Evaulation of my College Magazine

Overall, my college magazine product was fun to make and gave me a greater insight on what to improve, and maybe some things I could change; prehaps a different layout.
The symbol of the greek letter "lambda" was a direct iconic reference to a best selling computer game (which used the same symbol). My magazine was based around the idea of science, and you can see most of the coverlines are associated with science and even the masthead is referencing to the same game I was mentioning (Half-Life).
My college magazine and contents may have only had one picture to work from, but I've learned to take more to add a more interesting feel to it, instead of one boring photograph.
My music magazine directly reflects what I've learned from my experiences making the college magazine. What makes a magazine good and what doesn't work, were especially important.
My conclusion is that although my college magazine did not share many features that my music magazine may have had, it still serves as a direct template to my mistakes and hopefully into making a better magazine for certain audiences.

Question 7-Looking back at your preliminary task (the college magazine task), what do you feel you learnt in the progression from it to full product?

I know a great deal about photography, keep the target in sights, make sure your not taking a shot on front of the sun and make sure its behind you. Talking from a layout point of view, I think my old college magazine's layout is more smoother and neater, while the music magazine is all angled, more colourful and vibrent.
I mastered the technology of photoshop and the software, in order to appeal to a specific audience. My writting style also changes when I wrote in each magazine. Although I didn't have an interview page in my college magazine (it only had front page and contents), I had to come up with an interview with a character I created.
The layout of the font also changed from each project. The college magazine for instance was neat and
organized. My music magazine however is more angular and colourful. Photography was also improved from the orginal magazine. I went from straight on, eye-level shots, to more slightly higher level angle shots. Though a number of them are eye level shots but I took a lot more then a simple photo of one of my class mates. In turn the only subject would be me, through a series of subjective and object gazes, I created different shots, poses and wore different hats and a new costume.
When I began writing about the article inside, I tried to imagine what it would be like inside the interviewer's head. I wrote questions that related to the artists life, and what experiences he would have had in a music career. It was amazing I could come up with an interview because I had never played an instrament before or had any experience in the music industry.

A good masthead attract large amounts of teenage audience members who like the fonts. The main selling point is me, the model, and the main title. Because they are the largest images on the magazine. A good cover line, with another great attractive font, and the fact that is right next to the model. Nearly every magazine has a main model to attract the specific audience. I'm hoping to attract a female audience since their attracted to boy bands. For example McFly, as they attract a massive amount of girl fans. The coverlines are once again important in any magazine, and they link with similar magazines like mine. It attracts and informs my particular audience, and gives them a taster for whats inside.

Question 1-In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The genre of my music magazine is mix of all music forms, I don't think I could probably define my music magazine's genre. I suppose it could be pop music genre, no one on the market really has touched the type of genre. Pop was the breeding ground of future music in the 90s. Genres like metal, rock and classical litter the market, individuals which I formed together in my mag which is a mix.

My music magazine is called "Sound". I called it this because since magazine is a form of all music, I thought a word that best described music: sound itself; so I thought that was a good title.

The only images in my music magazine consist of me, costume was a sharp suit with cap or hat and the only person was me. No other people were included in my magazine. I used photoshop to crop out the image or logo on my cap and get rid of any spots on my face when the picture was taken. I suppose the costume fits in well with the whole 90s pop culture, although it could be just be used for attracting a female audience. However no props were used in any of the images. I didn't consider make-up for the photo shoot, because I wanted it to feel more natural.

My music magazine layout is different to other because it looks and feels much more vibrant and colourful. Where as other magazines are formal and have dull colours, my magazine is childish and informal. The cover line is in a cool font to display the main character's attitude and personality. To make it stand out from ordinary background, I made it yellow to draw the human eye to attention. The layout of written work is angled to give a extra interesting feel to the writing and I made the images angled as well.

The written content had to be made up in order to present a feel of realism. Because my alter ego "Justin Hawk" needed to have an interview, I presented him in a way that appealed to today's generation or mostly those from the 90s generation. I wrote an interview and let Justin Hawk explain a bit about the origins of the band he was with, the band members and himself and his likes and dislikes. The written content was in sans serif.

The contents page is vital to any success of a music magazine company. Mine is similar but different: again with the colours and layout. Some things remain the same, like the first letter being enlarged and certain coverlines enhanced to be bigger.

The title font of my music magazine was a font from a website called "Zombie Noize". I liked it because it looked punky and stylish. The style of my writing is angled in some places and coloured white when it was going over photos.

Question 2-How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The person on the left is not from my magazine but from an old one I did a while back; it was the only one I had. I've copied a person form a magazine on the right and compared the two together. The two bear some similarities:
Hair is very similar, gelled up and looking cool.
Although clothing isn't the same, the angle of the shot is straight on and clear. The pose on the left is a little depressed while the pose on the right is one of surprize.

Both men have their similarities but Demographically speaking, both could be in their 20s. Both are caucasian males and both could upper working class. Both look like their from the city. Using psychographics, I've identified that both are mainstreamers, aspirers and individuals who like to get a job and have a good life. I try not to "subvert" coventional stereotypes like Goths and Emos, instead I went to photograph and average member of the public, one that didn't stand out from the crowd.

Question 6

When I was working on this project, I used a number of programs and technology to help me manage and create.
The programs I have been using are:
Flickr=A website which allows you to upload photos and annotate them.
Flickr was easy to learn, thanks to it's friendly user system. The annotations were also easy to use, just dragging the boxes and writing in them.
Blogger=The website I used to create blogs and write up evaluations and reviews.
Although hard to understand and difficult to use, I eventually got round to creating all the different blogs I would be using and writing in. I learned how to draft, publish blogs and upload photos.
Photoshop=A very important program which allowed me to create my music magazine and other contents.
This was perhaps the hardest program to master. Luckily it got easier as I got better with it, its just like any other paint program with some new features.

During the process of this project, timing and management was crucial. Planning was very important because it allows me to see whats coming and put tasks in order. I developed skills over this project as well, including how to use photoshop's many features.

Question 4-Who would be the audience for your media product?

The tastes that male teenage boys might have: Shopping at Morrison's, Sainsbury and Tesco. Music they would listen to would be Rap, R&B, Pop, Heavy Metal and Techno. TV programmes would include The Simpson's, CSI, Lost and Heroes.

These people might buy my magazine because the cover lines and the house font colour is very attractive to them. Red is the best colour to use to gain the attention of the human eye. The magazine also is a music mag, displaying every music genre out there. This is what makes it so unique and cover aspects of the magazine that will make it so appealing to a wide range of teenage audiences. The masthead as well also attracts teenagers because of its font and style. The character could also attract female teenagers if they have seen any of his work. These teenagers are aspirers and live to buy things: food, gadgets, magazines, games, possibly cheap cars and jewelry (for the girls).

When people see who the character is and the cover line next to him, they will be interested to know, what Justin Hawk's favourites and dislikes and likes. Stories about himself would also be a selling point and of course of the band.

Question 3-What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Publishers which might be likely to publish my magazine would be small publishers because this for a teenage audience, I'm not really distributing mainstream. I want my magazine to be distributed in small shops, were teenagers and possibly adults like to go. I have done some research into the distribution and I have found several advantages and disadvantges in both large and small publishers.
Large publishers would be good for my magazine because they would be able to get my magazine into many large public shops such as WH Smith, or even distribute the magazine globally. The disadvantages for using big publishers are: Only interested in advertising and the reading audience, meaning that they will have a large amount of editing and control power over what goes into the magazine.
I'm not sure what the reaction would be if I released my magazine, because no one would have heard of a magazine that likes to include nearly every music genre. I think I could make it rock, metal, pop genres to pull in a massive audience. Of course when it becomes a best seller, the publishers would want to sell more and eventually CDs which could bring in more money.

Evaulation of my College Magazine

Overall, I think I've done some good work, although I still think there is room for improvement. For example, the college magazine could use some extra photographs and the front cover could be enhanced slightly. But apart from the weaknesses I enjoyed making the font, writing the text and taking my original photograph of my main subject.

Contents

Contents
Originally uploaded by georgewoodford

Click on the contents pic to look at the annotations.

Textual Analysis

The cover of the magazine I am doing a textual analysis is called Play Music and is quite basic but uses all the colours a normal mag would use. The colour scheme is red, white, black and blue, the basic colours of a normal magazine. The models are a group called "My Chemical Romance", all of which are male

caucasians, look middle class, appear to be hunched over, have a relaxed "chilled" subjective gaze and their clothes appear to be black jackets and basically all black prehaps to symbolize the emo or goth look. There are no props that I can see in the photo. There are strong horizontal lines inbetween the subject's faces and at the centre of the frame is the lead singer and the band name. Your eyes start with the main mast head title and then left to right from the band, the main lead singer and then finally the bands name written in a large, white gothic font.

The shot distance for this cover title is a Medium shot, although you can see their legs but because their faces are leaned forward ot does appear as a medium close up.

My College Magazine Front Cover

College Magazinee
Originally uploaded by georgewoodford

Click on the image to read my annotation.

Original Image