Evaluation Q1

Q: in what way does your product use or challenge conventions of real media products?

My music magazine challenges and adheres to many conventions of a music magazine. Each page has its own conventions and challenges them.

I have followed them more than challenged them to make my music magazine appear like one at the first place, and also to look appealing to my audience.

The Front Cover:
My masthead adheres to only one convention, and it is that it's located at the top of the magazine, so the audience can tell what it is called without confusion.
However, the fact that it is two words, and how they share the first letter together challenges conventions as music magazines usually have one word as a masthead to make is short and recognizable.
For example, Q is a singular letter that is recognized because of the red box out that makes it stand out in comparison with the rest of its front cover. 
However, I wanted my masthead to mold into the magazine and become a part of it instead of popping out like Q, and therefore, I have used my colour scheme and applied it to my masthead to make it look like a part of the magazine, and become part of my synergy throughout the pages.
The font that I have used also challenges conventions, as a 2D fonts are used more than 3D fonts, as they look more flat and a part of a magazine. After doing some research on vintage magazines I have found that 3D fonts were used quite a lot, and so I have adhered to  an old convention, but challenged an old one at the same time. 

The main cover story that I have created Adheres to the convention that it is the biggest story on the front cover, and is usually in the centre of the front cover, that is also a convention I have followed because that was the story I wanted to be most eye catching and to be one of the first things the audience looks at. 

I have used one pull quote for my main cover story, to show a little insight into the article and what it will be about. It also acts as a lead for the audience as it is intriguing as to why the star image is so defensive about herself. Pull quotes are a popular technique used within front covers of music magazines due to how effective they can be, depending on the choice of words used .
I believe I have used mine successfully as it is intriguing due to repetition of certain words, and the personal tone of the star.

I have adhered to many conventions of a music magazine and its cover stories, for instance, that they are on either of the sides of the magazine, and that they have many different fonts, and could possibly be divided by lines or little symbols which would give them a more creative feeling, and be more aesthetic. Even though my cover stories do not have a range of colour in them in order to stick with the colour scheme and the synergy, I have used little dividers like other magazines to create an original look. 
 The sizes of my fonts were not too different either, however their style is and that is what made them stand apart from each other. 
I have placed them on both sides so the magazine would look organised, yet  busy and cluttered at the same time. I kept the cover stories not slanted because I wanted them to be easy to read and  look organised, but vary them in slight size differences and fonts, also colours. 

I have included a sell line within my music magazine which is a limited convention that a select group of magazines use to create an impression about themselves, which is what I was trying to do, I wanted to impress my audience with it, and attract them to read into it more, so in a way, it acted as a lead or a pug in this instance. I have located it at the top of the page, just above the masthead and kept it a small size, so it wouldn't be the most important thing on the page, but still have meaning and significance due to where it is placed.

Another convention that I have adhered to was having a banner, however, mine was transparent, and had very little within in comparison to the other magazines because I did not want the attention to go to the banner, but the image and the stories instead. I have included links to social media in it and a cover story with the scan code instead. I didn't use any images in it either, and I only had one image overall on my front cover to keep it clean cut and not as confusing.

It is typical to see a puff to interest a reader with bright colours or interesting shapes and buzz words inside, and that is why I have decided to use a few on my front cover.
I have crafted a circular puff on the top corner of my magazine which seduces the reader by offering them something or interesting them with a word that makes the magazine appear like it holds content that cannot be found anywhere else. Even though the puffs are not bright coloured, they have exclamation marks which automatically becomes a connotation for something exciting. The baby blue for the exclusive puff may not appear bright, but in comparison with the dark fuchsia it stands out a lot for a tiny sign, and therefore I have successfully adhered to a convention.



Finally, I adhered to one of the main conventions within music, or any magazines which is eye contact with the consumer. I have done it so the model looks like she is willing to share secrets with the audience, and this can be clearly seen as she looks happy and innocent,yet remains flirtatious with her pose, makeup and clothing. So, her looking at the audience links with the DPS and all is explained in a way in the article.

The contents page:

 

  DPS:

  

Evaluation Q2

Evaluation Q3

Institutions 1: Team Rock from GretaAsMedia

Research institutions 2 from GretaAsMedia

Research institutions3 from GretaAsMedia


Out of the institutions that I have researched,Bauer and Rhinegold seem to be the ones that would be most suitable, and interested in distributing my magazines.
However, Bauer would  not be interested due to the fact that they have MOJO in their possession already, and  so many magazines in distribution already. I would've liked to choose them because of how modern, media involved they are, and how wide spread they are across the globe, how successful their business is, which would make them reliable in my eyes.

Rhinegold would be a good distributor because of the fact that they are really interested in niche audiences, and because of that they do not distribute many magazines, and not all of them are music, therefore, I believe they would be interested in cooperating with my magazine. I also really like them because like Bauer, they are very much involved in social media which creates interest within the young audience, which is exactly what I am targeting.

So, therefore, I have decided that Rhinegold would be the most suitable for my magazine as they are interested in niche audiences and are up to date with modernity.

Evaluation Q4

Greta M's Slidely by Slidely Slideshow

I created this Slidely by finding photos that show what my TA is, look like or are interested in.
My TA would be young, 17-25 year old college/university students, who are free spirited, care about the environment, are against drug use, want to change the world for the better. Initially the age group that I wanted to target was slightly younger, they'd be 16-20 years old, they are still students, however, after doing my TA research, I found out that my magazine suits a slightly older, wider audience.
 The new TA is interested in fun aspects of life, but also want to learn from other's lives and educate themselves further as individuals. They seek to constantly learn and better themselves, they're called aspirers. They want to learn about the world and improve/gain new skills which I targeted.
They extensively use social media, enjoy concerts, gigs, learning new things, and this is exactly what I have shown on my Slidely.
I have Aspirers as my TA, as they wish to see exemplar stories of how to succeed and that there is one than more way. My star image and her story would represent exactly them.

Overall, the middle class would be my TA, and this is shown through the photos, the stories and the star image, due to her being middle class herself. Overall, the main gender that I will be attracting with this magazine will be the females, however, I have included males in my Slidely due to the fact that today we challenge stereotypes and my magazine may appeal to a modern male audience as well.

In conclusion, my magazine's main TA would be young, teenage females who are students, are willing to learn, enjoy concerts, reading about success stories to look up and are eco concerned.

Evaluation Q5

Evaluation Q6

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

Since the beginning of the course I did not use much technology to what I do now, before I would only use social media and a camera, but to a certain extent.

I have learnt how to use Blogger effectively, and upload/embed different things onto it to make it as creative as possible.

I have also discovered many different websites and ways to show my research and work such as how to upload a slideshare, how to create a prezi, an emaze, thinglink, flickr, slidely...

I also learnt how to use Adobe Elements 11.

It is a massive program with endless possibilities, and I have been using this to create my magazine.

Using tools such as the Text Box helped me draw out the sizes of the columns and the text boxes in each page, supporting the construction of each page. 

This tool helped me the most when constructing my contents page, as I had to create three columns.

There are many tools that I used to create effects, add things and enhance sections of my magazine to make it outstanding in quality.

There are many things that are used in Photoshop, but before I would even be able to access them all, I had to remember and learn that I should always work on Expert mode in order to edit my product in any way, shape or form.

I have learned about how to use layers and make them appear on the right hand side in order to get a clear view of what you are doing.

I have also used tools such as the photobin, which allows me to insert different photos as new layers, or as a new background.

This was one of the most crucial skills to learn on photoshop in order to be able to create my magazine pages.

Another important skill that I learned about photoshop is Levels.

By using this you can change the brightness and the shadows on the photo of your choice. I used this quite a lot on my pages, on my front cover image it was used to lighten the photo and make it pop more from the background, in my contents page I have used the same for the same model, to make her stand out more from the background, and in my DPS article in order to make the shadows less dramatic and more natural and light, which makes it easier to look at.

  I also learned how to use shape tools which helped me create different puffs and boxes in my pages and create a busier, more professional look for my magazine.

Another big page that I learned how to use was Flickr, which is where I uploaded the photos that I took and got feedback from my peers and classmates about which ones are the best to use. The media course in our college have our own little group where we all post photos that we took in photo shoots and this way getting opinion from people our own age, which are our TA.
This was one of my favourite websites to use and I believe it was extremely useful.

I found ThingLink as one of the most useful webpages, as it allowed me to annotate my research with speech bubbles directly on the photo/image which meant I spent lest time making screengrabs and placing them and instead, I could talk about the specific details of the image directly. I believe this webpage was very interactive and fun, also very easy to use. I love this webpage!

One webpage that irritates me to this day is PowToon, I cannot stand it up to this day. It was very difficult to use, as the page is too crowded and too many pop-ups from every side of the screen. It does the same thing as Prezi or Emaze, however, it is 'fancier'. I found it difficult to use and so I stuck to not using it. However, when I began my Evaluation work, I thought that it would be a good idea to revisit PowToon. It was not. It was a terrible idea.

Evaluation Q7