Evaluation

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

Whilst creating my music magazine I looked at forms and conventions of real media products and did my best to challenge or develop them. I did this to make my magazine unique, to stand out from the rest of a similar genre so people would buy it.

I followed conventions of magazines in terms of the masthead by putting it at the top of the page and making it the largest font on the front cover. It was inspired by a traditional masthead - the NME masthead. This needed to be done as people are used to looking for the masthead at the top of the page, and recognising it by the size. It would be at a disadvantage if it was hard to find on a shelf. To develop my ideas further I decided to stretch the masthead across the whole of the top of the page, instead of having it at the top left. In terms of designing the masthead, I decided to add small fringes to the letters, as a pun on the name of the magazine. This is due to the fact that stereotypically, people that listen to alternative music have fringes and scruffy hair. The letters of the word fringe are also are roughly coloured in, yet again to relate to the fact that alternative music lovers are seen as scruffy and having a rough exterior.

When looking at the design of my music magazine, it is easy to see many conventions of real media products have been used. A restricted colour sceme is important for magazines as it creates a brand identity, most magazines use three to five colours throughout. I decided to use red, white and black throughout as I associated these colours with the genre that is alternative and indie. The number of fonts I used was also restricted for consistency and to make my magazine generally look more aesthetic. The layout of my media product is also conventional as it includes puffs, coverlines, images, columns, etc. However, compared to many media products of this type, I have kept my magazine fairly simple, simple fonts, simple layouts. This helps make the magazine clearer and less confusing for the readers and is careful not to unnecessarily draw attention away from the more important parts. I took careful consideration into deciding my font as, like mentioned earlier, I wanted a limited amount of fonts for consistency. A simple Century Gothic font was used to go with the block writing of the title, but I decided on going to Dafont to find a different font, as the fonts on publisher and wordart were too common to use as a main piece of text.

I decided to challenge conventional ideas of images to use throughout the magazine, one of these being that most of the photos used do not show the band using instruments. Although they are obviously a very important aspect of the band, I did not want to make it seem like the interview was all about pushing their music. Like it says on the front cover, I wanted the audience to 'get to know them'. So instead I opted for perhaps typical poses of the group standing around but also poses that show the boys having a good time, laughing and playing their instruments. After cutting the background out for the front cover, a red background was best as it fit in with the colour scheme and this is slightly unconventional as many magazines still have a background in their picture, or if they don't it is the white of the studio. The method of not having a background can be seen as conventional though, as can the fact that there is only one main image on the front cover and all of the images are medium shots. This photo is used on my main feature and does not challenge conventional images as it does show the band playing their instruments like many other bands, however it portrays the boys as having fun when they're together,showing a tight-knit band which is what I wanted to give through my images.

When writing my feature I wanted to connect to my target audience. I used colloquial language during the interview although it may come across perhaps a bit too young to some people. Standard english was used throughout as it is not the type of magazine like a ghetto magazine that would use slang.

The conventions of layout were all used throughout my magazine including main images, banners/puffs, pull quotes, columns and categories on my contents page. My front cover particularly challenges conventions as it is rare you find a front cover with a purely red background. I did this as it fits in with my colour scheme, and screams out to viewers when sitting on a shelf. To the left shows Blender magazine, which commonly uses white backgrounds on their covers.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

When deciding on the social group I wanted to represent in my magazine, an age group of teens - twenties seemed appropriate with a social demographic of C-E. People of this social group listening to indie/alternative music are likely to pick up my magazine as I was careful when deciding on models and bands used on my front cover and contents page. My models, which fits in well with the name of my magazine, all have fringes and scruffy hair which is typical of an 'indie' person. Their clothing is perhaps not completely representative of the social group, but I wanted this clothing so my group would look like a tight-knit band, looking smart. It also shows they are joined in a community, one that is excluded from the mainstream so they need to stick together. Their poses show they are young and having fun while doing something they love, enjoying life just like a teen - mid twenty year old should be doing. Below is a picture of some indie people.

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

I believe it would be better for my magazine and its ideologies to be sold with an independent publishing company. This has its disadvantages as a major institution like IPC will allow for more copies to be published and more publicity, but with an independent I will have freedom with my magazine. With independent publishing companies you have the choice to do what you want and not be controlled in terms of who is on your cover, etc. Fringe can still be sold in record shops and at gigs and festivals, hopefully, successfully. It would be slightly hypocritical for me to go with a mainstream institution after my magazine is all about indie music and consciously deciding to not be part of the mainstream.

Who would the audience be for your media product?

When planning my magazine I decided I wanted it to be for teens to mid twenty year olds. This is because this is typically the age people get into alternative music. It could be argued the gender is for females as there is a reasonably young male band on the cover, and the use of colloquial language. However, I never wanted my magazine to be gender specific, it is just as much for males as it is for females. As said earlier, the social demographic I was aiming to represent and just as much entertain with my magazine was those of C-E. The type of lifestyle these people would have would be gigging, shopping at Topshop and watching TV programmes like Skins.

How did you attract/address the audience?

There are many ways I have attempted to attract the audience to my media product. An obvious one is the bright red on the cover. As mentioned earlier, using block colours is rare on the cover of a magazine, so hopefully this will stand out to someone viewing magazines on a shelf. I have also included a puff on my front cover, giving readers the chance to win tickets to Reading festival. This is definitely something they would be interested in because if they are reading my magazine they are into the music that is showcased at Reading.

Although you cannot see it on this cover, my magazine has a slogan that my readers will know (this is why it does not matter so much that it is covered up on this cover). This slogan is 'Cutting edge of indie music', which attracts the readers as it shows my media product is up to date and cool. It publishes all the latest news and this is why it is a good magazine to buy over others of its type. The language used in my magazine can be read by all ages. It is basic but not childish and hopefully will reach to those of older ages too. I did this as I did not want to alienate certain ages by using language too young or too old.

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

Technology definitely gave me the chance to better my media product, via the use of the camera, image manipulation software and desktop publishing. The camera is important when taking photos for your magazine, as you need a digital camera of good quality/high mega pixels to make an image seem professional and as if it would actually appear in a magazine. It was also important to take into account the lighting and the angle of the photo, as a dark photo would not look fit for a magazine, and the angle is important for aesthetic reasons.

The image manipulation software allowed me to not worry about the location of my photos. It is popular nowadays to have a plain background, so I could cut out the background on the image manipulation software and have a plain background. As with my feature. Image manipulation software is also important for many other reasons to better the quality of your image, however I didn't use these as I didn't feel I need to. Some of these things are reducing imperfections, change the focus or the angle, 'layering' of images, etc.

Using publishing tools also helped me to make my magazine of a better quality than other software. It did this by offering a variety of fonts, colours and layouts.

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

There are many ways in which my magazine is a vast improvement from my preliminary task. One of these is the quality of my image. When making my school magazine for my preliminary task, I wasn't sure of what sort of image I should use and ended up using one innappropriate for a cover of a magazine. It is just a picture of a group of people, I did not take framing or mise en scene into consideration. This helped me know what I wanted when making my actual magazine, an image of specific people which my main article would be about, I did take mise en scene and framing into consideration, for example using instruments as props, and having the boys wear all the same.

The page layout has also improved since my first attempt at making a magazine. In my prilimary task you can see there is no real layout at all; simply a picture and writing around it. The title of the magazine should be the biggest font on the page, however you can see that the font for the main coverline is much bigger than the title of the magazine. The other various texts on the page also makes it hard to know which is the title, but with Fringe I did not make this mistake again.