Candidate Infomation

NAME: Ellie Condon

CANDIDATE NUMBER: 7531

CENTRE NUMBER: 61119

Evaluation Question Seven

Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task What Have You Learnt From The Progression From It To The Main Task ?

Looking back at my preliminary task I can see the obvious progression that I have made and improvements in the way I have taken photos, used colour and fonts , and laid things out on the pages that I have created. When creating my preliminary task I found it difficult to create a magazine that looked to any professional standard as I was not aware of the use of space on the page and rules such as rule of thirds. I also had no experience with any of the programme or equipment which I was using ; Photoshop , InDesign , Blogger or the Cannon DSLR. This meant that everything that I was doing took more time than it would have done if I was competent with these things. A school magazine was also not something that I was particularly interested in making, unlike my music magazine. This meant that I was unsure on many of the decisions I was making, meaning that I also found it hard to be creative with my work. Due to all of these things I became very rushed for time nearing the end of the preliminary task meaning that the contents page that I produced, I believe was to a very low standard. However because of this I was able to realise the importance of planning and time scales when it came to my main task, the music magazine.

Not only did I find that I had made a transition with the final products that I had created for the magazines, I also found that I was also to understand the importance of research and planning toward the final product to ensure that you can make it to the most professional standard and allow it to look in line with real media products. For my preliminary task the research that I carried out was quite general and did not do specific or detailed research like I realised would be needed for my magazine. However it was only through my lack of research for my school magazine that I was able to realise how needed it is to ensure that my magazine was as professional as possible.

Front Page Comparrison ; 

In reflection, at the time I was fairly pleased with the front cover that I created for my preliminary task, this shows the lack of knowledge that I had in regards to the way that a front cover should look and the features it should have to make it look like a magazine cover as I now see it as a very low standard cover.

I think that the cover that I created for my preliminary task is all about the photo that I used and could potentially be mistaken more for a poster then a magazine cover. I learnt from this and tried to avoid it with my music magazine through adding feature's such as the black header at the top of the page. 
I also think that the preliminary cover looks very bare. I avoided this in my music magazine by including a lot more text and titles. This was also a way which I could entice readers to pick up the magazine and be attracted to read it.
Looking back on my preliminary cover I also now noticed a lack of balance and I had not stuck to the rule of thirds of having a balance of visual weights to make the page equal. I feel as if I concentrated strongly on this when creating my chart magazine and took a long time moving around different aspects on my cover which were heavy and needed to be balanced out. This included the positioning of the title, cream fields logo, cross, main headline and bar code.
Even though I attempted to keep a relatively consistent colour scheme throughout the front cover of my school magazine by using the eyedropper tool to duplicate colours from the photo, in reflection I think there is too many colours been used on that front cover making it look too busy and therefore unprofessional  In my music magazine I have kept to a very strict red white and black colour scheme and not broken the rule of more than four colours per page by only including an additional colour of blue for aspects on the page which are heavy visual weight and I want to draw attention to.

Contents Page Comparison :

For my preliminary task I felt that my contents page was a lot weaker than the front page that I created. This was due to poor timing that I had for the task and I was left with very little time to complete the page therefore rushed it with very little research and attention to detail when creating the product. I feel like this was the product that has gone through the biggest positive transition from preliminary to main task.
I did not have the time to  use many skills in indesign or photoshop on my preliminary task to even attempt to make it look in line with contents pages from real media products. Due to having a set time scale and improved planning for my music magazine task I was able to display a lot more skills that I was also more competent and confident in using through being able to get used to them in my preliminary task.  I included much more on my music magazine contents page such as a banner at the top of the page which was a good way for me to add a block of colour on the page, breaking up my articles in the listings with lines, page numbers on my images, a small image of the front cover of the magazine. I have also added additional features onto my music magazine contents page where as I had nothing more than the contents listing and two images on my school magazine. These include a quote that goes with one of the larger images on the page, a win feature and a chart box which shows the download chart listings, it is in this that I have displayed a gradient swatch.

Overall, I feel that I have made a significant positive transition in both of the products that I have created in both tasks. As I have already mentioned I do not think this is only through the design and production element of the tasks but also through the research and planning that has allowed my final products to improve to a much higher standard.

Evaluation Question Six

What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process Of Constructing This Product ?

Evaluation question 6 from elliehc

Evaluation Question Five

How Did It Attract / Address Your Audience ?

I thought that the best way for me to answer this question would be to ask three individuals who fit into my target audience of older teenagers to young adults from 16-21 what they thought of my products that I have created and how they thought they were attractive

Lucy, 16 on the Front Cover 

Bethany , 18 on the Double Page Spread 

Hannah, 17 on the Double Page Spread

These are the genuine responses from people within my target audience and I am pleased that they are attracted to the products that I have produced. They have noticed features such as the chart bar, colour consistency and pose and clothing of the model. Seeing as these were things that I specifically focused on to attract my target audience I am glad they noticed them.

Evaluation Question Four

Who Would Be The Audience of Your Media Product ?

The music magazine that I have created is not focused specifically on one genre of music, as it is a chart music magazine. It would seem that this would make the target audience for this a lot broader however I would describe them as those who are the most interested in music in general as they are open to most genres that appear in the charts. Chart music can be appealing to a very large audience, younger people who have not yet found their favourite genre but also older teenagers and young adults aged 16- 21 who take a strong interest in the music which is in the charts - this is target audience that I am aiming my music magazine at.  I have focused the magazine mainly towards young women however men may also find it appealing. This has been done through the theme of powerful women which I have used on my front page and double page spread and also the stories which I have included.

I have created a video which I believe is a representation of the audience I am aiming my music magazine at. The video includes radio stations, stores, music channels , particular artists and festivals which are the interests of the target group.

 In this video I have attempted to portray the variation of interests that can be found within this target group as they are a collection of people who appreciate and are interested in a range of genres from Pop , Dance , RnB to Rap.

Evaluation Question Three

What Kind Of Media Institution Might Distribute Your Media Product and Why ?

Evaluation Question Two

How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups ?

The magazine that I have created is not based specially on a certain genre of music such indie or RnB, it is a chart magazine that incorporates a large range. This means that it is not as specifically focused on a certain style that will attract a people with certain interests; for example a heavy rock magazine with all dark colours, representation to the instruments that are played and language that is used within that social group.  The Big TOP 40 is a weekly listing of the music chart and the ITunes Download is a real time chart that music lovers can follow at any time. It has also been noticed that the people who I am aiming my magazine at ; those who are interested in and follow chart music, are also within the group who are the most interested in different aspects of the music industry and its convergence with TV and Internet.

I would say that my magazine represents the average older teenager to young adult from 16-21 who actively enjoy and follow the music chart and its new entries. I have used different ways of representing this social group of modern day music lovers on the products that I have created for my  music magazine through the clothing of my models, stories included, visual aspects of the page and language used.

Below is a glogster that I have created that shows the way that I have representations of different genres form the music chart in my final products. It also includes social media responses from people that fit into my target audience when I ask them what to you associate with chart music

Below I have used the technology of thinglink to show my front cover and contents page in an interactive form. When hovered over the certain areas I have mentioned how this part of the page represents the social group I have created my chart music magazine for

Evaluation Question One

In What Ways Does Your Media Product Use, Develop or Challenge Forms & Conventions Of Real Media Products ?

When creating my magazine I found that in order to gain a professional end look it was important that I based the products I was creating around products from real media conventions  Through the different stages of research that I carried out for each product, I was able to analysis aspects of front cover, contents pages and double page spreads that were popular among similar magazines to the one that I was creating. Magazines that I found myself focusing my research on were ;

By using magazines such as these and other similar ones, I was able to identify common themes among them and represent those in my work as well as mixing them with my personal preferences to create the best possible magazine.

Front Cover:  The real media conventions that I gained my ideas from for this product come from a combination of Billboard and Blender Magazine. To begin with I was very focused on creating a similar pose of the model to Billboard however I feel I challenged this through using a mid shot of my model and not so much a close up like can be seen with their shot of Miley Cyrus. Using this specific magazine as a real media convention was useful as it portrayed the same feel of empowerment of women that I was attempting to achieve. I also adapted the way the cross, diagonal banner and positioning of bar code into my own cover. I was fond of the way that Blender had laid out their text down the sides of the page and felt that this would work well for my product in combination with the focus that I already had with Billboard

Contents Page: The contents page was the product that I gained ideas from the most sources of real media conventions. I ended up basing my magazine largely around a page from Q and Smash Hits. I was very fond of the use of large banner at the top of the page on Q magazine and the use of different size images. The colour scheme of this page also fitted with my magazine. However the use of columns  for the listings and bar at the bottom of the page that I could manipulate into my charts bar came from this edition of Smash Hits. However the initial idea for me to include a chart bar on the contents page on my contents page come from Billboard magazine, which has a very similar concept to my magazine.

Double Page Spread: This was the most focused of all of the products that I created in terms of following in the footsteps of a real media convention. During my research I found this article from Q magazine and decided that I wanted to create something very similar as a I felt it looked very sleek and powerful which fitted with the theme, persona of the model and article. From this Q double page spread I was able to pick out the colour bars, bordering , pull quotes and layout of the article that I wanted to use in my own work.