Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? My final product is very similar to a real media product in the aspect that it includes a main image, headline, barcode, price etc. This is mainly as to why I wanted my final product to be based on magazines in which I have researched so that it looked more realistic. I think however my final product is aimed more at females possibly because it features celebrity gossip and also the colours perhaps could be associated more with females. I chose to name my magazine 'flex' this is because I think it sounds modern and is short and snappy which would be attractive for a dance music magazine, also flex means to bend which is often done when dancing. The reason I went with my final choice of image for the front cover is because the reader can clearly see the headphones which immediately shows the magazine is about music, also bright colours are featured which again could possibly draw the reader because of the colourful image. I like the way in which she is standing it makes her look proffesional which is what I wanted, I edited my image only slightly so that it was a fraction lighter than originally this is because I wanted it to look brighter mainly because on the front cover it was advertising a competition to win a trip to Ibiza therefore if the image was brighter it could perhaps be associated with the summer. For the name of the magazine I decided to keep the colour of the font very simple therefore I chose the colour black, black is often seen as classy and wouldn't clash with the main image or any other colour font featured on the page. It is also different many of the magazines which I analyised used the colour red for their name therefore I wanted my magazine to be slightly different and unique. So that the main image is the main focus for the reader I deliberately centered the image directly centre on the front cover with any text surrounding the image so that it doesn't take the attention away from it.

I chose the colours of the fonts carefully as many colours are associated with specific things, for example I chose an orangey red colour for the text which was explaining about the competition to Ibiza I did this because orange is seen as a warm colour therefore represents summer. For the words 'win, win and...win!' I used oranges and yellows for each letter this again shows that is a summery topic.

I have made my front cover as bright and eye-catching as possible, dance music magazines are often very busy and bright which is what I tried to achieve. For the main headline I think the font I chose makes the headline look sophisticated as this font would probably be featured in fashion magazines.

How does your media product represent particular social groups? My final media product represents mainly females aged from around 16-late twenties, within this I tried to represent the particular social group by creating gossip stories in the contents so that it would appeal to this social group I also used femine colours such as pinks and yellows and a suitable theme and layout so that it would appeal to my particular social group.

What kind of media institiution might distribute your media product and why? A media institution which could distribute my media product could be emap, this is mainly because they distribute magazines such as mojo, heat, closer and mixmag. All of these magazines have similar characteristics to my final product as heat and closer are all about celebrity stories which would be found in my final product and mixmag is a dance music magazine therefore has the same music genre as my final magazine. Also if Emap published my magazine it would be very unique as most magazines do not aim to appeal to the particular social group as my final product.

Who would be the audience for your media product? As discussed above the audience for my media product would be females around the age range of 16-25/late twenties who are interested in dance music and like to keep upto date with the celebrity stories. It would also interest them because of the worthwhile competitions which I have advertised on my final front cover.

How did you attract/address your audience? When creating my magazine one of the first things I thought about was who to have on the front cover, because my magazine is aimed at females between 16-25 I decided to use a female who was between those ages so that it would give off a realistic impression. I also dressed her in modern, stylish clothing so therefore it would attract the particular social group I was aiming for. I think the name of my magazine 'flex' also addresses my target audience as it sounds fun and modern. On the front cover of my final product it features a competition, this will give readers a chance to get involved. With the price of the magazine featured on the front cover I made it fairly cheap for a music magazine priced at £2.25 therefore this would be competition for other music magazines. In my contents page I decided to include celebrities who are very successful at the moment and who are in the media spotlight therefore it would look realistic.

What have you learnt about technologies form the process of constructing this product? I have found since beginning media studies that I have used a lot more technology than I did before, I also feel I have improved with using documents such as word and photoshop which I feel more confident in using. I have also learnt the important convensions which are used in making a magazine after researching and analysising several magazines.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? Since doing the prelininary task I have learnt simple things such as the conventions used in creating a magazine, I feel that final product appears more realistic that that of the preliminary task perhaps because upto beginning my final product I researched and analysed music magazines. I have also discovered websites for unique fonts which I have used in my final product which I never knew of when doing my preliminary task. I think the preliminary task was helpful into creating the final product perhaps so that I could practice on the different documents such as photoshop. I feel with my full product I had a lot more time to be able to research ideas and come up with ideas for my headlines and also the name for my final magazine and with taking the main images I could take them in different places. I have also learnt about the different publishers used in the media such as emap, IPC etc I found out what magazines they published therefore this helped me decided which publisher I'd like to publish my dance music magazine.

contents page

This is my final contents page, this is not based on any of the contents pages I have analysised.
I decided to feature the heading 'contents' on the top left handside of the page, I used a simple font off microsoft word as i didn't want the full focus of the attention to be on the word 'contents'. The text features stories such as 'Album reviews' which are featured in many music magazines and are popular with music fans. The main cover story is the first story featured on the contents page, as this issue is based on 'Miss DuBoi'. Originally I had 2 images of 'Miss DuBoi blowing a bubble out of bubblegum in a sepia edit however I decided to change this because it didn't appear to reflect the dance music theme and colour, therefore I decided to change the images. I decided to pick two images which I thought would also reflect the female artist's personality, as you can see 'Miss DuBoi is pictured twirling bubblegum and pulling a mischievous face therefore I wanted this to reflect her bright and bubbly personality which I think I did. I edited the picture so that 'Miss DuBoi's' face is in colour however her body in black and white this is so that the main focus would be on her face not the background. I also added a caption 'look up the hottest gossip' this is so that the audience could get familar with the page, also the word 'gossip' is often associated with females therefore this is what I wanted as my target audience is for females.

plan of the contents page

This is what i am aiming for my contents page to look like. The heading 'contents' will either feature in the centre of the page or on the left handside this is because I do not want it to overlap the picture.

The picture will again be of my female artist however the image will be on a slant, this is because i want it to have a different look and it will make it appear unique like the artist herself.

The text will appear on the left handside in a column, the text will feature page numbers with the main stories and competions.

double page spread

This is my final double page spread, I decided to go for the black and white look I did this because it is different and not many double page spreads are featured in just black and white. The black and white compliments the image and makes it appear more proffessional.
The sub-heading is 'Miss DuBoi' the name of my female artist, I did this so that it introduces the artist to the audience, I used a handwriting type font which I collected of the site dafont.com I did this so that it appeared that my female artist had signed her autograph on the page.
Underneath the sub-heading is a few lines which is basically explaining what to expect in the article, also when researching I noticed that many double page spreads do this therefore I took this into account. The article itself is an interview at first I was just going to write information about the singer however I liked the idea of interviewing my female artist I think it would almost be like introducing her to the audience which i liked. For the image I again featured her with headphones for the same reason as it shows it is about music, I made her pose with her hand on her hip so that it looked like she had attitude and confidence which could perhaps represent her music and style. I also wanted her looking down as this is unique and different which I wanted, I also wanted the image to be long so that it filled up the left page. I lightened the image using picasa which is used to edit photographs, I lightened it so that it blended in with white background featured on the right page.
At the beginning of the article I used a dropcap as this again looked professional and these are often featured in magazine articles and newspapers.

plan of the double page spread

This is what I am hoping my double page spread will turn out to look like. As you can see on the left page the main image will take up the full page, from researching music magazines many of the double page spreads are featured like this and I think it looks proffesional and I like the way it displayed. On the right page the sub-headline will be featured at the top of the page this is so that it introduces the article to the reader and tells them what the article is going to be about, the article is going to be an interview this will also help the reader almost get to know the artist and what she is about.

front cover

This is my final front cover, I decided to go with the name 'flex' this is because the genre of the magazine is dance music therefore i thought that 'flex' was well suited with the genre. I also think it sounds modern and upbeat.
For my masthead I used the colour black I did this because I wanted it to be bold against the light yellow background of the picture, therefore if I had used a bright colour for the masthead it would have not stood out as much. The font I used for the masthead is from the website dafont.com it is almost a retro look and the font is often featured on posters for clubs etc therefore I took this into account. I also used the colour black for my main headline for the same reason that it will appear bold, I also gathered the font from dafont.com, I think the font I picked for the main headline looks stylish which I wanted as I think it is well suited to the main image.
For the main image I deliberately made my model be pictured holding headphones as this represents music, and the reader immediately knows it is a music magazine. I also dressed her in colourful, stylish clothing and jewellry as I wanted to represent the female artist as modern and stylish which I think is important, I also added extentions to her hair because many female artists today are pictured wearing them aswel as styling her hair I also applied colourful make-up as this would make the picture stand out even more and it could also represent the magazine as bright and original.
The writing underneath the main headline is describing in several words what to expect in the article, I used modern informal language as this would appeal more to the target audience I am appealing to, I also used pink colours this is because when I was researching dance music magazines the many of the texts and articles used yellow, orange, pink colours as this often represents the type of music therefore I took this into account when choosing the colours.
Down the left handside of the magazine I displayed a made up website for the magazine I did this because it makes the magazine appear more realistic. As you can see the main image of the front cover is of my female artist 'miss DuBoi' I wanted the name of my female artist to be original which I think I have. My magazine is a monthly magazine as I think it would be more successful if it was, I also chose a reasonable price of £2.95 I think is not to expensive or to cheap.

plan of the front cover

This is a plan of what I am hoping the front cover of my
magazine will eventually look like.
The masthead will feature at the top of the page, however at the left handside this is so that I can make room for the main image and an advertisement. I have thought of several ideas for names for my magazine. Also after researching and looking at different music magazines I have taken into account that the masthead looks best and more proffesional featured at the top of the magazine.
The main image which will feature on my front page and it will be of the music artist, the background will be of the picture my reasons for this is because I think it looks more natural and also it will look bright and colourful. The main headline will overlap the picture as I think it looks more proffesional and the audience will also realise the main article is about the main image.
I have deliberately not featured other stories and plugs on the front cover this is so that the main focus is on the female artist, however I have featured a 'competition' at the top right hand corner this is so that the music magazine appears more realistic.