Evaluation Question 7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Comparison

Overall I have learnt how to make my magazine more exciting and eye-catching through edits, fonts colour choice and pictures. Its helped make my magazine more professional looking by me looking more at the detail of how a magazine is presented.  

I also learnt more on certain tools in Photoshop to develop parts of the magazine and make it better quality. I've come a long way from my preliminary task to create a music magazine that I am proud of.

Evaluation Question 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Evaluation Question 5. How did you attract/address your audience?

One of the main ways I attracted/addressed my audience was by sticking to the chosen genre of rock/indie rock. I made sure the genre was clear to see so that the right audience would pick up my magazine and hopefully come back again and again, as they could rely on the fact that it would portray something they were interested in.

I did this by looking at my survey to see the bands my target audience like along with using bands that I know fit into the rock/indie rock category. I made their names visible to see on the cover and contents to relate to my audience and draw them in, as it would be musicians they know.

I also used bold, bright coloured text to draw my audience to my magazine to make it eye-catching and interesting to pick up.

One way I attracted my audience was by promoting plugs to draw them in. Everyone likes to get something for free or have the chance of winning something, so on my cover I created two plugs, one a competition to win tickets to a gig and another was free posters of a band featured in the magazine. I made sure the two words free and win was clear and bold to see to catch the audiences eye and draw them into buying my magazine to be in the chance of having a freebie.



My magazine addresses my audience by including them in with the content. My magazine has a story where the readers can ask questions to their favorite musicians, allowing them to get to know the artists more and be more part of the magazine. The audience can know what they want to know helping with them deciding part of what the magazine should be like as they get to decide on the content.




Another way I attracted my audience was by retailing my magazine at a reasonable price that my audience can afford. I made sure the price was reasonable to be competition against other existing magazines as mine could be better value for money.
 I also created a subscription plug in the contents to offer a better deal for money that could attract my audience, along with getting the to buy my product regularly.

Evaluation Question 4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

When first looking into my chosen genre for my magazine, I looked at who I should attract. I looked at other music magazines in my category and who they attract and then based what people my magazine would attract.

Evaluation Question 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

By looking at both Bauer media and IPC media as well known music magazine distributors, I think I would want IPC media to distribute my magazine because they only distribute two other music magazines that would potentially be competition rather then Bauer media, who have quite a few magazines that would be attracting similar audiences. By choosing a company that has less competition, I allow my magazine to have the chance of attracting more audiences and gain more of a status in that category of rock/indie rock music magazine. Even though IPC media already produce music magazines in the same category as my magazine, I think my magazine will provide something different to that genre by how it presents musicians in rock/indie rock and hopefully how it may draw in a wider and different range of audience. Also, because IPC is a UK company it will work well in representing my magazine as most of my musicians featured are UK based artists who tend to have a large European fan base, so will do well in attracting local audiences and distributing locally as well as globally.

Evaluation Question 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine follows the genre rock/indie rock. Looking at this genre, rock is mainly dominated by male figures who wear dark clothing and give off a presence of rebellion. I try to follow on this social group by having a male as the lead story and front-man of my magazine.

All the male bands and singers in well known music magazines are shown as dominant figures that come across tough and important by their persona. For my magazine I tried to make the male musician look important and dominant by taking up most of the magazine and keeping eye contact with the reader like the other musicians do.

Clothing

Clothing plays a big part in this rock/indie rock social group. Most of the musicians in this category wear dark clothing mainly t-shirts, jeans, jackets or ripped items of clothing.  My magazine represents this area as I made sure my musician featured wore clothing of the style of a typical modern male artist in rock/indie rock. I got him to wear a dark top and jeans along with a denim jacket to follow the clothing trend of this genre and represent more of the social group I'm aiming for.



Style

My musicians style links to that of existing artist George Ezra. I took inspiration from his clothing and the use of his guitar as a prop. Even though his music is folk style he does also link into rock music, so by copying his style I can represent the rock genre as many artists in this genre are shown in this style.








Also many of the artists tend not to smile in photos to give off that edgy, uncaring look that can be associated with the social group in rock/indie rock. I try to represent that by having the musician not smile too much in the photos so to give off a tough, careless look.
I also made sure they stood casually instead of looking too posy, so to again give off that edgy, uncaring presence that can represent the rock/indie rock genre.

Evaluation Question 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My magazine in some ways takes on conventions similar to existing products as well as developing its own style too.

My magazine follows conventions similar to existing magazines by following the design layout and typical content that is conventional of a magazine to have.
This can be seen by looking at the front cover and another front cover relating to the rock/indie rock genre.





Masthead
On my front cover I have chosen a title that is bold in style and gives off the intention of the genre which is a common choice in existing rock/indie rock magazines like NME who have a bold, brightly coloured title that stands out.

Main feature story
I follow the conventions of typical rock/indie rock music magazines on their main feature stories. Its typical to show the musicians name, big and bold so it draws in the audience especially as it will be someone they know. It is also typical for the main story to be an interview with smaller headings to briefly describe the story.

Font
My font choices follow the conventions of rock/indie rock music magazines. Looking at other magazines its typical for their font to be less formal usually using sans-serif style fonts. I used this to choose which style font to go for that would most represent my genre and audience.

Barcode 
My magazine cover conventionally uses a barcode. It makes sure that my product is able to be bought, and like many magazines it is in the corner to not take away from the main imagery and text.

Price
My magazine follows the convention of representing the price. It is clear to see so the audience know how much the magazine costs but is small so not to draw the audience away from the main product.

Colour scheme





























Artist choice


Well established music magazines include well known artists and bands that fit in their chosen genre. I conventionally used these well known artists so my magazine clearly shows the rock/indie rock genre and relate to my audience in the type of musicians they listen to.

Music Magazine Draft 2

I made some improvements to my magazine that my teacher suggested to increase the grade outcome.

Front cover

For my front cover I retook the main image as the previous one was a bit too grey, so the musician didn't stand out as much as I wanted them to. I also changed some of the fonts to make them look less formal as on the previous cover so it related more to my genre and style of magazine.
I  used some of the band logos for their names on the cover to make it look more interesting and so the audience would recognize the band more by how they portray themselves. Finally I added extra info to fill up space, changed the size of things like the barcode and I changed the colour of certain text to make them stand out more and catch the audiences attention.










Contents

For the contents page I retook the main image of the musician so it was better quality and so the musician stood out more against the background. I also changed some of the fonts so it fitted with the rest of the design and added new effects like the blackened edges to make it more effective in showing my genre.
Overall I just tweaked a few things to make certain features stand out more and to make it look more appealing and professional.














double page spread




Again with the double page spread, I retook the main image so it was better and so the musician stood out more. I also made sure the text of the interview was in neater columns so it looked more professional and is easier to read.
Finally I also changed the paint effect around the edges  and fonts to link it more to the design.

Magazine Images: Re-taken

I retook my main images of my musician because in the other images the choice of clothing used, meant he blended into the grey background instead of standing out which is what I wanted. Also the quality of the image wasn't as good as I wanted because it was taken late at night, so by retaking the shoot I could get good images that looked professional for my magazine.