Evaluation

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. music magazines)

Title of the magazine – The title is ‘Anarchy’ this obviously points the magazine in one direction, it is quite an aggressive and serious title and grabs people in the sense that they already have an idea of the content involved even if they do not know the magazine at all, just by guessing the title the magazine is pointing in the rock/heavy metal route, you wouldn’t exactly have a magazine about pop music named ‘Anarchy’

Mise-en-scene of images – All of the images go well with the style of the magazine, all of them have content which is relevant to the magazine, they all feature band members and have objects and instruments that are relevant to the genre of music and also their specific band, this yet again helps the reader identify the type of magazine they are about to read, the mise-en-scene of the images further back up the title of the magazine and projecting the style of the magazine.

Costume and props – This ties in with the mise-en-scene, the costumes that feature in the magazine are typical of the genre of music, the style of the artists and bands, it is the type of costume that the reader will see featured in the magazine and may then purchase similar clothing to imitate their favourite artist or band.  There aren’t very many props in the images but the few that are in the images are all relevant to the image and the band that the image shows.

People – Obviously all of the people in the magazine are relevant to the content and audience of the magazine, most are band members and the others are just people who work on the magazine, obviously both of these are relevant to the magazine and audience.

Title font and style – The font is aggressive just like the title, its style is quite organised and clear, which in retrospect is ironic as the title is ‘Anarchy’. This does however keep it clear for the reader, when the magazine is sitting on the shelf it is easy to distinguish the magazine from other magazines, also because of the house style then you are going to recognise the colours aswell as the fonts which will help you notice the magazine before you notice other magazines.

Written content – The only real written content that is featured in the magazine is the article on one of the bands, this is a strong selling point for the magazine as the band is just meant to be starting out, this means that they are on the increase in popularity, by choosing an interview type format for the article on the new band then it could mean that people would purchase the magazine just to read that interview of their favourite band.

Music genre and how my magazine suggests it – The genre is heavy metal to dubstep, both are aggressive styles of music and have a lot of mutual fans, you find that people who like dubstep usually like heavy metal, and vice versa, this  also adds to the selling point of the magazine, this is the first of its kinds so fans of both the genres can now go to one magazine for both rather than having to subscribe to two different magazines. The magazine suggests the genre through simple things such as the content of the images, the bands featured in the magazine, the font and the house style, the title, and also the slogan which clearly states the content and also the genre of the magazine.

Layout – The layout is simple and clear, yet has a lot of content,  I thought if the layout was too crowded or too complicated then not only could you irritate readers and stop them from reading through the magazine you could also deter people from buying the magazine in the future.

Contents pages – this is yet again another simple part of the magazine, all of the pages in the magazine are clearly labelled in the contents page and also has a title for each page,  there are also pictures in the contents page which have page numbers linked to the image, this is so that people recognise the bands that they want to see, if you’re looking at the face of the singer in your favourite band then you are going to notice, however you could miss the band name in a list of names.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product represents a particular social group because of everything in the magazine, everything that was explained in the first question is what points this magazine to a specific social group, from the simplest things like the font used on the page numbers to the actual content of the magazine, they all point towards the genre of heavy metal and dubstep, these two genres predominantly have one social group which are fans of the music, this is how my media product represents particular social groups.

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

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Who would be the audience for your media product?

The profile of my target audience would be people of the age 15-25 and obviously fans of the heavy metal and dubstep genre, people who live the student lifestyle and want a no nonsense magazine that isn’t going to take them a week to read, they want a magazine which is to the point, they want to know something about a band and we give it to them rather than dancing around the issue and dragging things out, the magazine is for regular gig goers or people who are just on the lookout for their favourite band coming to an event or venue near them, the magazine features a gig guide which is one of the main points of the magazine.

How did you attract/address your audience?

The main way I attracted my audience was the main cover, the title is large and bold, stands out from the rest of the magazine and also the magazines it is going to be put next to on the shelves, the main image on the front cover is also large and clear, so fans of the band features in the front cover are easily going to be caught by this image and therefor inclined to buy the magazine. The way I addressed my audience was obviously through things such as content of the magazine, font used, and also the style of the text that has been written, the maturity and complexity of the text reflects the rest of the magazine, the style of the magazine and also the bulk of the audience.

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

There are many different things I have learned about technologies through the process of constructing the product, the main things I have learned are the level of detail and planning that has to go into using things such as the cameras and the lighting, there is a lot of skill involved in taking the photos, you cannot simply point and shoot and get the best pictures, they take time and planning and a level of expertise with the technology, also the amount of time and effort that has to go into the computer work for your results to actually be to a high standard, using programmes such as Photoshop can take up a lot of time but if you put the correct amount of effort and skill into such a programme then the results can be amazing, it helps a lot with images obviously and you can modify the images to however you need them to be.

Looking back at your preliminary task (the school magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

The level of detail in things are absolutely key, it is what makes the magazine, in my preliminary task the magazine was quite bare and basic, just by adding a bit more detail into the full product the magazine looks a lot better and has a professional feel to it, whereas the preliminary task was clearly completed by someone with little experience with the technologies involved. Small details such as the font used can make a massive difference to the feel and look to the magazine, they can also make a massive difference to the genre and social group projected by the magazine. Having enough images is key to the magazine as having too many makes it overcrowded and bad to read, having too few makes the magazine look bare and cheap.