is in the top left of the cover and this is generally where all titles go on a magazine cover.I also used the Guttenberg method in my front cover as the way a person in western culture reads something is from left to right.I put a lot of things in the left third, as this is the section people see most.I also go against general conventions on the front page by putting the Coverline to the left of the centre, this is because I didn’t want to take away from the image so I thought I’d do something different.

3. How does your media product represent particular social groups?I believe my magazine to represent the social groups within my target audience.The age I am generally aiming at is 16 - 25 as this is a young generation that likes the new music that is included in the magazine. Although my magazine is mainly based around unsigned bands, and it is usually the more mature of my audience that would have most interest in unsigned bands.I have included things in the magazine that would be liked by my target audience, the way I did this was to do some audience research to find out what specific genres of music do the people like that I deemed to be my target audience, and would have had an interest in unsigned bands. The majority was indie based.

4. What kind of media institution might distribute your magazine and why?I believe that with some extra added touches of professionalism, my magazine could be distributed by shops for example supermarkets and newsagents. It most likely will be supplied in niche shops for example a music shop that supplies unsigned music as this would be the perfect place as it is where my target audience would shop.Because the internet is an ever increasing method of distributing information, my magazine could also be published on a webpage. A good one would be one that is aimed at indie music lovers for example on a MySpace page for unsigned bands because that’s the sort of person that would read my magazine.

5. Who would be the audience for your media product?My target audience would be 16-25 year olds, male or female and lovers of unsigned indie bands. I came up with these results by doing a questionnaire as part of my audience research.The reason I chose indie music and specifically new and unsigned artists is due to my own taste for unsigned bands from that genre.I believe men and women will be targeted to the magazine because i have used both a male and female on my front cover. Although I have mainly used red which is associated with males, but I have also used black and white which are unisex basic colours.

6. How did you attract/address your audience?To attract readers I used what other conventions a typical established indie magazines would use e.g. NME, Q.I used the basic black and white colours with one block colour so that the magazine would stand out, this is usually a primary colour. This is another general convention of indie magazines because of the it would stand out from the shelf against other magazines.I have used a long shot for the cover image, although this is not atypical of an indie magazine, because it’s usual to have a medium close up. I didn’t want to go with convention though as I wanted to see what it would turn out like doing things a different way, and how the audience would react. The clothes and people I used for my magazines were chosen specifically because they both dressed very much in the manner of both the readers and the bands that would feature, and I used both a male and female artist to try and attract more readers.I wrote the magazine in an informal style, this relates to the indie genre as bands and artists talk in slang and that will relate to the readers, also similar magazines write in this style.

7. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?Photoshop is the main tool I have used throughout the magazine and my skills and knowledge on the programme have increased a lot to a very good standard.I learnt how to use lots of tools to make images look more professional for example brightness, lasso tool, smoothing the edges. I also learnt how to use effects such as shadow, stroking and image manipulation.I have also learnt that a lot of magazines are now produced on the internet, as it is a much easier method to display information as you don’t have to go out to buy it, but a disadvantage to this would be that you can’t take it with you wherever you go if you don’t have internet access.I have also learnt about blogging and how information can be displayed and exchanged to other people, this emphasises my point on how information is being exchanged more over the internet.

8. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?Looking back at my preliminary task, I believe that my magazine looks a lot more professional because I have used better techniques than in the first task. I also have better headings, font, colours and images to add to an overall better looking magazine.I have used my preliminary project as a basic draft for my main project, then worked and worked on it, going through a number of different drafts, to eventually get to the final magazine I now have. I think that a good ancillary project gave me the basis to work off, which in turn gave me a really good final piece.

9. Front CoverThis masthead is the selling line for my magazine, it includes buzz worlds and summarises the magazine genre. This would go at the top of all following magazines.The primary optical area of the Guttenberg diagram is a prime location, so I’ve filled it with the models head and the main logo icon as well to attract attention.The logo was made from text, then I flipped the ‘E’ around and reversed the colours, and I also broke up the ‘U’ and enlarged it.Both models have direct eye contact with the camera , this is usual with music magazines.This includes the magazine name, date of release and also the price. The text has a drop shadow on it to make it stand out more.The main coverline story is bold and red so it stands out a lot. I chose to put it off centre to fit around the picture, and to stray in to the left third.The terminal optical area only contains the barcode and a sub-coverline. These are the sub-coverlines to show more stories in the magazine. I put the most appealing one in the left third.

10. ContentsThe banner is black and contains the magazine logo.Here is the date of release and the magazines website.I have done the features in bold red to carry on the house style of the magazine and so you can clearly see what the magazine contains.The image is similar to the front cover . The image stays in the principle of thirds, with the models head and body being on lines.My magazine features are all equally the same size to keep continuity.The feature about the image is here and it sticks out and fits in around the image well to create balance.This is separate from the other features as it is a special. I made the text gold instead so it looks special.A different section of the magazine, so the title is black not red. These are less important features than others, but are still shown.These are consistent features that would be the same in every edition.The image is relevant to the other features here.

11. Double Page SpreadThis is the heading of the page, it is bold to stand out. The title it ‘Look Out’, which is saying look out for this featured up and coming band.The title follows the same as the front cover to stay in house style.Here is a buzz word to attract attention.These images are on a black background to stand out. I’ve done them as polaroids. This is a quote from the bands song. It has a drop shadow to stand out.This is a catchy buzz word that is related to the article featured.This image is drop shadowed to stand out from the white background.The images are cut from separate ones and imposed over. They obey the principle of thirds as well.This pull quote is bold and red to stand out. It is a memorable quote from the interview that will attract the readers attention.This is a smaller feature, a small fact file to keep you interested as well as the main article. It follows house style.This contains the website, and a small slogan advertising the website to readers as well. It also contains the magazine logo.