Evaluation

Asad Ahmed

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The Brief

• For AS your brief is to produce the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine.

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Task OneComplete all of the tasks in the ‘Foundation Portfolio Research and Planning’ booklet.You should also begin to keep a BLOG/Diary of all the work that you complete in each lesson in Microsoft Word or as your teacher directs you UNDER THE FOLLOWING SEVEN HEADINGS. 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? 4. Who would the audience be for your media product?5. How did you attract/address your audience?6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? (Screenshots will help to illustrate this)7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

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1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Masthead

Footer

Main cover lines

Main image

Barcode/price/issue

Cover lines

Rule Of Thirds Rule Of Thirds

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‘The Source’ was one of the first Hip Hop magazines I looked at for inspiration; as you can see my magazine and The Source are very similar; especially with the layout.

For my Masthead I’ve used the font, which suits the magazine. The letters are sharp to make it stand out on the page. The fact that I’ve added drop shadow makes it stand out even more.

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The main cover lines is the most appealing and biggest story within my magazine. The font stands out; however, the text here is a lot bigger, simply because I want the readers to instantly see the main cover lines to gain their interest in the magazine. The style of this is similar to Hip Hop magazine, ‘The Source’.

The footer of my magazine works the same way as the cover lines and footer; the fact of the white text being on a blackrectangular shape makes it stand out. It just displays a list of Hip Hop artists potentially mentioned in the magazine. The style of this technique is very similar to ‘the Source’.

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Rule Of Thirds Rule Of Thirds

Magazine name

(corporate identity)

Contents list

Main (big)

image

Headings – page numbers

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1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The magazine contents page I have created has a plain black background to it which makes is plain and simple, whereas at the bottom Vibes magazines contents has a gradient as its background.Both magazine contents pages have an artists picture on the right hand side of the magazine. The top magazine has a medium shot whereas Vibes have a medium long shot of the artist.Both of the magazines have the features put in the left hand side. I think that my magazine contents page is very effective because it is similar to the Vibes contents and looks really professional. The magazine which I created has the masthead contents put in on the top. That is something Vibes contents doesn’t have. The masthead stands out and is really clear, its effective because it catches the readers eye and straight away lets the reader know what this page is about.

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Here we have two magazine double page spreads. Both spreads have an image of an artist on the left hand side of the magazine and both are medium shots of artist. Both magazines double page spreads have the text on the right hand side of the page and are written in paragraphs. They both have white text with a black background to it to make it stand out and clear. Also they both have a quotation of what the artists said in a big and bold text.

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With my contents list, I’ve mentioned all the most appealing points of what’s in the magazine; the points that the readers are possibly most fond of and the points they’d most like to read. The layout of my contents list is effective as it goes from big to small; follows the shape of my image – this is very similar to the way ‘Vibe’ have laid out their contents page. The font remains the same as my frontcover; consistency and also it works well (stands out) on the background as my background is plain but simple.

The image I’ve used on my contents page fits into the genre of Hip Hop as the male model used is presented well; clothing and appearance. The image is a medium shot (captured from the waist) and placed on the right side of the page in order to let the contents list flow on the other side; similar to ‘Vibe’. I’ve cut out the background of my original image using the polygon lasso tool and I just put the edited version on my background; it seems more stronger and your enabled to focus more on the male model. It appears that ‘Vibe’ have done a similar thing with their image.

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For my contents list I’ve added headers. These headers are in a different colour so the readers know their outlining the page references; feedback. The font is the same as the contents list itself; this same technique has also been used by ‘Vibe’; this shows professionalism and consistency.

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Grab quote

Grab quote

Image

Mast head

Headline

Article

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For my double page spread, I again looked at ‘Vibe’ for inspiration. I’ve taken some ideas on layout from ‘Vibe’ magazine to create a double page spread that looks professional. As you can see on terms of layout, the magazine double page spreads are alike.

For my masthead, I’ve kept the red shape behind the text proves this (although the opacity levels are full, so the text looks strong against the background). Also its noticeable that I’ve used roughly the same colours throughout the different pages; consistency, The style of font is completely different to ‘Vibe’ but positioned in roughly the same place.

I’ve included a grab quote on the first page of the article to emphasize what the artist (Kartel) has said. This is more affective as the readers hear what the artist (super star) has to say; like a louder voice. Also I ’ve used several more grab quotes within the article (interview) to make it look as if he’s actually saying it; this is a good method of attracting a wider audience – they want to hear what a star has to say.

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The image I’ve used for my double page spread represents the Hip Hop genre well, as the appearance and clothing of the model is appropriate and typical. The way I’ve positioned my image to fill a whole page proves to be professional as when doing my research, I often found most double page spreads were laid out like this just like the ‘Vibe’ one below.

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For my planning, I created a draft for all of my magazine; front cover, contents and double page spread. I did this to get an idea of what I initially anted my magazine pages to look like and it also gave me a chance to experiment with different layouts and colours.

As you can see my magazine pages are near enough exact to my drafts (my drafts made the process of making my magazine quicker as I had something to work from). When I began to create my magazine I found that some things looked better, so decided to change them especially my double page spread.

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2. How does your media product represent particular social groups

Representation

My magazine represents teenagers (15 – 19) who are in or into the genre of Hip Hop. The fact that my male model on the front cover looks like the typical figure for Hip Hop rein – forces the representation for this genre. The same with my contents and double page spread; the models have a typical Hip Hop appearance to them, for example, the caps and head phones.

Through the representation of my magazine, I want the audience to gain passion or start to like (if they don ’t) the Hip Hop genre through the music. Hip Hop appears to be urban and some people dislike the fact that the music some what aggressive and through the representation of my magazine, I want people to see the other side; my article is a good source to let people know what Hip Hop really is.

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Some features that represent the Hip Hop genre through my magazine include:- Image (front cover)

Again, representing the Hip Hop genre well as his appearance is typical - hat

Representing the Hip Hop genre – use of props (headphones) shows this

His pose represents Hip Hop as he seems confident (serios and up-straight)

The content within my text represents Hip Hop as it refers to Hip Hop events and things related to Hip Hop

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Some features that represent the Hip Hop genre through my magazine include:- (contents page)

Wearing a hat on which represents the hip hop genre through my magazine

Standing up straight, hands in his pockets and looking confident

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Some features that represent the Hip Hop genre through my magazine include:- My double page

My grab quote represents Hip Hop as its referring to a theme of it; rap. The quote is emphasizing what rap is and the passion. The readers get to take in what the artist has said which causes to be more affective.

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

Bauer

According to my research, Its clear that ‘Bauer’ are the best institution to distribute my magazine as they have a wide range of music magazines that have been successful already; some of these include: Kerrang and Q. Also the fact that these are different genres of music widens the audience, unlike ‘IPC’ who concentrate on the genre of women.

- Kerrang (rock magazine)

- Q (UK’s biggest selling music magazine)

My target audience is those who are into the genre of Hip Hop age ranged between 15 – 25. Although ‘Bauer’ do not have any Hip Hop magazines within there industry, I think there’s space for this to be as they seem to already have published successful music magazines, as you can see above.

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Bauer The success of Bauer and their music magazines is why I think they’d be the right media institution to distribute my Hip Hop magazine. Although they haven't got a Hip Hop music magazine within their institution, I think that they could make it work. The Hip Hop fan base is growing faster and faster with new artists coming in with new talents (for example: Drake, Nicki Minaj, Tyga etc). The fact that ‘Bauer’ have made ‘Q’ the best selling music magazine in the UK is the reason I think their the best institution for my magazine.

Now Hip Hop is a much more popular genre; this allows more space within institutions to promote the Hip Hop genre so that the audience will gain more interest; potential of Hip Hop to be much more popular in the media industry.

Bauer have proven to be the best media institution for my Hip Hop magazine but there are many rivals out there. One of these are IPC who have been successful over the past 50 years with there number one magazine, ‘NME’. Although ‘Q’ magazine is the UK’s number one selling magazine with a higher circulation then IPC’s ‘NME’, they still cause a threat as there currently the UK’s leading consumer magazine.

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

As you can see on my magazine pages, the models are all young males with a Hip Hop appearance. This is noticeable that my target audience are young males between the age of 15 – 25 as the models I’ve used emphasize this. My magazine represents these males in a positive way, simply because their appearance is strongly linked to the Hip Hop genre and what I’m trying to achieve is a Hip Hop magazine.

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5. How did you attract/address your audience?

What is your favourite type of music?

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

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2

3

4

5

6 Other

Classical

Rock

Hip Hop

Indie

Pop

Whilst researching, Its obvious that there are a mix of genders who enjoy Hip Hop music as my questionnaire consisted of asking about 50% of males and 50% of females.

Presumably my target audience of males and females who fit into the Hip Hop genre like listening to the well known selection of Hip Hop artists in my magazine, such as Lil Wayne and Rick Ross. All of these artists represent Hip Hop in a good way as they represent the wide interest in the style of music and the way both genders are fond of this.

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To help get my audiences point of view on what they would like on my magazine, I carried out a questionnaire summarising the attractions on my magazine. Some of these features include the colours, what they would prefer on my magazine (articles, new music etc) and the styles of font.

What sort of things would you like to see in a music magazine?

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2

4

6

8

10

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1 2 3 4

This is what my audience preferred to see within my magazine; images. What you can see on my magazine is a selection of images that have been edited in ways to attract my audience more.

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6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? (Screenshots will

help to illustrate this)

This is when I created my masthead. I chose a font that would represent Hip Hop (looked at Hip Hop magazines for ideas) and then changed the colour, size and style. For more affect I decided to add drop shadow to my masthead; I did this by clicking on “fx” then “drop shadow”. As you can see the layer style box has a lot of options in there; these are just for editing, for example you could adjust the drop shadow so it would be at an angle or more darker, with shadow etc. I also did this process when creating my slogan (selling line).

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Here I’m creating my header. All I did is insert a shape (rectangle), resize it to the width of the page, change the colour; as you can see here I am changing the shape black.. I positioned the footer at the bottom of the page where is should be (I will later add text). As always this is on a new layer to prevent things getting mixed up or lost.

This is when I added text to the header. I think the font I’ve used represents Hip Hop because of the style of lettering. I also resized the font to a reasonable size where it fits within the footer. To make my magazine cover consistent, I decided to make the text colour white (like the masthead) as it’s a bold colour what stands out against the background.

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This is the legal way of purchasing a magazine; barcode. I got this barcode from the internet but added text for the price and issue number. I kept the font and colour the same here but just decreased the size to fit in proportion to the barcode to make it look like a professional one. I also used separate layers for the text and the actual barcode.

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

Looking at my preliminary magazine and my new magazine, I can see a lot of improvements. My new Hip Hop magazine looks so much more professional; the use of layout (rule of thirds), colour and content is much more consistent and it contrasts and fits in well together. My preliminary magazine looks plain, the page is empty and the quality is overall poor; the cover lines don’t look professional and everything clashes (although the layout and colour palette are up to standards). I can evidently see the use of Photoshop tools have been used in a much better way then I used them in my preliminary task as my new Hip Hop magazine looks so much more professional. Another thing that makes my new magazine look professional is the consistency throughout (colours, images, genre and layout.

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The use of using a header

Masthead – use of drop shadow, more attractive, eye catching font; professional

Cover lines much more professional, attractive font, use of background shapes (makes text stand out) and use of adding images into cover lines

Better quality image, use of editing (more appealing), taken better, angle

Barcode positioned better; font more linked in o suit barcode, more professional

More professional footer, more attractive, use of colour, font and style

Rule of thirds seen more on the new magazine (magic ‘C’)

Consistency; colour palette, layout

Better use of layers

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Masthead – more professional, use of colour, font

Including my magazine name on the contents page, consistency, professionalism

Contents list more fluent, use of font, colours, consistency

One big image, more professional, stands out more, better quality, use of editing

Better use of layers

Consistency; colour palette, layout

Background more appealing, use of tools and editing, professional 30