Evaluation

AS MEDIA STUDIES 

EVALUATIONS: FOUNDATION PORTFOLIO

The genre of my music magazine is classical. Conventions of this genre which I have included are the musical symbols such as the treble clef, the classical instruments (horn and piano). Also the elements mentioned in my magazine article are related to classical music for example orchestras, music schools and composers. It was vital to use these elements to ensure that my product Interests the target audience of music students and teenage classical music lovers. To make my magazine different I took on a more modern approach, using modern fonts and a modern layout. These modern fonts produce connotations of an urban, teenage magazine. I needed to do this to make sure that my magazine appealed to my target audience. My innovations were likely to prove successful as I am a music student myself, and so I know what appeals to the target audience. I received lots of positive feedback from my audience testing. One person said that it was “A contemporary approach to an old industry”, another said that “The bold colours and photograph make the magazine very striking and something that I would like to read.” I also tried to make my article more fun to read than other classical music magazines, as well as being informative, this worked, as 100% of my audience found it interesting. My audience also said that the contents page was “well arranged”, and  “it shows that the magazine is really well organized”

My magazine represents classical music, but differs from the traditional representation, of an old, dull and boring industry for older people who are considered to be very intelligent, out-dated and stuck-up, as it is a more modern approach and is new and exciting. The social group represented in my magazine is teenagers and young music stars. I feel that my magazine paints a positive picture of this group, and shows that they are determined and talented individuals. This differs to the typical media representation of teenagers as they are usually represented as criminals and anti social people who are not welcome in society. However, in my article there is a reference to band members who deserted their friend once he left the band. This creates a negative picture of teenagers, but this is overpowered by the positive representations of the main star, Jamie. To create this positive representation, the model wore a suit but without a tie to create a polished but young and slightly edgy look, the model has a unique look, which is appealing, and from my audience testing I have found that people find this look perfect for the magazine and very appealing. I photographed Jamie in a unique way, and I used a variety of shots to reflect his age and personality. My audience testing was extremely positive for my images, with comments such as “I really like the images, Reflections in the horn make the picture look interesting and holding the horn shows off his passion for the instrument”. Once again 100% of my audience really liked my images, and said that they were the most appealing element of the magazine.

I think that an organization such as MusicMags would publish my magazine as this company publishes modern music magazines in every genre including classical. I think my music magazine would be appealing as it presents classical music to  a new audience and is different from other magazines. The publisher would think that my magazine would create a profit as it is unique and the audience that it targets exists, and there are millions of determined classical music students. I also feel that they would be attracted to my magazine as it is very positive and is a completely new approach to classical music. This company produces many music magazines including Sound on Sound, and magazines aimed at musicians such as International Musician. My magazine is aimed at classical and jazz young musicians and music students, which were my test audience who provided 100% positive feedback,so I feel that this company would benefit from my magazine, as their magazines are for older musicians who are not students. From my audience testing, I found that two thirds of the audience would purchase my magazine if it was available to buy, with the other third not purchasing it because they did not have the money. I tested 3 people, and I think that even from this small amount, that my magazine would be popular and would make a huge profit for the media institution. 

The name of my magazine, "The Score", immediately suggests classical music, One person said that there was an "obvious consolation with music, and a suggestion of keeping on track of what's going on, knowing the score". From this I can tell that the title did attract the audience. The front cover image, of Jamie holding the horn in the air, worked well, with 100% of the audience awarding praise. The use of story lines on the front cover also attracted my audience, combined with the modern font and bright colours was praised, "Different fonts and colours have made the words stand out on the page, Also making the writing bold makes it easier to read". My contents page was laid out in a simplistic way to make it easy to read, which was exactly what it did. “From the contents it shows that the magazine is really well organised". Again praise was awarded for the fonts and bright colours, and the image. The double page spread was well liked by my audience: 100% found it interesting, 100% loved the images, especially the image of a reflection in the horn, and the image of Jamie holding the horn close to himself. The layout of the article was also successful, which I was pleased about as I wasn't sure if there was too much text or not but the layout was "easy on the eyes, aesthetically pleasing text, imagery and graphics." The ideologies of celebrity that my pieces use are glamorous, but edgy and very current and appealing. The audience has responded well to this, and I feel that young music students would be inspired by this, and look up to people like Jamie.

I used the internet to research my product, and to create a record of my work on my blog using blogger.com. This has been very useful as I have been able to find lots of information to use with the magazines that I purchased. This formed good research which helped me to make the final decisions about my work. I learnt how to take effective photographs, and how to edit them to make them look even better in Adobe Photoshop using crop tools, hue and saturation editing, magic wand tool and the pen tool to name just a few. For example, I cropped the image of Jamie shown below using the crop tool, I then twisted the image to give a more interesting, canted angle effect. I also edited the colours slightly by adding a slight curve to the image. In addition, I learnt how to combine the images with text and other graphics in Adobe In Design and using tools such as rectangle tools, cropping tool, and text tools to achieve a professional look. This software was very difficult to use at first, but once I had produced my preliminary task, I was quite familiar with the software, which allowed me to be able to create the professional look of my magazine. I found some limitations with musical symbols, which prevented my original idea from working. However, I feel that the way my logo is was beneficial to the overall look of the magazine, and I wouldn't change it.  To gain audience feedback, I created a questionnaire which I then printed out and handed to 3 music students to gain feedback. 

This is the image which I edited using the crop tools and by twisting the image and editing the colours.

Since my preliminary task, my photography skills have improved dramatically, I took lots of photographs for my preliminary task so that I could practice using different shots, which was very worthwhile in helping me to produce my final photographs. The preliminary task photographs were taken indoors, and the main photographs were taken outside, I feel that this has made my photographs look more professional as the lighting took away the 'orange face look'. I also feel that the design of my magazine has improved since the preliminary task, and my text and fonts are better, and the layout as a whole is much more appealing and sophisticated. The colours in my magazine are much more striking and attractive than my preliminary task, and this has been praised through my audience testing. Looking back at my preliminary task, I can see that my skills have vastly improved, and I have learnt a lot during the time spent producing my coursework.

In conclusion, I am very pleased with my music magazine. I have achieved all that I wanted to and have attracted the audience, and produced an interesting and unique magazine. The layout that I used worked very well and the images look very polished. My audience testing confirmed that my magazine is a professional production, that would be successful if it were to be published.

words: 1529

Completed project!

These are the images of my finished pages from my magazine. Overall, I am very pleased with the results and I think that my magazine, if produced would be successful. I think that the colour scheme chosen was appropriate and looks eye catching and modern but still sophisticated. I wanted a more informative look for my magazine as opposed to the informal look of magazines such as NME. I think by my use of layout and style I have achieved this. I am very pleased with the photographs used in my magazine. They look very professional and are unique and different to the images found in existing classical music magazines such as BBC Music Magazine. I feel that the target audience, teenage classical musicians, would be attracted to my magazine, as it is based around a musician of the same age, and is also modern looking at the same time as being traditional. I have been able to satisfy this target audience, as I am a teenage classical musician, and so I know what this audience would read and like.

I think that the font used for my magazine works very well. It is edgy and unique and is not traditional. Young people are more familiar with these more modern, urban fonts, and so this will help in attracting the target audience. 

Mock up of main article

This is a mock up of my main article. The layout is quite simple, the images used will be a variety of action shots and staged portraits. I would like the photographs to be of the musician with their instruments rather than just plain portraits. I would like the text to be layed out in columns, and be of a quite informal but informative language. 

Mock up of my contents page

This is a mock up of what my contents page might look like. As with the front cover musical symbols are used in the title "In this issue". This layout requires many images which are overlapped with each other. However this could look a bit too crowded when complete but hopefully this idea will work. I think that amount of text used will have to be reduced, as there is too much text for the page. However, I want the magazine to look full of articles and information, as students(target audience) will not have very much money, and so making the magazine good value for money is essential. As with the front cover, interesting fonts and bright colours will ned to be used to create an eye catching and unique look and appeal to the target audience.

Mock up of front cover

Opposite is a scanned image of a mock up front cover for my music magazine. The title "The Score" features many musical symbols to show that this is a music magazine, and also to appeal to the target audience, as non musicians will not understand some of these symbols, but this may not be possible when using computer graphics. The main image will be of a person but will be striking and colourful. I think that some of the text and secondary images may not be needed, depending on how 'busy' the main image is. However I think that this front cover will be appealing and striking once colour is applied. I would like to use bright colours that will stand out and make the magazine appeal to the target audience. I have chosen to use a quotation or title from the main article on the cover to show what the main feature of the magazine will be and to attract attention. I will take all of the images planned for this font cover, but depending on how much space the main image will take up, I may not use all of them in the end.

Analysis of a magazine article 5

This double page spread is taken from the American magazine "Hip Hop weekly", based on the music of hip hop this magazine has been expanded to cover the whole hip hop community. This article is mainly text but the language is quite informal. However, this is quite an informative article. The main image is of the artist, as is the secondary image. These images are not particularly unique and striking but serve their purpose at presenting the artist in two different ways, a staged portrait and an action shot of him working in the lab. I like the highlighted quotation from the artist at the top of the second page. This highlighting of a quotation is used regularly in music magazines, and is effective and depending on the fonts and colours look unique and interesting. The band across the top of the pages runs throughout the magazine with a different heading for each section. There is a lot of text in this article, and I feel that this could be reduced to make it more appealing to the reader. Also the images could be more interesting and the overall layout of the article could be improved to break up the text. Overall I think that this is a good layout for a magazine article, but would be better with less text and more interesting images. 

Analysis of a magazine article 4

This is a double page spread taken from Classic Fm magazine. This article is a review of "disc of the month" but also includes a short interview and a main article with information about the music on the cd in addition to the performers. The main image of this article is of opera stars with puppets from the opera production of Dido and Aeneas. The overall layout of this article is quite effective but is slighlty dated, and is not as striking as the NME layouts for example. The secondary image is of Sarah Connolly, the main singer in the opera. This action shot is not very appealing and looks rather strange. It also quite uninteresting. I like the logo for disc of the month which is placed onto the main article, and this adds a new shape to the article, a circle. The language used in this article is about the same sort of style that I will be using for my magazine. However, my magazine will have a more interesting layout and will be more informal in places.