Friday, 13 December 2013

draft/plan of evaluation


1.        In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
FRONT COVER
With the front cover it has a clear masthead. BiggeR&Better implies that it is one of the greatest magazines out there and it is easily recognisable. It suggests that there is only the biggest and best things in the magazine which shows the reader that they would be reading about quality stuff if they choose to purchase my magazine. My readers know what they are going to get in this magazine because R&B is in red whereas the rest of the title is in blue. Therefore they realise it is an R&B related magazine. Also the colours blue and red can imply how my magazine can appeal to anyone as the blue can appeal to a man and the red can appeal to a woman. They are both social colours which represent the social side of things. My model is appearing as an up-and-coming rapper and is set to appeal to the fans of the underground scene. As he is a rapper that also covers the Rap bit in my magazine. The caption ‘Jay-Anti bursts onto the scene with new track’ connotes that he has made a smash hit that can appeal to fans maybe not just in the underground scene but a song so huge that it has made him front cover of my magazine. This will appeal to more and more music fans. My model is wearing a hoodie which the rap fans can relate to and he looks like an ordinary guy. When fans can relate to someone they tend to like them more so that means that more people will pick up my magazine if it features someone like him. There are also different cover lines which feature Jay Z, 50 Cent, Kendrick Lamar and Kelly Rowland. These cover lines add the gossip side which is essential to any magazine and appeal to all the fans because they are all titans in the music industry and therefore any article with them is a big story. I’ve added our twitter name and website because any magazine nowadays has to have technology to further develop their status. With the world of technology like it is today, the electronic extensions allow us to be more up to date with everything that is happening currently. There is also a cover line which says ‘win tickets to summer jam’. Summer jam is an annual hip-hop concert that happens in America which has all the biggest acts in the world to perform and people love winning free stuff so to win that would be huge for any fan. My magazine is £1.99 because as my magazine is aimed at around people between 16-25yrs old there is no point in selling something for extreme amounts. People are looking for the cheapest things about and to have something cost under £2.00 is more appropriate. I have a house style of using red, blue, black and white colours throughout my magazine.

 CONTENTS
my contents page is simple but effective. It has both features which are specific to this issue only but regulars which occurs every single issue. It has pictures of two of the people who will feature in the magazine and the audience will ‘recognise’. They are both wearing white which links to the colours and works with the house style I have created for the contents page. The features include artists like Eminem, Alicia Keys, Nicki Minaj and Dizzee Rascal. They all have separate storylines which I think would be interesting to different types of people. Other stories of my features include the things that you see on the front cover like an interview with Jay-Anti which is my first story which makes sense as it is the main cover on the magazine. In the regulars we have thinks like all the different charts. These include top albums, hottest tracks and so on. They are the normal charts that you would expect a music magazine to list. As this magazine was produced around Christmas time there is a Christmas competition where fans can win lots of festive prizes for themselves or loved ones. There is normally always a competition but the theme changes every month according to what is happening each month. I think putting something in where fans will win prizes is clever because it adds an extra special feel to the magazine as fans believe they can win something which gives an extra motive to buy the magazine. We also have horoscopes because I believe that a lot of people want to know what the ‘stars have predicted’ and also I’ve added an extra thing just for the month where people can find out which celebrity has the same birthday as them. People like to know about celebrities and they can maybe compare themselves to which celebrity has the same birthday as them.

DPS
My DPS is a question and answer with the main model on my front page ‘Jay-Anti’. As he is an up and coming rapper not many people would know a lot about him so it is just a bit of an insight to him. The dark background gives sort of a dark/mysterious tone to the spread. The title consists of me calling him the ‘hottest in the game’ which makes the reader more interested to see if they would think the same thing. The font for the answers is in italic which shows his direct speech to each of my questions. The picture of his hands to his head shows him rapping and this shows how he is serious about his rap game and he does it for the love of it and knows he’s good. He shows the attitude of a rap artist. The second picture shows him doing an ‘Illuminati pose’ which sparks controversy and every rapper needs controversy to become more talked about and more publicised. My artist is wearing blue which links with his answers and the colours I have used; red, blue, white and black shows the house style throughout my magazine.

2.      How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The audience of my magazine are for 16-25yr old. The younger age groups of society are the ones that mostly listen to R&B and hip hop. The price is low so that means my audience does not get a high or even any income. My model who is a male teenager is wearing a hoodie so he is coming across as a bit of a stereotype but I think my audience would like it as he looks like a person who can relate to them.

3.      What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I would like IPC to publish my magazine because they are the leading publishers in the magazine industry. This means that I will be able to get the best quality publishing from them. Also I realised that they do not publish a R&B/Hip gop magazine which means there is a gap in the market for me. I would like to have the magazine available for online subscription on the website and maybe an app so people can be up to date with current worldlya ffairs and other things which are available within the magazine.

4.      Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience of my magazine are for 16-25yr old. The younger age groups of society are the ones that mostly listen to R&B and hip hop. My audience are most likely to be wearing clothes such as hoodies, jeans, t-shirts, trainers e.t.c. The kind of movies they like to watch are comedies, action films, horrors and so on. The kind of people they look up to are celebrities such as Beyonce, Jay Z, Eminem e.t.c because they are inspirational as they started from a background just like my target audience and now they're at the top.


5.        How did you attract/address your audience?
- colour schemes
- different fonts
- model/interviews
- cover stories they may be interested in
6.        What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
- photoshop- knew the basics went more indepth
- indesign- didn’t know how to use before but now I do
- blogger- best website to blog stuff. Works with google/well known
- prezi- easy to make different plans. More clear than powerpoint.
- timetoast- helps you stay on top of your schedule.



Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
- photoshop
-indesign
-how to use the cameras/- DSLR cameras- one of the best cameras to use
-how media is important in the world


Wednesday, 4 December 2013

Audience feedback for my music magazine

'I like how you used a variety of colours for your front cover. This makes the text shown on your magazine stand out as its colour shows contrast with the black background. I also like how you highlighted the free giveaway on the front cover by placing it in its own box as its very I catching and stands out against the rest of the text on the page. As well as that, I like how your model is wearing clothes that are appropriate for the magazine and its genre. However, I do think that the front cover can be improved by using different fronts for the cover lines and masthead and editing the size of the gaps between words in the cover lines. Another thing that I think can be improved is how the image of your model is edited into the background. At the moment you can easily tell that the image is edited in poorly.' James Taasin on my Music Magazine Front Cover

From this I have properly edited my image and made it better. I have also improved the sizing of the gaps between the words.

Thursday, 28 November 2013

DPS

I believe this is a very effective and well presented DPS. You have the title in the top left with two pictures and the rest text. The first picture shows him clearly rapping and this shows what type of music he represents. The second picture shows the Illuminati pose which suggests which type of group he is affiliated with. The layout of each column of writing looks professionally done. Doing my DPS on InDesign allowed me to do this as it shows rulers and columns for me to measure the space in between each column. The actual content of the DPS is a Q&A between me posing as an interviewer and him. This gives the reader an insight to get to know him better.

Wednesday, 27 November 2013

CONTENTS PAGE

This is a simple but effective contents page. It has pictures of both my models looking out at my readers inspiring them to carry on turning the pages. I have two categories; features and regulars. The features are things that are only specific to this issue of the magazine alone. The regulars are things that occur every month for every issue that the magazine has published. You notice that it is professional in the sense that my page numbers go up quite a bit and a lot of pages throughout my magazine suggest that there is a wide range of content within the product. The black background has carried on like the front cover as it is a house style and constant giving a mysterious edgy feel to this issue of my magazine. The website is again underneath the title reminding the reader that there is content available online. Doing my Contents Page on Photoshop allowed me to have many different layers whether it be picture or text and it allowed me to move each layer to where I wanted it to be.

Tuesday, 26 November 2013

FRONT COVER


This is my front cover. The main person in my front cover is my model. He is looking straight at the reader which makes him look as if he is trying to connect to them. He is placed just underneath the title pointing up towards the masthead which makes the audience believe that he is now something that is inevitably going to get bigger and better if he is not already there. I have placed cover lines with page numbers underneath which show how big my magazine is and it shows the different people that also feature in my magazine. I have included that it is 'Issue 41' of my magazine along the barcode so people know how long my magazine has been running for and that it is being successful. On top of the barcode is the reasonable price of £1.99 as it is cheap and my audience know they are getting a bargain. I have included something that my readers can win in a separate box so that it catches my readers attention straightaway. I have also included a website so that it looks legitimate and professional. Doing my Front Cover on Photoshop allowed me to have many different layers whether it be picture or text and it allowed me to move each layer to where I wanted it to be.

Monday, 18 November 2013

TARGET AUDIENCE PROFILE

The audience of my magazine are for 16-25yr old. The younger age groups of society are the ones that mostly listen to R&B and hip hop. My audience are most likely to be wearing clothes such as hoodies, jeans, t-shirts, trainers e.t.c. The kind of movies they like to watch are comedies, action films, horrors and so on. The kind of people they look up to are celebrities such as Beyonce, Jay Z, Eminem e.t.c because they are inspirational as they started from a background just like my target audience and now they're at the top