Evaluation

Evaluation

Question 1.

In my project in designing a front cover, contents page and a double page spread for a music magazine I have both conformed to and challenged conventions, in this evaluation I will explain how and why I have chosen to do this.

My headings all have an eroding feel to them; I took the influence from ‘Kerrang!’ as they are a rock magazine and the main music focus in my issue was to do with this genre of music. I used the website http://www.dafont.com/ to find suitable fonts for what I was aiming to create. I used the appropriate font then edited the size and colour to capture the attention of the audience and to make it was easy to read for all of the target audience. For the font of ‘The Castaways’ I especially added an inner shadow to make it make it stand out of the page.

I perceive my images to have a natural theme to them, as they are all unedited and genuine so that the audience will see the band in an everyday light and be able to relate with them. The front cover picture of ‘Local’ shows how that the band are rising from the ground towards the extremely bright sky in terms of the career ladder that they are currently on and that there is a lot for them to be looking forward to. Each band member has their own distinctive individual style of clothing and colouring as ‘Skip’ has a denim jacket on, ‘Liam’ has a shirt with the top button done up and ‘Woody’ is wearing a jumper. As well as this to show unity they are all wearing hats and also whether they are wearing jeans or shorts they have them folded upwards which can show a uniform of the togetherness of the band in question. The fact that ‘Skip’ is wearing sunglasses and has his cap placed in a different way around to the others shows that he is the main member of the band. I have taken care with the levels on this picture to give all of the group authority as we are looking upwards to giving the audience something to aspire to; also that ‘Skip’ is the highest member despite in real life not being the tallest of the three to cement his place as the main man, I did this to follow the conventions in my research of ‘Rocksound’ as the main member of the band on the front cover is a different level to others and his shirt is ripped more than the others to make him stand out.

The clothes the band are wearing are all follow to conventions and will be seen to be quite fashionable or cool to my target audience who would be teenagers 16-19 with an interest in new local music and going to gigs. The eroding rocky font that was used is to show the main focus of music that the magazine promotes – rock, whilst the sub-headline helps explain what other issues the magazine addresses such as the music scene in the local area. I chose to make it personal by putting “your” in italics to make it stand out, this technique is used to challenge the conventions set in my magazine research. Within rock music it is a mainly male dominated genre therefore I chose to stick by the conventions by having three men. In the South-East it is a predominantly white dominated culture so I have kept to those stereotypes by using only white band members, this makes it very easy for a reader from the area to associate therefore making it a lot more believable.

The picture on the contents page is to create a friendly feeling with ‘Skip’ smiling to make people feel welcome once they have opened the magazine. The fact that he is jumping in an environment that is very rural helps to locate them for the audience and to put the band at the same level, as the magazine is about local music; it shows that you can come from anywhere and achieve anything you want to if you put all your effort into it. I have used a variety of different shot distances from close-up, mid shot and long shot within my magazine so the audience have more to look at and keep entertained.

The style of language I used for the questions in the interview was quite formal and I tried to keep them as short as I could so the answer could elaborate fully and put across the band’s way of thinking. For the answers given the language is shown to be well constructed as is normal with a group of people growing up in Berkshire, it is generally an extremely affluent area which would suggest the population would be educated to a high level. At the same time you will get the feel that they are quite laid back – which is a convention of a member of a rock band as they are suppose to act cool around the media and still in their younger days through words such as ‘jamming’ which an elder generation will still be able to understand but the youth will be associating local slang with it.

Front Cover – 

For my front cover I chose to take pictures in natural environments to create realism for my magazine as it is supposed to be for music in the local area which is why I chose the simple name of LOCAL; as it’s straight to the point and is very clear what the objective of my magazine is. I believe that I tried to challenge conventions of placement on my front cover for instance the “Gig Listings” bubble is in a place of importance where it stands out whereas many other magazines such as 'NME', 'DJ' and 'Kerrang' put them in more discreet places of the page with less vibrant colours as this would be a key reason for someone to buy a music magazine about local music. I have used just one picture of the band as I see them as the main part to my magazine, the picture is clearly looking up towards them in a serious pose as they want to be taken seriously apart from ‘Woody’ on the right who is smiling adding an extra edge of fun to the photo. I have created my own magazine barcode through a tutorial on http://www.slicktutorials.com including date, price and barcode number to fit in with conventions and professionalism of every other magazine by placing it in the bottom right hand corner. Throughout my magazine I tried to keep a house style with every time ‘The Castaways’ and ‘Local’ is used I would use the same font for them. Through my research each title used it was covered at some point so I decided to challenge the convention and keep it completely free so the readers were able to see it clearly.

Contents Page –

For my contents page I mainly followed the conventions of the other music magazines I had analysed, with a mixture of different elements from them. For instance I used only one big main picture and also one smaller photo to take the focus for the reader and not give them too much to think about, I had seen this in the issue of 'NME' I had analysed. At the bottom on the contents page there is an “eye-catcher” as seen in many of the magazines I analysed, this is in different colours from the rest of the page to stand out and make people want to read on. I put in an issue number for the magazine as I had seen in 'Q' and 'NME'; I tried to keep a house style throughout the magazine using the same font and size. In my contents page I chose not to challenge conventions as with a rock magazine whose target audience is teenagers, this is also the same with the balance of text to image with the picture taking up the majority of the page leaving simple
 parts of text making it easy to understand and to read.

Double Page Spread – 

For the double page spread of my music magazine I kept the house style title of an eroding headline as it can be seen as rocky which is the genre of music my magazine writes about. The balance of text to image is 50/50 for my double page spread as if someone wanted to read an interview from an up and coming local band they will want to find as much information as they can about them; in 'Rocksound' they use the same balance so I have conformed to conventions by keeping it so there is one page of photos and the other text. The text is all set out to follow conventions in columns to make it easy for the audience to read; 'Vibe', 'Kerrang' and 'NME' use this. I have used a main quote to grab the readers’ attention as shown in all of my research. Overall in my music magazine I have tried to follow conventions of a generic rock magazine but with enough changes to challenge and make it stand out for someone who is interested in local music. I chose to do it like this because many people who will be reading this magazine will just want their information given to them simply and in an easy to read form so it is done to satisfy the audience’s expectations.

Question 2.

My media product represents different social groups including gender in rock music, as I have a picture of a band with a girl on my contents page and that she is the main focus of attention in the photo because she has been put her on the left hand in a different pose from the boys, also her facial expressions are more serious compared to the two boys that are shown on the page. In the main group used I believe I have shown them to be of higher class in the way they speak yet to still be very much down to earth in their actions therefore I think this is a good representation of regional class. I wanted to challenge the representations that the press give to British youths and the ‘hoody’ culture, as seen in the double page spread picture that ‘Skip’ is wearing a hoody but comes across in a very positive and welcoming way, which can help the British youth in the way they are thought about and treated within the local area.

Question 3.

Bauer media group founded in 1875 would be first choice of a media institution to publish and distribute my media product, they have an excellent track record and history with 'Kerrang' and 'Q' magazines. The world renowned group have a superior knowledge of demand and supply of music magazines specialising in the genre of rock music. Having the backing of an international company gives the opportunity to expand
 “Local” into other regions and extend the target audience.

Question 4.

My target audience for the “Local” music magazine would be students aged between 16-19 years old in the South-East with an interest in rock music including “Foo Fighters, Queens of The Stone Age and Weezer”. This will also include bands from around the local area and who are up and coming for instance “Young Guns, Brother and Francesqa” also other genres scenes coming out with local music scenes will be looked into for instance “Disclosure” who are DJs. From my research I discovered that my magazine would have the backing from young musicians with a passion for live music which is also why I included a live gig reviews and concert listings in my contents page.

Question 5.

I initially attracted my target audience by the front cover having eye catchers for instance; free CDs, the use of stars from the local music scene and taglines. I would address my audience directly by the use of viral and guerrilla marketing for example; using social networking sites and competitions, giving away merchandise and flyers. Due to the age of the target market, it would be appropriate to attend local colleges and universities with information on my product.

Question 6.

I have learnt how to use ‘Adobe InDesign’ in preliminary task but chose to use ‘Adobe Photoshop’ for my front cover, contents page and double page spread as I felt more I had more experience using it than ‘InDesign’. I found the process to be creative, challenging and very interesting. I found that ‘Photoshop’ gave me an insight into the world of media production, showing it at its best but also showing its flaws of the design process. I was challenged by the software to achieve my desired outcome. I have learnt that by conforming to conventions the target audience gets what they expect without too many distractions or differentiations so that they know what they are getting to enhance their expectations and enjoyment of the media product.

Question 7. 

Looking back at my preliminary task I feel a huge amount of satisfaction for following the product from start to finish. I really enjoyed the multimedia aspects to the magazine especially taking the images in the photo-shoot. I was very keen to have a professional end product on my main task. On reflection, due to the continuous demands of this task my capabilities have improved vastly through practice and perseverance.