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

I feel that I've learnt a number of things that did help during this task and will help me in projects in the future, these things I've learnt being:

Time Management

During the preliminary task I found myself falling behind in work over and over again, especially when it came to creating parts of my blogger as well as creating the practical work. During this task I found it all much easier to handle, with the help of the Time Plan I created, I could schedule myself different parts of the week to do different elements of the project. I was more organised and was less stressed as the deadline to hand in the work came closer.

Software

I have learnt new skills in programs such as Photoshop and InDesign that I didn't know when starting to create the preliminary task. This has helped me further develop my work and add effects and methods of laying out objects that I didn't know before.

I now also understand the importance on InDesign with creating and laying out text. I used Photoshop to create the text in my preliminary task because I found it easier to manipulate it in that software, now I know how to do almost the same effects but in InDesign. This is sure to help me greatly in future projects also.

Photos

I now see the importance of the quality of photography in the projects. I was very lazy when it came to taking photos in the preliminary task and just took them around school. I now see the benefit of going outside the school gates to take images as their is a wide range of events related to my product that I can capture. After my preliminary task the photography was one thing I felt let my overall piece down as it was very generic and boring, now I understand how lighting and costume is also effective as well.

Magazine Evaluation - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

The process of creating the product has helped me greatly to learn new skills in software and camera. I was required to use and think more about the technology I used in order to make my task more effective. I believe that with the experience I've learnt in this task, it will be a huge benefit when I must carry out similar tasks in the future. I also believe that how I now use the camera when it comes to lighting and editing the pages has greatly improved during the process of this project.

During my preliminary task I didn't use InDesign at all because I just couldn't learn how to use it effectively in order t maintain the quality of work I had originally planned. I just found that designing my magazine in Photoshop was so much easier than doing it all in Indesign. Now I realise the real benefits of InDesign and have managed to work with it.

I used a my own Cannon camera as well as a school one to take my images. I now know how to use both much better than I did previously, from different settings in lighting and contrast to how to use depth of field to create a more engaging image. This has helped me not only for future use in school projects but for personal use as well.

When comparing my Front pages and Contents Pages from the school and music magazine I can see the strengths of my work and how I have improved. I can see how better use of mise-en-scene has made the music magazine look far more presentable and professional. The photography is much better with more interesting images and better use of lighting, this knowledge of camera effects and presentation is something I didn't know much about when first starting the project.

The online technologies I used were Blogger, Prezi, Dropbox (to transfer files from school to home) and SlideShare. I now see how effective they are in presenting work in a more interesting way like I have done in previous posts. My better use of ICT technologies in this task will help me in both this and other subjects in the future when it comes to presenting and documenting work and progress. Before this task I found creating a Prezi was very challenging and I could barely create a mediocre one, now I can create them with ease as I used it multiple times during my evaluation.

Finally, I have always felt the using Photoshop was my strongest part of my work, I had never struggled with creating what I wanted but I faced more problems in the music magazine than I did for the school one. These problems helped me improve in my ability. This was the first task that did cause me to find ways round tricky problems that I previously didn't know how to fix. One example being adding colour correction to the model on the double page, I wanted him to have a similar look to how professional magazines have theirs, with the use of the internet and messing about with the software, I found a professional looking colour correction.

Magazine Evaluation - How did you attract/address your audience?

Magazine Evaluation - Who would be the audience for your media product?

Identifying the audience for my magazine during the planning process was very important as it shaped the style of the magazine I created, it is one of the most important elements of the successful marketing and production of media. My magazine is aimed at readers between the ages of 17 - 24, a young demographic and so this meant my designs would be less formal. I picked my target audience as it’s the same for other rock magazines such as Kerrang and Mojo. The age range of people buying music magazines is usually in the target age range I picked and so this would mean more sales of my own magazine. By using my research, I could see what was and what wasn't appropriate in a magazine aimed at a young audience.

On the right is an image of what the target audience of my magazine would look like. Young, mixed gender and not hardcore rock fans as my magazine isn't aimed at fans of the more hardcore rock such as heavy metal.

My target audience isn't gender specific unlike some pop genre magazines, rock magazines don’t tend to have a target audience not of both genders. Creating a magazine that only appealed to one gender would be unnecessary as rock isn't a male or female specific music genre. This would also limit sales of the magazine.

Those familiar with the artist featured on the cover are the most likely audience for my product, with an image of the artist featured on the front pages as well as the band name, this would attract those who are interested in reading something about that artist. Also with the lures around the image with other artist names, there are more reason for a fan to just look at the cover page and be interested.

Magazine Evaluation - What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Magazine Evaluation - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

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

Target Audience Research

I made a Power Point to collect together the feedback I received from my peers on if my magazine fits the genre and target audience that it was supposed to.

Double Page Article

This is the article that I wrote for the double page:

Lead singer of JUSTICE, The Big O,  talks about  their  new

record and how their life changed for the worse.

His new album with the band ‘Justice’  has pleased both critics and fans but   this comes with a price, The Big O talks to us after their successful breakthrough album was released just a week ago.

“I wasn't prepared for this” the  artist said, “I used to think that becoming famous would create a  better life for me but that wasn't the case”. He recently celebrated their debut album getting to the number one spot. 
‘The 19/20 Experience’  is the artist’s first and still debates whether his next project will too.

“I’ve been working on the album for a couple of years now ever
since my dad got me my first guitar. After we finished our fourth single we wanted to switch up the tone of the music and go for a slightly more alternative feel. I’ve loved bands like phoenix and two door cinema club and wanted to recreate the feel of their songs, this was a challenge”. 

The Big O says he was unhappy with early demos that used a lot of electronic equipment, feeling like they were going into a whole new genre. “We experimented with  keyboards and synthesizers but was leaning to a daft punk/Daniel Marshall sound which we didn't aim for.

“I didn't expect the overwhelming  reception we got for the album, we were unsure if this was what we wanted as our first piece of work but it seems to have been worth it”. The band has been together for 2 years now, at first performing small gigs for family and friends until moving on to larger venues
at small festivals. It’s been a shock for the trio, their average audience before was mostly made of family members, and now thousands.


The band are aiming to release their next album in at least 5 years.
“We worked super hard on this project, it was really challenging and the band had some problems on the way but we are proud of the overall result. We just
want to play some shows and then take a short break before getting back into it.”

“Our influences were  old  school bands and artists such as The Smiths, Rolling Stones, The Who and a hint of David Bowie.  Although we didn’t try to directly copy their styles, we tried to use aspects of their
most well known songs and blend them together to create the best sound possible".The Big O has only been the lead singer for the past year of the band’s 3 year history but has already caused a great impact on their music
and possibly the reason for their breakthrough.

“We got our name from the experiences we had during the forming of the band. Gareth, our lead bassist , was arrested for criminal damage shortly after planning to form as a group. He was eventually released after a few months 
after the court realising they had no evidence against him as he was not the one who smashed the car window, he got his justice so we decided to call the band that in a kind of tribute.”

The band has made claims in the past that they only plan to be a group for at most 10 years, they now say this is not the case. “we made those claims at early stages of our career and we do regret them. as long as people still want  us to make music  we will continue to be in the studio, we love what we do and don’t want to stop any time soon, especially not 10 years”.

Justice’s first UK tour starts 10th July this year, with their first dates in the 02, London.

Final Designs

Front page

Contents Page

Double Page

Computer Draft - Contents Page

This is my final computer draft. This is the page that designed with the most influence from other magazines, mainly the Rolling Stones magazines. I wanted to keep as much information of the pages of the magazine, while keeping it still attractive to look at so the young reader's wouldn't get bored.

The "Exclusive Interview" banner on the top left image is also used in the Rolling Stones magazine, I used it because it was eye catching and smart design to label an image.

In order to improve it I'll need change some of the fonts I used, the title of the page (very top left) being one of them. I should change this to a font used in the Front Page as it currently looks a bit out of place. I should also change the line "In this issue of Music for the Masses" to another font I used before as I need to make the page less formal.

Time Plan

This is the plan I used to organise the time I spent on my magazine. It includes a table for the days of each school week I'll spend on creating or updating certain aspects of the project. Also the deadlines I set myself which I wanted to meet with parts of the project.