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

From this, you can see a clear difference in the quality between the two, in both my Front Covers, and Contents Pages. The double page spread, as one was not necessary within our preliminary task I did not produce one, however the Double Page spread for my finished product I believed turn out fantastically. The front cover for my preliminary piece lacks various features relevant for that of a music magazine; the title of the magazine is not clear, it lacks information and the pictures are square, block images, with no contrast to the background image. Also, the text present throughout the front cover is very bland, it does not extract any sort of attention from the background and hence making it useless. With my finished product I have tried to eliminate these factors, making a large, obvious title for my magazine, bursting out of the page in a 'PUNK' font, with the colours in relation to that of the background, although with a slight differentiation to make it stand out from the rest of the cover. Also many other features such as the images, I have used Photo shop to extract various images from their background and place them unto more suiting backgrounds for the style of magazine to which I have taken upon. Other features such as the bursting images as a teared background to the band name, from the left of my finished product front cover, set it in a different standard to that of my preliminary piece.


















In relation to this, with the contents page for my preliminary piece, it has various features that I genuinly believe suite the style of magazine in which it is portraying, for example, the boxes outlining the various page numbers and cover stories within them are a great asset to the page. Also the variation in green/yellow along the bottom, also contrasting with the text along the bottom and top (the title/main cover story) along with the smaller story in white along the bottom, make for an overall good look. However it lacks originality and the factor of belief. If this magazine was placed on the shelves it would not generate a fan base, its potential target market would not be interested due to its lack of images, and also due to the fact that its too block coloured. However with my finished product, again I have become neglegate to block colours, I have used various texts, along with colour schemes to create a contrasting effect. Also, the main image itself has been extracted from its background to set it aside from the rest of the page, pulling it out of the background. The promotional posters on the bottom right have been specifically cut and enhanced using a horizonal adjustment feature on Photo shop. This sets them aside from the rest of the magazine, making sure none of the features blend together as not to make it boring.

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

Before constructing this product, I had yet to be introduced to the wonders of photo shop - how dissecting an image could be made one hundred times easier through much simpler tools. I also learnt how to make media effective, for example, when creating such a project as a magazine, it is not necessarily what you enjoy - it is mainly what the potential buyers of the magazine enjoy. Research helped me find out what people within the bracket of the target audience for my  magazine desired, and the technologies I was introduced to within this project helped me to accomplish and meet these desires. Photo shop (CS5) has many features which enabled me to meet the requirements and targets set from the potential market for my magazine. I didn't use many other programs aside from Photo shop when creating my magazine pages, although other programs have been helpful, I used 'Paint'; to take effective, high quality screenshots and post them through my blog. This brings me on to my blog, blogging was a new phenomenon to me at the start of this project, and having never blogged before in my life, the concept of sharing your ideas and thoughts through a 24/7 available system was genius. As I first started blogging, I came to realise the possibilities that it possesses. With features available such as editing previous posts, posting images and videos and commenting on other peoples work and taking ideas you like and don't like to help with the progression of your magazine.

How did you attract/adress your audience?

Addressing a potential fan base for my magazine was no issue for me, as the target market for my magazine revolves around youth, ageing from 16-22. This was ideal for me as the pupils at my school ranged through these ages and a little below. However when referring to the 21/22 year old bracket. I focused on the era that my brother possesses, for him and his friends are greatly interested in this genre of music I asked them to be part of my surveys/evaluations. Therefore all areas of my target audience were met.

When attracting potential buyers/readers of a magazine of this genre I did various things, I went along with my brother to certain Gigs (mainly involving Death of an Artist) and took the views of those people who's lives revolved around this style of music/media. They all gladly participated in answering the questions within my questionnaire which helped me to take an overall view from all ages within my target audience. I also posted notes throughout my facebook page, using web 2.0 interactivity, to help people find the band's page, once again recruiting more people to help me with my evaluation and research.

Who would be the audience for you media product?

My music magazine mainly revolves around post hardcore/rock. This; however, limits the potential target audience for my magazine, it also, in many retrospects increases the potential fan base for a magazine like mine, this is due to an increase in the number of people interested in local, upcoming bands, which again, is a unique selling point to which my magazine revolves around. Much research has been looked into the speculation that a magazine will not gain a large fan base, unless it includes global music affairs, however I have decided to go against the grain of this statement, by keeping my magazine as a mainly promotional magazine, with certified features including other larger bands, relating to playing in smaller venues locally - this attracts a specific type of reader.

The age group I have targetted with my magazine, would be ranging from 17-22. I have stated this throughout my research as I feel people of this age are most likely to be open to the possibility of upcoming bands progressing through a wider fan base. A significant amount of the creation of my magazine, was based around the feedback I recieved throughout the research stages, and then after its completion. I revolve everything I do to do with my magazine, around feedback, as I see it as the most essential part of a magazines success in its bracket.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product is clearly targetted at a specific audience, as it as one unique selling point alone - the music. The bands promoted within the magazine are better known as 'Up-Comers', and therefore are not known on a large public basis. This means that the only people interested in reading my magazine, would be people genuinely interested in the promotion it possesses, and the music to which it is promoting. The images and text I used; however developing upon already established, globally recognized magazines, do not target a specific audience, the questions are fairly personal and could create a large amount of media attention.

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

I think that the distributor I would choose to distribute my product would be 'Ditto Music'.

This is a company globally known throughout the music industry which target local and smaller areas of Britain and the US, to promote smaller magazines and bands alike. This company would be ideal for my magazine, as the magazine would be shipped to 700+ smaller cities, towns and companies to promote its ideas. From here I could look into promoting my magazine further, although as it does not revolve around affairs involving the public, it may not reach a higher public fan base.

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

This is a question that I have addressed various times throughout the production of my Music Magazine. There are many magazines on the shelf in a similar genre to that of my magazine, including Kerrang!, Q, Rock sound etc. All of these have been great influences in the creation of my magazine - in the sense that I have used ideas and styles in my magazine, that were originally presented to me in the form of an already established magazine. My magazine; I feel, also challenges forms and conventions of globally known magazines, as my magazine possesses certain attributes, not seen within established magazines. This gives my magazine an enhanced media edge as these styles and graphics used within my magazine are not found already within the media industry.

Starting with the title of the magazine. For the title of my magazine I used various quantitative research, and also some un-posted qualitative research to find out what potential buyers (target market) for my magazine were looking for. The name ORIGIN, found 100% of the participants questioned preferring it over any of the other name ideas I had - and also over some already established magazines names. I think the name is highly relevant with the genre of music to which my magazine is based around, however in great contrast to the graphic style I followed within my magazine; as the font I used, is a very evasive font, clearly extracting itself from the bland background I selected. Also the colours I used are followed throughout the magazine, and the black and blue idea is sub-consciously known within the media and music industry through already established products, e.g. songs from such artists as Mike Snow.

The images possess features of Mise-en-scene that are greatly in contrast to many other magazines on the shelf. I used very bland graphic styles to excel various features of the pictures, for example the picture on the front cover, has been sharpened using Photo shop. I did this to create a stronger feel about it, and to bring it out from the background. As the background is quite bland in itself, this also gives the same effect to that of other pictures throughout the magazine - such as the background and main image on the contents page. All of the main images throughout my magazine are selected specifically, extracted from their original backgrounds and placed unto background images that I feel were more suited to the genre of magazine I have taken upon. A prime example of this would be the double page spread, where the picture of Mark (singer + guitarist of Death of an Artist), has been extracted from a very dark, almost black background, and placed unto an image of a gig crowd. This again relates back to developing forms and conventions of real media products as I expanded on this idea from a 2008 edition of Kerrang!

The people within my magazine are fairly vague, their clothes/costumes, and expressions tell of passion. This is essential for a magazine of my genre as people within the Rock Music industry understand that it is not all about fame and money, it is mainly about creating music that is globally loved, and music being the thing that you love. The clothes that the people are wearing throughout the images I used within my magazine represent the global rebellion that is present within our society. That people are wearing clothes to express how they would like to be represented. Two out of the three main images were of the band in action, this gives an essential effect to the viewer as it shows them the band are interested in the music they produce, and the fact that their clothing is fairly bland and doesn't try to draw attention (unlike someone such as Lady Gaga), that the music is the most essential thing within this band.

The written text within my magazine, follows very similar forms and codes to that of an already established magazine, the convention of the questions asked within the double page spread are partially personal, although relating mainly back to the antagonist idea within the magazine (the band). However, one thing that sets my magazine aside from already globally established magazine, is the fact that the headlines, and cover stories are not about what is happening within the music industry as a whole, but mainly focuses on particular bands and specific outbursts within a very niche range of music. This challenges conventions of established magazines as their main worry is the profit behind their product, therefore main stories about popular bands and artists must be included for them to be assured of sales.

The layout of my magazine is very conventional, as I was yet to study music magazines as a whole before this project, I felt it was essential that I took ideas from already established magazines, to be reassured of what the target market for my magazine was looking for. The layout I used in-particular also allows me to expand and develop the ideas of established magazines, as I have created more room within the pages to allow for more promotional offers and advertisements, I believe this was a great feature of my magazine, as it does not assess or address global scenes or features, my magazine is strongly revolved around the promotion of local bands. The theme behind the layout of my magazine was similar to the conventions of the already established magazine Kerrang!, this is because I know through experience that Kerrang! delivers what the public, and target market for my magazine want to see. Therefore I developed graphic techniques used by Kerrang! to create an individualised magazine of my own.

My magazine revolves around rock music, post hardcore and partially indie - this is established through the various graphic techniques I used. Titles crashing out of the background images, giving a very up-front view on the main idea proposed on the page. The images being singled out, and placed on different backgrounds to represent the style of music to which I am addressing is another technique I used. Also the language used within my magazine is similar to that of many other established magazines, and therefore the forms and conventions of real media products are hence used, developed and challenged within my magazine.