Evaluation of the Finished Magazine

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My magazine is a typical rock magaizne i think. its got a rock style font and also has a similar layout to magazines like Kerrang! and NME. the band on the front look like a rock band and the picture is similarly shot to one you might see on another rock magazine. I have used the convention that the title goes at the top and is quite bold to make it stand out when its on a rack with other magazines. i also made my front cover picture of the band looking towards the reader and making eye contact.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I think my Magazine falls in with the teenage/young adult market who are into this stlye of music. on the contents page it talks about competion you can win which could also attract other types of people to the magazine. The Band are of a similar age to people who may want to buy this magazine so

this could attract some readers to it.

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

My magzine is an indie rock style magazine so it could be sold in record shops who specialize in that style of music but i also think it could be sold in popular retailers like WH Smiths who sell similar style magazines like Kerrang! most of the bands are quite mainstream anyway so the genre would appeal to a wide audience.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my magazine would be teenagers or young adults who are into the indie rock style of music. i think it would mainly be males who would buy it but females would be a smaller percentage of its sales i think. the socio economic

group that would buy my magaizne would be working class to middle class becuase these are the two main classes that have a higher musical interest for this style and for buying magazines of this genre. the readership survey for kerrang! shows

ABC1: 57% C2DE: 42% men: 69% women: 31% 15-44: 90% 45+: 10%

which is a similar style to my magazine so you would expect it to be similar to this.

How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract the auidence to my magazine i put a list of most of the bands that are featured in my magazine to have a wider appeal. so if one person doesnt like the band in the main feature but may like another band that are inside they may still buy the magazine.

There is also other things inside the magazine to appeal to the reader such as a competion and album reviews. I used a bold title in Blue to make it stand out from others. i think its a very distinctive title and would stay in people memorys to buy it again.

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

Ive learnt lots of skills on indesing and photoshop while making this magazine. and ive had to learn how to use each piece of software from scratch. i was able to use photoshop to edit my photos in the way i wanted them to fit in around the text i was putting in on indesign. one problem i had was that photoshop was quite complicated to use and took me a while to get used to so i only found that i could manipulate the images the way i wanted nearer the end. i did find photoshop a great help on my front cover picture because i spent a long time editing my picture to get it to look right on the front page.

Photo Editing

these 3 picturers above show the 3 stages of editing i went through to get the final picture for my front cover. i started with the original but it was to short as i needed more brick wall above the band so i coppied and pasted the brick wall to make it look like there was more in the first place. i spent a long time on this to get it looking as best as i could so it would not be noticable. i then blured the top part black to blend in with the black background of the magazine cover. i tried it without the blur and it looked wrong with the picture cutting off at a straight edge.

I edited this photo to put a lighter over exposed patch in the corner to give it a bit of a more highlted look to it. becuase hes the front man of the band i wanted to draw attention to him. i also this this makes him stand out becuase of his dark clothing. this over exposed look on the brick wall also makes the rock/ grungy look more exagerated i think.

Photos

This picture is what i used for my front cover. I used it becuase it shows the singer in front of the drummer and guitarist, and makes him stand out as the front man. I made them stand infront of a brick wall becuase it gives it an urba/rock feel which is the style of the band and magazine. they are all wearing dark clothing which again ties in with the rock stlye of my magaizne. the picture is cut off from the chest down. this works best for the front cover becuase it leaves room above for the title of my magaizne.

This photo is similar to the last one but is off the band sitting down and shows the whole of them. this one is more natural from the other one and i used it in my double page spread. the whole band are laughing in this one which makes it seem very casual and natural.

this picture is very natural but i wont use it becuase some have there eyes shut and are looking in oppostite directions.

this is a good photo to use for the individual band members on the double page spread. its in a very relaxed postition with the brick wall behind him which again helps represent the rock genre of the band and magazine.

i have used this setting again and shot type for the individual band members photos with the brick wall and the relaxed casual pose.

this photo is slightly different to the other individual band pictures because insted of having his whole body in like the others its just his head a torso. i took this differently becuase hes the front man and needed to stand out.