Sunday, 26 January 2014
Monday, 20 January 2014
My evaluation
This is my evaluation for my As Media
Portfolio, I decided to make an indie/alternative magazine after being inspired
by magazines such as NME, Kerrang and Q magazine.
My research carried out on Survey monkey
showed me that my target audience would be people in social grade D, aged
between 15-25, of white British ethnic origin, and of a heterosexual sexual
orientation. The gender of my target audience would be primarily male but would
not limited to just males.
My magazines was inspired by NME, Kerrang and
Q magazine, I used these magazines in order to research the common conventions
of magazines, in particularly indie/alternative magazines as they fit this
genre well. A large masthead that took up 1/6 of the page became a noticeable
convention across all magazines I researched and so I decided to implement this
idea into the production of my magazine. I also noticed that mastheads were
often bold and gave an identity to the magazine itself and made it a recognized
brand. My mast head follows conventions as it reads Conform which sticks to the
convention of mastheads often being one word. I also decided to use a bold
typography style in order to make the name of the magazine stick out so that it
would be easily recognizable. I also used white, red and black as the color
palette for my masthead, as well as my entire magazine. Using 3-4 colours
consistantley throughout the design of the magazine also became apparent as a
common convention after researching numerous magazines.
I then went onto look at the layout of
music magazines and also create my own. I looked at layouts from the following
magazines: NME, Kerrang and Q before starting. I noticed a common convention of
layouts from the indie/alternative genre was that they were relatively simple,
displayed information in places where the audience could find it easily and
used text boxes to make sections stand out. This was used to represent and
attract the target audience.
My layout follows conventions because it is
simple, lets the text work well alongside the main image and it uses text boxes
to contain parts of the text which need to stand out. I let my target audience
choose the nature of my layout through SurveyMonkey. I asked them what they
would like to see on a magazine and a good layout was high on their list of
priorities.
Also based on my research (primary and
secondary) I chose a layout which followed many of the main stereotypes
associated with the genre. This represents the target audience because it fits
Dick Hedbridge’s theory because it represents youth as ‘fun’. I think my layout
will attract my target audience because it is easy to navigate, coherently and
stereotypically laid out and the barcode is positioned in the conventional
position.
In short, it follows conventions because of
the structure of the page but breaks them slightly because some of the spacing
isn’t perhaps the same as that of conventional magazines.I then went onto look
at the colour palate of music magazines and also create my own. I looked at
colour palates from the following magazines: NME, Kerrang and Q before
starting. I noticed a common convention of colour palates from the
indie/alternative genre was that they were relatively simple, most of them
displayed 3 to 4 main colours which worked well together.
This was used to represent and attract the
target audience. My colour palate follows conventions because it is simple,
uses the colours black, white and red and each colour is used in a different
way to make text stand out. I let my target audience choose the colours of my
colours palate. I asked them what they would like to see on a magazine and
these colours were ones which came up the most. Also, based on my research
(primary and secondary) I chose colours which followed many of the main
stereotypes associated with the genre. This represents the target audience
because it fits Stanley Hall’s theory because it represents youth as
‘rebellious’.
I think my colour palate will attract my
target audience because of the colours used and their connotation and also the
way that different colours are used to portray different needs. In short, it
follows conventions because of the colours used, but breaks them slightly
because perhaps it doesn’t stand out from the crowd as some of my competitors
do.
The main image for me had to be attractive
and convey the genre of the magazine to the audience. My model was a female who
was in the age category of my target audience, hopefully making it easier for
them to connect to magazine itself. Her dyed hair and risqué look only
emphasizes connoted rebellion which the audience of my magazine would
potentially be themselves. The typography of my magazine needed to represent my
audience as well, the common conventions of typography styles in magazines were
often bold and the words used were often short. I also added a bar code on my
magazine as room for the barcode would need to be incorporated into my magazine
if it were too be published and sold as a commercial piece of media.
I think that my typography styles and
colour worked well and represented the audience. They did this through bold
lettering and colours which fit together to represent the common convetions of
the genre.I also think that I could perhaps improve my image on the cover as it
doesn’t perhaps look as professional as I would have liked.
In terms of my contents page I noticed
through researching NME Kerrang and Q that there was oftena feature story, I decided to incorporate this
idea into my own work and highlighted the story on the cover, the contents page
and worked it into my double page spread by writing my article on the feature
story. I stuck to conventions in terms of loyout however broke conventions by portraying
images with shot types that are not conventionally shown on a music magazine
cover. Moreover, I maybe used a typography style which didn’t stick 100 percent
to conventions. I do however think that the breaking of conventions would help
in attracting my target audience as it is slightly different to most commercial
magazines and my target audience may be wanting to see something different to
what they are used to.
My feature page was also influence through
researching popular magazines in the indie/alternative genre I noticed that
they all had a large header in a large font in a bold typography style, had 1
main image, however could contain more, showed the page numbers in the bottom
left/bottom right hand corners, bold font size/style and showed stories that
were representative to my audience and their interest in music. I followed
these conventions through adding a large header at the top of the page which
told my aueience what the article was about, showed a large image, taking up a
whole page, used bold font styles and I also used interesting colours that
followed my main magazine colour scheme.
I portrayed a typography style for my main
article which didn’t follow the conventions of music magazines. I think that
this was because I tried to stick to my main magazine font, whereas I should
have tried to portray the genre better.
I think my feature article represents/attracts
my target audience because it fits Hedbrige’s theory of “youth as fun”. It does
this through the large, interesting image and the colour scheme. I think the
colours on my feature article look professional but I would change the
typography as it does not look as good as it could have due to it being out of
convention. In terms of my feature article, I decided to use an interview, I
chose this type of article as it gave the reader a more personal connection to
the star model and potentially is the more interesting choice of article,
compared to a review which is simply someone’s opinion which may lack interest
from the reader’s perspective.
Institution describes the organization or
conglomerate of people that are responsible for the publication of a particular
piece of media. Magazines are created by businesses seeking to generate a
profit by selling their magazine to a particular genre of people. Once the
audience is interested in the magazine the institution attempts to expand. It
can do this in three ways, conglomeration, expansion and diversification. The
media institution is huge. There are currently 2471 consumer magazines in the
UK across a wide range of genres. Readers spend on average £1.46 billion a year
on consumer magazines making it a viable and successful market.
Conglomeration describes the coming
together of different groups working together in order to be more productive
and potentially create a higher quality magazine. It is usually seen as a cost
effective move for an institution as a conglomeration shares the same
production methods, distributing methods and also the same building. Expansion
describes the buyout of a particular successful magazine that will easily and
successfully fit into a collection of genres that the institution owns. The
original owner of the magazine usually benefits well as the buyout is usually
high, obviously depending on the success of the magazine already. The owner can
make a decision to still work on the magazine as their own, however it simply
makes it easier in terms of production and distribution as it now become part
of the institution, where the only real difference in magazine production is
the content. Any addition to the current institution adds to the value of that
institution. Diversification describes the changes made to the product line,
decommissioning and introduction of new magazines and the institution's attempt
to produce magazine production into genres it currently has no influence over.
It does this in order to gain a more diverse and overall larger target
audience.
IPC Media are the leading consumer magazine
and digital publishers in the UK. They publish magazines from a wide range of
genres, from indie music magazines such as NME to woman's lifestyle magazines
such as Now weekly. They are also responsible for publishing newspapers such as
The People and The Sun. The company is divided into 3 main sub headings in
which similar genre magazines fit into. Connect is responsible for the
publication of mass woman weekly magazines. Southbank is responsible for the
publication for upmarket woman weekly magazines. Inspire is responsible for the
publication of men's weekly magazines such as The Field and Rugby Weekly.
Bauer Media Group is a large German
publishing company, headquartered in hamburg. Primarily they publish woman's
weekly magazines and also television listing magazines. Popular brands that are
owned by Bauer Media Group include Bella, Take a break and other popular
television listing magazines. Popular Bauer media brands include Q magazine and
Kerrang! It also has influence and involvement in the radio and television
industry.
I think that my music magazine would be
successful as part of Bauer Media Group, this is because they also own Q
magazine and Kerrang magazine, and could benefit from another magazine of
similar genre but with a slightly different target audience. In other words, my
magazine is similar to Q and Kerrang but
also different enough to attract the attention of Bauer because it is pitched a
a young group than Q but a slightly older group than Kerrang. I would like them
to publish my magazine because it would also ensure my publication got links in
TV and radio.
A key thing I learnt about was how to
create a SurveyMonkey Survey and share it on Facebook and Twitter. This was an
excellent way to conduct research as I could reach more people in my primary
target audience quickly and the technology generated graphs for me.
Another new piece of technology that I used
was called Prezi which allowed me to make professional looking presentations
easily and effectively, one of the tasks I did was to do a presentation in
class on feature articles using Prezi.
Throughout this course I have also had to
learn how to use professional software and equipment in order to make my work
look commercially viable and artistically effective. I had to learn how to use
Photoshop having never had any experience using it prior to starting this
course, I also had to get use to using the Apple Mac computers as well as the
professional Canon 5D SLR. I still think that I have to research more into shot
types and camera angles in order to become a more proficient and successful
photographer.
I also learned how to use Photoshop
effectively to fit my needs. I learned how to -
• Create
documents that were the correct size.
• Create
text which looks good and appeals to my audience
• Cut
out images from a complex background
• Change
lighting and saturation to make the images look professional
• Enlarge
images whilst still maintaining the quality
• Magic
wand tool for cutting out objects along with the magic eraser tool, I found
these tools made my job a lot quicker.
• Change
contrast and lighting using numerous overlays in order to make the image look
more professional.
• Create
and make a layout which represents many themes which I need to show.
The images that I used in my preliminary
task very basic because it was my first attempt at making a commercially viable
piece of media and therefore I had not had any experience in photography and
lighting which is easy to see by looking at the quality of the images on my
prelim work.
In order to avoid the same problem in my
main task I researched in depth what exactly influenced the quality of the
image, this included the lighting, aperture, location and mis-en-scene.
I think that the pieces of work that I have
produced for my main task easily shows how far I have improved since beginning
this course back in September. The layout on my work produced for the prelim
task was poor as I had not developed the skills on Photoshop required to create
a layout which would be artistically effective and commercially viable.
For my main task I researched the
conventions more closely and also took note of my research gathered on survey
monkey, on my main product the colour pallet was well thought and represented
the needs of my target audience well.
Overall it is clear to see that by
researching magazines and through experimentation on professional software I
have created a piece of media that is artistically effective and potentially
commercially viable.
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