Evaluation

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

My media product I have created uses, develops and challenges forms and conventions of real media product. The conventions which I have used on my front cover include a bar code, date, issue number, price and masthead.

I put the date, issue number, and price around the bar code, I chose to arrange them this way because I found out after researching many different types of music magazines, this is a form of convention which real media products use. I have also used plugs and puffs on the front cover as they are too conventions.

I challenged some of the conventions of a contents page by having a features and regulars list, they also usually have a date and issue number which I have also added. To develop the conventions I used a number of small images and placed them so they almost slot in together.

The conventions which I have used in my double page spread are drop caps, a big and bold heading and a photograph which spreads across both pages.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

M y media product represents the particular social group, young adults well. this is because I have used bright font colours and a lively font type for the masthead, which both represents young adults as vibrant, fun and exciting.

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

The media institution which may distribute my media product could be Future publishing. I think that this kind of media institution would distribute my media product because they do not currently produce a indie/rock music magazine, or one similar. Distributing my media product could also put pressure on other media institutions who may already produce or distribute a similar product.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my media product would be aimed at young adults aged 16-21, both male and female. All though anyone who is interested in indie/rock type music would also be attracted towards my media product as I have used many conventions of the music genre.

How did you attract/address your audience?

The main part of my media product which will attract/address my audience is the photograph on the front cover. This is because the photograph is full size of the magazine so it is very noticeable. the photograph is also very vibrant which will interest my target audience especially as they are often full of energy too.

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

Whilst constructing my product I used two software's which were the most convenient for the editing and designing of my media product. The two software's I used are Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft publisher.

I designed most of my double page spread in Microsoft publisher. From doing this I have learned how to use different features of the software to create what I wanted to. I have learned the following: how to open a double page spread; creating drop caps, change their colour and fonts to keep a similar style; the

I designed both the full front cover and contents page on Adobe Photoshop. From doing this I learned how to use some of the features available, these are: filters, such as adding noise (dust and scratches) to the gold circle on the front cover; the crone tool, which I used to remove distracting objects in the background photograph; drop shadows, which I used on the contents page.

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 learnt a lot in the progression from the preliminary task to the main task. One of the main conventions of music magazines which I have learned is to have a colour scheme on each page which consists of using a maximum of three colours. Having a colour scheme creates style and makes the page flow smoothly, especially when the colours work well together. I learned this through doing the preliminary task where I didn't use a colour scheme and ended up using up to six different colours which clashed with each other because they where all strong, bold colours.

During my research I found out that the producer can almost control what the audience first look at or reads on the front cover. This can be done by either having different sizes, colours or types of fonts. Having larger fonts with bright colours and an attractive font type will make the audience automatically look and read that section first.

Final Front cover, contents page and double page spread

Analysis of double page spread

I have chosen to use the photograph of the singer, rhythm guitarist and drummer as my main photograph because it shows their passion for music and the effort they put into making their band work to the maximum. I cut out the photograph on Photoshop using the polygonal lasso tool; I did this because this type of editing is a convention, as it is often used in many music magazines which look very effective as it adds more energy to the page.

I decided to use the same font for the bands name as I used for it on the front cover. I have done this to make it recognisable, as many bands/artists usually do, this shows their significance. At first I was going to keep the bands name colour black, but then I decided to change the ‘T’ and ‘S’ to red, this makes it stand ou

t more and adds colour to make the page look more attractable and appealing to the target audience.

The main story which I created explains what The Strands have recently done, what they are hoping to achieve and there is a bit of background information so the audience knows how they came together and started playing. At first I set the

font to large for the page so I made it smaller so I could fit on what I wanted such as the tour dates and a list of the band members. I have chosen to follow the co

nventions which most magazines and other media texts follow, to try to make my magazine look as effective as they do. I have done this by using a drop cap, which I have done in red to keep with the colour scheme. I have chosen red as one of the ma

in colours because it works well against the white background and/or next to the black text.

To advertise the band further I added on their tour dates so more people may chose to go to wa

tch them play live. I also added a list of band members and what part they play in the band, so people know who they are.

On the bottom of each page I have added the page numbers; these are both in different colour

s. The colours which I chose where so the reader can see them easily e.g. black against white and white against black.

Analysis of Front cover

The photograph which I have chose to use as the background of the front page cover is a medium/long shot of the bands drummer. I chose to do a medium/long shot because then the full length of the drummer would fit into the frame, along with the drums. When the audience looks at the drummer they automatically know what part he plays in the band. I decided to crop this photograph first before using it, this was so I could try and get rid of the other two members of the bands arms because they cause distractions from the main image. As I was cropping the image I realised that I wouldn’t be able to crop as much of the sides as what I originally planned to do because if I had, part of the drummer would have been cut of with it. To solve this I decided to crop a certain amount of then clone other the remaining parts of the arms so they can no longer be seen. I also used the clone tool else where, this was in the top left hand corner of the photograph where there was a small dark shadow which didn’t need to be there. I then changed the input tones by using the cures tool. After this I used the Gaussian blur tool to out focus the background of the photograph slightly, this makes the drummer and the drums the main focus point.

When I had finished editing the photograph to how I wanted it to look like, I transferred it to a new A4 sheet. I had to do this as I had cropped down the original photograph so it was no longer the size which it needed to be. I could only re size the photograph slightly because otherwise the parts of the top and bottom would be to long and get cut of. This meant that at the each side of the photograph (placed centrally of the page) there was a gap. I decided to colour the sides in black, I chose black because it worked well with the colours in the photograph and did not clash.

Before deciding where to place the bands name, I tried out different fonts and colours to see which ones looked more effective. The font and colour which I decided to do are DextorD and white. The font and colour both work well with the front cover. The colour of the font (white) stands out from the background which is based on mainly dark colours, this makes the bands name look very eye catching. The font works well because it is not plain and boring, which would not represent what the band is about. I decided to put the bands name in between the drummers arms and the drums. I put it in the place I did because there was nothing distracting in the photograph behind it. When I had wrote ‘The Strands’ I had the text box set out to horizontal, I then decided to rotate it slightly to see if it would look more effective. I thought it looked more effective when I had slightly rotated it because it almost matches up with the angle of the drum. Whilst experimenting rotating the text I found out that if I rotated it to much, it would no longer look as effective because it would make the text harder to read and concentrate on.

To get the bar code for my front cover I took a photograph of a magazine, then cut it out with the polygonal lasso tool. I then re sized it until it was the correct size to fit where I wanted it to go. After I arranged the bar code I used the type tool to add the price, date and issue number.


I chose to name the magazine 'Discord', I decided to use this name as it is catchy.

Origionally I thought a blue and yellow colour scheme would work well because they stand out from the dark background well, but I figured out that they would suit more of a dance magazine instead of a indie/rock magazine. I changed the colour scheme to yellow and dark purple.


I added a number of puffs on to the front cover, this is to show what main stories appear inside to get the interest of the target audience.

I have added a plug to the front cover which

is advertising a free CD when you buy a copy. This will also influence the audience to buy the magazine because they ar

e getting a freebie. I re-arranged the text a few times so I could see where it looked the most effective.

Analysis of Contents page

I decided to add the photographs to the contents page first because I could then arrange them to where I thought they looked best. I chose to group the photographs together at the bottom of the right hand side of the page so that down the left hand side I could have the page titles and numbers. On each photograph I cut of the top left hand side corner using the polygonal lasso tool, I did this so that the photographs wouldn’t look to rectangular.

I inverted the colours on the date/issue number and the features/regulars block. I did this because I wanted to maintain the colour scheme, yet I wanted to make it appear fairly uniform, thereby keeping to a specific colour scheme for the page. I originally selected grey and red because they contrast well with each other and stand out. Red is a bold colour and contrasts well with the paleness of the grey. On the features/regulars block, I lowered the opacity of the grey to ensure that it wasn’t too dark or too noticeable. This made sure that the red was prominent.

For the page title ‘contents’ I chose the font Ruach LET 68pt because the text would look ‘rough’ and has the connotations of being urban. And goes well with the images and iconography. Also I think that it compliments the style of the writing, which is featured in the photograph of the singer. In keeping with this I chose to add a shadow effect to the text. I did this to mimic the effect that the drop down screen, which is in the background of the photograph of the whole band, gives. The image on the screen almost looks like a shadow and I wanted to utilise this effect with the text.

I decided to alternate between the two colours red and black on the page titles and numbers. I did this so that they wasn’t to much of one colour standing out from the rest. I included another text box besides ‘the kooks’, this is to show that the news is exclusive. To keep in with the colour scheme, I chose to do it in red, then add a drop shadow so it stands out more from the other red text, as I want it to be more eye catching. I also added the page number in the bottom left hand corner of the page.

Magazine drafts

Photographs