The document discusses the process of creating a magazine as a class project. It examines how the student drew inspiration from existing magazines like NME and Q, modeling aspects of layout, design and conventions. Research was also conducted to determine the target audience would be teenagers and young adults interested in R&B music. Photoshop skills were developed in editing photos to make them brighter and more vibrant. Overall the student felt their final magazine looked professional and was pleased with the photography, though would make some minor changes if doing it again.

1. Spoken Evaluation Script.
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
When first given the coursework task I began to look at existing products, I looked in most
detail at an issue of the NME magazine and Q magazine, looking at these helped me get an
understanding of what the public want from a magazine and how to use balance, symmetry,
the Guttenberg Design Principle and the rule of thirds. Due to doing this some similarities
appeared between my magazine and the existing products, for example the NME has two
bold colours for the house style which are red and black I noticed this and thought it looked
effective so chose my two main colours to be black and orange. Our mastheads are also
slightly similar as both are bold and capitalised I did this as I think it looks really effective.
When comparing the two front covers it becomes apparent how like real products my
product is, both have one large cover star central to the page and both have cover lines
along either side of the model. However I chose to use a secondary image on my front cover
unlike the NME so this challenges the conventions of this product. Looking at Q magazine
our contents pages again are similar both use a large image of the main artist and use direct
address. The house style is consistent in my magazine like in the Q. Q use a very small
masthead on the contents page but I chose to use one the same as on my front cover to
keep the house style consistent. Looking back at the NME out it is clear I used the NME for
inspiration when designing my double page spread both have good design balance and the
images are somewhat similar and both use direct address. The mastheads are both large
and eye catching and both have a kicker. However I decided to develop this further and put
on my double page spread pull quotes, secondary images and used branding.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My media product represents teenagers and or young adults aged between 15-25 both male
and female, and people who are interested in the R&B genre. This is represented by the
images used for example the one on the front cover it is an image that a young person
would be drawn to as it is quite funky and the person featured is in that age group. They are
also represented by the famous artists mentioned which is people such as Rihanna, Nicki
Minaj and Drake who are all artists in that age range and artists who are widely recognised
to be part of the R&B genre. I also feel the masthead represents the particular social group
as it is very bold and stands out which R&B artists are well known for their quirky styles and
standing out for example Nicki Minaj her style definitely stands out and the fans of these
types of artists try to mirror their idols fashion sense, therefore my masthead does
represent the social group my magazine is aimed at.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and
why?

2. When conducting my research I looked into who distributed the magazines I looked at. I
found out the Bauer Media are the distributors of Q magazine, I feel this institution would
be appropriate for the distribution of my magazine. The institution is a massive worldwide
group who distributes 300 different magazines to 15 different countries as well as online, tv
and radio. As I would like my magazine to eventually go worldwide as it represents artists
from many different countries I feel this group would be the best one for the distribution of
my magazine. In 1996 they acquired the TV channel The Box which plays many R&B artists
this is another reason I feel they would be best for my product it also owns many radio
stations such as Kiss I feel my product would be a great addition to these as they do not as
of yet distribute any R&B magazine so I feel this could make them a lot of money. According
to online sales and profit figures Bauer Media recorded pre-tax profits of £51.9m on sales of
£252m in 2009, this shows how successful this company is.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
My target audience for my media product is teenagers and or young adults who are
interested in the R&B genre. It is aimed at both sexes as is the NME and Q and this is
represented in the colour scheme it is not girly or masculine the two colours featured are
black and orange which could be linked to either sex. I conducted a questionnaire around
college, I asked mainly people in the 15-25 age group as I already knew I wanted this to be
the age I aimed it at as I felt I could relate better with this age group, I found that their
favourite genre was R&B this is how I decided on the genre. Another result I got from this
questionnaire was that the people in this age range said they would be more likely to buy
my magazine if it had a free gift, so in order to make my magazine as successful as possible I
have put a free poster of an artist inside.
How did you attract/address the audience?
To try and attract my audience and make the magazine more appealing I featured popular
current R&B artists on the front cover and contents page, I used Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, J Cole,
Drake and Chris Brown as this would make the magazine more appealing. I also used my
masthead to try and attract the audience I used a very large, bold, capitalised masthead
which goes across the top of the front cover, it is a very eye catching masthead and
hopefully will attract the desired audience to it. I feel the image on my front cover will also
attract the audience as it features a very funky looking rebellious cover star with bright red
hair and wearing a leather jacket all this would definitely draw the desired audience to the
magazine as the image is very relevant to the people I am aiming the magazine at. On the
contents page and double page spread I used direct address to address the audience, the
model is looking right at the camera so it looks like she is looking at the reader this makes
the magazine more personal for the audience to read.

3. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing
this product?
Whilst constructing the product I have learnt a lot I have learnt how to take good
photographs using the rule of thirds effectively, I learnt how to use a high quality camera
using all the different buttons for different effects etc. I learnt how to use Photoshop I
edited many images to make them brighter and more interesting to look at. On my front
cover image I used the brightness and contrast tool to brighten the image of the model and
it also made her red hair more vibrant. I used the saturation and exposure tool again to
make the image more vibrant and doing this also made the image more relevant to the
genre of the magazine as R&B is known to feature bright bold colours. I also used the crop
tool to get rid of any dead space and to make the focus of the image clear. I also learnt how
to set up my own blog and how to post work onto it as I had never done this before it was
all new to me.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in
the progression from it to the product?
When conducting the preliminary task I found it really difficult as I had never used
Photoshop and was having to learn how to use all the different tools. I found it particularly
hard to think of relevant cover lines and found it hard to find a colour scheme which
complimented the main image. I found that conducting all my research and looking at
magazines such as Q and NME really helped when it came to making my final product. From
doing the preliminary task it really helped to develop my skills on Photoshop and helped me
in creating a professional looking final piece as I had had a practice run from doing this
preliminary task so new what worked well and what didn’t.
Conclusion
All in all I feel my final product looks professional and is a successful magazine. The house
style is consistent throughout and I feel I did some good photography work as I am pleased
with all my images and how they have turned out they look very professional. I feel the
biggest success of my product was the double page spread, I really like the layout of it and
think it looks very professional I think the direct address really works and the pull quotes
look effective. If I was to make some improvements to my product I would put more
secondary images on my contents page so that the contents page would truly reflect all
that’s in the magazine. I would also perhaps rethink my front cover layout although I do like
it I would add some more cover lines and edit the font size of the cover lines as I think this
would make it look more professional.