Evaluation Draft 1.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? The masthead of my magazine RESONATE I used the font Bebas which I downloaded to my Photoshop software from the website www.DaFont.com. The font is large, bold lettering, stands out and is eye grabbing of the reader; this is a typical convention of what is seen on similar magazines on the high street shelves. I chose the title RESONATE as my recognizable brand name, because its identity online was to correspond closely or harmoniously with an example quote Symbolism matters, especially if the symbols resonate with the larger message. This made me feel that it could represent a message to the Alternative/Individual music fans as being different, which was an identity of my target audience. My masthead/title font is similar to other products on the magazine market such as NME, Loud and Quiet and Dazed & Confused which also are very bold and eye catching. My RESONATE masthead is on a higher layer than my white back ground and higher up the page than my main image, this allows the masthead text to be more effective. I also tried to make my magazine simple and basic to meet my target audiences.

The graphology of my front cover is very simple; I use two very similar fonts; Bebas & Bebas Neue, these fonts are for my masthead and my three cover lines. This font is very simplistic and effective due to it being bold and eye catching. The colours used for my text are monotone, I used the black for the masthead, this is because it is highly revealing on the white background and my title needs to be eye catching to gain the eyes of the potential customers and promote my brand name. I also used the black colour on a cover line underneath the masthead to make the price, volume, issue and the magazine description; I have made that black and placed it on the white background layer as it needs to stand out and be readable as some parts of it is important for the reader to know, such as the cost. Another cover line on my front page is the artists and stories featured within my magazine, these are highly important factors on my front cover as it is what will again some of the customers attention and engage them to buy my product, so it was important this text stood out, which is why I coloured this layer black and placed it on a higher layer than the image and placed it in the white space of the image. I also coloured my other cover line text white, this is because I needed a colour which would really stand out on the bright patterned shirt, it was important that this text stood out because it was the main topic/article of my magazine Alex Nelson.

The white colour was the most powerful and outlining colour to use on top of this layer and make the important text really attract the attention of potential customers. I chose the sizing of my texts depending on importantcy of being seen at first site. Such as the largest text on my page is the masthead as it is the branding/labelling of my magazine product, secondly the cover line which expresses the main topic/article of my magazine as that is highly important to engage the interest of the customers as that is what is contained within the magazine. The page layout of my front cover was partly used from the convention of the Loud and Quiet magazine, but I did develop this convention by inserting a bar code to the cover page, this is because my magazine was being produced as a paid for product unlike the Loud and Quiet magazine which cost zero pounds. The bar code is underneath the main image on the front cover, I chose the bar code to be a skinny barcode, as it fitted perfectly in the space I had available. This is a developed idea as I am changing the inspiration I took from loud and quiet to fit my product type, which is to be sold. The layout of my magazine is also similar to Loud and Quiet using some conventions such as having my masthead as the largest text on the page and placing it in a bold font and at the top of the page. I also decided to keep my magazine very simple and basic like other magazines in the market Loud and quiet & Fantastic man & Vice, ensuring that there is not too much on the page, this is fitting the interests of my target audience, as they like things simple and different.

My model/music artist Alex Nelson was styled in a range of clothing during the photo shoots for my magazine pages, on the pages I have made the artist is only wearing two different shirts. But previously during the modelling shots my artist was styled in a selection of short sleeved shirts, they all had an African, indie pattern and featured some bright colours. This instantly made the model look different and certainly stand out in a crowd; these shirts are the type of clothing youre to find in a vintage shop, as shown in my research and planning many, my target audience also have this interest and some of my inspirational artists wear similar clothing, e.g. Yannis, the lead singer of the band Foals. My artist also was styled in a 22 year old, Westfield wax jacket, this reveals an individual look about him, as it is old and unfashionable at todays date it fits the Indie/alternative genre perfectly. I am using the conventions of real media products as my artist looks and fits the style/genre of my magazine in which I am producing (Indie/alternative), the model does not look out of place and fake on my magazine cover. The genre of my magazine easily suggests through my front page, contents and double page spread, as I continued throughout the pages to stick to a

monotone and simple layout. I minimised colour which made everything much simpler, only using black which clearly stood out on the white background.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? During the research and planning stages of producing my media product, the audience research, audience profile and artist profile was very important as I had to ensure that the certain product I was making fitted and attracted my target audience which were the members of the Indie/Alternative genre and social group. Knowing what certain social group has given me a clear idea of what type of audience will be buying my music magazine. Now that I had identified this it would make it easier to style my artist and design my artist and magazine. I carried out some research on my target audience on a website called UK Tribes; this website has a large variety of categories which the youth members fit into. There is a variation of different tribes under the name of Leading Edge which is contains a tribe related to my magazine, so I looked at tribes which fit into this category and I decided my main target social group from the UK Tribes research is Indie Scenesters which fits with my music genre (Indie/Alternative). From the research the website expressed that this tribe they are dedicated to finding the newest music, exploring all avenues to get there using online, print, record shops, club nights and word of mouth. They feel theres nothing better than discovering new artists and spreading the love. Boys and girls are rocking similar looks like skinny jeans, vintage and Converse/Vans. From this research I believe my magazine will need to feature new artists which are non-mainstream, my magazine will need to be offered online and by print as this is where the audience research for the new/upcoming music and artists. I will also need to ensure my artists have a similar clothing style as the audience members. I have chosen my artist Alex Nelson who is an upcoming indie artist who dresses with a very different style, often wearing African patterned vintage shirts super skinny jeans.

This all represents the social group which I have researched and found information about. My artist is aged 18 years which represents my target audience who are aged between 1624 years old. I am comparing my upcoming artist Alex Nelson to the lead singer of the wellknown Indie/Alternative/Rock band Yannis Philippakis from The Foals.

Yannis Philippakis

Alex Nelson

I have represented my artist Alex Nelson in the Indie Scenesters social group as is The Foals lead singer Yannis Philippakis by styling him in a very unusual, different African tribal short sleeve shirt, this represents my audience (social group) as its not mainstream meaning it does not follow the normal crowd, the shirt could also be classed as vintage wear and it was bought at a local charity shop which represents wear some of my audience may be found purchasing their clothing. Styling my artist like The Foals member will certainly help gain customers to my new product as it gains their interest. I have also represented my social group within my article and other images of my artist within my media product such as: within my article Jack Green, the writer asks Alex a series of questions related to his music career and particular questions have huge relativity to what my audience profiles include such as about gigs/concerts and what information I gained from the UK Tribes; the social group like finding new music and within my article Jack queries Alex about new music he would be interested in recording.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Publishing is the process of production and distribution of literature, music, or information to the general public audience. There are many distribution/publishing companies within the media industry such as: Bauer Publishing, Time Inc., Meredith and many others. Another publishing company is IPC Media (International Publishing

Company) which is one of the UK s leading and most successful magazine and digital publishing companies, with a large reputation of selling over 350 million copies of their magazines each year and owning 60 well-known brands. IPC owns many brands including: NME which is a very successful, well-known music magazine. NUTS which is a well-known mens leisure magazine and NOW which is a successful womens weekly magazine. The money for production and publishing of the RESONATE magazine would be funded from advertisement and promotion of other internal and external, such as advertisement for Festival Republic who may advertise reading and Leeds festival, I would charge this company a sum to have the amount of space within my magazine to promote their events. This would benefit festival Republic as theyre making their potential customers aware of their festival and this is benefitting my magazine overheads as the funding received from festival Republic can be spent on producing and distributing my magazine. I was inspirited to use internal/external advertisement and promotion as a way to gain my production company funding by a large range of other magazine producers such as Loud and Quiet, Clash magazine, ID magazine, Dazed and Confused & Fader magazine.

I feel that IPC Media would be a suitable institution to publish my magazine due to the large range of experience within the publishing and distribution of many categorised magazines, also certainly the experience and knowledge of publishing a music magazine with related topics and genres to my magazine which would be entering the same market. This will benefit my magazine production as IPCs NME producers can support and inspire me with the designing and selling of my Indie/Alternative music magazine. For example where to distribute it, what customers have a large interest in and many other factors which will be important to produce and be successful within the market.

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

From my research in my target audience for my Indie/Alternative music magazine I came to the conclusion that my target audience would be aged between 16 24 and both gender male & female. I feel this age range is appropriate to target as this is when people are most likely to be mining and experiencing new types of music rather than following the mainstream crowd. I have also based my target audience on the liveliness and outgoing of people, such as I have researched and noticed that most concerts/gigs only allow people to enter their events alone without a parent/guide over the age of 18 when they are 16, I am also aware that most of my audience will have an interest in seeing their favourite bands live so this has a strong opinion when choosing my target audience. I have chosen the age 24 to stop at in my audience ad this is when most people are completing their University courses or College courses, this when the audience may start settling down and be less outgoing which could affect their interest/following of the music scene. The sales to each gender type could differ each month, this will differ due to the artist I feature within my magazine, such as male artists may gain more male attention, however female bands may attract more female customers. The genre of my magazine and music within is Indie/Alternative, this means the magazine will focus on the characters within the crowd which like to be different to others in any way, the clothing they wear, hair styles they choose or just the way they choose to act. I see there is a gap within the market for my genre of magazine as there is the only particularly well-known ones NME & Loud and Quiet available. So from this I am aware I have had to offer a larger range of artists and information within my magazine and still price it at a reasonable price, the price I chose was 3.50 whereas NME is 2.50 & Loud and Quiet is free, but I did market research and the largest percentage said they would be willing to spend this price on an Indie/Alternative magazine. When designing and producing my magazine I had to keep this research in mind and ensure that everything I was doing fitted the style and met the interest of my target audience. I ensured that my music artist Alex Nelson was modelled appropriately to fit the clothing styles of my genre so that the audience can be related to the magazine, the hair style of my artist is also very messy and has an unusual, different sway to it which makes him look different to the basic hair styled crowd. I also styled and designed my magazine so it was very basic and simplistic to meet the differences of my indie/alternative genre. I didnt include much on the pages; they are all simply laid out. The following two audience profiles, which have a large indie, different appearance to them and fit a lot of my target audience research and are both potential consumers of my new resonate, Indie/Alternative music magazine. I also asked the two individuals a few questions regarding my new magazine which may be entering the indie/alternative music magazine market: Such as Would you be willing to purchase a new magazine which enters the Music Magazine market?, How much would you be willing to pay for a music magazine?, What artists would you be interesting to be featured within the magazine?.

Profile 1:

Name: Matt Jones Age: 18 Interests: Golf, Music Festivals/Gigs, Clothing Shopping & Alternative/Indie Music. Favourite Brands/shops: Vintage Brands, Clarks Original, Topman Collectives, Ralph Lauren, Carhartt, Wellgosh, charity shops & Dc. Martens Magazines Followed: Loud and Quiet & Clash Magazine Favourite Artists/Bands: The 1975, Peace, Jake Bugg, Palma Violets, Alex Nelson & The Saints Profession/Occupation: Matt is at his final year of Golf College, aiming to become a professional golf coach. He currently works part time at his golf club, training 8 12 year old golf participants. Would you be willing to purchase a new magazine which enters the Music Magazine market? Yes, I would certainly give it a try if its different and includes artists I may be interested in. How much would you be willing to pay for a music magazine? Well, at the moment I dont pay for Loud and Quiet as its free from the HMV store in a local city, but I pay 3.99 for the Clash magazine. I would be willing to pay 2.50 - 3.00 for a new magazine, as it is up coming and Im not sure how interesting its going to be. What artists would you like to be featured within the magazine? I havent seen Alex Nelson in any music magazines recently, so I would certainly be interested in that, but mainly a new crowd of artists.

Profile 2:

Name: Chloe Rhodes Age: 16 Interests: Participating in her music group, Music Festivals/Gigs, Clothing Shopping & Alternative/Indie Music & producing websites. Favourite Brands: Levi, Native Youth, band merchandise & charity shops Magazines Followed: Loud and Quiet & Dazed and Confused. Favourite Artists/Bands: Tom Odell, The Foals, Kodaline, Reservoir Dogs Peace & SKATERS Profession/Occupation: Chloe is at a City College attending a media and graphic course with a future career in the Graphical Design market. Chloe also has a part time job building websites for small, local businesses. Would you be willing to purchase a new magazine which enters the Music Magazine market? I would purchase a new magazine if it featured interesting topics and artists which I like. How much would you be willing to pay for a music magazine? I dont pay for Loud and Quiet as its a free magazine from Rough Trade in my local City, however I do pay for Dazed and Confused magazine, which costs 4.50; so I would be willing to pay around 3.00 as it is a new magazine in the market. What artists would you like to be featured within the magazine? Well my favourite artists are already listed but I would love to read and see some new and upcoming artists which are similar.

5. How did you attract/address your audience? I think my front cover mainly attracted my audience, this is because it expresses a very basic look about it, due to having minimum layers and parts, it included a large centre image with outlines a similar member from my target social group (from the use of the indie, vintage shirt), a bold font, eye catching, top page centre mast head with minimum cover lines, apart from needed text such as my large cover line which expressed the artist/s featured within my magazine. I think this page attract to the audience as it sits perfectly in their interests which will be the factor which encourages them to purchase and read my media product. Front Page Mast Head: The first point of interest on my front page will be the mast head, as it is positioned at the centre and highest point on the page (the top band of the cover), on a magazine most consumers intend to read the page from the top band downwards which explains why I placed this layer there. This allows my magazine to be easily noticeable on shops shelves etc. The font I used was Bebas which is bold and bulky, I coloured this in black to increase the attention it could gain from customers and is easily readable as it is well spaced out between letters, this font being bold is also very hard to miss. This was inspired by conventions of some of the magazines I have researched in the way that they also use similar bold, bulky fonts for their front page mast heads, an example is Loud and Quiet magazine, being aware that other magazine in the market use this is re-assuring that it will appeal to my selected target audience.

Main Model/Images: The model used on my front page has a similar clothing style to what my target audience would be interested in such as the skinny jeans and patterned, African, vintage shirts and aspire to the same type of interest and genre of music which my target audience are interested in which is Indie/Alternative. My artists is stood facing the audience, straight on through the camera shot, this draws my audience in as he eyes gain the attraction to the image as its striking, a photo is aesthetically pleasing to readers, it is something which continues throughout my magazine as I am aware it is a powerful technique of photography, having pictures throughout the magazine is another part of the magazine which is going to attract the audience to purchase my media product. The circle around the male on the Loud and Quiet magazine is a very similar model to mine wearing a pattern, vintage shirt and skinny jeans, also having an unusual messy hair style.

Cover Lines: I have kept the cover lines on my media product very minimal and simple, only having my main cover line featuring the name of my artist Alex Nelson which was a very bold font and coloured in white so it would make it stand out on the main image. The feature of current and upcoming artists/bands is an very important aspect of a magazine to my target audience and I knew this would be another reason as to why people would pick up my magazine and want to read it as again it attracts them because it includes an interest of theirs. A good example of simple minimal cover lines used like on my media product would be the Clash Magazine, Issue 38. This front page has a cover line which is slightly smaller than the mast head but still large and very bold. This expresses the main artist within the magazine; it also has smaller cover lines which express the other artists/bands within their magazine. This is a convention which I was inspired by and is also proof that my magazine will attract customers as does this one within a similar/same market.

The circles around the text on the Clash front page outline the cover lines similar to my style.

Contents: On my contents page I ensured to use bands, individual artists and interesting topics that would be relevant to my audience giving them a reason to be interested in the magazine as a whole, not just the topics on the front cover. I kept my products contents page, very simple in the way it is easy to navigate around the page and read all of the text. I included one image on my contents page; this image was a shot of my front page. I included this image as I then laid text about that page such as the photographers name. I was inspired by Loud and Quiet and Clash magazines when producing this page. I also used black rectangles to separate sections of my contents page, such as one section is the main articles Alex Nelson & The Saints. This would attract my audience as it includes artists which they are interested in and the page layout fits their style being different and simple.

Double Page Spread: I first included an introductory line; this gave the readers a quick insight/overview of what the magazine article within the next few pages were about. I attracted my audience by this by using the line inside the world tour; this attracted my audience as I am aware from the profiles on my target audience that my potential consumers enjoy attending concerts/gigs. So using this line would instantly gain their interest as they already have an interest in this genre of music to be reading the magazine. I also chose to only have bold, simple font on this line so that it stood out as minimalistic; such as not including underlines.

I also included a pull quote into my DPS, this gives the readers quick snippets of what the article is about or includes, and creates interest for the audience, the pull quotes should attract my audiences attention as it expresses The Future is the Past, this is the name of his tour, but is also a very unusual and different quote, some of my audience would find this interesting for being different which will gain their attention to reading the article.

Another included layer on my double page spread was a large image which took up half of the double page spread; this is a mid-close up shot of my main topic/artist Alex Nelson, it shows him styled in another indie/vintage shirt which will gain the attention of my audience as it is a shared interest with the musical member. I also photographed my artist stood facing the camera which equals in facing the audience, straight on through the camera shot, this draws my audience in as his eyes gain the attraction to the image, due to the feeling that the image is looking at you (the audience).

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

Camera: For the photography of my media product I used a Nikon D3200 camera, when using this camera to take images for my draft magazine pages I found that the Nikon provided a high quality image, and therefore I used this camera to take my final images, which allowed me to use good quality pictures on the pages, which looked natural and to a professional standard to meet the needs to gain customers and fit into the distribution process of high quality magazines. I also used some artificial lighting, which allowed my images to have no shadows and look much clearer when opened on a bigger screen; I also used a white back drop to enhance the look of my artist wearing dark/bright colours within the photos.

Photoshop: I used this programme on the college computers to create the majority of my media product/magazine. I learnt how to edit and manipulate images to fit my needs, for example cutting out certain elements with the lasso tool, for example removing backgrounds from an image. All of my pages were produced using Photoshop CS6, including multiple layers to add each part of the pages together. I had a small amount of knowledge about Photoshop before producing my magazine, but after completing my practical work I now have a much greater understanding of the programme.

Online sites and programs: I used a variety of different online programs and resources when placing together my magazine research and production, I used blogger to create my coursework blog, this allowed me to post updates about what I had been researching, using, producing constantly. I also used scribd to insert posts of Microsoft word documents I had made; I uploaded them onto my blogger by embedding them to a post from Scribd. I also used animoto to create videos on some of my posts, such as my magazine pitch about my target audience; I placed this on my blog the same way I posted with Scribd. I also used many websites to research such as Google: the search engine, Da Font: to download fonts for my pages & UK Tribes: which is where I did the main research for my target audience. I also used Microsoft word to insert and type up most of my research and text through the production of my media product, I typed most of all my blog posts into Microsoft word before posting to ensure all spelling was checked and so that I could calculate the number of words I was doing. I also used the website Flickr, this is a website which millions of people worldwide post a variety of images they take or produce. This website was used by me to post all of my draft images, draft magazine pages, final images and final products, I used this website because it has a nice layout, which is professional and I could place the variety of images into folders which are easy to navigate around for my assessors and myself.

7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product? Mise en scene and camera work: Looking back at my preliminary work I have had a great improvement in what I have produced. In terms of camera shots and mise en scene in my photos equalling in a much higher standard and professional magazine media product. There has been a improvement in my images as I have learnt how to style my model/artist to fit my magazine genre and to gain the interest of a wider interest within the magazine, for example on the front cover of my preliminary work the mise en scene of my model on the front was wearing sports accessories such as headband and trainers but was also wearing a branded t-shirt Carhartt which isnt a sports brand; this only reaches to one audience the sport section of my magazine which wouldnt gain as much interest, equalling in lower consumers. However on the front cover of my final product I have my model styled in a vintage/indie/African styled shirt and an unusual styled watch around his wrist; this reaches the whole of my audience within the magazine as it is an unusual, different style of clothing which is what my target audience are known for, this would help equal in more customers to my media product. This change of styling outlines the improvements I have made when taking the images for my magazine, in the factor of mise en scene. My camera work skills have also improved from producing my preliminary work to producing my final product, this is due to when I took my preliminary images I had shadows due to only using one artificial light, this equalled in me having to Photoshop lasso the shadow out of the image which made my models head look slightly distorted, however when I took the images for my final product I used three artificial lights which were placed at different angles equalling with my images having no shadows. Another part of my camera work, would be the directing. I have learnt new directing skills while taking my photos, for example my image for the preliminary cover is a very basic pose, where I didnt give much input to my model of how to stand so I took a general image with the models arms hanging down. However for my final products front image I directed my model to place his hand through his hair, this removed some of the models hair out of his face so his eyes had to power over the audience and it adds extra effect as he is participating in a movement within his shot. This outlines another two improvements which I have personally made while producing my final product since my preliminary product.

My overall knowledge of the importance of the photography for magazine products has also improved now as when taking the variety of images I did in the final shots I considered a number of different camera shots/angles such as long shots, high angle, low angle, close ups and mid shots. This has improved since my preliminary work as I did only take general stance, mid shots.

Images to the left from preliminary media product.

Images to the left from final media product.

Text arrangement and editing: From my preliminary work to my final product I feel I have learnt which fonts are more appropriate and professional, with the idea to make my final product as realistic as possible. For example the images below on the left are my final media product text and on the right is the text of my preliminary product. For the preliminary product I used a general font which is found on most computers which is just a bold font, this was not inspired by any other magazines, and I feel looks unprofessional and unrealistic to be on a magazine cover. However on my final product I researched what other magazine products use and I chose one which is similar and inspirational such as the Loud and Quiet and NME magazine fonts, but I had to research and find this font on a website called DaFont and then download the font. From this I feel I have learnt to research and designate which fonts are appropriate and reasonable for my products. The editing and placing of the text on my pages is similar between my final product and my preliminary such as having minimal text on the pages and having the main cover line large and below the face of the model, bold. However when producing my preliminary cover page I randomly placed the quote where its located, this doesnt look very good as the word size is all different and doesnt fit around the image very well, unlike on my final product I researched where other magazines place these cover lines and decided I would left orientate it along the edge of the image so it doesnt take any concentration away from the main image or look out of place.

The design of my preliminary contents to final products contents also outlines a high improvement which I have managed to make. When producing my preliminary I did not consider how many pages a magazine averagely has, only including 7 pages. The layout design of my preliminary magazine is also very poor; I didnt participate in any research to find out how other magazine products have their contents laid out, so I made an easy design based on what skills I had on the Photoshop program. When producing my final contents page, I did high amounts of research, working out how many pages I will likely include in my magazine, working out how many articles I may include and how many pages with each. From this research I decided to have around 118+ pages, I also participated in research to see how magazines in the same market as my magazine have their contents pages laid out, so my final contents page was influenced a lot by the Loud and Quiet magazine.