Evaluation Q8 - Video

Evaluation Questions 5-7

                                                 Media Coursework: Evaluation Questions                                  

Q5: How did you attract/address your audience?

To attract my target audience I maintained the same colour scheme throughout all my pages, this means the audience will find the consistency appealing. As well as this the colours I have used for text compliment the others meaning all text is easy to read for the audience. I chose this colour scheme as the red, black and white combination is closely associated with the already well-established music magazine, NME. Also NME is a rock music magazine and so is well in-fitting with my target genre. Another step I took to attract my target audience was the maintain the same artists and same costume on both the front cover and the double-page spread – this ensure the audience is draw in upon glance of the initial cover and then is happy to find a detailed interview of the artists inside.

Magazines need to grab the audience’s attention and interest them, another appeal I included in my magazine was subheadings – or rather cover lines – as well as a side bar on the double-page spread. This ensures there is always several things to interest the reader on each page, for example my front cover features several well-known rock groups as well as the featured artists causing added appeal to the target genre audience. Although I didn’t use any slang I did keep language informal to reflect a casual attitude, but still a serious ‘exclusive interview’ nonetheless I made sure to use correct terminology in terms of both music and media.

My layouts differed, perhaps not something most professional magazine would so as they seek to maintain identity. However I decided I wanted each page to new individual from the others, and to have its own uniqueness. Despite this I maintained colours as mentioned before to give my pages that ‘stamp’ as a uniform of sorts. Also though each layer was different and had different feature all were kept clear and tidy, the front cover was simple enough as I had a focal image with text down the side, less easy was the double-page spread were I had to change things around several times for it to all fit however I think I found a neat way of laying out all the features of the page.
  

Q6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Through making my product I came into contact with many new technologies and had to learn how to use them in order to complete my task as fully as I can. One technology I had to become accustomed to was the use of programs – the main one being photoshop, the device that essentially allowed me to alter images and combine elements of magazine together for the final piece. Photoshop also allows easy editing which becomes almost natural once you grasp it and also makes your magazine look more professional. Though elements of it may be confusing photoshop is definitely the right tool for this task. Also involved in the task was the use of cameras to take the actual photos, by using camera’s my knowledge of high-key and low-key lighting has improved and the purpose of using different camera angles when taking photos, thus I now take everything into consideration when taking each photo. Blogger was the final piece of technology I had to get used to operating, this is one I’d had no prior knowledge or experience with but I soon became able to easily upload a variety of things, not just copying and pasting words. Blogger is important as it’s an effective and easy way of tracking your progress and storing your work.

Q7:  Looking back at the preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to a full product?

It has been a very long process to create my media product- a music magazine. As well as all the research and planning there was a preliminary task, during the preliminary task I learnt that I needed to analyse an actual school magazine, then focus on what props were used and costumes. From there I decided on the props and costume to use in my task so that I could give an impression similar to those of the school magazines I looked at in preparation. The preliminary task allowed me to realise the importance of costume, props and general presentation (layout etc) and that I needed to focus on the needs of the audience my product was aimed at and take those into account when designing. Also the preliminary task gave me a good first go at grasping the use of technology, such as the compact cameras for taking photos and photoshop to actually design my pages, I’m glad I got this first ‘preview’ as it gave me an insight.

When I started my actual task time management became an issue as it always has been for me, doing the task made me actually want to finish what I started and so I forcibly improved my time management. As for photos the task made me really think about what it is my audience is looking for and I focused a lot of designing my artist how I felt appropriate to fit with the genre, indeed having this freedom is quite something and the task taught me to both challenge the stereotypes and use them to my advantage. Naturally while I was taking the photos to be used in my music magazine I made sure I planned the poses of the models depending on the purpose of the picture e.g. what page it is for and I tried to match them up with those I had seen on previous music magazines.

In conclusion the task of creating a music magazine as a media product has allowed me not only a good grasp of planning and the different elements in making a magazine, such as costume, props, colours and general design but also of technology I used in the making on both computers and cameras.

Evaluation Questions 2-4

                                               Media Coursework: Evaluation Questions                                  

Q2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

For an audience I aimed my magazine towards people aged 15-24 roughly, for the teenage to young men/women social group. This is because my magazine is all on the indie-rock music genre which is a genre a lot of people this age are into. I would say that it has dominated this age group, this generation and so that is why aimed my magazine at this social group. One way I represented this social group was through my choice of costume, I used artist all of the right age and had them wear clothes that suited them whilst represented them as clear indie-rock lovers. Each artist was not only young but had the right styles of hair, nothing to punkish like a Mohawk, and they all posed according with or without instruments, the instruments themselves as props were those used in the selected genre, guitars etc. The costume I chose was all casual, an array of jumpers hoodies and so on all that were not too obvious and popular but still stylish. Also one of my main artists I put in another band T-shirt, something popular in the indie rock genre. Furthermore I decided that all costume should be fairly dark colours with a touch of bright here and there to give off a laid back feeling likely to attract my audience, with no real colour scheme for costume as my genre doesn’t follow one. My last representation is the actual pose and attitude of the artists themselves, I made sure all of them had fairly serious expressions to show they were serious about their music yet to once again attract my audience and maintain atmosphere I had them looking chilled out and not concerned by anything. For my main artists I had many photos so I mixed it up a bit ranging from serious chilled out photos to joking around ones.

Q3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

A distribution company that could distribute my magazine is Condé Nast or MusicMag as they both distribute a wide variety of magazine genres, and of course MusicMag is very specific to distributing music magazines of every type. Hopefully, in accordance with my aims, my magazine would be high in price and profile, a top magazine which I would desire to contain famous artists. If the case is such then Condé Nast and MusicMag would not only be looking at a magazine within their borders of style and genre but also one that would attract readers eager to read about their much loved musicians. Also these two companies sell a majority of Fashion magazines; I think that it would be beneficial if they distribute my music magazine. I think there would be a place in the market for my magazine as though both companies are largely involved in the magazine industry and have plenty on the go in general indie-rock magazines are rarer as they target a smaller audience, despite this they are on the rise in terms of support and a successful magazine in this genre would boost these companies reputations as well as their finance, they could possibly make a mass amount of profit from distributing my magazine in their markets. A final reason why these two named institutions should distribute my music magazine is that overall they do not already target younger kids or teenagers but instead most of their magazines are aimed at adults.

I would definitely distribute my music magazine in stations because many teenagers travel these days especially those in education or aiming to get a job. Even more so than stations I would distribute my magazine in both shops and clubs. Having my magazine in corner shops would be helpful as teenagers and young adults stop off in these often but also in terms of leisure clubbing is extremely popular so having my magazine in there would promote it well.

Q4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

As mentioned above my magazine is aimed at teenagers and young men/women, as well as those who are into the indie-rock genre, generally laid back people who have a firm but free love of music. Aside from age though my magazine is open both genders, indeed the colour scheme I used is favourable to both genders, male and female alike, though I would admit my magazine is definitely more male orientated as all artists are males and men or boys may look to them as role models. All the language used in my magazine is upbeat and energetic, what my audience is looking for  and the general lay out appeals to the type of people I want to attract, open minded and unique indie-rockers.

Overall my music magazine would apply to people like Johnny (reference to my reader profile – the DMT reader). Johnny is 18 years old, he lives and breathes music and is always listening to it, in the shower, at school on the bus and so on. Johnny is into a variety of music including indie rock, punk and drum & bass, all included in DMT. Johnny as a person is out going, confident and always up for trying new things – his friends describe him as a ball of energy to be put to use. Johnny himself is also very laid back and has a positive and casual outlook on things, a calming demeanour. To finish off Johnny has a huge passion for music, a fanatic of his favourite artists, and he’s always going to gigs, festivals, raves whatever as long as the music is that he enjoys! He’s always rollin’ around listening to bands such as; Arctic Monkeys, Enter Shikari, Linkin Park, 2 Door Cinema Club and so on. Johnny is a confident guitar player and hopes one day himself to be performing live to a crowd of adoring fans, currently he’s at college studying media, history and photography and has a part time job in a studio. As he works on his dreams he can easily afford DMT at just £3.50 per an issue.

Evaluation Q1 - Prezi

DMT Double Pagespread

DMT Contents Page

DMT Front Cover