Evaluation Question 6

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


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In the construction of the music magazine and my preliminary task I used the following technologies: -

1 - Digital Samsung 15 Megapixel Camera
2 - SLR Camera with ...zoom lense
3 - Lighting Equipment
4 - Indesign
5 - Apple Mac
6 - Blogger
7 - Youtube
8 - Prezi
9 - Photoshop

1 - I first used the Digital Camera when taking pictures of my model the first time round. The disadvantage of the Digital compared to the SLR was that you couldn't take photos in quick succession as there was a delay in waiting for the image to appear. Whereas on the SLR you could click several times in a matter of seconds thus making progress quicker. On the other hand the flash was useful although it did leave shadows in the background which had to be corrected. Considering I rarely took photos aside of this project originally I feel that my knowledge in terms of shot composition and image selection has matured dramatically and I have become much more clued up in terms of how a camera actually achieves the best photo possible - e.g.) zoom options, shot distance, camera settings.

2 - The SLR Camera actually shocked me at the quality of shot it produced. It was much crisper. Primarily I was confused about the settings and how to preview but I adjusted quickly. I first used this in my preliminary task with the school magazine. In a way it did make things clearer but due to this it made more work in the image manipulation programmes like Photoshop as it made flaws more apparent in the shot therefore these had to be sorted.

3 - Lighting Equipment consisted simply of a few extra lamps placed to the left, right and below myself. As the model backed onto a wall there was a slight shadow but this was expected. They didn't give any glare on the lense as they were facing the model but they provided a clearer image by lighting up the scene.

4 - Indesign was something I had never used before but it reminded me of a more specific version of Microsoft Publisher. The guided columns helped me position the text primarily. The biggest benefit to me was looking at existing double page spreads beforehand as I could fully compensate the way I should have laid out the pages. I also used drop caps at the start of each question in a different colour.

5 - The Apple Mac is actually a very clever and comprehensive piece of technology. Obviously it has the software on that I used to create the final products. Tools such as grab I used effectively what I had done in my blog. The Mac also made everything very easy as I could have multiple things open simultaneously. I could also record voice clips on it, access the internet etc. I was far more advanced compared to the average laptop and thus sped up my approach to deadlines and so on.

6 - Blogger was brilliant for showing all of my progress. It allowed me to be organised and know where everything was even if not in chronological order. It looks well presented and I like the fact it is accessible from anywhere so I can carry on with my work at home. It is a very modern approach and shows us utilizing the technology at our fingertips instead of writing of a simple PowerPoint. Its interactivity makes the whole process look professional and it was not too confusing. I could also provide links and videos to support my points and develop my research further. I also appreciated the whole structure of the labelling system. Not only could you catagorize things but you could also link them to other pieces of work or view them as a group. For example 'Research' could then be broken down into more specific labels like 'Contents Page Research' and 'Front Page Research'.

7 - Youtube I used several times to provide an interactive alternative version of research. It makes a complete contrast from just simply typing out words - it offers a completely different outlook which is effortless to watch. For example when I wanted to explain the direction of my magazine which was indie/alternative rock I added an interview with the Gallagher brothers to portray the artists and atmosphere I wanted to convey. It also provided many Photoshop tutorials which assisted me in the construction of my contents, front page and double page spread.

8 - Prezi. I used this primarily in my preliminary task which allowed me to clearly set up my ideas and what I should do in a brainstorm formation. It was an organised and rather fun way of constructing my thoughts.

9 - Photoshop took a while to get used to. Tools like spot healing, magnetic lasso, quick selection, rubber I used all very regularly. Brightness, contrast and colour adjustments I also used to manipulate the images and gave them a flawless look. It also allowed me to add text and create a piece in a simple way using the layers system. This I found incredibly useful as you could attend to each individual factor. It also enabled me to cut out something and then move it onto another document as well as extracting colour samples to match existing things.

Evaluation Question 7

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


When I look back to my original Preliminary Task of the school magazine I noticed a number of things that I most definitely should have changed. I think that it is evident and fairly conclusive that I have made a lot of progress in terms of my technological advancements in Photoshop. Not only have I improved through the use of the software but also my shot compositions and the planning that I put into this task beforehand. There was a lot more consideration and I feel I was far more precise and creative in my approach. Although admittedly I am not very good with technology, I believe I made the best of what I have to create a final product which I can feel proud of.

The name of the preliminary task ‘Wilmowatch’ is not exactly well thought out. Although it has some sort of relation to the school and is a slight pun, there was not a lot of research that went into it. On the other hand, with my coursework music magazine piece I looked up many music associated words and tried to put them into a magazine environment where suitable. ‘XLR’’ can be linked to ‘Q’ and ‘NME’ showing a definite improvement in my pre-planning and way of thinking to achieve better results. The font of the title is also in an uniconic style – but comparing this to ‘XLR’ which has dominance and presence as well as a theme which follows a trend. More of a logo and branding than a name of a magazine. The size of the font is not right – it should be much bigger and more of a statement in ‘Wilmowatch’.  Websites such as ‘DAFont’ allowed me to have far more characteristic font styles throughout as opposed to the dull default ones – thinking outside the box. 

The images themselves are all only desaturated in the Pre-Lim. As mentioned, my Photoshop abilities are limited to an extent but this is far too common and I perhaps saw it as a quick fix of an image manipulation. My images on the music magazines show an obvious improvement in my skills with the spot healing tool, brightness and contrast levels, cutting/cropping and extra additions such as drop and inner shadows, suggesting my confidence improved as well as my ability to experiment further. The models in both are well suited to their target audiences but I selected the ‘XLR’ one far more carefully. (The focus on target audience was a massive advantage in In terms of the amount of photos I took, for the coursework I took several hundred more. I knew what I was looking for and my shot composition for much more specific as I actually researched existing examples and tried to relate his poses to these. I could get a cleaner image and not settle for average as I had a much wider selection of themes as well as costumes.

When I look at the contents pages my appreciation of the rectangle tool and multiple text boxes assisted me much more second time round. By using individual text boxes I could make minor adjustments which I learnt from experience. The layout on both the front and contents is much busier but at the same time far more structured. The amount of space on the pre-lim is shocking indicating my understanding of positioning is far stronger in the music magazine. I think by looking at the significance of column formats it assisted me into making a much clearer and realistic contents page which could fit right into the band of current alternative music magazines.

I think the advantage of doing more research allowed me to have a much clearer direction in which I wanted to head in. It also gave me an idea of what I could relate my magazine to. My organisation in terms of presentation and time management has also made a significant development as I noted the necessity of working quickly along with efficiently. Each lesson I knew what I had to do and the motivation I had to do it was far superior as a result. By repeatedly using Photoshop I got to understand it much better although not expertly I must add.

Evaluation Question 5

How did you attract/address your audience?

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Colour - Like NME and Q the consistant background is a clean white one. The audience would recognise the general trend. I like the way that the colours and images appear crisp against it. It makes my pages look structured, tidy and professional. Although I have destaurated a couple of images, the majority of my images are bright and crisp. For example, on the front page the model's inner shadow is clear and assists it to look realistic.

Price - In keeping with the current market. Also the website is shown, encourraging readers to visit it and extend their XLR experience interactively. The synergy provides an alternative or extension to the paper form of a magazine.

Artists - Used artists using my personal knowledge of what fits into the genres. Kasabian for example are hugely popular in the alternative/indie rock scene therefor my artists are attracted by the headline acts and also interested in undiscovered and upcoming acts - as shown on the front page.

DPS - The tone and linguistic style is also in keeping with the magazines in the industry. I used a comical approach yet also an informative one. I used colloquial language and the layout also was influenced by my research and tried to capture the personalities of my target audience within this.

Front Page - Interesting articles would attract my audience as ultimately interesting and up to date content  would make my XLR magazine be far more relevant and therefore desireable. The puropse of a music magazine is to keep the audience informed so a diverse range of artists/articles keeps the audience attracted and excited for the next issue.

Double Page Spread Construction

By using InDesign I had the advantage over Photoshop as I had a structured column format and also had a double page spread available. I had already written the script/interview and it it available on Microsoft Word and I simply just pasted it into Photoshop. This is just a simple layout just to get a feel in response to several magazines that I looked at in my research. I decided to do a statement at the start - a kind of brief summary and then underneath I set the scene so the reader could feel like they were present.

  

I used the same font as on the front cover which can be seen perhaps as safe but I saw it more of an identity which can be associated with the artist himself (font: Alias). It is a quirky and characteristic style. In terms of colour scheme I also remained consistant - using black on white. I used font size of 72 which made this the largest piece of text on the page which I felt was very important as ultimately this is the name and therefore identity of the feature.

I then positioned the text using the guided columns. The problem that I encountered was the words being hyphened at the end of a line if they did not fit as appropriate. I simply had to press enter and let them slide down to the line below thus making the word complete. I had to make sure that the paragraphs were equi-distant from each other as well as spaced accordingly within itself - I used the justify tool several times. To make each paragraph stand out, at the start I enlarged the primary letter as a 'drop-cap' and made it red - keeping to the house style/theme. I did this by highlighting it with the cursor and the selecting the colour swatches to the red which could be seen in my contents and front pages.

After clearing up my photo's resolution in photoshop I inserted it as a JPEG into indesign. I had to have equal spacing between the paragraphs to make it look clear cut. I aligned it with the paragraph above. I think that the dark colours are dominant against the clean and sterile background giving them impact. For the photo to the right I used the desaturation tool to make it differ to the opposing photo.

I then used the pull quotes in 'Telegraphico' font size 20. It is rather simplistic and clear therefore it does not detract from the text. I used the most poignant quotes which I felt I wanted to reflect the character's personality and the jist of the feature.

The page numbers in my opinion have some sort of characteristics and therefore carry through with the identity of the magazine to show some sort of consistency. I thought by mentioning the name at the bottom it would again repeat this 'identity. I used the rectangle tool twice as a square simply sections it off from the rest of the page. I then used the colour sampling tool to get the maroon/red colour I have regularly used throughout. I also repeated the 'American Purpose' font for the text.

Contents Page Construction

I chose to stick with the 'American Purpose' font which is the XLR logo official font just to in keep with the theme. I chose to vary up the colours to give a bit of diversity and the colours have different connotations. By using the colour sampler I kept the maroon and then changed the colour swatch for the yellow and grey. The yellow draws the readers attention to the fact that this ia a weekly magazine. By boxing in the words it segregates them from the rest of the page - this again was repetition of the rectangle tool several times and then these were free transformed.

In my research I looked thoroughly at contents structure. There were many styles but I chose to it in a list format to leave plenty of space to the right. By using one text box I could move them as a collection and therefore more accurately. I saw this demonstrated first an NME magazine. The artists were simply listed down the side so the reader can clearly just pick the artists which interest them and then find the page number in chronological order. (Font : Optima). By clearly also adding the cover date it was a minor detail but the minor details make the difference in my opinion. (Font: Telegraphico)

Developing this column structure more fully, I added lines to make the columns more defined and noticeable. Again by using the rectangle tool in keeping with the maroon/red theme. By adding a yellow box it highlights the promotion of the subscription opportunity. This in short enhances the corporate identity and therefore revenue which is seen in all magazines. The red 25% off is a pull factor. (Font: Telegraphico). I added the image which had been desaturated/brightened/tweaked in photoshop with tools such as the spot healing tool and the quick selection tool. By adding the page number to the image it shows where the feature on this dominant and obviously important artist.
The final stages were making the page more personal to the reader. I saw in Kerrang! that the editor made a little message in each issue just discussing relevant topics which I thought gave a friendly relationship between the audience and editor or personal connection. (Fonts: 'Euphemia UCAS' and 'Honey Script'). The generated signature I thought was a clever addition and unique. The highlighting of the numbers in the columns was last minute just to show the difference between the artist pages and the magazine pages such as 'Holiday Hangover' - rectangle tool. The pull quote was common in my research so I added one on the image of Jimmy Daniels to give the reader an insight into his feature.

Evaluation Question 4

Who would be the audience for your media product? 

My target audience was identified as the alternative/indie crowd. Using Channel 4's 'UK Tribes' grouping system I could find out what the 'Indie Scenesters' specifically liked in terms of fashion, music, media forms and their lifestyle choices. I highlighted at the start in my research that my magazine would be designed for an alternative/indie young audience - 17-35 generally. Psycograhpically, my audience would be a mix of mainstreamers, aspirers and carers in terms of their socio-economic groups. 

In terms of fashion the style is very wide and comprehensive as indie styling can be perceived in many different ways whether retro, bright coloured or effortless for example. I believe my magazine would target this audience very effectively. My clothing choices are in keeping with the research I had done before the construction of the magazine (see below). My styling is casual yet tasteful and the brands reflect this indie culture effectively. The audience can relate to this easily and the magazine itself can be recognized as one that covers all bases in the alternative scene. By referring to my spider diagram (bottom) it clearly shows that the media consumption within this target audience leans strongly towards magazines showing that this would be an excellent sales opportunity and there is already a proven market and demand for such material so mine was designed to fit right into this gap.

 My personal music tastes would fit into this group therefore I already had some background knowledge into what would be appropriate to include into my magazine to appeal to this audience. By mentioning bands such as Kasabian, The Black Keys, Moby and having retro twists like Axl Rose I feel really optimizes the genre of music which fits evenly into the indie/alternative culture. Not only does this appeal to the younger members but also to the older generation of the group.

Evaluation Question 3

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

When looking at the circulation figures from Mag ABC on the most popular music magazines in Britain, Bauer Consumer Media stands out by having 'KERRANG!' and 'Q' placed firmly and successfully amongst other popular magazines. As my magazine was influenced and inspired by these magazines initially it would appear that 'XLR' magazine would fit perfectly within Bauer's media productions due to it's general genre similarity to it's existing products in the musical industry.

"Bauer Media reaches over nineteen million UK adults across multiple media channels" - this quote is published on their website and this strongly optimizes my target audience of young adults in a sense which would be a huge advantage if my target audience corresponded with theirs.

"Bauer Media reaches over nineteen million UK adults across multiple media channels. We have more than eighty influential media brands spanning a wide range of interests, including heat, GRAZIA, Closer, MCN, FHM, Parkers, MATCH, Magic 105.4, Kiss 100, Kerrang and 4Music.

Our business is built on millions of personal relationships with engaged readers and listeners. We connect audiences with compelling content, whenever, wherever, and however they want. Our unique insight allows us to work closely with our customers to develop innovative solutions that create a difference to their business." Not only does Bauer clearly branch out into other areas of media such as radio and other types of magazine such as gossip although this is irrelevant and perhaps too mainstream for my audience. The evidence does suggest on the other hand that the company of Bauer is strong financially, has many connections and also is a well respected brand.

On the website of Bauer Media it states that the audience of 'Q' is composed of 'passionate, engaged and open minded readers.' It also shows that 75% of it's readers are male and 25% female along with 'Mojo' (approx). When you look at other magazines such as 'Zoo' and 'FHM' also produced by Bauer it can be considered that as a media company, the main focus is on the male market. However, the gossip magazines like 'heat' are strongly directed towards the more obvious female crowd suggesting Bauer's products are not necessarily focused predominantly on a more male dominated audience.  It also states that the general age gap targeted is between 15-35 years of age which I have frequently mentioned and also focused my magazine on this specific age range. I believe that the detail and structure of my magazine follows a strong relation towards these already established and popular magazines - produced by Bauer.
When comparing Bauer to other media institutions such as IPC media, there can be some similarities to be noted in the music magazines that are produced. 'NME' of course as a rival to Bauer's productions, shows many of the same themes as 'Q' for example such as it's content. Like 'Kerrang' furthermore it is also released weekly. 'NME' is also the most widely used music website in Europe with 4 million users globally which could suggest the dip in circulation figures. 'Uncut' magazine is also produced by IPC media but it is recorded that the average user is around 37 years of age which does not fit into my proposed target audience. It also does not carry the same corporate identity and branding as 'Q' and 'NME' which have developed into music channels and radio stations showing their aspiration to expand further.

In terms of international recognition and corporate branding both the media institutions in question are very popular as well as dominant. In terms of target audience and due to the many different links that Bauer has I believe that my 'XLR' magazine would be better suited here as it can be seen as a unique alternative weekly magazine that they produce - Q being in this genre is produced monthly and therefore 'XLR' could compete weekly with 'NME' for the best alternative/indie magazine. This is acknowledging a gap in Bauer's comprehensive and affluent market.