Evaluation

I didn't try to do anything different from the professional magazines because I tried to make my magazine look as professional as possible so I stuck to the techniques of well-known magazines in order to help me with my own magazine's professionalism. I copied lots of things, like not having alot of dead space, as evidenced by magazines like Kerrang! An example of this is shown on the right, as you can see it doesn’t have any dead space, they use the whole front cover to help them advertise their magazine more and persuade potential buyers to purchase the magazine. I also copied the way Kerrang! produce the lots of information on the front cover of their featured article, on the issue shown on the right they used ‘Avenged Sevenfold’ as their front cover. This band forms part of the largest and most important article of the month’s issue. I wanted to replicate this technique, that's why I used ‘Captain Oates’ on my front cover as they were part of the leading article of the issue. In addition I used a larger, clearer font in order to attract the reader more effectively and to easily inform them about the band involved. But I believe I could have given even more information about the band on the front cover to attract even more interest from readers. I maybe could have included a quote from the band themselves or a bit more information about why they are good, and worth reading about. With my sell lines I could have added page numbers and a contents page so it would be easier for people to locate information as they flicked through the magazine. Another thing that I could improve about the sell lines is that I could have put more pictures in to express and illustrate the writing more and that would make it easier to digest and explain the sell lines in contrast to having just writing. My use of vocabulary linked alot to my target audience, a high percentage of my readers were either at university or college so I used words that they would use in their usual everyday conversations so they can relate to the different articles being expressed to them. I used words/phrases like ‘blow your mind’, ‘cool’ and ‘apps’ instead of applications to attract my target audience more. Therefore, my magazine is very informal and is looked upon as being much cooler and this adds to the fact that my articles are about informing late teenagers on what sterotypically matters to them.



My articles link to my audience, I chose lots of my sell lines for my front cover based upon new technology like apps for you IPod and new headphones; ‘Headphones that will blow your mind’ plus ‘Xbox or PS3’ and also ‘Spice up your iPod with brand new apps’. I based a lot of my articles on the fact that in my research lots of my audience loved to be up to date with new technology and I expressed this in my mood board which is shown on the left showing that my typical reader loves iPods and gaming consoles





After my photo shoot, I cancelled down to three photos that I could chose from for my front cover, these three wereI couldn't come to a conclusion on my front cover photo so I thought that I would ask my focus group and the type of people that would buy my magazine to give their views. Lots of people thought picture 'A' was the best due to 'how dramatic it was' and 'it is very bright" meaning that it stands out from other competiton. People didn't like 'B' because it 'looks dull' and 'may imply that the magazine is boring.' My focus group did like 'C' as well though because they liked 'the tilt upwards from the camera' and the 'professionalism being made from the photoshoot.' My focus Group cancelled down the photos to 'A' and 'C' so I asked potential customers some primary, quantitive research questions about which one they thought was better and 'A' got 74% meaning that 'C' only got 26%. This made me realise that my opinion was not valid when choosing a front cover picture because I'm not buying it, it's the customers who should choose what they want to see, so I followed my audience research.


With my masthead I copied alot of conventions that Kerrang! use... As you can see on the right Kerrang!'s masthead looks very rundown and urban but very dramatic, they use a black background to contrast with the white font which makes it stand out more, they have used a font which makes the word looked scratched and aggresive which really links to the genre of music which is contained in the magazine. I tried to do the same dramatic effect with my masthead, I chose a contrasting background and used drop shadow to replicate the Kerrang! look of run down and worn out. It took me a long time to replicate the way Kerrang! produced it's masthead. I explored many websites that showed different fonts and I came to the conclusion that http://www.dafont.com/ had the best fonts for my magazine and decided upon 28 days later font http://www.dafont.com/search.phppsize=m&q=28+days+later because it was the best option to show the dramatic, run-down, forceful look which I was trying to achieve. My only real regret about my masthead is that I feel it is not dark enough, it doesn't contrast against the white background as much as I had hoped.

To get to know how to represent my models better I looked at a website based upon different tribes in the UK and what they were interested in and how they looked; http://www.uktribes.com/. After looking at this website I can come to the conclusion that my audience are urban trendies who wear brands like Adidas Original, Fred Perry and Paul Smith, it is good to know which brands they like so it is easier for businesses to know if they should be advertising in my magazine. They listen to music by artists such as Pharrell Williams and Kanye West the tribe is defined as 'The Indie Scenester still likes to be ahead of the game when it comes to discovering new music. They still can’t quite shake off the skinny jeans though.'

To know more about my audience and my focus group, look at the prezi below..

Who would be the audience for my media product? on Prezi

I also wanted to show that this class of people were funny and outgoing; 'Our music is very feel good music that people like to dance to' and also when the article says ' We weren't that good really but people liked us!' I tried to make my article very upbeat and very positive just like the band members and this was a good way of representing the type of people they are.






To find out what kind of institutions might distrubute my product and to find out how my product matches with professional work watch the prezi below...

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

On my desktop I used InDesign and Photoshop to help me with my production, I found it hard to use at the beginning because I had never used them before but after watching the tutorial for both of them I improved my skills and this helped me produce more dramatic, more professional work.

I used blogger to help me record different information like reviewing different magazines, my audience research, my focus group, mood board, initial treatment and many more usages. I found it easy to use and navigate with, it is very similar to Word and I find Word easy to use anyway. I save my work in ‘my documents’ in a folder called 'Media' and also on my USB stick this helped me keep my work safe and secure. Saving my work was easy to do and by being more organised it helped me find and record my work in a more efficient way.


I used the camera shown for my photoshoot I found it hard to use at the begining due to the fact that the lighting was not very good for what I was trying to achieve. Photoshop helped me acheive the lighting effect I wanted. The picture shown on the right shows me using the assets.

For more evidence of the use of technology in my print prelim task look at the video i created below...



The section below shows my progression from my old rough copy front cover compared to my final product.

My first front cover (shown on the left) has lots of dead space and not many sell lines in contrast to my final copy, this makes it not look very professional and not as attractive for possible buyers. In addition my band name is not very catchy for my rough copy, 'Tiger in the Woods' is not as memorable as 'Captain Oates'. My heading 'QE music' is very dull and may imply that the magazine is not very interesting. I changed my masthead to 'Verified' because this means "correct, right, checked" and the sell lines express more to the readers about items in the publication that have interests appropriate to their needs. My rough copy is not very professional due to the fact that it doesn't have a barcode, doesn't have a slogan and doesn't have a date/issue number. I tried to add all of these assets to my final copy to make it look as authentic and unique as professional work. Looking at my rough copy I was impressed with my main picture, it is different and stands out from typical photoshoot pictures, another thing I was happy with was the way I linked to the colour red and black and not lots of different colours which may make my work look scruffy and disjointed. I thought my rough copy was a good template to start on because I could easily identify my faults from it, and it was easier to improve my work compared to if I created my final product or a product that I was fully satisfied with straight away.





The main reason for the progression in my skills is the tutorial both for Photoshop and Indesign. They helped me gain knowledge of the software and make my work look more effective. Without the turorials I would not have been able to make as many improvements and adjustments to the pictures. I woudn't have been able to place my writing on the final products as effectily either.