Evaluation - Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task, What Do You Feel You Have Learnt InThe Progression From It To The Full Product?

I feel that I have got more of a grasp of Serif Page Plus since the preliminary task, the preliminary task was good practice for me as I had never used the software before.

Evaluation - In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms and Conventions of Real Media Products

Evaluation - How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?

My magazine is aimed at both genders 16-23 year olds who are students that listen to music a lot of the time, on their iPods, MP3 players, computers, laptops and mobiles. Also watch music channels a lot and also keep up to date with the latest music and music videos on YouTube or iTunes.
My target audience are also into differents styles of fashion and their style may be influenced by a number of artists after seeing what they wear.












This image shows the fun this particular social group has, they are shown listening to music, dancing and having a good time.












Again following their favourite artists styles that are on trend but just throwing things together like their artists, to make them unique.

A representation of this social group is that they are loud, so I have incorporated this into my magazine with the use of colours, my house colour choices are loud and bold.

Note - Problems

I experienced problems with slide share as it would not upload most of my presentations so I took photos of the slides and uploaded them. I also experienced problems with my scanner in scanning my work e.g. Music magazine  and planning so I also took photos of them and uploaded them.

Also Sofia Gonzalez was originally someone else who did not want photos taken of her and so therefore I had to take photos of someone else to be Sofia Gonzalez.

Note

At the beginning of this task I was working with a partner, however, we both had different ideas about the type of magazine we wanted to produce, and so therefore, ended up working independently.

Evaluation - What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process Of Constructing This Product?

Technology I used:

This is the computer I used to design and edit my magazine.

This is the camera I used to take the photos.

This is the memory stick I used to save my work on and transfer files between home and school.

This was useful however, the fonts kept changing so I had to adapt my work.

Software I used:

I used the internet to assist me with my music magazine research.

I used microsoft paint and Serif Pageplus to edit the photos.

Microsoft word and Microsoft Powerpoint were used for my blog posts and to write my article.

Slideshare was used to post my powerpoints which I thought was very useful and a creative way describing the process of making a music magazine.

Serif Pageplus 11 was the most difficult to use as I was not familiar with the software, although I had some practice using when doing the preliminary task, I still found it quite hard and felt my IT skills were limited on serif in making my music magazine.

What I have learnt:

- During the making of my music magazine I have used software that I have never used before, Serif Pageplus 11, blogger and slideshare.

Evaluation - How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?

To make sure I addressed the needs of my target audience I conducted a questionnaire which is shown earlier in the post titled Music magazine questionnaire, which was about my initial ideas and received constructive feedback which assisted me in producing my music magazine.

I also conducted another short questionnaire about the final product.
Shown below:

1. Do you like my magazine?


Yes          
No
Unsure


2. What do you think of the front cover? Is it appropriate for 16-23 year olds?






3. What do you think of the article?






4. Did I use a good choice of colours for my music magazine?




5. What do you like about the magazine?




6. What improvements could I have made to my music magazine?


The results of the questionnaire are presented below:

Evaluation - Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product?

Evaluation - What Kind of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product and Why?

After researching many different media institutions I have come to the decision that Bauer Media would be the distributor I would like to distribute my music magazine: Eclectic.

I have based my decision on a number of reasons:

Bauer Media are experienced in producing well known music magazines that have done and still are doing really well, such as Q, Kerrang!, MOJO, to a similar target audience as mine.





                                      

Not only does Bauer media produce successful music magazines but they also produce Heat, GRAZIA and more! which are very popular magazines among females within my target audience range.





                                         



Also when looking at a copy of heat magazine I noticed there was an advertisement of Q magazine with Take That on  the front cover, so Bauer could advertise my magazine in their other popular non-music magazines.

Bauer Media also own a range of TV channels that showcases the latest music in the charts which is what my target audience is interested in and also showcases live events such as the V festival on 4Music. Other well known music channels showcasing chart music are Kiss, Smash Hits, The Box and The Hits.


                         


                            

Finished pages

I have added purple to my house style colour theme as the black, white and red looked too simple and I felt like my front cover looked unfinished. Also my magazine stands out more with the purple and makes the magazine look more youthful and age appropriate.

I have also used a different image from my second draft as it was the same one I used for my article. The white oval around the image gives the effect of a spotlight shining on Sofia. I edited the image in Microsoft paint.

During the planning process I first decided to have some of Sofias head cover the masthead slightly but felt this not a good choice as it is a new magazine starting out and is not well known like Kerrang!, Q and NME who can do that.

The puff slightly covers Sofias arm, creating a 3-D effect, making it look like a stamp or a sticker.

There is a picture of a pretty girl on the front and boys will want to see more pictures of her, and girls will want to look like her.

I have also used less font styles and are now much easier to read from a distance.
When editing the picture, the picture became slightly pixelated around the edges, I tried to solve this but could not, as parts of the image started to go missing, I think this is due to the lack of experience with Serif Page plus, even though I have learnt a lot more about this software, I am not aware of everything you can do on Serif.
I have brightened up the picture to make the picture stand out more. Here is the unedited version:

I have added more articles and have added the logo at the top. I have kept with my house colours. The first image is a backstage photo to the photoshoot. I have added well known artists such as Cheryl Cole and Bruno Mars. Cheryl Cole is extremely popular among both genders. The images used are of girls, who young girls will look up to and want to know more about them, and boys will want to see more pictures of them as they are pretty.

I have lined up the heading and have added a subheading to the article. I have changed the pull quotes position into more of a square shape which I have noticed most double page spread articles do, they do not have the pull quote in a long line. I have changed the colour of the subheading to purple as it was red before. I did this because I felt that 'Sultry Sofia' did not stand out as much and the sub-heading slightly 'disappeared'. Now it stands out against the red, the colours contrast well together and they are also my house colours. Girls will see her as a role model as they will want to achieve what she has achieved whether it be in the music business or anything else, Sofia Gonzalez has never given up no matter how many hardships she has faced, which I think girls will aspire to, it is also a message for boys as well, to always strive for the best, to achieve your dreams.