Conclusion

In conclusion i am happy with the way in which my media portfolio turned out. I wouldn`t change much about my work. I feel that the amount of effort and time i put into creating it paid off and is shown through the work. The task has developed my knowledge of the technology used in the process of constructing the magazine, i`ve learnt a lot and gained a lot of skills throughout this project. Also i`ve dealt with a lot of problems along the way and over come them and carried on. I think that the process and outcome that we were told to think about at the start of the project worked, with the process being the place for trial and error shown in the preliminary task, and the things that i learnt and were unhappy with were developed and the skills acquired in the process were shown in the outcome of my main task.

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

In this slide is what ive learnt in the progression of the task from the contents page of my preliminary task to the contents page of my final task.
The fact that when i started the preliminary task i had hardly any knowlegde and understanding of how to use photshop shows, with the images not being edited apart from adjusting the colour slightly. I feel that the things that i was unhappy with which were how the page looked empty and the house style where the logo and title were placed on the front wasnt continued onto the contents page, made it look unprofessional and not much like a magazine. All these were corrected and shown in my final task, along with the things i had learnt from using photoshop which were all put it into the process of making my final task more appealing and attracting to the target audience.

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

In this slide is what I`ve learnt in the progression of the task from my preliminary task to my main task.
Looking back at my preliminary task i think that it shows the lack of knowledge i had for photo shop in the beginning due to not having a background and it looking plain, the lack of editing to the photos that could have been done to the images used, the only thing that i had discovered how to do in the preliminary task was to add the border. Whereas in my main task there is alot of things that i`ve learnt and used in the construction of the cover which are shown. Such as the way it is presented is more attracting to the target audience, the use of editing and cutting of images, and how the way the text and headlines are presented makes it more appealing. Also in the progression of the task I`ve learnt about the use of planning, research and time management, how much of an important role it plays in the construction of the main task. With the preliminary task there wasn`t as much planning involved as there was in the main task, i think that if there would have been more the outcome would have been a bit better.

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

Continuing with what i have learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing this product. This slide is focused on the blog and the use of blogger.com. Before starting this task i didn't really have a idea of what a blog actually was i had visited them online but never really knew how to create one or what you did with it. So this process of the task was all new to me, on this slide is how my blog is presented. It took me a while to set up my blog in the first place and started as a basic blog with little information and lack of detail due to not really knowing what to do the most exciting thing i could add was the use of a hyperlink that my post my relating to, this is shown in the first post i did.
As i became more used to blogging and understanding it a bit more i gradually started posting more detailed and longer posts, then i discovered how to add pictures and that helped the appearance of my blog and made it look more detailed and explained my ideas and plans of what i wanted to do with giving evidence to my main task. Then i was able to add to the layout of my blog and added a links list of all the websites i had used, and when we made a to do list of what we needed to include and what was left to do i added it to my blog to make it easier to see what i had left to do and what i had completed.

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

In this slide is what i`ve learnt about the technologies used in the process of constructing this product.
This slide is focusing on the use of photo shop and editing photos. Also the comparison of how i`ve made progress and used more of a variety of tools to construct the product.
Before we started this task i had only used photo shop once or twice but for nothing in depth like this so i had no real idea of what i was doing. Doing this task helped me to gain a better understanding on how to use photo shop and how to edit pictures, as i gained more knowledge of what i was doing i became a bit more confident and chose to experiment a bit more with how i edited the pictures before when i didn't have much understanding i just adjusted the lighting and contrast of the picture and cropped out anything as much as i could that i didn't want in the picture. As i experimented more i was able to cut around the part of the image that i wanted and remove the unwanted background or anything that was included that i didnt want and chose to put it onto a plain background, i learnt to do this by using the magnetic lasso tool. Also i learnt how to change the colours of only parts of the picture, how to smooth and feather out the edges of the images to make them look more appealing and not show that they had been cut away from the orginal backgrounds, how to add borders and a background using the gradiant tool that you can slightly see on the main task. Comparing the two covers you can see how the use of gaining the better understanding has made more of a difference to my final piece.

How did you attract your audience?

In this slide i`ve continued explaining how i attracted my audience using examples from the contents and middle page.

The main ways are the use of informal and text that would appeal to them the reason for this is that the target audience for my magazine wouldnt want to read something thats formal because the reason for the magazine is to be able to enjoy it and have an escape. The use of language such as "Voting verdict"appeals to the audience because they can interact with the magazine and have their own say, "poster special" attracts the audience by giving them free things that they are interested in, the information on the magazines own events and awards that are featured attract the audience because they can only find out about it in this magazine, with information on gigs and having a week planner attracts the audience because they have a chance to find out about bands and artists that they are intrested in and when they will be preforming. Also the size and amount of text attracts the audience because it tells them about what they want to know but the small and short paragraphs keep the readers attention at the same time, so they wont be put off by a mass amount of text that would be to long to read. The bold headings and language techniques help to attract the audience by making it stand out drawing their attention to that particular part of the magazine, the language techniques help by making the writting more relaxed and more appealing to read, if the title of the main story sounds catchy then they will be more likely to read it to find out what it`s about.

How did you attract your audience?

Explained in this slide is how i attracted my audience.
The main ways i attracted my audience was by thinking about what would make my product appealing to a reader, this included bold headings, catchy tag lines, bold emotive language, lower price of the magazine and events that would be beneficial for the audience reading my magazine for example competitions. The bold headings make the magazine stand out and identify clearly the name of the magazine. The catchy tag lines attract the audience by giving them a taste of whats inside then encouraging them to want to buy the magazine. The bold emotive language such as "exclusive" helps to attract the audience because it is something that the magazine has reported or has first so they would be the first to find out new information on what they are interested in. The lower price than other magazines £2.10 wouldn`t attract them that much because all the prices are around the same but being cheaper than other magazines and not more expensive would attract them. Features of the magazine such as competitions would attract the audience by giving them the chance to win something they are interested in.

Who would be the target audience for your media product?

In this slide is the basic outline of my target audience, i will explain the reasons behind why i have chosen this target audience.
The reason i chose to create my magazine to appeal to both male and female is because the majority of people that listen to the genre of music are of mixed genders, also because then this creates a larger target audience making it easier to appeal to more people, and increase the reputation of the magazine.
The reason is chose to aim to the age group of 15-30 is because the genre of music that my magazine features appeals to that age group. The decision behind aiming my magazine towards middle class people is because the language and style of the magazine would appeal more and be understood better by them. The reason behind aiming my magazine towards people who are intrested in rock/indie music is because it seems to be the most common genre of music at the moment and many sub genres can be included so again this creates a larger target audience and makes my magazine appealing to a wider range of people. Also another reason is because if they werent intrested in this genre then the magazine wouldn`t appeal to them so its clear why it was aimed towards them.

My plan and futher research on target audience here

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

In this slide are the two main types of media institutions that might distribute my magazine, these are Bauer media and IPC media and the magazines which they publish. Each company would have advantages and disadvantages, if i chose Bauer media it already publishes three well known magazines that have a high reputation, which could pose problems for a magazine that would be just starting out, such as competition between the magazines. Also, all three have similar target audiences and the genre of my magazine is the same as the three already owned which could cause a problem because Bauer may think that publishing my magazine wouldn`t be beneficial for them because of the existing ones. However the advantages would be that it is reliable and would be beneficial because its worldwide so your magazine would become well known in more than one country.
If i chose IPC Media it publishes one well known magazine which would be a better starting point because there wouldn`t be as much competition between magazines already being published. However IPC owns nme which is a similar genre to my magazine meaning it would have the same target audience this could be a disadvantage because they are so similar but could also be an advantage because if so many people read nme then the same people could be interested in my magazine because of the similarities between them both.
I think that the best company to distribute my magazine would be IPC media for the reasons above.
For more of my research on the publishers look here.

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

In this slide I'm comparing my double page and how it uses, develops and challenges the forms and conventions of real media products. It does this by including such things as; the heading continuing the house style which runs throughout the magazine to create an identity for the magazine. It uses the smaller pictures which run down the side of the page, making the page look neater because they don`t clutter the page, also i think that it balances out the text and the images and helps to keep the attention of the audience. The main subject in both fill the page and as with all magazines relates to the text which is featured, the reason i chose to do this was because the main image has to draw the attention of the reader to the page and make them want to continue reading the article. The main text is the same, both magazines use informal text and fonts which relate to the target audience and seeing as mine is very much the same as nme both are similar. Nme includes a part which gives information on other pages that relate to the article on that page, and is benefical because it encourages and informs readers that are intrested in the article, where to find other articles that are linked.

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

In this slide I'm comparing my contents page and the ways in which it uses and develops forms and conventions of real media products. My contents page of my magazine and nme`s contents page are similar and the way in which it uses and develops forms and conventions is both magazines have the headings of the page at the top and create the house style that runs throughout the magazine. There is a main picture on both magazines that links to the main story and fills the page. The headlines of the main story stand out to the other articles featured on the contents page, making it stand out to the audience. The layout is consistent with the subheadings of the catergories listed and then the articles relating to them listed underneath, i chose this idea because i thought that it looked more appealing and professional than just a list.

The way in which it challenges the forms and conventions of real media products is by including a logo which is consistent on each page and gives the magazine an identiy because whenever the audience saw the logo then they would relate it to the magazine which makes the magazine well known. Also my magazine doesn`t include a side bar like nme where it features the "band index" i feel that if it did the page would look over crowded with text and become unappealing to the audience because of it being time consuming to read all of it.

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

In this slide are the similar ways in which my media product uses and develops forms and conventions of real media products.Using the heading of the magazine shown clearly and in the larger text to show its the name in the same way, the main subject in both magazine fill up most of the page which draws the attention of your audience, the headlines of whats featured inside are shown clearly and both use emotive language to draw attention.




The way in which my media product challenges the forms and conventions of real media products is by including a consistant logo which helps to identify anything to do with the magazine. Where nme doesn`t include a logo. My magazine doesn`t have a background which sometimes can be a disadvantage with magazines but i think that if i was to include a background it would make the page look cluttered and ruin the way the magazine looks, whereas nme uses the image as a background which covers the page but i think this makes it look more busy and cluttered. The main images i`ve used are clear and fill the page without making it look to busy, whereas the nme magazine uses lots of images and the way in which they overlap eachother at the bottom are harder to see because of the main image that has been used as the background. On my magazine it includes a bar at the top and bottom of the page which tells the reader some of what is featured inside i think that this is an advantage and makes the page look more professional and appealing, whereas nme has text scattered on the page in boxes which does the same thing but gives a sense that its unorganised.

Evaluation

This is my finished media product that was created in photoshop. The evaluation of my media product will be presented in two parts, the explanation of the questions, which we were given to use to evaluate our work will be posted on here. As well as the PowerPoint which will give reference to what i will be talking about with examples and pictures.

Main task

Finally finished my main task.

Photos & Editing

These are the photos i have used throughout my main task, some of them in order to use had to be edited, such as cutting out the main image and creating a white background so that it would look more professional and appealing. And croping the picture so that any unnecessary parts of the picture wouldn`t be included.

These two pictures i used on my front cover. I first decided to use just the first picture but to cut out the model and use the image with a white background, i did this but using the magnetic lasso tool and then smoothing the edges after i then moved the picture onto a white background and adjusted the colour slightly of the top using the hue. Then i was happy the way the image looked. Once i moved the image on my front cover and re sized it to fill the page like my first idea it didn`t look right and gave the cover a different look to what i wanted. So i decided to stick with the image but re sized it so it looked right which was done by making it slightly smaller and keeping it to one side of the page. Then i decided to use the other image as well this was a little more difficult to use without editing, so first i cut out as much of my model as i could with the magnetic lasso tool and feathered the edges which gave it a blurred look around the edge then i moved it onto a white background and fitted the image onto my cover in the space next to the other image this looked better than the first time round.


I used the picture of the guitar as my logo, which was the picture i edited the most. First i cut out the picture because i didn't need the background as the setting the picture was taken in didn't really seem appropriate and a white background would look more appealing. Then i feathered the picture and smooth the edges which got rid of the jagged edges caused when cutting around the picture.

Before i changed the background of the picture, i adjusted the lighting and contrast of the guitar to make it look more appealing and brighter. Then i transferred the picture onto the white background and decided that it looked a lot better than it did.

After i had changed the background, i reduced the size of the guitar seeing as it was being used as the logo and couldn't be as big as it was. After i was happy with the size i added text and completed my logo.

Publishers

We looked at two magazine publishers these were Bauer media and IPC media.

Bauer Media is Europe’s largest privately owned publishing Group. The Bauer Publishing Group is a worldwide media empire offering over 230 magazines in 15 countries, such as Kerrang, empire, mojo, Q, pop, more, closer,heat, grazia, FHM, as well as online, TV and radio stations. The mutlimedia publications strategy is to connect with audiences with content through our broad multi-touch point brand, wherever and however they want.
http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/



The advantages of choosing Bauer media would be that its international so more copys of your magazine would sell, with it being worldwide. Bauer media has a reputation so your magazine wouldn`t have any problems. However some of the disadvantages of Bauer magazine is the competition with magazines already owned would make it harder for your magazine to get seen.

IPC Media is the UK's leading consumer magazine producer. Owning 80 magazines such as; NME, Marie Claire, Golf monthly, Now, Pick me up, Nuts, World soccer. Also owning the online version of nme.com. Almost two in every three UK women and over 44% of UK men read an IPC magazine.
http://www.ipcmedia.com/



Some of the advantages of IPC media is that they dont own many music magazines so it would make it easier for your magazine to sell with less competition. It would be a good place to start if you were releasing a new magazine. The only disadvantage would be it that its not an international company, and doesnt have as many multimedia publications.


Comparing both publishers, i think the best publisher for my music magazine would be IPC media, because it has less competition which would enable my magazine to have more of chance to sell. Also it would be a better place to start to see how popular the magazine would become in the UK instead of becoming worldwide straight away, and not having many sales.