Note To The Examiner

Dear examiner,

i have realised that throughout the process of creating my magazine that the importance of planning and research makes a large impact on your final product. I have enjoyed the entire process and I am very pleased with the outcome of my magazine.

Final Magazine Cover

Final Magazine Contents

Final Magazine Double Page Spread

Preliminary Magazine Task

Evaluation Question 1 In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (created on slideshare)

Evaluation question 1 media from jacobrush1998

Evaluation Question 2 How does your media product represent particular social groups ? (created using sound cloud)

Evaluation Question 3 What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why (created on blogger)

I think the media institution that would distribute my magazine would be IPC media. The reason for this is that they are one of the leading media institutions in the UK. They publish magazines such as Q and NME. This is a good indication to what type of music magazine they publish, the magazines that they publish are similar to my magazine in some context as it has the same types of artists displayed within the magazine to my own. The company distributes well-known music magazines, which means that the company has the experience and are obviously good at their job. IPC, being a well-known magazine institution, will give my magazine a good chance of a customer being interested in it. I also think Bauer media would be a good media institution to distribute my magazine. The company distributes popular music magazines such as Q and MOJO, Bauer media doesn’t distribute a magazine similar to mine, however this company is also quite well known so it will give my magazine some recognition on the market. In expansion of distribution I could create and develop a website for my magazine with more music related information and articles. Things like a radio station is a good way to distribute a magazine. All of these extensions could get my magazine more recognition.

Evaluation Question 4 Who would be the audience for your media product? (created on photo shop)

An example of my audience is a student, Connor Priest from Leicestershire. He currently works at urban outfitters. Jack loves his music and has always taken an interest to the alternative music genre. He listens to bands such as twenty-one pilots, Foals, arctic monkeys and other similar bands. This is the exact music genre / fashion and style type that I am using as the theme for my magazine meaning Connor will be interested in what my magazine has to offer. The audience I am targeting is 14 to 30 year old males; Connor fits this category as a 17-year-old male making him a good audience profile. Connor would come under the Indie Scenesters tribe, as he likes to wear clothes that make him different in a crowd. Also he attends festivals and is attending Leeds festival this year for the first time and hopes to be there again in upcoming years. connor also likes to find new music and has a spotify account which enables him to access a variety of different music and he can search for related artists and find new music that he enjoys.To research for my target audience I used a website called, Chanel 4 UK Tribes and looked at the various types of category’s of people that would potentially read my magazine. I found that “Leading edge” is the category that Connor falls into. The information I have gathered form this research is that these types of people are individual and like to stand out from the crowd. This relates to my magazine as it stands out from the others on the market. Connor regularly goes to see small upcoming bands at the local youth club in search of finding something new. These people also have reputation to bring back the fashion from earlier eras in time such as bringing back the capri trousers from the 50s and Dr Martens. Connor could also be associated with indie scenesters in this way as he likes to wear baggy flared jeans on occasions and other clothing such as bomber jackets and denim trucker jackets. I could use this fashion element for my magazine because it will keep my audience happy when reading it, as they will be able to relate to the magazine. Another thing about Indie scenesters such as connor is that they are attend festivals, so this could be used in my magazine as I could interview bands and also the indie scenesters that have been to a festival like Reading or Leeds or Glastonbury. I then chose Hipsters to be another genre of people who would read my magazine as their dress sense is similar to the type of music featured in my magazine e.g. Arctic Monkeys, Foster The People and Two Door Cinema Club. Also the type of clothing that would be in the magazine because that would also match what hipsters wear. My magazine would be distributed in using paid circulation and customers would have to subscribe to buy the magazine. This is good for my target market as they wouldn't want to buy it from a common store, they would rather use a different method of purchasing it.

Evaluation Question 5 How did you attract/address your audience? (created on slide share)

evaluation question 5 from jacobrush1998

Evaluation Question 6 . What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product (created using blogger)

In order to create my magazine, I used a range of technology including cameras and computer software. Before starting the coursework, I had a little bit of experience with using cameras and also very limited experience with Photoshop. I found that i did develop a good understanding of the program by just experimenting with it and I soon got the hang of it. I feel this has helped me massively to create a good magazine. I used a Nikon D300 camera with 3 large filter lights inside the studio at school, these lights helped create a better feel for the photos. At first, I only knew the basics of the use of a camera, however I now have a larger understanding of how to use a camera in more depth. After a few photo-shoots, i started to learn the importance in the angles and lighting i needed for my images. I learnt this through looking at pictures from previous photo-shoots as i analysed what could have been better about the images. The lighting i used was easy to set up and easy to use and was easy to move around to get a different angle. Photoshop was the only program i used which to created my magazine with. These were accessible in certain computers around the school but i also used the 30 day free trial i had downloaded on my laptop so that i can spend more time on my magazine. I used a magazine called surface as one of my biggest inspirations and helpline on what my models should look like or wear. I also used this on research on poses to use and experiment with for all the images in my magazine. 

Evaluation Question 7 . Looking back at your preliminary task (the continuity editing task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product (created on blogger)

In comparison from my preliminary magazine compared to my final magazine, there are a lot of clear improvements. The photos I used for my final magazine were a improved a massive amount by using an expensive camera and professional lighting compared to my preliminary task in which I used my phone. The styling of my model improved, so it made the photos look a lot better than the clothing I chose to use in my previous magazine, it made it look a lot more professional. the clothing in my preliminary had logos on them, I tried to avoid doing this in my final magazine as I wanted to make the photos look as simplistic as possible. on my preliminary magazine there was nothing on the cover that would appeal to school students which was the target audience for the preliminary magazine. I had nothing in the photos to suggest that it is a school magazine, as there was no uniform, lanyard or anything educational. Whilst on my final magazine, the fashion, artist and contents all matched my genre really well. The clothes were from high street stores like Zara and Topshop, so the mise-en scene was accurate. This would have attracted my audience as the fashion was similar to what they wear and the contents was similar to what they listen to and are interested about.  The change in style shows the improvements I have made, as I now understand how important these small aspects are to create a better and more realistic product, and shows how I have improved the aspects of mise en scene. As well as my understanding of mise en scene, my camera work has also improved. The photos used for my preliminary magazine were very blurred, which obviously shows that I had little understanding of how to properly used a camera effectively. My photos were also off centre and framed poorly. As well as this, my photos from my prelimenary had shadows as the lighting was not properly set up. When I took the photos for my final piece, I used three proffesional lights to eliminate any shadows and also placed my artist in the centre of the wall so that there was nothing in the background like shadows or corners. I also learnt a lot about the positioning of my model, in my preliminary the model I used was stood still looking directly at the camera, but after my planning and research I found many positions that looked good for the theme of my magazine that I liked and wanted to try for myself which helped my magazine look a lot more professional. This all shows the improvements I have made and how much I have learnt through the process.

I looked at a lot of magazines after making my preliminary magazine when carrying out my research. This helped me see the importance of the text arrangement and also gave me ideas of how to layout my work. My preliminary cover is poorly laid out, as you can see from the picture, the words are placed randomly without any specific measurements and alignments. On the other hand, my final cover text is coloured black against the white background which helps customers read the magazine and the text is laid out well, so that it is attractive and appealing. Also, the title of my prelim magazine was very small and not very eye catching, compared to my final magazine, the text used is very attractive and large enough to catch people’s eye. I also learnt the importance of using a variety of fonts.

Step By Step Cover