Evaluation Question 7

                               

                                                       Evaluation q 7 from WillJKearse

Evaluation Question 6

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


The first and most used Technology is the site in which I use to post my coursework for my music magazine, Blogger. Over months of using Blogger to update my blog I have found it increasingly easy to use, as the layout is very simple and allows for easy and quick production of posts. A part which took me a while to get to grips with was how to embed files from other websites onto the blog and so being able to do this in the early stages of development was difficult. But all round it is a very easy site to use and makes posting your ideas very easy with the ability to personalise your blog and make your posts as individual and different as you like.

Adobe In Design CS5.5 was again one of the most used technologies, as It was the software I used to create my three magazine pages. At first when Introduced It looks complicated, but once you have the basics in creating layers and shapes then the rest comes through experimenting and trial and error. I found it to be a very good and officiant way of designing my magazine pages as it was surprisingly easy to use and I would recommend it to anyone doing a similar project, and considering I have had no past experience with a programme like this, it provided me with all the necessary tools that where easy to find and use.

   SlideShare although I did not use much I found to be a very effective way of presenting updates to my blog, especially for my evaluation, it made it easier as there is a clear flow through the information and it looks neat and tidy on my blog compared to a oversized blog post. So I wish I had used it earlier as I think it would have gained me extra marks. But it is easy to use as all you have to do is upload a power point presentation and then embed it into a blog post. And out of the three way to present a blog, this would be my favourite, because of its ease of use and good presentation. 

Prezi as a way to present your work I found to work well, it gives you a large variety of options and even allows you to add music and animations like fade in and out. Although I personally did not like the software, as at time it was just to overly complicated and sometimes the website would have technical issues and not let me upload. But the principle was good as it offers a different way of presenting your ideas, and so I did find it quite useful, to an extent.

This was probably the programme that i used the least, only to touch up on the brightness and to increase colour contrast in my images. I have had a lot of past experience with this programme and have used it in many other projects like for A level Art coursework. It allows you to edit images at your own will with a vast erray of tool available to customise or add effects to images to enhance their look, a very good, but complicated programme to use, but I did not think I needed to use it to its full potential. blah blahahah

Other technologies that I used in the process of the magazine design are Laptops and computers, my mobile phone, to sometimes view my blog when on the move. And most importantly the SLR camera that I took all my images on, providing me with the professional quality i needed to create a good looking magazine.

Evaluation Question 5

                             

Evaluation question 5 from WillJKearse

Evaluation Question 4

Evaluation question 4 from WillJKearse343

Evaluation Question 3

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

 

 

If my Magazine was a genuine publication on shelves to the public, my obvious answer to publish my magazine would be Bauer Media, and to distribute, Frontline. As Both have shown to be leaders in the media empire. 

         

 

Bauer are one of the biggest and most trusted media corporations in the world, they have been successful over many different media platforms and as technology has adapted and become more avalable, Bauer adapted to these changes and turned them into a posative by expanding their brand online and in other form like radio TV and more. And i believe this would be a great company to publish my product as they could expand my brand further to other platforms and getting it to a larger range and amount of people. Bauer as a brand is one of the most trusted as with all its brands it gives the reader, watcher or listener constant updates on information that is precise and relevant. It owns a wide range of companies and brands, from gossip magazines to Hard core metal music magazine.

 

There are rivals to Bauer, like IPC Media and Warner, and these would also be good choices to make when concidering publishing your product. But for me Bauer has the scale, heratage, and trust that cant be matched by many other corporations, and owns the majority of magazine brands I know. In terms of distribution Frontline would be my choice as it has worked with Bauer in the distribution of its brands like Q magazine which has always been a leader in the magazine industry before more platforms and free magazines came into the picture. I think my product would be able to contribute towards Bauer as It is more specific than Q magazine and tailors the the young rockers out there who dont want to read about Pop artists like in Q or other brands. It may be part of a smaller audience but I believe it will contribute successfuly towards the company. 

 

 



Evaluation Question 2

How does the Media product Represent a particular social group?

 

For this question I had to ask myself how did my images appeal to my audience of a particular age and social group. In my images, majority being on my Main artist, I wanted to convey a direct link between the model in the image and that of my audience, of age range 16 to 25. I wanted my Front cover to give the same effect on the audience that Q magazine does. Usually with one individual being the centre of the image with raw emotion giving the reader the insight into that artists music.

 

For my main cover image I wanted to change the steriotype of male leading artists and use a female so my magazine will draw in both genders and not just pradominantly one. I was going for the Indie almost Hipster esk costuming as my magazine does not just focus on the heavy rock and alternative genres. But to tend to the alternative spectrum of readers I wanted the costume to be mainly dark colours like for instance the beanie and the black skinny jeans. I think that you can tell a lot about an artist and the sound their band produces from the way they act, and in turn their costume. With her also holding a guitar down by her side, it gives the reader a small but needed insight into what this band is going to sound like, clean, vibrant, and emursive. I did not want any over done make up, just enough to bring out the look in her eyes and her expression correctly.

 

Her body language I hope gives the impression of a careless attitude. The lack of eye contact with the reader and the relaxed body language.

 

 For my main Article image, I wanted to bring in a new band to give my magazine more authenticity, again with this image I wanted to give an expression of relaxation, predominantly in the males and then the female in the centre looking more agressive, so she was more the centre of the image, telling the reader she is the lead singer of the band. A big part of my magazine was to introduce up and coming bands to my audiene and not just follow the normal codes and conventions of the everyday magazine, and this image of "Rage City" is a part of that.

In my article image the model is wearing the same costume and so the principle for representing my audience is the same, I wanted people who dress the same to her to find an interest in the magazine. In this image is now an acoustic guitar highlighting the softer side of their music, acoustic sets and tours. And I also wanted to represent the Indie genre through the location in which this image was set, a summer house. These images of my leading artist in the magazine represent one large group of my target audience. As my magazine focuses on multiple genre specific groups, This image and my cover will tend to the Indie crowd, with the more mellow music taste. Like Q my magazine does not focus on one specific genre of music, one week they publish a cover with the lead singer of Muse and the next week it could be Lilly Allen, or Jay-Z. I wanted to also convey the same idea but with more closely tied music genres, Indie linking to soft rock and Alternative and them leading to Rock and Metal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Evaluation question 1

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



Front Cover

My front cover for my Music magazine sets a clear and concise target audience for the brand, like many rock/ alternative music magazines the front cover is what draws the readers in with the choice of colour and images. A lot of my inspiration for my cover came from mostly Q publications, I wanted to convey a clean looking style, embrasing not a minimalist style but I know I did not want the cluttered look, that of Kerrang.  Origonally I used colours like yellow and blue in my cover along with my Red, Black, and white but it through my eyes made my page look muddled and more along the lines Mojo or Kerrang.


The codes and conventions king of my Magazine Cover can be seen in the images, both technically and Symbolicly. Technically, as in Camera work, for my subsidiary image of the Yellowcard concert, I knew prior to the concert it would be good to use this as an opertunity for me to take some images for my pages. I wanted to take them from the view of the crowd, so this involved getting as close as I could to the stage. Although in the image it looks that of an amature photogapher, to be honest I wanted to try and challenge the common conventions in magazine photography by attempting to create a better link between audience and magazine. By taking it from an audience members perspective, it creates the sense that we are one of the crowd, we are amoungst the audience not just in the back rooms doing exclusive interviews and photo shoots.


The codes in the Symbolic way, can be seen in the expression in my main image and in other images of the main artist, like in my Article. The blank expression and with the model looking away from the camera gives a almost care free attitude, she is someone who doesnt care what people think, she is confident in herself and independant, and the lack of eye contact presents this personality well. The attitudes of the artists have a direct effect on the reader and that is what Iwanted my magazine to be able to do. The magazine is fitted and taylored around its audience and by presenting certain emotions and expressions the audience as part of the magazines following will subconciously mimik these actions to fit to their desired taste in music and artists.


My music magazines Masthead Unstrung was tailored around Q magazines masthead. I wanted the same effect in it being eye catching but also simplistic at the same time. I loved the colours udes with the Q magazine masthead, the vibrant red with the white gave it a strong, easy to recognise effect. I used the same for mine, but adding my own idea to the table as well. On the head of guitars are usually the Name of the company that produce the product, E.g Gibson, Epiphone, Ibinez. These are usually in slanted fonts with flowing lines. I wanted to make that link to my own masthead, by having this guitar background with he masthead it creates a link with the magazine and genre. Usually are associated with guitars are genres like Rock, Alternative, Metal and Indie.



For this area of my magazine cover, following the typical grid fashion I placed my coverlines and my splash. I stuck to the three main colours and to my two main fonts, Scrip MT Blod and Franlin Gothick Heavy. The base colour being black but i used red to highlight the more relevant infromation in the section and then for a larger story, "Yellowcard" I used white to make it stand out amoungst the rest, as in my opinion its along with "The Waiting Game" was one of the top storied accessable in the magazine. This follows the usual convention for most magazines, but Ichose to keep all my information on one side of the page, apart from a pull quote. Whereas some magazines have it on either side of the main image, but like Q, I wanted a less cluttlered look so the reader was not overwelmed with information all over the page. I kept the coverlines to a minimum only using the best stories and news to fill this space. Like exclusive access to information, again drawing the reader in, making them feel special and fortunate. Part of a group of people to know the information amoungst the huge crowd "Exclusive 2014 Gig Guide!"









With my Header and Footer bars I wanted to not distract the reader to much from the main information so I kept information to a minimum, and used them just as a way to promote smaller stories or to show the audience that the brand is a multi-platform brand, as the Fotter bar gives a link to the Brands website where as said in the Header bar you can vote for last years top artist, and in the Footer bar gives referance to other media forms like videos ect.


As I said my magazine had been made around the ideas in the Q magazine publications, but the majority of Q's pulished covers do not have header and footer bars. Origonally I was going to follow the same but I did not like the look of the page without them. I think they play a key roll in tying the page together by creating a boarder on the page.

I wanted to display this post in a Prezi, But I found that transfering it to blogger made it easier to read and follow where I was, and what I was speaking about. My other two posts on the Article and Double Pge Contents will be in the Prezi Format. And will later be added to this Post.

Evaluation q 111111111111111 from WillJKearse