Note to Moderator

I have 61 research and planning posts, the rest are drafts, final pages and my answers to the evaluation questions. In total I have 71 posts.

Evaluation - Q7) Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I have gained many more skills in Adobe Elements 11 since my preliminary task, College magazine. I used basic skills to create the front cover and contents page of the college magazine whereas to create my vintage music magazine I used much more complex skills to create the right effect. My preliminary task involved my creating a full front cover and a basic plan of a contents page but in my Vintage music magazine it involved creating a complex front cover, contents page and double page spread. I feel I have used many more techniques during the creation of my music magazine for example, gradient, banners, text, glows, puffs, pugs. I now understand how to represents specific genres and how to attract certain target audiences. I created many target audience research surveys and this helped me understand what topics they wanted to read about, the colours they wanted to see on the magazine, artists they like, fonts they would prefer to be used, where gradient should and shouldn't be used. All this information came together to help me create my final draft for my music magazine and college magazine. In my music magazine I used synergy, the same colours were used throughout which my target audience would recognize. I feel my skills have developed massively and I have enjoyed the tasks I have been set during my AS Media course.

Evaluation - Q6) What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

I have created a Wordle of all the technologies I have learnt about during the process of constructing my music magazine. The internet and Adobe Elements 11 are two main programs I used during the making of my music magazine. In Adobe Elements 11 I learnt how to add gradients to backgrounds. I learnt a method which makes my gradient lighter, I did this by using CMD + U on the Imac keyboard and then clicking turn saturation down. To create a gradient, you use the tool on the right.

Using this tool I cut out my model for my front cover image and my model for my DPS so that I could use a different background to the original one I already had.

To move and select pictures,text or any of feature on Adobe Elements 11, you must use this tool.



To add text to a document on this program you must use the tool on the right, this also allows you to change the font, colour and size of the text.

When I first started my AS Media course most of the technology in the wordle was totally new to my, I was introduced to camera settings, Slidely, slideshare, Adobe elements 11, prezi, blogger. I have gained alot of experience using technology while creating my Vintage music magazine.

Evaluation - Q4) Who would be the audience for your media product? Q5) How did you attract/ address your audience?

Evaluation - Q3) What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Bauer Media might produce my media product, I have produced a Vintage Genre Music Magazine. I looked through Bauer Media's existing brands and it seems they don't have any Vintage genre magazines. Bauer also own many radio stations which again do not have any Vintage stations.

Bauer Media have brands which support the same target audience as my music magazine. For example Q, Kerrang, FHM and Mojo. I think my magazine would fit in well with Bauer Medias brands. 'New Vintage' would be a selling point for Bauer Media because it is a different sort of product to other magazine's the institution already produces as there is a gap in the market for teen vintage music magazines. 

My magazine has a youthful presentation much like 'Q' magazine, I used the youthful appearance because I knew 'Q' is UK's best selling monthly magazine and the target audience is 16 - 20 year olds which is the same target audience as New Vintage. 

I set out my contents page similar to 'Q' magazine. I did this by including a clear layout with large numbers, headings and pictures with minimal text as possible. I used large features to attract the audience automatically to the page they wanted to read making it as easy as possible. 

From my target audience research I found that alot of teens don't read magazines so I used minimal text on the contents page because it isn't likely that they will read it but if they was to read the text then there isn't much so they would be less likely to get bored. The information next to each page number and picture tells the audience basic information which will engage them into the articles by using language devices including rhetorical questions 'Where have they gone?', description 'Exclusive' 'Drastic' and ellipsis '...' leaving suspense on the reader.

I also included features offering free music, I noticed, when carrying out research on Front Covers, Mojo magazine offer free CD's or places to download free music in their magazines. I used this technique on the Front Cover, Contents Page and Double Page Spread. Offering free music is a great way to attract teenagers to a music magazine because it saves them buying it from itunes. 

'Q' magazine always make reference to other main artists which are featured in their magazine on the front cover, I used this technique on my front cover by putting features in bold text down the right hand side of the page, separated by thick dark grey lines which connect my colour scheme together. 

Music magazines in general always have a main artist or band to feature the front cover. To pull the audience in a pull quote is used. I used this technique on my front cover. In my DPS I also used numerous pull quotes, this is a feature commonly used in articles in all magazines.  It leaves the audience wondering what the artist means by these quotes therefore they are inclined to read the article. 

Overall I think Bauer would be the perfect institution for my magazine because i have used many features which magazines already use which are brands of Bauer Media. Although Bauer doesn't currently have any Vintage music magazine brands so there is a gap in the market in this media institution for a Vintage music magazine. Bauer have particular features they like E.g use of pugs, puffs, bold text, banners and language devices. 'New Vintage' has all of these features. I have also focused my target audience at 16-20 year olds because I know Bauer Media already have the particular target audience as a main target so 'New Vintage' would benefit the company by adding an extra magazine of a different genre to attract the audience.  

Evaluation - Q2) - How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Evaluation – Q1) In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products.

Forms

The genre for my music magazine is Vintage. The magazine I have created in a print magazine but can also be consumed digitally as I have made links to an online website for the magazine, a subscription, links to facebook, twitter and instagram which are popular social networking sites which my target audience use. By subscribing to the magazine, every month you receive the magazine through post or you can view it digitally via an app. When the audience follow the ‘New Vintage’ page on the social networking sites it will provide updates and previews of what will be in the next magazine being released.

Conventions used

My masthead ‘New Vintage’ takes up 1/6^th of the A4 page which is a convention of Vintage magazines. I wanted the masthead to be large so it was recognisable to my target audience. The grey dark text on top of the gold banner makes the masthead stand out therefore it would stand out on a shelf in Tesco or W H Smiths.

Cover stories are a convention used in Vintage magazines. I have followed this convention in my Vintage music magazine as the main cover story usually takes up the majority of the front cover therefore I made sure ‘Cour’ was big and stood out on my front cover by using putting a black and white effect on the picture using Adobe Elements 11. Cover stories often have a quote next to the singer/band’s main image; I followed this convention by putting a quote from the interview I carried out with ‘Cour’ for my double page spread. This feature leaves the front cover story on a cliff hanger making the reader want to carry on reading to find out what the singer means by this.

Another convention I have followed is having articles scattered around the main cover story, showing they are still big features in the magazine. This is a common convention of every genre magazine on sale. ‘Cheryl opens up to New Vintage’ is in green text, this is because on my contents page, Cheyl is a big feature therefore to pull my target audience in there had to be a link on my front cover to make the article stand out like it does on my contents page. The ‘Afire’ article stands out from the other articles on the front cover because I put a blue glow around the image of him along with ‘Afire!’ being in a different colour and larger to the rest of the text. I wanted to make this feature stand to emphasize that my magazine has a target of male and female audience’s. By having Afire’s image in a blue glow and slightly overlapping the masthead it would draw attention to the male eye.

On my front cover the features include Exclusive photo shoots, interviews, free music downloads and album reviews. This is a convention I followed as vintage magazines include these features often in their music magazines. Three of these features are in Puffs to make them stand out, although puffs are rare in Vintage music magazines, I wanted the articles to stand out and make them look more exciting to the target audience so by putting them in shapes it makes them eye catching and gives the article it’s individual logo. Common puffs used on Vintage music magazines are circles (e.g. Vintage Rock magazine) and corner folds (e.g. Mojo).

I followed the Pugs convention for Vintage music magazines by including a price, bar code, issue number and date. Although I included the date and issue number on the contents page rather than the front page.  This feature is used on every music magazine you see so it is a convention of music magazines of any genre.

I used banners on my Vintage music magazine front cover to make the masthead and ‘Plus’ section stand out to the audience. This is a convention which I followed from other Vintage music magazines. Putting the text in front of a banner makes the text bolder and looks superior to other features in the magazine catching the audience’s eye automatically.

Conventions Challenged

The first convention I challenged was the colour scheme. Originally the colour scheme was red and white. I started using this colour scheme using a gradient background which faded from white to red, it didn't appeal to me that this looked Vintage. Instead I chose gold and white, two colours which are associated with the Vintage genre. I also followed my target audience research as 25 people said they didn't want red to be used on the magazine front cover, I need my magazine to appeal to my target audience or else nobody would buy it.

Another convention I challenged was the colour of the masthead. Rather than the masthead being black, red or white, I chose to use dark grey with a glow on it. 15 people from my target audience research said they didn’t want the masthead to be black and 23 people said they didn't want the masthead to be white. The masthead needed to be in a dark colour for it to stand out against the gold background so I tested all different colours and found that dark grey looked the most professional.

The original convention for a magazine in general is for the bar code, issue and date to be on the front cover in the bottom right corner. I had already placed my banner at the bottom with text in it and I didn't want to overlap it as the information was important. Also Vintage magazines are supposed to be unique and different to other magazines to represent the era. Therefore I chose to put the Bar code under the masthead with the price underneath but horizontally. I put the issue number and release month on the contents page because I didn’t want to crowd my front cover with too much information, I wanted to bring the audience in so that they would see this on the contents page.

Another convention I challenged was the banner at the bottom of the front cover. I put the banner on a slant because it looks much more appealing to the audience and stands out because it is a different style to the banner at the top of the page. For the banner I used a gradient of dark grey and white and then gold text, I think the grey and white gradient makes the gold writing stand out.

In Vintage magazines I found from my research that the artist on the front cover and the artists throughout the magazine are dressed very smartly in suits. I challenged this convention by keeping the smart look with the shirt and trousers but I made the outfits of my models more youthful because my target audience is 16-20 year olds I thought this would appeal to them more. For example on the front cover ‘Cour’ is wearing a shirt rather than it being buttoned up to the top, she has it left open with a t-shirt underneath. ‘Afire’ is wearing a shirt but the top button isn’t done up and he is smoking a cigarette but the smart style is still there.

I used the colour green on the front cover to emphasise ‘Cheryl opens up to New Vintage’ I did this because Cheryl is a big feature in my contents page and I needed to make reference to that on my front cover. I thought the colour green was ideal because I hadn't used it elsewhere on my front cover so it would stand out immediately to the audience. I also used a blue glow on Afire’s picture under the masthead and slightly overlapping it to make this feature stand out as this is one of the images I took myself.