evaluation
TRANSCRIPT
Evaluation
Amy Hallahan
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The barcode, issue number, date and price
are conventions that must appear on
every magazine.
I have a footer at the bottom of my cover to show a little more of
what can be found inside the magazine.
I have used a pull quote on the cover
to entice readers
I have placed my cover lines along the left hand side in the typical style of a magazine.
The main image has an effect on it, and
is set along the right third.
The masthead on Kerrang! Is also
big and bold, and also works to stand out and
show that it is a rock music magazine.
The masthead Is big and bold to stand out
and to reinforce the idea of rock
music being loud.
Kerrang! uses A header, which is
something I didn’t. I didn’t
think it would fit very well into the
cover of mine.
The main image is set along the right third, and
takes up most of the cover, as
mine also does.
Standard barcode, date
and issue number.
On this cover, another image has been used on the side, which I
had originally planned to do. I didn’t as I experimented, but none of the images
seemed to fit in place.
The cover lines can be found at the bottom of
this cover, with the main feature standing out in
bold 3d letters.
The footer contains lots of names of bands, where mine
only has 3.
My main image is a posed
photograph of the band, and is
such that you can see that you
can see the style of music
they play – this may be because of the way they
dress or the looks on their
faces.
In Kerrang! There is a footer to promote the
fact that you can subscribe to the mag.
I didn’t do this as I would have had to create more covers
to promote the advert.
The other image I used is of
another artist, mid guitar
playing. It has a different feel to the main image, but there is no
clear cut definition to rock music,
which is the sort of idea I was aiming for.
The names of the bands involved are big and bold to help draw the
attention of the audience. Underneath
them is a page reference, meaning that readers can look at the picture of the band they
like, and immediately see what page they
feature on.
I have used an unusual way of
listing the pages, justifying
them on the right instead of
the left, and having the
numbers bold and hugging the
words, rather than there be some sort of
order.
As well as the contents of the mag, I have listed the posters
that are included, to show readers early on what can be
found.
The logo and the date are big as to stand out.
The main image is of an artist mid gig,
which like mine, helps to prove what
music they play.
There are 3 other images present in Kerrang! Which seems to be one
of their traits within a contents page. I only used
one to save space.
Kerrang! Have included a letter from the editor on
their contents page which I didn’t do. This again was due
to space issues
The content of the magazine in Kerrang! Follows
a more conventional
approach of right justification and straight order
when it comes to the numbers.
The name of the page in Kerrang! Is also big and
bold.
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I decided to use question and answer
format for my article, as interviews with the
artists always seem to be
more popular when it
comes to the audience.
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The main image takes up most of the second page,
emphasising the importance of the person within the
picture.
I used a pull quote in the middle of the page to draw the reader in and to entice them to read the article.
I have put a statement
here to give some extra
information to the reader
The name of the band is the biggest text on
the page in order to show
the reader who it is about, and to attract those
who like the band.
The questions appear in red to help them
stand out against the background
and in comparison
with the answers.
The title of the page is also a pull quote, and appears in two colours
to help it stand out.
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
This spread has a border around the edges. The border itself is like lights which has connotations of concerts and stardom. The fact the
border disappears behind the image is important as it tells us that the image is more significant.
The page number appears small in the
corners.
The subheading, also in two
colours, tells the reader who the
interview is with and
which band they come
from.
The main image is of the main
singer within a
band, and he is stood
in a way with
portrays attitude.
The tattoos also
connote rebellion,
which then links in to the genre
of the magazine.
There is a caption in the bottom left hand corner of the image.
The title of the page is only small,
but has details of a
website present.
The questions in the
interview have been
highlighted in white, and
they appear bigger than the answers, and also in
capital letters.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
To start, there is no real stereotype to my magazine as the only image is the main one of Megan.
The clothes she was wearing were black, and she was wearing a band t-shirt under her jacket. The black and the name of the band both let the audience know she is linked to rock music, along side the shoulder length dyed hair.
THE magazine is aimed at teenagers predominately, males and females equally, although it could appeal to those slightly older. The use for the teenager on the front helps to show who it is aimed at.
The gender is not really specific as I would like my magazine to appeal to both genders on a near equal basis. I only used basic colours on my cover for this reason, as well as the black and red linking to rock.
I used a rocky font throughout the whole magazine so that the genre would be immediately known. I also placed the masthead and pull quote on a slight angle to symbolise that rock does not follow the usual conventions of society.
Talking of society, my magazine is not particularly aimed at any social class, as it is open for anybody to read. Although, saying this, not many upper class people are going to want to read a rock music magazine – So due to that, I suppose my magazine will mainly be aimed at middle class citizens, and maybe some working class.
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The Best publisher for my magazine would be bauer as they already publish some magazines of the same genre, two of the main ones being Kerrang! and Q.
Bauer are good as they target young adults and teenagers which is similar to what I am aiming for.
Obviously we don’t shut out the older readers, as sometimes there would be a feature in the magazines about a band from times gone by… for example Queen or bon jovi from the ages.
Bauer are a huge publisher firm, but they only do these two rock music magazines… the rest is other kinds of music, plus film and gossip magazines.
4. Who would the audience be for your media product?
Rock magazines usually seem to appeal to males slightly more than they do to women, but nothing really more than a 60:40 basis.
The main age group for a rock magazine, such as Kerrang! seems to be teenagers – those between the ages of 16 and 19.
The genre appeals to any ethnicity. There are no boundaries as to who reads the magazines, or who listens to the music, although it seems to be predominately white Brits / Americans who take more of an interest.
The people who buy this magazine would have elements of both Succeeders and Individuals when thought of against the psychographic profiles. Succeeders like to have brands which reinforce the feeling of control and power, and individuals like to buy things because of product image, and also expect higher than others. Within these areas, they would also be seen as fun/atic people, who can be described as aspirational, fun-seeking, active young people.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
I have tried to cater for all of the above within my magazine by including features about many different bands who will appeal to different ages and genders. I have also used a neutral colour scheme and images.
The language I used was informal and simple so as to ensure the audience included as big a range of people as possible.
I tried to construct the interview in a way that teenagers would enjoy reading, the questions and pull quotes containing language that would appeal most to those of my target audience.
I also tried to use bands throughout most of it that were of a similar age to my target audience so as to attract them into reading due to there being almost no age difference.
(such as paramore, pictured right)
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the processof constructing this product?
1) First of all, I used the text tool to create the
masthead for my magazine. I then used the text effects to change the shape and size of the writing. Then I added a red stroke to the
outside of the text in order to help make it stand out.
2) Next, I added the image that was to appear on the front cover. To make the image then seem a little
more ‘rocky’ to tie in with my chosen genre, I added an
effect which made the image look a bit cartoony and
rough cut.
4) After that, I then added the next cover line, this one
having a red stroke, linking back to the masthead and
working to keep some consistency present.
3) Then I added the main cover line to the cover, advertising the
main feature/band of the magazine. I put a white stroke around the text to help it stand
out, especially when it disappears into the image near the end. The writing below the larger copy just gives more information as to what
can be found within the magazine.
5) Then I added a red bar along the bottom to act as
the background to the footer. I chose to do it red
to go with the strokes of the writing and masthead, and to help it look more ‘rocky’.
7) After that, I decided to add a pull quote to the cover in order to help entice the reader into
buying the magazine to read the interview within. I made this white so that I could place it on the main
image and still read it.
8) Then I had to add a barcode to the bottom as
typical magazine convention.
6) I added another cover line above the others to
help advertise more things that would appear within the magazine. This one I
added a black stroke to, as the writing was red, and the black helps it to stand out against the background.
9) In order to make the magazine even more
conventional, I added an issue number, date and
price above the barcode.
11) Penultimately, I used the triangle tool to create a red triangle in the top right
corner of my magazine cover.
12)Upon this I added the text ‘rated 2011’s best’. A review such as this would
help to encourage customers into buying my
magazine.
10) I then added the writing to the footer, which consists
of names of the bands featured in the magazine.
2) To the side of the logo I added the title ‘contents’.
1) First of all, I inserted the logo of my magazine into
the top left of the contents page.
3) Next, I put a red box with the date in it underneath.
4) I inserted the main image that was to appear on the page at the bottom in the centre. It is a picture used to try and draw the
readers eye because of the colours and the pose
featured.
5) Above the main image, I inserted another, this one
smaller. Shows there is more than one thing within the magazine worth looking
at.
6) To the right of the logo and title, I composed a list
of bands whose poster would appear within the
magazine, According to my questionnaire results, posters are popular.
7)Then, in the top right corner, is the contents of the magazine, but with no
page numbers just yet. The words ‘C#’ and ‘Plus’ are in
bold to show their importance.
9) After that, I added The title of one of the bands, and the page number that
corresponds to their feature. I also added a
small caption of the photo above this.
10) Then I added the title of the band that goes with the other picture, and the page
number of importance/
8) This is where the page numbers come into it. In order to make them look better and to stand out
more, I made them thick red with a black stroke
around them. I then inserted them into the
program and placed them where needed next to the
contents.
2) Then I inserted the main image to the second page, and added a slight glow
around the edge in order to help it stand out from the
black background.
3) The next thing I did was write the opening
paragraph for my interview. The paragraph includes a drop cap at the start to draw attention to the
beginning.
1) The first step was to insert page numbers in the
bottom corners of the pages.
5) After that, I constructed the actual article (which
was an interview). I placed this into 2 columns and
carried it on so that it would fit nicely onto the second
page.
6) Then I added the title on the side of the page, and rotated it so that it ran
downwards. Under that I added a subheading letting
the reader know who is being spoken to and which
band they are from.
4) Next I simply added the by-line to the top of the
page.
8) After that, I added a pull quote next to the main
image which should help draw in the reader’s
attention. I aim for this by using a quote that seems
interesting.
9) The last thing I did was add another pull quote, but this one was in red instead of white, and I placed it in the middle of the article by wrapping the text around it.
7) The next thing I did was to add another paragraph at the end which contains
information about the bands next big performance.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
At the time of creating my preliminary task, I didn’t know very well how to use Photoshop or in design.
Proof of this is the background on the cover of my magazines. For the cover I made for my preliminary task, I wanted to cut out the background, but I didn’t know how to do this. For the main task, I was a little more confident, and so I played around with the tools, and found a way to do this. Without the busy background, the cover lines could be seen and read a lot more easily.
I think the overall look of the magazine has improved too, with the cover lines, the pull quotes and the masthead looking a lot more professional on my main task than it looks on the preliminary one. On the most recent one, I also included a footer, which was something I did not do on the first one.