EVALUATION

BY SOPHIE HOLLOWOOD

Q1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? I chose this header as it is

clear and bold in order for people to be able to read it quickly. It is also simple so all the attention is on the main image.

This selling line is in the same font as the Lilly Days sign, this links them both together and creates a house style. The words I chose are simple but effective in which I thought suited my magazine.

I think this cover line fills quite a lot of room in which then attracts attention to itself but at the same time attract a little. To do this I chose the colour of the font to be grey, quite dull and bold and the under line to be red so is striking and stands out. I did this as I wanted my magazine cover to look clean and have quite a lot of active space . By doing this, my magazine flows throughout with the neat and tidy look creating the contrast from the rock style of the magazine.

This main cover line adds another font to the front cover. The font is the same is the selling line in which ties it into the cover. The font adds a sophisticated edge to the rock star – Lilly Days. I thought that the font matched the look in which I have given to the model on the cover.

The model I chose went well with my magazine as she has the unique rock look in which can pull off most the clothes given. I wanted this photograph to look sophisticated, with her own style but a bit edgy in which would bring good focus to her. The pose in which ‘Lilly Days’ along with her stance ( hands in pockets) shows the cool, casual attitude which I would expect a rock singer to have.

I added this selling line to add a little more colour to the cover. It adds more about the content of the magazine but at the same time adds the striking colours the cover needed.

This picture is from a recent concert. I wanted to use this photograph as you can see the lead singer playing, but I like the lights shining on him as I thought it gave the picture direction and the rage of colours brighten up my contents page.

I created other articles as i thought they would make my contents page look a lot more professional and make the magazine actually look like its a full real one.

I created a CD cover as it creates the illusion that you get a free CD. I also think the cover more filled with totally different things. Similar to the articles, this makes the magazine look more realistic.

This is a snapshot of my actual article I designed. I did this to link the magazine together but also make my whole coursework flow and continue from each other. This also breaks up the big picture.

The page is balanced as the page is split into half. The heavy blue theme of the picture is evened out by the dark, bold writing of the bottom. The pictures on the bottom left balance out the big Biffy Clyro sign and the snapshot on the top right.

I made all of the sub titles in the same font, colours and style as this makes the contents page look clean, well presented and flow well going with the house theme.

I added the Retro Rock title as this then links the contents page to not only the front cover but also the ‘whole’ magazine. The title is in the exact same font and style as the masthead on the front cover.

I got the idea of having a signature of the editor when doing my research on other magazines. This adds a personal touch but also makes the page look more professional and realistic.

I added the lines the separate the columns as after doing this the page looked a lot neater and well though out.

Each colour of fonts are the colours in which have been extracted from the leggings worn by the model featured. This makes the page flow and create its own colour scheme.

I chose to use these glasses on the model as they create the sense of a barrier between the model and the camera. They also add curiosity to the model. As if she is creating a wall in which distances herself from the audience.

The backstage insiders box makes the article fall into a category in which makes the article actuall seem a part of a section in a magazine.

The big A adds the professional look to the article as when conducting my research I found that some magazines had this.

A like my contents page, I added the division lines as they make the article look neat and well organised. They also enabled me to make the text go into two columns rather than one big boring one.

The quote makes the interview with ‘April’ seem a bit more realistic creating the illusion of an actual magazine. It also splits the text up a little making the page seem a little more interesting and have an appropriate amount of different thing on it.

The model is facing as if looking into the future rather than back. This goes well with the article as she talks about moving on and using the past to develop in the future.

Q2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I aimed for my magazine to have the dirty-rock feel to it but for it to look quite neat and well presented. I wanted to do this as the contrast can represent all audiences who are interested in rockmusic and not just put a stereotypical label on the people interested in rock music. I wanted the magazine to be for a specific genre but could attract different audiences to the magazine and to rock music. The social group my magazine portrays would be working to middle class with a grimyEssence added. When I look at my magazine, the audience I think of is the old school type of rock era, regenerating 1980’s rock, but with new fashion, bands and styles all mixed together creating Retro Rock. The audience I aimed to create are up beat scene, in which then contrasts with the upper class style for example in which I have given to the front cover model.

Q3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I have researched magazine distributors and the on one I most defiantly get involved in is the worldwide magazine distributors Ltd. This company distributes magazines such as Q, Rolling stones magazine, NME etc. I think these magazines are all a similar style to mine so I would know that these distributors would do some justice or my magazine as all of the magazines they work with are all big sellers are all have done extremely well in the industry. I know that I would be able to trust this distributor with my product as they are a worldwide company and are very experienced in this type of thing.

Q4) Who would be the audience for your media product?

I aimed for an audience in which is quite rocky but more towards the Indie scene. The term indie means independent underground music. Indie is a type of rock music but in which is a little more subtle and towards the pop generation but sticking with the rock sound. The style of the magazine is clean and well presented in which I though suited as indie rock fans would are similar to this. They spend ages appearance only to make themselves look dirty and unclean e.g. with the big back combed hair for women or the dirty stubble, long hair for males. The name I chose for my magazine is Retro Rock. I thought this was appropriate as the indie population have the retro look to them, quite vintage. The link between these shows the audience what and who my magazine is aiming for. The music within my magazine is all rock or indie, again, this represents the music interests of my target audience. The colours I used were very contrasting, for example, a black background with bright green text. I think this portrays the dirty clean look that both the audience and my magazine both have.

Q5) How did you attract / address your audience?

I think my magazine stands out straight away, from the contrasting colours, type and images on the front cover. The colours immediately stand out as the masthead is very easy on the eye as it has a very simple font but also which goes with the house style of my magazine very well. The colour of my masthead is grey, which already contrasts with the bright red cover lines etc. to stand out further, I added an image in which is very controversial as it looks as if it is for a fashion magazine but then is brought back into the music industry with the grimy type look to the models face, very laid back and easy going. Also the hair and make up has the dirty clean element to it, big back combed hair with bright and bold eye liner. When I did the front cover, I was also thinking of the rolling stones magazine idea, each magazine has a very unique picture in which sometimes is not really relevant to the music inside at all. For the clean element to my front cover, it has a lot of active space in which I thought made the front cover look well presented. If looking through my magazine before purchasing, I believe that the magazine has a lot to offer as the contents has quite a few icons which give an exciting incite to some of the featured articles instead of having to actually read the content. The article I made would attract attention as it is quite different with the grey background and the very indie like model as the main feature with the text working around her rather than the other way around. Retro Rock is very easy on the eye in all aspects of it as I made sure the fonts where all very easy to read and all of the images featured are simple but effective. All of the colours within my magazine all follow a house style and even though sometimes clash, they some how fit together in order to complete the magazine.

Q6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

When using Photoshop, you have to develop whilst your work does, I thought Photoshop was more about trial and error rather than learning all of the techniques all at the same time and getting yourself confused and overwhelmed with the amount of things in which you can do. I now feel very confident in using Photoshop and had lots of fun developing on the program. Even though it can get very irritating at times when something doesn’t work out, once you have completed your task or what you intended you feel a sense of achievement as your product starts to look professional. A tool I used quite a lot was the lasso tool in which you can crop any image to a professional standard. It allows you to carefully crop around an object/image and take it from one image and put into another. Another tool I became fascinated with was the colour replace took, this allows you to change any colour and make it into another colour. I was amazed that I could add make-up, change colour of clothes, change the hair etc. from developing with Photoshop, it has now enabled me to become a lot more at ease with the software and now know that developing is about trial and error rather than panicking and trying to be a professional straight away. Creating a blog, I felt, was quite simple at first, but as you become more at ease with it, you start developing to a higher standard. I became quite creative with the program and changed a lot of things so it suited me. I feel that blogging is an extremely useful thing as anyone interested can see my work, as can I. my blog shows just how much I have developed with my work and shows how much I have gotten to grips with Photoshop.

Getting used to Photoshop...

Q7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

When I did my preliminary project and drafting a college magazine front cover and contents page, even though I knew I was kind of just doing it as a rough sketch I found it really difficult to come to terms with all of the elements of Photoshop. This task I think made me panic a bit and think I wouldn’t be able to create a music magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread to a professional standard or at least to the best of my ability. I think I failed quite miserably on my preliminary task as it looked quite child like and very unprofessional. The layout, colours, fonts were all very primary school and hadn’t had much though put into them. From looking back at the project I saw what I could do on my actually music magazine to change from being at a low standard to bumping it up and making my magazine look real. The comparison of the real project and my preliminary project have a dramatic difference. I mainly think this is because I grew to understand Photoshop and come to terms with it. I am glad that the preliminary task I creating wasn’t good in a way because now I can see just how much I have progressed with my work and was able to look back at it and think of things in which would improve the overall appearance on the music magazine I was going to create. I think my strong point in creating my music magazine was that I found the confidence to get stuck into it and basically fail to succeed.