Evaluation

MY EVALUATION !

In what way does you media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
When I started writing my magazine, I knew I wanted it to be a music magazine for acoustic, alternative and more rocky styles. Mainly because this is what my friends and I listen to so I know about it. I couldn’t think at first exactly how to target these sorts of readers. I went to grass roots music festival and these were the genres being played. I decided to identify the type of people there. Being a seaside festival at jersey’s top surf spot they were all surfer types. The age range there looked about 16 – 30. These were therefore the people I was targeting. So I decided to incorporate a surfing theme into the magazine as judging by the turn out of the festival and its popularity there is a call for this type of magazine. I feel that my magazine is a challenge to the conventional genres as it is a collaboration of different themes, being a music magazine for surfers. Also, I don’t think I have seen this done before so it is different. I looked at two magazines for help. ‘Q ‘ for interview ideas and music lingo and ‘carve’ for the same things but for surfing.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The language I used in my articles is representative of the younger generation i.e. up to the age of 30. My choice of some grungy looking fonts shows that it is intended to be read by boys but the frequent use of pink means that it is not alienated to girls. The adverts throughout are of surf wear brands and for surf and music festivals making it of interest particularly to people interested in surfing.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
A company such as Bauer could distribute my magazine because they publish Mojo magazine, which is one of the music magazines that I researched for my preliminary task. It is a successful magazine and often the covers can look almost a bit punky and I think my magazine has this sort of style too. Bauer also deals with sport type magazines like golf world, which fits in with the sporty edge to my magazine with the surfy style.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
16- 30 year olds with an interest in all genre’s of music and new music and talent as well as any interest or knowledge of surfing.

How did you attract/ address your audience?
A very important way of attracting the right audience is with the magazine name. I came up with the name ‘Catch’ which evokes the thought of catchy music or a good catch (making you think of a good buy) and also brings to mind catching a wave. The cover image was another important route to attracting the intended audience. It shows a young, pretty face which would attract male attention and headlines like ‘new music special’ catching people interested in this’ attention. There are also cover stories about winning tickets to a popular festival for young people.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt from scratch, how to use Adobe In Design as I had never used it before. I also found that it was a lot quicker and easier to use for constructing a magazine than Photoshop, which I used for my preliminary task. I realized I was able to make the magazine a lot neater and more professional looking using this program. I also learnt a lot about using Adobe Photoshop, which I hadn’t used much of apart from in my preliminary task. I did have to use it occasionally like when cutting out a picture from my photo shoot. I found that using a combination of these two programs was really successful. I became much more proficient in using my camera during the process of the photo shoot and experimenting with which settings gave me the best results. I used a tripod for my camera, which I hadn’t used before, and I also figured out to use the studio lights to make my photos look more professional.

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 that using In Design is much more effective because it is easier to align the text and pictures as a real magazine would because it gives you a sort of template with margins which I chose to keep the majority of my text within. I think in my final product this look more effective. I have also learnt that it is better, for the front cover, to put the image in before all the text so that the text can frame the image more, so that it doesn’t lose any importance on the page. Also, the cover doesn’t need too much writing, but more interesting fonts such as the ones on my final cover look better than the plain ones on my preliminary one. One other thing that makes my final cover more effective is the bolder image I used. The photo I took for the preliminary didn’t have enough planning behind it and didn’t look very interesting.

magazine names

I like the Q magazine name style because it is really bold. But i also like the font used for Vogue because it is so recognizable. however i think considering my magazine is aimed at a relatively young audience, a more lively and exciting font would be more appropriate.

NEW MAGAZINE NAME. 

my new idea for my music/surf magazine is to call it 'CATCH'.

I have downloaded a font which i like that could be used for my title.

Magazine Name...

These are some of the fonts i was trying out for my title...

I asked some of my friends to look at this title, but they commented that they 

liked it but wouldn't buy it because they wouldn't want to read only about in

die music, which is what the title suggests would be in the magazine.

I decided i needed to change my ideas slightly. This is when i decided to think about what type of audiences there were out there for magazines. 

Having looked a lot at 'carve magazine' I found that surf magazines in certain areas such as jersey have a high readership. Because my interviews for my double page sp

reads had a lot of mention of surfing i thought i could do a music magazine for people who like to surf. I haven't seen it done before but i think it could really work. In jersey i know alot of people who surf. I asked if they listened to music alot and what kind. I found that they actually all said they listened alot and the genres they liked were- Accoustic, Rock and Indie mostly.

My second photo shoot...

My favourite photo of laura, which i want to edit and then use for a double page somehow. The background needs editing on photoshop because it looks messy.

Fonts...

Im about to do write up my interviews and I'm deciding on fonts to use when i put them in my magazine. 

These are some of the fonts that I thought i could use throughout my magazine. Obviously the text would stay the same all the way through to keep a theme going and make it recognisable. 

Double page background images ...

Im now thinking about the type of images that will look good as background images in my magazine...

I really like this image  because of the free space around the main focus of the image where the text could go. E.g. on the grassy bit some white text could look good.

 
I like this image i took at the Grass Roots music festival because i like the way the wall goes diagonally across it and the free space it leaves in the bottom right hand corner for possible writing. Also it is the kind of image i may use in my final magazine because the setting looks right.

I like this image because of the colours and it would really stand out in a magazine. Some white text would look really good over this picture.

I also like this image, from Jersey Live, because of the free space at the top. A mixture of light and dark text in maybe two columns per page (which would be four over the whole picture) could look good over this image.

This is my favourite image because of the colours and I think a title in light text would look good in the bottom left hand corner and black text for the article over the sky and sea in about 4 columns would look really effective.

Double Page Layouts...

I really like this double page spread because i like the way the picture at the top is links between both pages, showing that it is all one article and it looks really good. I think the way the 3 column rule has been used is really effective because of the variations on it they have included. The bigger writing in pink going across two columns, makes the page more interesting and breaks up all the writing. I also really like the way the third column on the first page is half little pictures and then a thinner column of writing that variation also adds interest.
I like this one because the big picture looks really good and you can still see the layout being used on this page, although there is only 2 columns of writing they are in the same place that they are in the rest of the article. This also helps with linking the two pages together into the same article and the continuity of the colours also keeps the theme going effectively.

Double Page Layouts...

While im making sketches of layouts and thinking of a name for my magazine i am still looking at magazines and i have found some double page spreads that i really like.

The one at the top is using a four column per page rule but grouping two columns on one side and two on the other making it look like a two column layout. This means that in a magazine that uses 2 columns this wouldn't look out of place.  And the other two are using two columns which i think looks really good. I'm going to try to to find some other examples of some different, less common, types of grid systems.