The Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
The magazine products that I have made are recognisable as a typical magazine cover. This is because I thought that is the most effective way to produce, make and advertise a magazine that would be appealing to the consuming public. The magazines that I analysed before I began making my magazine gave me ideas as to what I was going to include and set my magazine out like. I have not changed much as I wanted my magazine to look comparable to that of a real magazine that would be one sale.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
In my preliminary task I though about who my magazine would be targeted at. For this task I had to create a magazine for sixth form students for this I thought about my own age group and what would be appealing to them. However, for my main task I thought about whom I was going to target, as I was making a music magazine, I was obviously targeting my magazine towards music lovers, but I aimed my magazine at younger people for ages about 15 and 25. This is the generation that I have most in common with and so this would make is easier to create a good music magazine as I know what I, myself would like to see in this particular type of magazine.
I thought about how I would present the bands and the types of music in my magazine and I decided to make a magazine designed to showcase alternative types of music. I wanted to make the bands in my magazine to look unique and exciting. The band that I had taken pictures of was of the same age group as my targeted audience. When I started taking the images of the people that would be included in my magazine I thought a lot about how I would represent them, not only for my targeted audience but I also wanted them to represent specific things. I wanted them to look youthful and colourful; I wanted the effects of this to be more eye catching and to make the young people in my images to look iconic.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The magazine and print industry might distribute my media product, such as IPC Media. This particular publishing company produce magazines such as NME, Now and Look magazine. These types of magazine are targeted at younger people and people who like music and fashion. Therefore I think that my music magazine could fit in with these magazines and could be sold alongside with them. They would be aiming my magazine at young people and music lovers. This is, as I said the audience that I feel I know the most about and I am most involved with and that I can identify with the most.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
I have researched into the types of audience that I would like my magazine to be aimed at. I decided to find out more about this by looking at the types of magazines that I like the types of magazines that are most popular and what most of my friends would like to read.

How did you attract/address your audience?
The content that I have created for my audience is fun and an easy read. I used images and colours that were vibrant for young people. I have asked three of my friends and my teacher to look at my work and decide if it has met my target and if it looks professional enough. My friends told me that it looked professional and fun to read and appealing. At first they told me that I could include more information on my contents page and so I went back to it and added more details to the contents page.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
During making of this project I have learnt how to make creative and complex effects on pictures and how to make a double page spread using programmes such as Adobe In Design and Adobe Photoshop. I have gained knowledge on how to add special effects, how to work different layers, how to make a successful magazine layout. These programmes helped to make my work look a lot more professional and it has encouraged me to improve my skills using these programmes. At first they seemed difficult to use but after a few tips from my teacher about how to use the programmes more effectively and playing around I soon realised how to use the programmes to a good quality. I now know how to make a high quality double page spread and how a layout works on Adobe In Design, while I have improved my Photoshop skills from what I knew before, learning the use of new tools. I have also gained more knowledge about how the magazine industry affects the rest of the media industry and how much effort goes into making each issue of a magazine. This unit has also helped me to gain knowledge about different aspects of the print production.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I feel that I have learnt a great deal about many different aspects from making the full product. When researching these things I looked into the different types of magazines that would be similar to the magazine that I would be making, I looked at magazines like NME. But first I looked at college magazines for my preliminary task. I used ideas from this to create my sixth form magazine. Making the sixth form magazine got me acquainted with the use of Photoshop. I then planned my layout for my magazine and thought about the colour scheme. After making my preliminary task I then started thinking about what images or themes I could use in my main task, after I had brainstormed some ideas I began taking my pictures. I took pictures of myself and my friend. It thought about going with a theme in my work that would give my magazine a sense of continuity and I then began starting work on my main front cover image, with the theme of zombies and gore. However after getting more used to the tools and effects that I was able to create using Photoshop I decided that I would abandon the theme idea and show a wider range of my skills by using gradient tools and other tools also. Up until this point this work had taken me roughly 3 months to complete. I then moved onto taking more pictures which I would like to use on my double page spread and began editing those pictures also. I then had the task of learning how to use Adobe In Design. At first I found the programme hard to use. Once I had planned my layout for this, I then wrote up in a word document the text that I was going to use on my double page spread. After I had wrote it I copied it into my double page spread into magazine style columns. I then loaded my images from Photoshop onto my In Design document.
Throughout the project I have been keeping updated blogs on blogger.com. I uploaded images also to show the evidence of my work. My blog address is www.jesybeemedia.blogspot.com
Overall I have enjoyed making the project and it has encouraged me to look further more into the media industry as a career path.