Evaluation part 7

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

Here you can see my final product compared to my first prelim task I completed in September. There is a cleat difference in the quality of the two pieces and I am extremely proud of the improvement I have made.

Obviously, I feel that the most important things
that I have learnt during the process is how to use the technology I used to their best of my ability in order to achieve the final look of my product. On my prelim task I had little experience with the software I used and I feel that comes across in my school magazine cover. I used pages to create my prelim magazine cover and when it came to create my final music magazine cover I choose to steer aware from using this software as I didn't think it was suitable and didn't have the capability to create the look I wanted to go for. I instead opted for Pixlr, and I initially had  trouble using it but after I got the hang of it it seemed the best software I could of used. Overall, I think that by learning to use different technology and playing around with different software to use really abled me to complete my final product to the best of my ability.

Another major thing which I have learnt during the process of creating my prelim and final task was general skills that I needed to use. As you can see, compared to my prelim task I use much more complex features in my final task in order to create the orofessional look I aimed for. I learnt how to use more adventurous fonts in order to match my genre as well as learning to overall make a better looking magazine cover by choices of images and style.

Leading on from this, I learned that research is crucial when trying to create a media product. For my school magazine cover I did barely any research into the construction and ideas behind the over all look of professional magazines whereas when completingmy final task I did a lot of research in depth. By researching everything from my already existing music magazines to magazines publishers really helped me to understand the reasonings behind the conventions of a magazine.

Prezi! This has played a major part in the process of my coursework and has been one of the most helpful things I have learned. It is a fantastic piece of software and has really helped me complete my coursework to a higher standard. At the beginning of the course i had never used prezi but I began to use it and after a few attempts I feel that I had mastered the skill. This also helped me learn that there are different ways of presenting things and doesn't have to be the standard typed essay.

As a result of the deadline I really had to be time conscious and learn how to manage my time effectively so I could get everything done. As part of my time management I had to learn to plan what I would do next in ordr yo allow me to complete everything In good time.

The research was a lot different to what I'd done before as well as we were doing it a lot more in depth so this was something new we had to learn. Other things I did in more depth were thinking throughly about our photos and creation of our products. For instance i thought about and planned where i would be taking our photos rather than just taking them randomly. I also had to pay attention to smaller details when creating, an example being a barcode on the cover which is something you wouldn't typically think about.

Overall, I am very pleased with the skills I have learnt through the duration of this course and believe that they have abled me to complete my final piece to the standard I did.

Evaluation 5

evaluation 6

what have you learnt about technologies in the process of creating this product?

the main technology i used when creating my magazine was an apple laptop (home) and a standard laptop  (school). on these, it enabled me to use very good software such as iMovie, pixlr and safari and prezi. however, although the software i used was 
  i was very new to how they all worked so i intact took a lot of time trying to figure out how to use them. For example, i was new to prezi and had to google how to get a prezi to appear in a blog post. 

the main software i use to complete my media product was pixlr. it was the first time i have used this software so it was bait confusing at first but once i had figured it out it was extremely useful and abled me to create my magazine pieces to the highest capability i could. after having to fiddle around working out what to do, it has taught me that as long as you understand the technology it can do whatever you want and prove extremely helpful.

the camera i used to take my photos was actually on my own iPhone 5. as you will know, this is a phone so unsurprisingly does not have the ability to create clear and focused photos as well as a top notch camera would be able to. saying this, i found my photos did come
out reasonable well. however, an iPhone camera is not very good at focusing on moving pictures so when i wanted to take a picture of the model spinning or running it was very difficult to get a clear image. despite this, i managed to achieve pictures that i thought would work really successfully. 

to conclude, i have learnt a lot during the process of creating my music magazine about technology by having to over come some very stressful issues. 

Evaluation part 3

What kind of media institution would distribute your media product and why?

After researching extensively through the many different magazine publishers like Bauer, IPC and volcano publishing. It proved very hard when trying to choose one which I would have publishing my magazine as they each had a strong appealing factors. I found that Bauer publishes 'Q'- a very successful music magazine but also that IPC publishes NME- another successful music magazine which focus' on alternative and indie music the same as my magazine which was the deciding factor.

why IPC?


As I said, IPC publishes NME who promote to a similar audience as my magazine. This means IPC would already have experience in the kind of promotion and distribution I'd need. IPC has also stretch NME across a variety of other media forms with a TV channel and website, this is something I would hope might be a possibility if my magazine gathered the right fan base. This is a good idea as well because indie music listeners and specifically my target market are frequent users of different technologies.
IPC is also a UK based media institution which would be helpful for my magazine as I don't think it would have a big enough following to be took abroad because of the newness of the indie genre.


the correct decision?


To check this was the right decision I revisited earlier research from www.nrs.co.uk that looked at readership figures for NME, this confirmed that IPC could grab the readers as NME had an astonishing  253,000 buyers between October 2010 and September 2011, this reinforced my earlier decision as it made me realise that even though they do have a lot of readers for their existing magazines they still had a gap for mine.


who would stock my magazine?


I would want quite a well known retailer to stock my magazine. i would try to get it into somewhere like WHSmith or even HMV as they stock similar products. Also as my product is more 'mainstream' it would fit in more there than somewhere less known. Adding to this, HMV obviously attract a lot of music lovers which would help secure a 'fan base' immediately. 

Evaluation part 4

who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience I have aimed my product at are the older teenager age to 30's. This is because my genre of music that I have based my music magazine on has its own social group: indie. 

Although this meant I almost had guidelines to follow to make sure I kept the conventions of this genre. It also meant I had to be not only creative, but careful when straying from conventions to create new trends to not stray too far from the obvious themes. 

  

It has different aspects that will appeal to both men, and women. For example, subjects of the front cover photo, the young girl, will appeal to men because she is attractive but also woman as they will aspire to look like her. Also, the colour scheme doesn't limit me to one particular gender either as they are all multi-sex colours. The sell lines will also appeal to men and women because they aren't all just about "hot guys" or "sports news" or ''girls'' or ''dancing''. Another reason I have made sure that my magazine doesn't just target one single gender is because the social group of indie people tend to not stick to just sex friendship groups but often have it half female, half male by researching. 

In terms of class and whom my magazine would be aimed at, it would be mainly the middle class (C1-E). This is because the people in my social group are mainly in this class. Also, I don't think a lot of the things included in my magazine would be relevant or interesting for people from different classes. This is reinforced by the price as i had to make sure that it was affordable for the amount of income they have.

The lifestyle of the audience my magazine would have would be quite laid back with interests and hobbies including things such as art and photography. Earlier in my research I did a questionnaire to see what sort of things people expected from an indie pop magazine, and one of the questions was: 

'What do you expect of a indie pop fan?' 

and the four main answers that came back was; 

• laid back
• individual
• artsy
• fun

I tried to make sure that I maintained these stereotypes throughout the magazine, some more subtly than others, but still maintaining the identity of the genre. 

Evaluation part 2

Evaluation part 1

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

Immedietly by looking at my magazine pieces they do fit well into the conventional idea of music magazines. I tried to aim for a more conventional look as when I did a survey on what my target audience wanted they suggested something 'similar' to magazines already available on the market and a sense of a house style which is familiar. 

However, when looking deeper into my products I did realise that I challenge the forms and conventions of media products firstly by my main image. Although I think the image works well with my overall look of my magazine it doesn't necessarily conform with the generic style of images as it is not a simple front facing mid shot so it in some way does present a challenge to an extent.

Adding to this, I personally think my contents page challenges the conventional look of a music magazine when comparing them to magazines such as Q and NME. I decided to make a whole image the background with simplistic features including the font used. Although this is not conventional of a stereotypical contents page I think it does work successfully and gives a more relaxed feel. I wanted to keep the over all look of my magazine very simplistic and simple as the indie industry mirrors this so although I did challenge the generic forms I think it still worked successfully and help give more depth to the genre.

My double page doesn't not challenge the 'normal' conventions of a professional one as I thought it was important to not go over board with originality as as I said earlier my audience preferred a familiar feeling product. I used columns within my article as well as the layout of having a picture of one side and the article on another which is in almost all magazine double page spreads.

To conclude, my media product did challenge the stereotypical forms of music magazines but without going over the top and loosing the overall look of a magazine. 

final front cover, contents page and double page spread

These are my final drafts of a front cover, contents page and double page spread. 

I printed of these three images and gave them to a variety of people in my target audience to get a final opinion on my pieces.

I received very positive points and over 90% of the people guessed the correct genre that my magazine would belong. This immedietly was a good response as it meant I had used the correct features in order to appeal to the chosen genre. I also asked them if the magazine would be something they would buy and all said yes.

After looking back at these, there are slight changes I would make but overall I think I reached a professional looking music magazine which would suit my target audience successfully.

deciding double page spread

these are two of my double page spread drafts and although they are very similar there are slight differences
the logo of 'drink aware' is different
the colouring of the images is slightly altered
and the colour of the 'to survive the' banner is a different shade of purple

Although I made these changes i stuck to the intitial layout and theme as my target audience as i thought it worked successfully.

I decided to change the filter on the image as I felt that it did not match the overall feel of the other pieces and the bright slightly sepia effect reinforces the topic of the article- summer. Adding to this, I changed the colour of the purple text on the image to a more pastel purple as I again thought it would match the colour scheme as I geared toward many pale pastel colours on the front cover and contents page and it was crucial to keep a consistent house style throughout.

I will use this as my final draft for a double page spread as I and the people I surveyed preferred it.

Niche magazines

RESEARCHING A NICHE MAGAZINE


ABC : audit bureau of circulations


A NICHE magazine is a magazine about a sub-genre of a major genre which has a lot of depth to it. Niche magazines have many pros and cons which drive their publication and population.


PROS:

• the audience they are targeting will be far more loyal and committed to buying the magazine each week
• the magazine will have more specific content

CONS:

• niche magazines means their target audience will be smaller
• smaller audiences means smaller income
• can't include much variation

I am now going to look and study a niche magazine and look at its sales, marketing and publications. 

Cross Stitcher is an example of a niche magazine. It sells around 38,684 magazines every six months and last year, it's sales decreased by -18.7%. Sales most likely dropped because one; this is a very niche hobby and so will have a small target audience and two; because it is such a rare hobby. Another reason cross stitching magazines are going "out of fashion" is because people will be spending more money on the equipment they need and not wasting it on magazines when all the information people can pay for from the magazine they can get for free from the internet nowadays. 

However, although Cross Stitcher is decreasing in sales, two similar magazines; The World of Cross Stitching and Cross Stitch Crazy, both 
owned by Immediate Media Company, sales have increase. However,thesemagazines are associated with the BBC therefore although they are publishing a niche magazine, have a huge backing which will able to publicise the magazines more, making people more aware of them. This therefore explains their sale increases. Future Publishing, on the other hand, own Cross Stitcher who have decreased. Future Publishing owns a lot of computer and television based magazines and so wont be "showing off" and giving cross stitching as much recognition.

The magazine to the right is the cover of the magazine I have been discussing. Its typical niche target audience is going to be women and that is most probably the reason the colour theme is based around pink and yellow and is covered in flowers and girly fonts. There are  several sell lines and promotional images which they could be doing to bring in and interest new readers. 

NAME CHANGE

Recently, I have taken the chance and changed the name of my magazine. I have spoken about the decision on changing the name in a prior post and have finally come to the decision to change it.
Although i like the name 'PURE', after speaking to a range of people within my target audience I asked them what genre they think of when hearing the name PURE and the majority replied with a pop genre due to it connoting the ideology of this genre.
So, after hearing this I went back to the drawing board and came up with the name SIGNATURE. I like this name as I feel that it suits the genre alot more. My reasoning behind this name was the idea that every signature is unique- much like the indie genre and the idea of a 'time signature' im music. "The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, bar signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats are in each bar"
I again went away after coming up with this name and surveyed my TA into what genre they would pair this name with and the majority came back with indie so i went ahead with it.
I also prefer this name as when it is on my front cover it is spread right across the top of the page. I think that this gives it a more professional look as the majority of magazines have a title which fills the top.

second draft CONTENTS PAGE

first draft DOUBLE PAGE SPEAD

here is my first attempt at my double page spread. as you can see i have stuck to the conventional layout buy using columns and one page of pictures and the other of the article.

Unfortunately, the software that i used (word) did not allow me to create a double page spread so to resolve this problem i came up with a solution, although it was very long winded.
i typed just the article on word and then print screened it, before this i had created a landscape page with images on the left hand side. I then uploaded

this image to pixlr and added the article on top of it too achieve the look that the article was on the right hand side. from this, i added the extras such as the masthead, the image in the right hand corner and the quote. i am happy with the overall look but will survey my target audience for responses on how to change it.
Again, unfortunately, my article is un-readable at the size of the posted image due to the original image having to be stretched causing it to be pix-elated. i cannot do anything about this at this point but i will type up the full article into another post. (click here)

Full article

What you will need: 

• One tough pair of wellies- god forbid a festival without wellies!
• A tent- preferably one you don't mind getting broken by the antics.
• Sleeping bag- essential!
• Money- who wants to waste the day queuing at a cash machine?! 
• Camera- portable or digital to capture your fav artists.
• Clothes- but pack light and make sure you warn mum to be ready to wash the beer and mud out of every item.
• ALCOHOL- whatever takes your fancy and as much as you can carry!

Upon arrival;

Now, this may be considered the most stressful and challenging part of your festival weekend! if you're driving by car, i must recommend taking a photo of where you park or you may be staying a bit longer than you expected to! Next, go find your tent pitch. It is essential to be in the perfect place- at least 50ft from the toilets to avoid the inevitable queue's but not too far away to stop you being able to take a sneaky mid night trip. 

Once you've chosen the perfect, but practical, tent place set up your tent safely

and securely (or as safe as you can get it) have a wonder round,

Get your bearings and take a mental note of anything you may need to know, i.e. the toilets, main stages and food vans. After this, go back to your tent and guess what

start drinking! Whatever the time is, who cares?! Drinking time is anytime at a festival! Also, try to drink as much as you can before heading off to the main arenas as any drink you have on you will be confiscated on entry (and the chance of getting it back is about the same chance of getting it in there in the first place). Now, once you believe to be a nice, kind of happy drunk its time to hit the first main arena!

This may vary for different festivals as some may have a few main music stages so the best thing to do is buy one of those handy programmes that hang round your neck and make a note of the bands or artists you cannot miss. Once you've decided on the must see bands take a wonder round and see if anyone is playing, preferably someone you haven't heard of... Festivals are a great chance to widen your music taste! 

This should take up a couple of hours or so, and if you're still alive at the end then you pretty sure to survive the rest of the festival. 

While you're there;

Toilets- yes, they're disgusting but you're just going to have to

man it and hold your nose and

whatever you do, don't look

down! 

 Washing- there is a minimal

Chance of this happening! Some festivals do you provide you with showering facilities- ones that make you feel dirtier than when you went in, so your best bet is the going to be the bowl and tap… so make sure you pack your toothbrush and flannel for a quick freshen up! Deodorant is essential to as you can imagine!

Sleeping- Sleep as much as you can at night! Energy needs to be conserved for all the time you'll be vertical with dancing and getting drunk (although this could lead to being horizontal!)

Finding people- now, signal is pretty rubbish at festivals in the middle of a field so pre arrange to meet people in person and decide on a spot to meet everyone if you do happen to get lost within the mayhem. But if not, go socialise and hopefully you will all end up at the same tent later that day!

The boring bit;

Safety first, blah, blah, blah. I know this wont be the most interesting thing I thought I would give you all some top tips to stay safe during our many festival adventures.

Tip 1- Although the majority of people are festivals are fine, you do get the odd one or two. So if you do fear for your safety or well-being. Head to the nearest well-lit area and introduce yourself to the staff

Tip 2- anything you do not want to loose, do not take it. However if you do have to take it then my tip is to hind it somewhere in your tent like in/under your pillow when you’re out.

second draft FRONT COVER

here is a second draft i created taking the criticisms of my first into consideration. I changed the front as i feel that this font is more suited to the genre and many people said that my previous font was more suited to the pop genre. I added more black into the front cover again to emphisise the indie genre. however, i kept the overall layout and placing the same as many people liked the overall look of my front cover. I again asked people for feed back in order to help me create my final front cover.

'the font change was idea and it looks more like an indie magazine now, but i'd maybe change the font on some of the sell lines to make them clearer to read.'

'i like the name signature more than pure and the black title is more effective.'

'there's nothing i would change, i think its really good!' 

'maybe put the title behind the balloons, alot of magazines do that.'

although there was not many things people wanted me to change, i will still go away and play with the placing of the title and the colour of the font untill i am happy with my final draft.

first drafts CONTENTS PAGE

these are two of my first drafts of my contents page, although they both have different overall layouts they still stick to the same house style i am trying to keep throughout my magazine.
after asking my target audience about these drafts, i received a variety and a split of opinions and criticisms. 6 people said they preferred the left image and the rest (7) preferred the right image. here are some of the responses:

'I prefer the one on the left because you can read the writing more clearly.'

'The right one is better because the subscribe bit is clearer and more eye catching than the one on the left.'

'I like the left one would be the best if the writing was on the left hand side of the image as in a magazine you read from left to right.'

in my opinion, i prefer the left image as i like the way the writing is in the sky and the placing of the subscribe section. i will take into consideration the ideas and opinions i got and go away and create another contents page draft. 

Audience Pleasures.

Audience pleasures are a set of techniques used by all types of texts in the media whether it be TV, radio or magazines. They are used to appeal to an audience ensuring that they buy/watch the chosen text.

These things include a sense of being given too; direct mode of address; information; sense of belonging; entertainment; ritual pleasure of consuming the familiar, and self/personal definition. All of these ideas will help my magazine maintain a large readership.

By using freebies, such as posters, concert tickets and downloads etc my target audience will have a sense of being given too which is a strong and successfull way to ensure that they keep buying the magazine as they feel like the magazine is personally giving them something. I will also promote the idea of subscribing to the magazine to recieve 30% discount on the next issue brought to link to this audience pleasure.

This also links to the idea of a second technique called 'Direct mode of address'- this is achieved by using personal pronouns such as 'you', 'we', 'us' and our. This inclusive language ables the reader to feel included and 'part of' the magazine and its readership. Almost like a community which links to the idea of another audience pleasure 'a sense of belonging'.

A 'sense of belonging' is crucial to ensure that an audience is kept and will continue to buy the product. The reader of a music magazine immedietly makes the reader feel that they 'belong' to a community of fellow lovers of the said genre and people with the the same interests and hobbies.

A third technique is the language within the magazineence is 'semantic field of music'. This is when you use music based words that describe that genre or music. The use of this technique would be brilliant to use as it brings the entire magazine together and draws the audience in, as the words being used to describe are genre based. This imagery is what appeals to our audience to keep them entertained.

Lastly, an audience pleasure I will add to my magazine is the idea of information being given. Magazine readers like to be given information when they read something and this can be done by interviews and/or articles (like the article I have chosen to do). I will also try to include a sense of humour within my magazine article as humour is a big part of audience pleasure as a magazines main purpose is to entertain the reader. Another way to inform the reader is to put inside the magazine either gig guides or festival dates. This could easily link to a competition inside the magazine to win tickets for a certain gig. The guides and festival dates link to music magazines of all genres as at festivals more than 1 band play and therefore more than one type of genre is played, reaching a wider audience.

I shall use as many of these audience pleasures as possible to make sure that my music magazine is the the most successful and as appealing as it can be, making sure I reach my target audience and appeal to the fully.

first drafts FRONT COVER

these are my first two drafts of my final front cover. I darkened to the image to give it a more indie look and colour matched the writing to the colour of the balloons to ensure that the writing matched the image.
I then produced the next image, adding the price and issue date as i forgot the add these in my prior draft. I like my first draft as think it has a coherant looks about it by the image and font. I also think that the sell lines i included immediatly emphisise the idea that it a music magazine. I used a symantic field of music language on the front cover to ensure this with words such as 'artist', 'songs', 'tour' and 'tickets'.
However, after showing people this front cover i recieved alot of ideas in which i could use to improve it.
ASHLIEGH(17)- 'Dont have the page three bit slanted and put it underneath the victoria bit. Move the barcode and roatate it so its sideways on the right hand side half way up the edge with the price and make the ellie tickets bigger and moved onto the left side.'
ELLA(16)- 'maybe put the balloons over the title'
ALICE(19)- 'id put page three uder the victoria and the bottom bit looks a bit empty near the barcode and i'd make the space between 'pure' and 'victoria' and the top the same'
BRITTANY(17)- 'I'd make the title a different colour to the rest of the writing'

So, by taking these comments into consideration my main aim was to move the page three and make the bottom part less empty so i created this second draft.

I changed the font to a different from from the sell lines to emphisise that it is the main title. I also moved the price to near the barcode as suggested in my feed back. I also lightened the image to give it more of a festival feel reinforced by the idea of wellies on the image and the inside article.
I again went and asked for feed back of this draft on how to improve it further however this time i question whether it suited my genre aswell.

MRS FEARNLEY- 'i think the only thing making it look more like a pop magazine than indie is the large spacing between the writing. With indie, its more rough and not so prim and proper as youve created this and maybe add a little more black, but other than that, it suites the genre.'
ROB- 'I think it looks too poppy. the colours are too bright and fun and indie is more cheap hence the indiependance of the artists. they will not have alot of money. but the image is fab. Add more black and a more block font.'
ELLA- 'use a different font and use duller colours and maybe darken the image.'

I also spoke to someone who used to be in the music industry managaing bands and was in a band himself. He advised me to change the name aswell. i was considering changing the name so this may be something i think further about. We came up with the name SIGNATURE with the idea of a time signature in music and the idea that every signature is unique like the indie industry. I will survey the idea of this name with my target audience to help decide whether to change it to this.