evaluation draft

Evaluation

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

 I got my music magazine to represents particular social groups by basing it on a set type of social group; this was, by targeting a set social group, I could base it around them and also use appropriate colours, bands, contents and genre of music. The genre of music that I chose to target was heavy metal and hard rock. These two genres of music are very similar so this made it easier for me to link them both into the design of my magazine. The generic type of my music magazine is both inner and outter directed. The stereotype for my music magazine is Mosher, I took the stereotype into account when designing my magazine, this involved the house colours I used, the images I used, the name of my magazine, the brand image, the layout, and the fonts I used. All of these where used in the design of my magazine in order to represent my target social groups. The stereotype that I targeted listen’s to the genre of music that I also chose, Heavy Metal and hard rock. I think that the colours I used for my house colours and layouts for my magazine represent the stereo types and generic types i targeted as they generically like the colours black and red, so I used these colours. The demographics of ages, 15-24, are the target choice for me and for audiences of both male and female interests. On my double page spread I chose to do an article that is related to the news in the world of Heavy Metal and Hard Rock. I thought that if I chose an article that people in that genre type could relate to then it would target them more and represent them as an audience more as it is relevant. The socio economic group for my magazine is areas from E to C2 grade this is because the language in the article, on the double page spread, is simple and easy to read and understand also it is this because the price of my magazine is relevant to them. Furthermore the S.E.G’s target choice I have made is this because student are in these grades, they are my main target audience as they are the most likely age group to want to buy the magazine and to be into this genre type of music and they generally have the money spare to buy magazines.

3 What kind of media institution might describe your media product and why?

When I did my initial research I wanted the layout of my music magazine to be similar to Metal Hammer and Kerrang. This is because they base their magazines around the same type of genre as I am targeting. I thought that designing my magazine like theirs would be crucial if I wanted to get the correct representation of my target audience. I believe that my magazine would be published by a major magazine company like Metal hammer or Kerrang. This is because the layout and design is similar to theirs, but more like Metal Hammer. But I also believe that my magazine could be a competitor of these two magazine companies as my magazine has a lot of original features of its own.My music magazine would be an independent magazine as most of the Metal magazines around are independent.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

From my initial planning stages of this magazine I have designed and created my magazine based on my target audience. The demographics for my age and gender is male and female ages 15-24, I kept my original target audience as it was still suitable for my magazine and my target audience. Also I kept the S.E.G grades the same; I didn’t want to have just one S.E.G grade as the overall target audience for my magazine as it is for people of most of the S.E.G groups. My target groups for the S.E.G’s is from group E-C2 as they are the most relevant people to my target audience. But the main group in the S.E.G that I am targeting is group E, as these are mainly made up of students. Students are my main target audience as they are the people more likely to spend money on magazines and they are the more likely people to have spare money in their pockets. The stereo type of person I have targeted fits perfectly to my magazine, as I based it around them, the target audience of my magazine is a mixed gender audience ages 15-24, mainly made up of students.

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

One of the first things that I took into account when I was trying to make my magazine attractive to my target audience was the price of my magazine, I know I would need an affordable price as they were students and casual labourers and unemployed people, mainly apart of S.E.G class E, I also wanted it to be a suitable price to make profit. I spent a while and initially was think of a price around the rang of £5.50 for a magazine but as I was planning on having the magazine be a weekly and not a monthly I thought that this price may be a little bit much so I reconsidered and lowered the price to £2.50 per magazine. Also to make my magazine attractive to my audience I made all of the colours and the layout as a colour scheme that would be attractive to them by using colours associable with their stereo type and colours that are represented by them. I tried using layouts like Metal Hammer and Kerrang as they are magazines for the same genre of music so it is suitable to use similar layouts. Also I tried to use images that would draw the target audience in and also I tried using a big noticeable attractive headline to try to draw the target audience into the magazine. I also added an exclusive that is only in my magazine, the tour for the labelled.

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

From this project I have learnt a lot about technologies. i have learnt how to use Photoshop more efficiently and I have come to understand how to use the tools better and I have come to a better understanding on how to use these tools better. Also I have learnt knew techniques on using these tools, one example is how to cut a picture out of the background more effectively, to begin with on the preliminary task I would just cut it out and use th blue tool to make it look better and fit in more but in the music magazine project I have learnt better techniques on how to cut the images out, this has saved me time and made my work look better. Another example is how to use the burn tool. This tool came in handy when I wanted to make certain items and images look darker, on my contents page I used this tool to make my models hairs black instead of blond and brown. I also used this tool to make their clothing look news and darker and on the front cover to make all of the black lines on his hoody black again as they had faded. I also learned how to use the dodge tool, this tool came in handy on my front cover as I used it to make my models belt and wrist band shiny as they originally looked really dull. Also I used this tool to make the white stripes on his hoodie white again as they were greyish.  I also got a better understanding of how to use the transform scale and rotation tool. With lots of practice I became more efficient on using these tools and became better at understanding a more effective size for images. On this project I used the spot fix tool in order to make my image look cleaner and my model look better. The picture I used for my first three drafts of my music magazine had to be cut out of the background and I struggled to do this as I chose a really back background to take the picture from, I used this knowledge to take a better final image. On my drafts I used a different model and I used the burn and dodge tool to put “makeup” on him, I used these tools to give him a facemask to appeal to my audience more but I didn’t like this in the end and went for a new themed front cover and started it all again. I used the quick selection tool to cut round the images I wanted and then used the eraser tool to make the image cut out look better and more precise. After this I used the blur tool to go around the image in order to make it look more smooth and to make it blend into the background, but as I wanted my image to stand out more I didn’t do too much of blurring the image. After finishing up my image I then placed it into the centre of my background image. After this I placed in my headline and skyline and banner headline, my exclusive and my splashes. I moved these all around my image until I got it to look good, on my over drafts I moved my image around a lot too. On my front cover I spent a lot of time focused on my fonts; this was as I was running an eraser through the worlds in order to make it look scratched at like on the Kerrang magazine.

7 Look back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

From the progression from the preliminary task to the music magazine I feel that I have learnt a lot. For example I have learnt a lot about how to use Photoshop, on the preliminary task I dint know how to use any of the tools properly and it was my first time using it so I never really knew what to do. Furthermore, from the progression from the preliminary task to the music magazine I have learnt how to use the burn tool, dodge tool spot remover tool, lasso tool, polygonal lasso tool and I got better knowledge of the blur tool. From then to now I have become better and increased my skills of the use on Photoshop, It has become easier to use and improved my work drastically. On my college magazine I never used a proper background image and I relied a lot on gradients of colours to create an effective background, in my music magazine I didn’t want to do this and I used a background image and used the clone tool to make it look better and used different tools in order to change the colour and darkness of the background image of a brick wall in order to make it look better and to give it a good effect on the main image. I relied a lot on this project on the enhancement of images rather than covering it all up with different colours. This worked more effectively as it made my work look more realistic. Also with this project I knew more features that I would need to include for example: a headline, skyline, teaser, coverlines and a splash. I have developed my skills massively from my preliminary task to my music magazine. Also I had a better knowledge of how to make a effective layout for my work in order to get a better result.