Evaluation.
Within this essay I am going to do an evaluation of my music magazine coursework; the front cover, contents page and double page spread. This is the brief we were given; main task: the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine. All images and text used must be original, produced by you – minimum of four images
My magazine was designed to keep in keys with certain generic conventions of a music magazine such as the masthead, banner line etc. appearing in the expected positions of the front cover but also to challenge others aspects. My intention for the magazine was to be individualistic and aesthetically pleasing for the reader especially in regards to the front cover as this would be the first thing a possible buyer would see. I intended the front cover to contain bold, block colours and for the font styles to be unique and eye catching. For the contents page, I followed a similar layout to that of Kerrang magazine because it was simple and effective. The image being used as the divider on the contents page enables to reader to digest all the information on the page with ease. The double page spread met with the generic conventions of a double page spread. This is because half the page was devoted to an image of Katy K, the other half to the interview I devised.
My media product aims to represent my social group (C2 D E) by having a model on the front cover who represents that social group. For my magazine the social grouping it was aimed at was students from a C2 D E socio-economic background. I believe my model echoed such a grouping as she was dressed in a similar way to people of that background dress. The model is not wearing designer brand rather simple, fashionable high street clothing. I made the magazine of reasonable pricing (£2.99) meaning those from such a background can afford it. The fact it is a lower priced magazine means it could be issued as a weekly magazine. However due to the contents of the magazine it would be more effective sold as a bi-weekly magazine. This would mean that more people would buy it more regularly because of the fact they could save up to buy the magazine. A magazine of £2.99 will be of good quality paper and full of quality stories and images. Also the stories featured are ones in which the social group would be interested in. All images used in the magazine where of young people of a similar age to that of the intended target audience. This creates familiarity between the reader and the magazine as the reader can relate to the featured artist.
I believe an institution such as Bauer would distribute my product. This is because Bauer distribute Kerrang!, Empire, Kiss and Q. These magazines hold similar ideologies and values to that of my product as both aim to be individualistic and contain alternative music within them. The above magazines have similar target audiences to that of my magazine Download and they all fall within the same price range. Bauer would be able to provide the necessary advertising within the magazine for certain products to enable the magazine to really take off and be successful.
The audience for my media product would be students from a C2, D, E background and I believe this intention is echoed in the use of the images and stories featured. I choose such an audience because that audience is the greatest majority that would buy such a magazine. Also it is a similar background to my own meaning it would be easier for me to create a product that appeals to them because I know what such an audience may desire. After looking at the reader profiles of other magazines such as NME and Q, both existing indie magazines, I realised that the readership profiles show they have a greater male audience than female. It is for this reason that I decided to make my magazine conform to existing magazines and follow their conventions. On the front cover of my magazine I included all the necessary elements needed on a front cover such as banner headline, price, barcode etc. I ensured there was a house style which was evident throughout the 3 pages. The idea of a house style is a generic convention of music magazines. For the contents page I tried to move away from the conventional layout of a music magazine. I chose the layout I did because it was clear and looked professional. It adhered to the house style of the magazine. The double page spread was initially intended to be an introduction to the actual article. By this I mean that the image was intended to take up the majority of the page with a small amount of text on it. However it was easier to divide the page into two section, the first side being devoted to the image, the second to the article. This layout is generic with music magazines.
Through the images I used, the house style of the magazine and the stories featured I believe I attracted the desired audience. The price of the magazine is relatively cheap meaning this became another factor that would attract the desired audience. The house style of the magazine is bold block colours echoing the style of NME magazine. This magazine has a similar audience to my intended audience meaning that wherever possible I aimed to follow their codes and conventions. This would ensure that my magazine would appeal to the target audience.
During the process of making this magazine, I have developed my skills of working with Photoshop editing software. I have learnt how to successfully manipulate images in order to create the desired affects as well as placing a certain image on a different background and still make it look as if this was the original background. I have learnt how to place text and other images on top of an initial background image creating the required magazine effect. Some issues occurred when using masking in order to manipulate one element without other elements being affected. Initially I struggled to isolate an element of a photo for example the model herself in order to manipulate the background but through practise I over came this error. Overall using Photoshop made my work look more professional which was the desired result. To present my work I used Blogger. Blogger was designed to post images, text etc. onto the site. Because of this we found it a useful tool for presenting our work. The only issue I found with this was that once you posted an entry you couldn’t move that post around. For example if I posted an entry about pricing but forgot to post an entry about readership figures, I could not post the latter in isolation, rather include it in another relevant entry. To take my original images, I used a Fuji Film digital camera. Using a professional digital camera enabled me to take good quality photos and also adjust the colouring and lighting on the camera itself. Also using a good quality camera meant I had to do minimal manipulation to the image in regards to the quality of the photo.
I believe I have been able to manipulate images using more successfully since I created my initial college magazine. The product looks more professional and looks as though it could be published in store. The contents of the various elements are also more professional as they adhere to the conventions of existing magazines such as Kerrang! and Q. I have grasped a better concept of the 5 elements each magazine engages with. These are the language, institution, ideologies, audience and representations. Having bettered my knowledge of these key concept, with my final product I was able to relate these to my magazine in order to make it more appealing to the audience and also look more professional.
