evaluation in presentation

Music magazine evaluation from Joewestall28

Evaluation question 7

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

I feel I have come a long way sine my preliminary task, as my Photoshop skills have greatly improved and my idea of what a magazine looks like has got a lot better. When I did my Preliminary task I thought that the more that was on the page meant it was better, I have found that this is not the case as magazines actually looks a lot better if they have less on and are cleaner. One major thing I have learnt is that colour schemes are very important and the colour used will make a massive difference to the magazine, it is good to get a theme and stick to it. Another main thing that I have learnt is that the picture needs to be of great quality and the best picture you can get, in my preliminary task the picture wasn't great as I don't believe I took enough pictures, this is why I learnt to take as many pictures as possible so you have more to choose from, the more the better.  

 Here is my final front cover and my preliminary task front cover, as you can see my final front cover looks so much better than the preliminary task, it looks a lot more professional and just miles better. The colour scheme for my preliminary task doesn't really go and it isn't set out very well at all, also the picture is not of very good quality. My final picture on the other hand looks very good and the layout is much, much better, in my final I now have a house colour of red and blue were as in my preliminary there was no real theme to it. Also from research into magazines, I found that in my preliminary task, my bar-code was not in the correct place as this is never seen in any magazines, this was fixed in my final piece.

Here is my preliminary contents page and my final contents page, for a start I have learnt how to actually make it look like a magazine #, my preliminary task did not look at all like a magazine but my final does. The images are clearer on my final this is because I learnt to take my time with the pictures and make sure I got them right. Another thing that I learnt from researching magazines was that they actually have a lot more pages than I originally thought as in my preliminary task I hardly had any pages, I made sure to add many more in my final piece. Also I added a lot more picture just like in real magazines. I think I have progressed a lot since my preliminary task and i am very happy with the out come of my final piece.

Evaluation question 6

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

From making my music magazine I have learnt that it takes a lot more thought and consideration about the layout and content of the magazine, a lot of research has to be done to get it right. I have learnt that to get the best picture you have to have a high quality camera and the lighting is very important to make the image look the best it can. One main use of technology that I have learnt to use from creating my music magazine is the program called Photoshop cs5, this was used to modify and manipulate pictures and images to make them look how I wanted. I used a variety of tool whilst using Photoshop such as the 'spot-healing brush tool,' the 'polygonal lasso tool,' the 'crop tool,' and the 'clone stamp tool.' Before doing my magazine I had no idea about how to use Photoshop but now I feel I am confident and good at changing pictures and editing photographs, I find this program really fun to use and really helpful in the production of my music magazine. I have learnt that without the use of programs such as Photoshop, it would be significantly harder to create the emotion in an image and capture the exact look that a person is looking for, it can make a picture look so professional and effective, I would use it on any photo to make it look better. Another thing about what I've learnt is that it actually takes a lot of time to properly edit an image and to get it to look good, originally I actually thought that Photoshop would be easy to use but I was mistaken, it takes a lot of time, patience and effort to make sure it is up to the standard that you want.

Another thing I learnt about technologies from the process of making my magazine was the program 'Microsoft publisher' this program really helped me to get my magazine to be lay out correctly and get everything in line and looking professional. Publisher really helped in the layout of the magazine as you could put guidelines on it  to make sure everything was aligned. This program really helped me complete the task well and correctly.

Evaluation question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted my target audience by making this magazine look and seem rebellious, I did this by making it look really moody and the main picture shows one of my models holding a lighter, this could be seen as 'naughty' and would attract the attention of many. Also the use of bad language and eye catching quotes would of attracted my audience to think, wow this is shocking I really want to read this. I also think the bright colours in a magazine are the first thing people notice so this would also draw them in. I addressed my audience in a informative and almost friendly way but just as if it tells you what is there why and the main points, I think its best to get straight to the point so this is ow I spoke in my magazine with direct easy to read responses, this would attract people as it doesn't seem like much to read and looks interesting. I think a main thing that attracts my audience is the pull quotes used on my front cover, they are so outrageous that it just makes people want to know more, people love it when bad things happen and to see quotes like 'F*ck the establishment' or 'midgets and strippers were all over the place' really makes people want to find out what is going on, thus drawing in the audience.

Evaluation question 4

Who would be the audience of your media product?

The audience for my media product would be older people age from about 18-40, the reason my audience would be so old is because, as my magazine is a classic rock magazine, most of the what is in the magazine will be music and bands from older generations such as the who and the Beatles, most younger people would not like these bands now a days, if they have even heard of them at all. I wanted my target audience to be able to appreciate the music in my magazines rather than hem thinking it was dated and not good, this is why I wanted my Audience to be older rather than younger because they would recognise the music and bands. This does not however mean that some younger people would not like my magazine as there are a lot of younger people today who actually like classic rock much more than new music of today, like myself for example, I much rather prefer older music like the Kinks and the Doors rather than any new stuff. My magazine would be slightly leaning towards the male side of things with the humour and language used but it is not completely biased and would be appropriate for all genders if they are into this type of genre. Although my magazine would be aimed at an older audience, it would however be up to date with the latest trends and modern culture so people who are younger would actually understand and appreciate it as much as older people.

Evaluation question 3

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

The type of media institution that would distribute my media product would be a magazine/online publisher such 'imagine publishing' this is one the leading magazine publishers in the UK that own a variety of different magazines and smaller publishing companies. Another publishing company that is very big within the UK is IPC media, who own and publish more than 60 well known media brands. Although there my be online publishers that would be interested in publishing this magazine. The reason they would publish my magazine would be to extent their empire of ownership, in other words to say they  own another magazine which will make them gain more profit from more and more people buying a magazine that they own. If they choose to buy a magazine and it becomes popular, not only will it make the company much more profit but it would significantly raise their popularity leading to more publishing deals and once again more profit, they would only choose to publish my magazine if they knew it would be successful.

Evaluation question 2

How does your media product represent particular social groups?


My music magazine represents certain social groups in a way that does not generalise against any group. My magazine represents my target audience and social group in a good way, it shows off that they are into old music and like to find out about all what is going on within there interests. Although some may say that I was representing my social group in a negative way with my moody looking colours and pictures and with the almost rebellious look to my main image, I did want to show the sinister side of classic rock so I represented this with my dark colour scheme and eye catching images. I still think I have shown my target audience in a good way though as with my different font types I have shown that there can be a variety of people who are within my target audience, for the mast head I have fancy classic looking font yet for my main cover line I have font that makes it seem more of a heavy rock magazine. This shows that I am keeping my target audience open for a wider variety of people and not slimming it down to a certain group. The image I gave across from my front cover was that it was aimed at an older audience which is correct as my magazine would contain strong language and adult humour. I have my models dressed in old school, 'cool' looking clothes which portrays my social group as fairly fashionable and into their old school trends, I had a lot of inspiration from the 60's when there were 'mods' about, these were the likes of The Who and the Kinks, this is what i wanted my target audience to be like. Also I think i have represented my social group as a middle/working class group as on my magazine I have a bit of bad language and in a upper class society this would be seen as outrageous, another thing I have done is not overwhelmed people with information on the front cover, I have kept it neat looking and clean this is so it is easy to read, this could represent my target group as individuals who like to get straight to them point of things they are looking for instead of pointless information that doesn't need to be there.

Evaluation question 1 part 2

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

For my contents page, I stuck to the conventions of a normal music magazine, most of the magazines I researched had plenty of pictures and an area where they actually said what was in the magazines with the page numbers. Also another thing I kept the same is in most magazines they have a section that appears in every issue, this is why I have the 'regulars' section. Another convention that I have in my contents is the pictures coming out of the box they are in, this really catches your eye and looks really professional, this is seen in many music magazines. Also I have kept my house colours/style the same with the blue and red, this is because I want the theme of this magazine to be set colours. Another thing I have done that follows conventions of real music magazines is I have made it easy to read and easy to find what you want to read, as you can see with the clear numbers next to the articles/pictures.

Here is an example of a NME music magazine contents page, I have tried to base my own contents page off this magazine with the big pictures and page numbers on the pictures, also as you can see, on each picture, they have a short sentence introducing what it is, I have done this with my music magazine as I have introduced each Picture. Also, as you can see from this picture, there is a section that says 'plus' this has what is in the magazine, I have also got something similar to this on my contents page with the 'features section' and the 'Regulars section.' 

I feel that my double page spread has used the conventions of a real magazine with this double page spread. From the research I did i found that many of the double page spreads within music magazines have columns of question and answers, these inspired me to do the same with my own double page spread, I decided to my questions in yellow and my answers would match the colours of the band members you an see in the picture. Also I found a rolling stone magazine that had the black eyed peas on the double page spread, I have analysed this magazine and they have the band members in slightly different colours so I did that with mine, although, this could be said to be a challenge to normal conventions because although on the rolling stone magazine the people are in slightly different colours, they are not completely in different colours, this is a way that I challenged normal conventions of real magazines. Although, one convention I did stick to was the way my main image is on the left with the title and masthead of the page also on the left, I have found this in many magazines.   

Here is some examples of double page spreads from the rolling stone magazine, as you can see, in the Kings of Leon magazine, there is columns of questions and answers, this is what my magazine is like, so I have followed a convention of a real magazine. Also as you can see in the black eyed peas one, he image is on the left similar to mine and the titles and mastheads are also on the left, my double page spread is very similar to this one,  also as you can see the main man in this magazine is a different colour to the others, this is where I got the inspiration for my own picture on my double page spread. Another convention I followed was the fact that my questions are in a different colour to the answers, just like the Kings of Leon magazine only in this one the text is bold instead of a different colour.

Evaluation question 1

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


My music magazine does follow most of the conventions that you will see in today's magazines, I have tried to make it look as professional as I possible could through research of other magazines.

One of the main conventions of a music magazine is the masthead, this instantly identifies the magazine, and just by looking at the masthead you can immediately see the magazine type the target audience and the genre. With my masthead I wanted it to give off a classic feel, and really give people the thought of old school rock, I spent a while looking for a suitable font but this font looked really good and I was happy with the way it looked. It is very important to not over complicate your masthead as it needs to be easy to read and at the same time look good, the font i have used is called 'little Rickey nf' I chose this because it was clean and looked good whilst being very easy to read. One other main convention that music magazines tend to follow is that they will have a really eye catching colour scheme or house style, A lot of the time/in a lot of magazines, the house style uses red as it a very eye catching colour such as the rolling stone magazine, this is why I chose red as my house style, to capture the attention of the audience, also it stands out against the darker background.

Here is an example of an NME magazine using the red masthead against the black and white picture, similar to my magazine, it really catches your eye and looks really effective, I have found a lot of magazines use the colour red in their house theme. 

Another main convention that I have followed is the 'plus' sign seen on many front covers of magazines, as you can see in my magazine and the NME example I have got, both have a plus sign to show more content within the magazine, it makes the magazine look like there is a lot more going on and draws the reader in to want to find out more.

One convention that i have challenged in my magazine is the idea that most magazines have all there cover lines and lures in the same place or on one side of the magazine whilst I have them fairly spaced out and on each side of my front cover.

Here is another example of an NME magazine as an example, this shows how I have challenged magazine conventions, as you can see most the cover lines of this magazine are shown on the left side, I have some on both sides.

My main image on my magazine is in black and white with some colour, this makes it look moody and effective, this was the look I was going for with the whole moody looking band with the lighter, to show that they are rebellious, this effect is used a lot in magazines, to do this I used Adobe Photoshop cs5 and edited my image to look how I wanted, I did this with the Quick select tool and the image adjustment tool, I then modified it to look how I wanted.    

Final front cover

Here is my final front cover with all the adjustments added to it. As previously mentioned, I took my magazine to a group of my target audience and a lot of them mentioned that my magazine front cover just did not look like a front cover, so I took their comments and re-designed my layout of my front cover, now after asking them say it looks much more like an actual front cover and just looks much more professional, I'm really happy with how it has turned out. I am also glad I chose to upload my previous front cover attempts t show the journey and work i went through whilst making this magazine, it took a lot of thought and effort. I really liked the image so i kept it and made the lighter the main focus, I also got rid of any unneeded things on the front cover and made it more simple.    

Final contents page

This is my final contents page, i have tried to keep the colour scheme the same as the front cover as through the research i have done i found that most magazines stick to the house colour that they have, this means they will keep the same theme throughout the whole magazine. I tried to base my contents page off the NME magazine as in this magazine, they have plenty of pictures and a small section of words to show what is actually in the magazine, the main stories have a big picture with the page number and a small line to say what it is. I found that having an image come out of the box it is in looks really effective and eye catching.

Final double page spread before

This is what my double page spread looked like before i showed it to my target audience, the font was too big, there was no gutter and I didn't have the name of the band or album on it.

Final Double page spread

Here is my final double page spread, I got my inspiration from a magazine I found that has the Black eyed peas on it, the picture showed the people in slightly different colours so I wanted to do the same, since my band's album is called 'this cartoon world.' I have put in a line that would represent the gutter of a double page spread and I made sure that none of my models faces were covered by the gutter. I decided to go with a question and answer double page spread because from what magazines I looked at, the question and answer ones were the most interesting and I wanted to read on when I saw them. Although after showing my double page spread to  group of my target audience, they said that  the font was too large and it needed a gutter so I added this in my final piece. 

front cover draft 3

After taking my magazine to a group of people from my genre I asked them what could make the magazine better. The feedback i got back was that the price and barcode were in the wrong place and the font was fairly hard to read at first glance. As you can see i have rearranged the price and barcode position and changed the font to make it much easier to read an see at first glance. Also I have centered my tag lines and lures at the top and bottom of the picture. I now think this looks much better and professional.

Front cover draft 2

Here is another picture of my final front cover but I realised that there is no magazines that have the barcode where i had it so i have changed the place of the barcode to make it look more like a professional magazine.

front cover draft

This is my final front cover for my music magazine, this took alot of thought and many modifications to get it the way i like, the reason I have only mentioned one band on the front cover is because my inspiration was the NME Nirvana special and this only had the one band on the front so i wanted mine to look similar to this. I am really happy with how this turned out as I think it looks really professional. I think the colour scheme is really good and goes really well with the whole layout. I decided to but a vinal record in the background to give it that classic rock, old school feel to the magazine and i also think  it looks really effective and eye catching. My masthead font is really effective and old school looking and i think it fits in really well with my chosen genre of classic rock. Although my magazine doesnt have an actual selling line, it does have a sentence that addresses the audiance as it says 'the best place to find out all the news.' I think the layout looks really good and I could say it looks like a real magazine.

Risk assessments

Venue release forms

Here are the venue release forms that i had to get signed by all the people who participated in my Media coursework photo shoot.

second analysis of double page spread

This is my second evaluation of a double page spread.

media theories

Laura Mulvey's Male Gaze theory

Today, many feminists would see most media output as a product of a male dominated order. In 1975 Laura Mulvey, a British feminist film theorist, created the 'Male Gaze theory'. She stated the cinema audiences look at films in 2 ways; voyeuristically and fetishistically. In turn, this leads to 2 side effects; the 'objectification of females' and the 'narcissistic identification' of the ideal image on the screen. Her theory confirmed that the media was created for the satisfaction of males, with women merely being 'objects of desire for their visual pleasure'.  

Richard Dyer's Star Theory

Richard Dyer noted that a star is just an image created for audiences, not a real person - they are commodities produced and consumed on the strength of their meanings. The 'star image' is based on 2 paradoxes; they must be both ordinary and extraordinary, and they must be simultaneously present and absent. This is argued as a massive influence on today's magazines.

Cohen's Moral Panic theory
In this theory, Cohen says that within the media, certain groups of people are portrayed as a threat to society by people in power (such as the government), and this is played on, causing a moral panic among the public. The panic among the public turn them against the certain groups of people, turning them into 'folk devils'. Major examples of this is seen today within the media, where newspapers have turned many British people against immigrants, and turned many Westerners against Muslim countries and all people who live in them. And at one time as we all know the media played a big part in discriminating against black people, portraying them as thieves and rapist, this made society panic and fear certain ethnic groups, this is the effect the media can have on society, making them panic.  

second analysis of contents page

This is my second analysis of a music magazine contents page and what is involved.

second analysis of a front cover

This is my second analysis of a front cover and what is involved within it.

Mock up double page spread

This is the mock up of my double page spread and how i want it set out.

The planning for my photo shoot

For my photo shoot I wanted it to look like a new up and coming band that are really getting big. One major influence to how I actually wanted my magazine to look was the 'NME' Nirvana special, i really liked the way the image of the band looked and decided to base my own magazine loosely on this front cover. I decided i was going to do my photo shoot in and around my own house to get that new band kind of feel. I took a variety of shots with different angles and modified them on Photoshop, i then decided which was the best for a front cover. I decided to use 3 people in my shoots and named my made up band 'Berlin Airlift.' I really wanted this shoot to look original and eye catching so I asked my models to dress in old school Rock/mod clothing, i thought it looked really effective, i also used my guitar to get that band feel to the pictures. In my photo shoot i used Tom Parr, Harry Kelly and Sean Fay, the permission slips ans details will be uploaded to the blog soon.

Contents page mock up

This is the mock up of my magazine contents page and how I want it set out and to look

analysis of double page spread

This is an analysis of a double page spread for a magazine. This has helped me because I can see what makes it look good, for example, the image is not in the gutter of the picture and is a central eye catching image. This is what i wanrt my double page spread to look like.

analysis of contents page spread

This is an analysis of a contents page for a music magazine. I have explained what is used and why, this has helped me to see what exactly is needed for my own contents page.

Front cover Mock up

The mock up of my front cover and how I am going to lay it out and what I am going to include within it.

inspiration for my magazine

Whilst researching into music magazines i came across this magazine of NME, it was a Nirvana special and i really liked the look of it, i wanted my magazine to look like this. This became a massive influence on my magazine and it is loosely based on this front cover, i really like the black and white image and the bright writing, as you can see my front cover image is similar to this.

Front cover before and after photoshop

2. after   

1. before

Here is the picture that I am going to use for my magazine front cover, I really liked the picture and thought it had a real rock look to it. As you can see I have modified the picture to look more effective and professional looking. I have changed the picture so that the skin is in black and white and the guitar and clothes of the boys are in colour, also if you have noticed, i have changed the colour of the middle persons top from white to blue to make it look more eye catching. I did this by using the Polygonal lasso tool to select the parts i wanted to be in black and white and then the parts i wanted in colour, i also slightly changed the contrast and lighting curves to make it look how i wanted. Another tool that i used a lot was the spot healing tool, this was to get rid of any unwanted spots or marks on the boys faces and made them look better and more professional looking. I really like the effect of the black and white skin and coloured clothes and guitar, i think it is eye catching and looks really good.

Title evaluations

I actually have decided on what  want to call my magazine, i decided to call it 'Falcons Melody,' i chose this because i actually own a guitar myself and it is made by i company called 'Falcon' This was a massive influence on my magazine name, since i am doing a classic rock magazine, fitting my guitar name into it was a good idea to me. The reason I decided to put melody in with the title is because, everyone enjoys a good melody within a song, and with my magazine being a classic rock magazine i decided 'melody' would be very fitting.

Another name i was going to use was ' Sanctity of noise,' this was because the word sanctity is usually referenced as meaning sacred and special. This made me think of how people view music,so many people see music as this amazing special thing that should be treasured, i thought what better way to show this by mentioning sanctity in the name. The reason i used noise instead of something like pitch or sound is because, music sounds different to so many people, the only way to describe it is a noise. The reason i decided not to use this was because the whole title seemed a bit like it would be more fitting to a dance music magazine rather than a classic rock.

Another name i was considering using was 'Tuned' this was because every instrument used within music needs to be tuned at some point and in some way. This would fit in well with a classic rock music magazine because within rock music there is always a set of instruments used, it is hardly ever computerised, tuned would of fitted well. The reason i decided not to use this is because i felt that it wasn't original enough and it had a feel that many people would use it, i didn't feel it was authentic enough.

Target audiance

Qualities of target audience I want to reflect - My target audience needs to be up to date with the newest films, games and bands that are up and coming. I would like it if my audience was into video games and modern humour. They need to be creative and able to have a laugh. I would show this by the quotes used in my magazine and the fonts and pictures. 

Aspirations of target audience - My main desires for my target audience i a young audience with up to date knowledge of the modern culture and norms.

Features ideas - main features would be older bands such as the Beatles, The Who, The Kinks and many more as my magazine is a classic rock magazine. 

Regular ideas - Upcoming news and events, up to date information.

Magazine name - 'Falcons Melody'

Main magazine name idea and fonts

Here is what i decided to call my magazine, the falcons melody as my magazine is going to be a classic rock magazine and i thought that this name was fitting to the genre. This is also some examples of some of the fonts i have chosen for my magazine i really like all 3 of these fonts and i am yet to decide which out of these 3 i will use.