final magazine

evaluation

Digital technology Voki

I explain how I found using technology while making my magazine.

Magazine Evaluation from peers

This is the feedback that some of my peers gave me for my final magazine. I refer to this in my magazine evaluation.

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

For my preliminary task I made a magazine called ‘Haydon Weekly’. I made a front cover and a contents page. My product has vastly improved and I now have a music magazine called InD with a front page, contents page, double page spread and four more pages for the article. Firstly my use and understanding of InDesign has improved. At first I didn’t really know how to use the programme as I had never used it before, but by the end of my music magazine, I could confidently use it and make my magazine look like a real product. Also, my use of Photoshop improved vastly. I didn’t even use it in my preliminary task as you can see I used the entire picture on the front cover and didn’t even cut out the back ground.

On the front cover of my preliminary task the proto I used of a year 7 is positioned very low on the page, this makes the magazine background take up a lot of room as I haven’t zoomed it in to fit properly. Also it is out of proportion as I zoomed the picture in and didn’t hold down shift so it was stretched wider than it should have been, making the model look big. The mast head is also very low on the page and in the middle which is not following the codes and conventions of magazines. In my full product I have my mast head in the top left corner, this makes the product look more professional as it looks like a general magazine and not amateur. Furthermore, I have sell lines across my models face in my preliminary task and underneath that I have bullet points on my front cover. This does not look good compared to my full product which has the sell lines underneath the models or on their body’s not their faces. This was easier to do because I had my models further up on the page rather than low down and they were photo shopped so fit better on the page.  Also, my preliminary task also has other photos on the front cover, whereas my full product has a button with text in. This makes it look more mature as I haven’t used blurry pictures or not photo shopped images on top of another image used as the main picture. The text I used on my preliminary task was in many different fonts and colours which does not follow the codes and conventions of magazines. On the other hand my full product used a few main fonts and 3 colours. This makes it look professional and like a proper magazine.

Moving on to my contents page, my preliminary task again used photos which were not photo shopped and of poor quality. This shows how my photo shop skills have improved and my eye for a good photo. Also the pictures are now relevant to the text on the page rather than just random pictures. In addition, my contents page contains text, this is all in different styles and looks very plain. In my final task I have used paragraph styles, this makes my contents page look more consistent and therefore the overall style is better. I have also used white text with an outline on a white background, this means it doesn’t stand out at all. On my final product I have used text which is consistent in the colour scheme and stands out to my audience. The overall layout of my magazine has also improved, it is no longer just a few lines, it has pictures which identify with the text and is all in line rather than little bits sticking out. Also the page numbers in my preliminary task only go up to 6, this is not enough for a real magazine so in my full task I have put numbers up to 120. This shows how my knowledge of magazines and constructing one has improved.

To compare the two products further, I have improved my content by having double page spreads and an article in my full product rather than just a front cover and contents page. The makes the product more realistic and professional. The use of columns in my final products also shows how my skills and knowledge has developed as I did not know how to do this in my preliminary task. I have also photo shopped images and learnt how to edit text so I have some that is bold and some that stands out more through making certain parts bigger than others. I have also learnt how to caption pictures so they have more meaning and the reader know why they are there. I also learnt how to use shortcuts in InDesign to make my production a lot faster, for example, Ctrl+[ was send backward rather than having to right click>arrange>send backwards. This sped up the making of my magazine a lot and also the short cut of Ctrl+z to undo when I went wrong to undo. Overall, my knowledge and understanding of InDesign improved a lot, also my skill of Photoshop and InDesign and other media based programmes improved a lot.

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

I used many different technologies to produce my magazine which all benefitted me. For my magazines I used a canon 550D to take my pictures. I took 216 photos in my first photo-shoot. This was a very successful photo-shoot for me as I had lots of photos to choose from, however I found a lot of them were either unusable or I did not like them as sometimes the lighting was difficult to work with. I used Interfit Stellar X Lights in the studio with a big white and black background with a Neewer RT16 wireless flash trigger which helped me a lot as I did not have to worry about the flash that I used as it was automatic. It was also a huge advantage to have artificial lighting in the studio as I would find it very difficult to find the time to take photos with natural light. Also, natural light is harder to edit with on photo shop as the light can be uneven. I did a photo-shoot up in London as well with my models. I took 155 photos. These were

Using a digital camera rather than a film one made my magazine a lot easier to produce. This is because the photos were instantly available to me using a flash disk to transfer them from the SD card across to the computer. The only disadvantage of using a digital camera meant the photos were not a high quality as a film camera, but this did not matter to me as I was not blowing my pictures up on a massive scale. Another advantage of using a digital camera was my photos were easier to manipulate. I could take them straight from my computer on to Photoshop and change the colours and cut out the backgrounds to make the pictures look nicer for my magazine. Also, I could manipulate the pictures to make my models look better, if I had a film camera I would not be able to do this as easily. Also, I was able to take so many more pictures as the photos were all stored on a memory card, and I didn’t have to change the film every 36 pictures. This also made it cheaper as I didn’t have to develop any photos and wait to see what pictures I had taken, they were available for me to look at straight after I took the picture. I also used a  50mm f1.8 aperture lens while up in London so I could blur the back ground of my pictures and just focus on the models. This added a great effect and made the model the attraction of the photo. The other lens I used was an 18-55 f3.5-5.6 zoom lens. This was great for when I wanted close ups and full body shots. It kept the quality of the photo high while being able to shoot ad different zooms. This made my photos high quality for my magazine. I was also able to use another camera for my time lapse in the studio. This took a photo every 10 seconds so I could then use adobe premiere to stitch all the photos together and made a video which showed behind the scenes at my photo-shoot. During this video it showed me adjusting the lights for the different backgrounds and

My skills of using InDesign have greatly improved as you can tell from my preliminary task. I now know how to use it to structure a magazine following the codes and conventions of a music magazine. Also, my photo shop skills have improved as I can now take out the back ground of pictures of my models and put them with other pictures to make them look closer together, this helps my magazine look better as I can zoom in my pictures and make it look more intense. I can also edit my photos so I airbrushed my models. This greatly improved the image of my magazine as it made the overall quality better.

How did you attract/address your audience?

Before I started making my magazine, I did lots of market research on my target audience. I did a survey to find out their interests to do with music, how much they would be willing to pay and other various questions. Firstly, the main image on my front cover is likely to bring in my audience as either males will identify with the band or females will enjoy reading about it. The names used on the front cover are a mixture of new and established artists. This is good for my target audience as they want to hear about both, not just well known artists. Also the sell lines are what will attract the attention of my audience as my target market enjoy stories like ‘Past year touring’ or ‘Rising to fame’ as they prefer up and coming artists so the new artists will attract them. The mast head is also important as it is InD, which is the style of music my target market listen to and this clever abbreviation of it will catch their eyes. I used the same house style of red black and white to keep it gender neutral, this helps to bring the audience in so they didn’t feel intimidated by any other gender specific colours. My button on the front cover has a Buzz Word, “win”. This is likely to grab the reader’s attention as they will want to buy it if they have the chance to win something for free.

My images all throughout the magazine are either looking straight into the camera or not. The ones that are looking directly into the camera are communicating with the audience and the ones that aren’t, they send the vibe of the interest in the music and not the fame which the audience like. My double page spread also has a large picture across the whole of it, this breaks up all the text allowing the reader have a break so they do not get bored of just text.

In my article, I have an additional feature of an album review, this attracts the audience as they are interested in music as they just bought a music magazine. This additional feature is unique to my magazine and give it a unique selling point which my audience cannot find anywhere else. I also have a unique photo of a concert which I took myself. The addresses the reader as they are interested in concerts and gigs so they see the magazine as more authentic and personal. My magazine is a music magazine, so according to the used and gratification theory (Blumler & Katz 1974), my target market are using my magazine for identifying with valued others. This will make them feel better about themselves and that they can connect with the people in my magazine. They also use my magazine for finding out about relevant events and conditions in immediate surroundings, society and the world. They want to know what is going on in the world so read my magazine InD. Also they use my magazine to gain insight into circumstances of others; social empathy. This means they want to use my magazine to find out information about the world around them as they have an interest in what happens in the music industry. The final use for my magazine is for relaxation. InD is to read in your spare time.

The use of social media in my magazine and the internet also makes a connection with the target market as they are young so they are more likely to be online. This means they can interact further with the magazine rather than just reading it. These online interactions include Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and a YouTube channel. These are all for the magazine InD which lead to further information about the magazine and information inside. The audience will see this as another unique selling point and be attracted to the magazine.

Overall, my effort to attract the target market and audience has been successful in my opinion, according to my feedback from friends and family, my magazine has many features which draws them in and as they found out more. Also, the pictures and content I used are successful in attracting an audience.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My music magazine InD would be aimed at the consumers of Indie pop music. This means they listen to indie retro music which is a culture in itself. The promotion of new artists would attract them as they do not want to listen to well-known and popular artists they want to be different and individual. The target audience of my music magazine InD are of the ages 16-24. This is because they are the main consumers of indie music and according to my market research, the most likely to buy a music magazine. Also they are most likely to be going to festivals and finding the content of my magazine interesting as I have subjects like festival reviews and artists who are likely to be at festivals like Artic Monkeys mentioned on both my front cover and contents page. In addition, the social media applications involved and mentioned are also more likely to appeal to the younger generation who are in higher education and older as they are the people who connect online and would enjoy that unique selling point of my magazine InD.

My primary audience is 16-24 year olds because of the ages of my artist’s as well, if they are around the same age then the consumers are more likely to buy the magazine. My secondary audience is 15-34 year olds.

My magazine is aimed at both genders with mutual colours with a skew towards males (60%) as the look of the magazine mixed with the colours is slightly more masculine. The pictures are also more relatable for males as the main feature is three males and the article is about how they are down to earth and normal. This makes the main article a male orientated subject slightly as they can connect with the content a bit more than females can. However it depends on the readers preference on what gender they like to read about, if an artist like Drake was on the front cover they are less likely to buy it to read but if a female artist was on the front cover for example Adele, both genders are likely to buy it.

The social class I am aiming for is ABC1. Having the target market at this makes the magazine more acceptable to the indie culture as they are of all ages and a range of classes. The way I have portrayed this is by making my article relatable to them and by setting the price as £2.50. This is not a lot of money and I tailored this around my research of students, when I asked them how much they would be willing to pay for a music magazine, the majority answered £2-£3. Also, by making my magazine a monthly release it makes the money more manageable for people as it is only once a month they will be paying £2.50. Also, my magazine offers a subscription deal so if they subscribe it makes it cheaper for them because they become a member of InD Magazine so it automatically lowers their price. This would appeal to a wider audience as the cheaper they can get a magazine, the more likely they are to buy it especially if it has good content.

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

The kind of institution I would possibly get to distribute my magazine ‘InD’ would be Time Inc Uk, formally known as IPC Media. This is because they already distribute magazine like mine for example NME and they are the biggest publishers in the UK for magazines. They publish over 350 million magazines a year ranging from Woman to Practical Boat Owner. This means they are highly experienced in the selling and distributing of magazines of all genres.

This could give me a greater chance of getting my magazine distributed as they cover every different type of magazine. Time Inc UK would like my magazine as they already distribute NME which is also a music magazine however mine is about new and upcoming artists as well as those who are already established. Also my magazine has a wide audience so they could market it to a lot of people because NME is under their Men’s target audience so mine would be under both genders, this gives Time Inc UK a good unique selling point and advantage over other magazine distributers. On the other hand I may have to compete with NME as it is a similar magazine. Also, the overall look of my magazine is fresh yet reaches out to different audiences for example indie and pop. This is a niche market so there’s not a lot of competition so a majority of sales will go to Time Inc UK and there is a lot of room for growth.

InD could be distributed through advertising in the back of Time Inc UK’s other magazines as they distribute over 60 different magazines so a small advertisement in the back of a few is putting my magazine out there to a lot of different audiences. Also, as they distribute the very successful magazine NME, this could be linked closely to it as it supplies similar content but to a different style of music audience. This would put my magazine out onto the market and appeal to a lot of people. InD is also on a lot of social media platform so would be cheap to promote online through methods like twitter, YouTube adverts on the music videos for the artists who would be interviewed, Facebook pages and campaigns and general advertising. If my magazine has a very interactive twitter page then a lot of my target audience would be able to see it and by mentioning it online adds to the promotion. I could also have promotion techniques like the first magazine to be distributed would be cheaper than the others to give the audience a taste of that it is like then if they do like it they can return for the next issue and this creates repeat purchases. Another promotional method would be to have a YouTube channel which has exclusive interviews with artists who feature in our magazine. This would really appeal to the teenage audience and therefore bring in people who may not usually buy magazines to buy InD.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My magazine is aimed at indie music fans. Firstly the title is InD, an abbreviation of indie, this will jump out to people who are looking for a music magazine. My front cover has a boy band called HA4, this is quite an abstract name which will stick in people’s minds and they are more likely to remember this, also if its abstract indie music fans will appeal to this. Their expressions on the front cover are quite stern and unfriendly which is typical of teenagers so the age group 14-19 are likely to pick this up over a smiling artist. The use of stern expressions also puts across what their music is likely to be like and what it will be about. This also projects the idea that they aren’t innocent, they are more ‘bad boy’ than nice and sweet. The colour scheme is red black and white, this makes it more mature and people aged 14+ are more likely to pick this up rather than younger because they are more attracted to either blue for boys or pink for girls at that age.

My models clothes are worn to represent indie culture, they are the high end fashion, they are a deviation from this which is what indie culture is about. This is continued throughout my magazine, for example their white tops or checked shirts aren’t the latest fashion, also the use of hats add to the effect. Their coats are also typical clothing so when there is outside shots they all either have a coat on or another item of clothing which identifies with indie pop culture.

On my contents page, one of my models has a guitar, this instrument is used very often in indie pop music which means the audience are more likely to identify with the picture. She is not looking directly at the camera but at the guitar. This shows she is mysterious and interested in her music and very little else.

Another one of my photos has Michael close up, he has the fur of his coat lining his face with the blur of cars in the background. This identifies with the audience as he is out and about on the streets so is down to earth.  My contents page and front cover both have other existing established artists used to draw attention of indie artists.

The text font I have used is either edgy or very sharp. This makes the overall magazine look professional for the target audience and not towards one gender. I have used bold pull out quotes which the audience can identify with and add excitement to my article so the target market will then read on.

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

I used several existing music magazines to base my magazine on so I was sure I had the correct style and layout to follow the codes and conventions of indie magazines. The main existing magazine I took tips and ideas from was NME as I like the aesthetics of this and the style they used. As you can see by the title of my magazine, InD is short for Indie. The use of this abbreviation is used often in music magazines, mine is also in red colouring which is a normal convention of magazines. This will appeal to the people who are interested and listen to indie music, who are my target audience. My front cover had a main sell line to go with the models I used on my front cover. This was to give the audience a visual representation of what they were going to be reading about. I used a boy band to write my article about so had them on my front cover. I took individual photos of each of them and then photo shopped them so they could be closer to each other and be a closer shot of their faces. My models on the front cover are all in clothing typical of indie culture, checked shirts and rolled up t-shirts. These are part of the fashion but not high-street fashion as indie culture is mainly to rebel against clothing norms. The sell line is their band name in bold letters to stand out, also being in a different colour helps this too. Underneath that I have a brief overview of their article, this is a convention of a music magazine. The button on my front cover advertises to “Win Reading Tickets”, this is a huge indie music festival which a lot of people buy tickets for or at least hope they can get them. If this is advertising to win tickets they are more likely to be attracted to this magazine. The music artists along the bottom are all either my models or well-known indie music artists. My colour scheme is red, white and black. This is typical of an indie music magazine for example NME often uses these colours as they are bold and stand out. The bar code in the bottom left corner is a convention of a music magazine as it is there to scan when buying it. Also the date and price are along the top of my magazine, they are in white on a black bar so the reader can see it quite fast and make their decision. Also it is there so people can see the date and if it is recent and the price is to promote it to a certain bracket of people. My tag lines are all down the left in a list with a brief over view of what the articles will be about. This is to sell the magazine to not just fans of the main article. This is a convention of a music magazine as they try to get the biggest target audience they can possible. I have used artists who I have also got in the contents page to tie the magazine together.

My contents page follows the codes and conventions of a real media product in many ways. Firstly I have contents page in big bold letters in the top left cornet with the date and issue number. This gives the audience an idea of how popular the magazine is by having a lot of issues and tells them how recent the magazine is. On the top right corner, I have a picture of the front cover to add individuality to the magazine and to show the reader where these articles have come from. The categories I have are, Regular content, on the cover, other articles, subscriptions, artist index and social media. These are typical for music magazines because they have sell lines on the front which the readers are likely to want to read so they want a category for this. It makes the magazine easier to navigate. I also have 5 photos for articles I have included in my magazine, the main article for HA4 being the biggest photo. The others are not as big so they don’t attract as much attention but they are big enough for people to notice. Each of these photos have a page number on them, this is so the reader knows where it is located and it is big like in real magazines.

For my first double page spread I have a picture that covers both pages, this is typical of a magazine as it is the opening of the article. However I have challenged the magazines conventions as my picture is outdoors. Also, I have a quote from the text. This is to attract the reader’s attention and is used in the NME magazine I researched and took tips from. There is also my introduction paragraph on there to start off the article which them continues onto the next page. On the right hand side I have a red box with the band’s name in.

On the next page I have got the band’s name in big bold letters, this introduces the main article further and the reader is attracted towards it. Underneath, my introductory paragraph is in bold compared to the rest of the text.  Also, the pull out lines used throughout the article are a convention of a music magazine. They take a bit of the main body of text and make it stand out. This is to grab the initial attention and then make the reader want to continue reading.

Past two weeks

For the past two weeks I have been doing my evaluation. I am making a magazine to display the answers to my evaluation. I feel this is a good way to display them as it is connected to my actual product. I have 7 questions to answer. I have also been making any last minute improvements to my magazine, for example I have changed the layout of my article.

Equipment

This is a collection of all the equipment and software I used for making my magazine. I tell you how I used it to make my magazine.

Lesson 19

This lesson I updated my blog and made a Prezzi about my image ideas for my magazine including things like clothing and prop ideas. I also had a problem with my magazine, one of the main fonts I used on my contents page was a custom one. This meant I had to download the font and import it on Nexus Font. This means every time I have my magazine open I need to have Nexus Font open. I have fixed the problem so my magazine is in the font I want and looks more indie and rustic.

Image ideas, props and costume ideas.

This is telling you my thoughts on what I want to do with the images that are going to be in my magazine. I have made a prezzi and added example photos of what I would like mine to look like.

Model Release

This is my model release for the people I used in my main article. They have signed the rights for me to use the photos I took of them in my magazine. 

Contact Sheet

This is a contact sheet of all the photos I took in the media studio for my magazine.
There are photos of George Rodgers, Bethan Boyden, Dayna Willis, Luke Jackson, Oliver Grove and Max Lloyd.


This contact sheet is of my photoshoot up in London Euston and Trafalger Square. These photos were of Oliver Grove, Max Lloyd, Luke Jackson and Michael Bennett.

Audience Profile

This is a slideshow about my ideal reader. It explains what I would like them to be like and they type of person they are. This would be the best for how I have structured my magazine.

Contents Text

This is what I will use for my contents page

Lesson 16, 17 and 18

This past few lessons I have been editing the photos that are in my magazine. I used photoshop for this so I could clear their skin, make photos transparant and add fitlers to them. I also did things like play around with the contrast and the brightness. These are now all on my magazine and they look a lot better than the original images.

Lesson 15

This lesson I decided I needed to edit a lot of my photos. I used photo shop to edit out any spots or marks on their faces and I added filters to bring out the brighter areas and darker areas of the photos. This means my magazine is more clean cut and better quality. I also have a wider range of photos now because I am able to photoshop them and put different pictures together.

 

Productin Log Update

I have added to and changed my magazine to updated my production log. This had print screens of my magazine to see my progress and changes.