Evaluation (DRAFT)

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

After looking at my finished product, you can see that my magazine uses the codes of conventions that is commonly used in R&B magazines such as XXL and VIBE. I have consistently used the popular colour scheme of black, red and white within my front cover, contents and DPS as these colours are regularly used within this genre. Maintaining a consistent colour scheme allows the magazine to stick to the house style whilst giving an organised and professional look. This follows with a big, bright and bold masthead in capitals in order to stand out and grab the audience’s attention. I made sure that my front cover image was a medium shot which is advised for a front cover as it gives the reader a clear view of the featured artist. My image also uses direct mode of address, I purposely used this kind of shot to create intensity and a connection between the artist and audience. Other conventions familiar in my magazine that are used in other R&B magazines is the use of a skyline, cover lines, pull quotes and teasers; I used a range of different font sizes for these but made sure they were considerably smaller than the masthead as I wanted them to stand out without taking too much attention away from the brand name ‘PRESTIGE’.  I also used these conventions to give my magazine a professional look that would help it look more realistic and compete with other selling magazines in shops. One thing that makes my magazine different from others is my double page spread.  Within urban music magazines, it is very common to use 1 large image of the featured artist, however I used 5 small/medium sized ones. I did this because I felt that the reason why my audience would buy that issue of the magazine is because of the artist featured on the front cover, therefore they should get their values worth and see a range of images of the artist to get a rough idea of their personality and image. Another thing that differs my magazine from others is the Q&A format I have used instead of a more journalistic format with embedded quotes from the artist. The reason why I chose not to use this format was because I wanted my readers to get a clear insight of exactly how the cover star speaks which allows them to see how they are behind the scenes.

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

The models I have used for my magazine are people who represent my target audience. They fall within the target age group of 16-30 (majority students), by having people like this throughout my magazine, it relates to the target audience for the reason that they are similar to each other. The models represent the target audience well due their ethnicity, as they are black females and my primary audience is African’s and Caribbean’s.  Another way to represent my target audience is the clothing in the mise-en-scene of the images. The clothing used was a very important part in the image I wanted my models to portray. By having matching outfits, similar colours, and fashionable, trendy designer clothes that are worn on a regular basis by my target audience, represents the urban community. As the target audience is mainly middle class black people who have an urban upbringing, they are more likely to be interested in the models image as it closely resembles themselves. In order for my magazine to represent the audience, I made use of slang such as the word ‘swag’ to make sure that those reading the magazine can relate. However I used majority standard English and made sure I did not overuse the slang in order to maintain some form of professionalism.

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

I initially chose Spin Media as my magazine publisher, however after considering all the other possible company’s, I have decided that Spin Media is not the ideal company for my magazine. Spin Media is the publishing institution for VIBE magazine which is also a music magazine dedicated to urban music. In 2007, Vibe bought Spin Media. Spin Media is not an ideal publications company to publish PRESTIGE magazine due to having a magazine of the same genre already on the market. Harris Publications is the publishing company for XXL magazine which is also an urban magazine. The company publishes 6 issues of the magazine over the period of a year. XXL joins VIBE as the top 2 urban music magazines in the business. HP would not be suitable reason being that they currently publish a magazine very similar to PRESTIGE magazine. Neither of these magazine institutions would be a smart decision to publish more than magazine of the same type of content. Johnson Publishing Company is the largest African American owned publishing firm in the world. They publish EBONY magazine and JET magazine which are both urban magazines marketed primarily towards black communities. The content of these magazine regard areas such as health, lifestyle, relationships, fashion, entertainment etc. However it does not currently have an urban magazine dedicated strictly to music in the market. Ebony Magazine was the first to be published by JPC. Since 1945, JPC have continued to publish urban information concerning various topics. Due to growing demand for the magazine in the UK, JPC have started to distribute the magazine within the UK since 2008. Ebony is pushing on a monthly basis around the world. JET magazine is an American weekly magazine that is marketed mainly towards the black community. It is published on a weekly basis to provide readers with new and recent information. Publishing and distributing PRESTIGE magazine from the UK would further enhance JPC presence within the magazine industry, PRESTIGE would become their first UK based magazine which gives my magazine a mark whilst benefitting JPC and increasing the company’s brand awareness. It also allows JPC to reach out to a wider audience of those interested in urban music. The distribution methods for PRESTIGE will be a magazine (main line of distribution-monthly issues distributed across the UK and USA), E-Zines (an electronic format will be created in order for those with electronic devices can also easily access the magazine issues), smart phone apps (as smart phones play a huge part in day to day life, information would be regularly posted and updated through this app), twitter/Instagram/facebook (to keep the awareness of my magazine trending and current on a day to day basis through social networking)

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

Kayla Campbell – 21 year old nursery assistant. She has a degree in child care and inspires to be a full time primary school teacher. In her spare time, Kayla usually goes to the cinema, shopping centres and eats at restaurants. She also likes to party and spend time with her close friends. She has strong interest in dancing and went to a dance academy for 5 years throughout college and university. She specialises in street dance.

Ryan Williams – 18 year old university student studying music production. He lives out of London at his university campus but regularly goes back to London to visit his family who have a Caribbean ethnicity. He is a massive sports fan and loves to watch basketball whilst also being a member of his university basketball team. Ryan’s passion for urban music has resulted in him aspiring to be a successful music producer and follow the same path as other producers such as Dr Dre and Kanye West.

Dislikes:

Music Genre: Rock & Classical

Artist(s): One Direction & Justin Bieber

Album(s): Bound 2 (Kanye West)

Song: Party Rock Anthem – LMFAO

Movie Genre: Musicals

Movie: Hunger Games

Actor/Actress: Cameron Diaz

Fashion Brands: Super Dry

Likes:

Music Genre: Rap & UK Grime

 Artist(s): Drake, Kendrick Lamar & Chris Brown

Album(s): Take Care (Drake)

Song: Try Me (Def Loaf)

 Movie Genre: Action & Comedy

Movie: Think Like A Man

Actor/Actress: Kevin Hart & Meagan Good

Fashion Brands: Prada & Gucci

Dislikes:

Music Genre: Rock & Classical

Artist(s): Rihanna & 2 Chainz

Album(s): Yeezus (Kanye West)

Song: RED (Taylor Swift)

Movie Genre: Horror

Movie: Nightmare on Elm Street

Actor/Actress: Zac Efron

Fashion Brands: Primark

Likes:

Music Genre: R&B, Hip-Hop & Soul

 Artist(s): Beyonce, Drake & Nicki Minaj

Album(s): The Pinkprint (Nicki Minaj)

Song: Feelin’ Myself (Beyonce ft Nicki Minaj)

Movie Genre: Black Romance & Comedy

Movie: Think Like A Man

 Actor/Actress: Kevin Hart & Meagan Good

Fashion Brands: LV, H&M, ASOS & Zara

5.            How did you attract/address your audience?

·         Young attractive female on front cover – attract males and female

·         Shes relatable – wearing trendy affordable fashionable urban clothing

·         All black clothes are popular in urban culture

·         Shes looking at directly at the reader, straight away creates a connection

·         Her image matches the meaning of the masthead

·         My skyline has very famous artists featured, automatically attract the audience as they are urban celebrities – would not have the same effect if used a different name eg lady gaga

·         Big and bold text to make the most relevant artists stand out

·         Colour scheme – straight away know the genre

“I think this is the strongest aspect of your magazine because it looks realistic and professional. The image is in front of the masthead which makes it stand out. The colour scheme and font used is consistent which makes it look organised. Everything blends in well.”

“You have used a range of different size of fonts which is good. You have also included teasers, the price of the magazine and skyline. The model is looking at directly at the camera which is good for attracting your audiences. Overall, well done it looks pleasing, I would buy it.”

“Great skyline, masthead and institutional aspects. - Improve the layout of your cover lines and teasers. Make pull quote bigger.”

·         Used clothing to attract audience, wearing designer/common/trendy clothing that is popular in urban background – relate to models (same dress sense)

·         All the models used are attractive which makes them more appealing to the audience

·         The colours are bright/vibrant which attracts attention, gives a light mood – clear quality pictures engages readers eyes

·         No.55, model is holding a guitar – attracts people who have interests in instruments/performing

·         Starbuck brand – people can relate

·         No.50 – interests those who like rap

·         I used successful celebrities featured in the contents to attract and interest the audience – people who they look up or aspire to be like

·         Regulars includes things like questionnaires, involves the audience

“This is your best product- it's unique and has a brilliant layout. Great additional photography. Range of font sizes, images and colour make this look good.”

“Contents page looks full with loads to offer which is effective in making someone buy it. There is a wide range different of images used. Pull quotes are also used a few times which is good. There can be more text on what the magazine offers but overall it is good.”

“The contents page is structured properly with numbers of the features on the images. You have included regulars and your magazine name which is good. The pull quotes are nicely used as you've used more than one. A range of different images are used, showing variety. Overall, it's a good contents page but the page numbers are missing.”

·         Used  more than one picture, automatically grabs audience attention as it is not a common layout

·         Used words like new and exclusive to get attention

·         The questions I asked were ones that would really help my audience get a good understanding of the artist

·         Used word for word what the audience said instead of just using a few quotes so that the audience good get the real deal of what the artist is like

·         Consistent colour scheme, did not use vibrant colours as I did not want to distract the audience from the text

·         Large amount of content used in DPS – good value for money

QUOTES:

“A range of different images are used, which shows variety. The phrase 'new and exclusive' is good because it attracts the reader’s attention.”

“Perfect use of space, range of images which are suitable for the magazine and appeals to the audience, best piece of production - add some colour the differentiate the questions and the answers.”

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

Camera

In this task I had to take some photos within a photography studio. I had never used a professional camera before nor had I used it whilst using other photography equipment. I had to adjust the lighting when using the studio and for this reason I learnt how to use a lighting umbrella, which its purpose is to keep the light on the main focus of the photograph without much light escaping from the picture. I learnt how to shoot photos in a variety of shots such as medium close up which is used on the front cover. Using a professional camera has benefited my production as it make my photos look very professional, therefore helping my magazine to look professional and official.

Photoshop

For the front cover of my music magazine I had to use Adobe Photoshop in order to create our cover page of the magazine. Photoshop was a little hard for me to understand at the beginning as I have never used it before. It’s a complex program and took me a while to learn how to use the programme effectively as well as how to use all of the functions. As I frequently used it, I became more and more confident with regards to being able to operate the software. One thing that I particularly found hard about using Photoshop was all of the layers that I had to keep under control as I had several. I had to make sure that they were position in the right order so that certain layers were above/behind each other for example text layers the front cover image.

InDesign

I found InDesign quite easy to understand as it was quite straight forward and more practical to use for constructing my contents page and DPS. Photoshop was more appropriate for manipulating images. I learnt how to import pictures to JPEGs. I liked this software as I found it easier to explore and do things. One challenge that I came across with was finding an image that would not pixelate when on a double page spread. InDesign was similar to Photoshop, so I used similar features and techniques used in Photoshop into my work that I did using InDesign.

Blogger

When it came to using Blogger, I found it quite useful as it is an easy way for many of my class mates to access the work that I've done during lessons. It was a great way for me to get feedback and help me to improve my work. Personally I found using Blogger quite simple, this is because it is a straight forward website where it doesn't involve a lot of editing requirements. Within this task blogger was extremely useful as I was using it helped me to see exactly where I am and what work I was missing when it came to creating my music magazine.

Prezi

This was a form of a software that I had never used before but I found it very useful. It was a great way of organising and laying out my work whilst making it look professional. I learnt that Prezi can be used to create interactive and visually fun presentations, along with having a nice theme that suited the genre of my magazine. I also learnt how to add text, import images and videos and add pathways using this software.

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

·         I have learnt how to take professional and high quality photos using a professional digital camera

·         I learnt through my research what an urban music magazine looks like and what text sizes, image shots, layouts to use in order to make my work visually attractive and realistic, for example in my college magazine front cover, majority of the text was the same size (large) and all in the a regular boring font. I changed this in my music magazine and only made the most important and significant text stand out

·         I learnt where to position things on my magazine

·         I learnt how to use a consistent colour scheme throughout to make my magazine look more organised and professional

·         I used a wider variety of pull quotes and included a skyline to give the front cover more information of what will come up in my magazine

·         I included a barcode and website for my magazine (www.prestige.com) to make it look more realistic.

·         Boring masthead in college magazine, model looked like a random person however the music magazine looked more planned and organised (specific clothes chosen for model)

·         Masthead font was much more unique and eye catching

CONTENTS

There is a huge different between my contents page for college magazine and my music magazine. My student magazine used very basic fonts and the colour scheme was not consistent, this was because I was not aware that there were particular sites that I could access that specialised in different fonts. The layout of the magazine was very boring and uncreative, it lacked the professional look that I made for my music magazine. There was several signs of improvement as I used much more images that were related to my genre and were eye catching, bright and high quality. There is a much higher level of professionalism, which I feel is because of the range of software’s I learnt to use efficiently within the gap of producing each product.