Evaluation question 7- Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

In this blog post, I will be looking back at your preliminary task,and explaining what I feel I have learnt in the progression from it to the full product.

When I did my preliminary task. There were several errors in the process. I didn't have the knowledge or expertise of technological programs such as adobe photoshop or indesign. This lack of technological expertise affected my media product greatly since I wasn't able to fully utilise the programs.

In addition, my time management was poor, it also hindered my product development, since I wasn't able to get feedback or ask my teacher to assess my work.

I feel that I improved a lot at my photography. in the prelimary task, my photography skills werent that good, also I didnt really know a lot about taking photos that would be attractive or magnifying. However  it was simpler in the prelimary task because I go to school everyday and have knowledge of the concept, so it was more simpler to understand but what I lacked was a variety of shots. most of the time I just took photos of students working, I did try to add a collection of shots such as photos of the basketball team activities. When compared to the prelimary task, the photography stage for the music magazine was more difficult to some degree as i was forced to come out of my comfort zone and be more proactive. In my prelimnary task I would just take photos of students in the uniform but for my recent media task, I had to plan a photoshoot and invite friends to dress accordingly and genre appropriate

Nevertheless, that was my first time for me using blogger, so I didn't know the vitality of showing my products progress through blog updates.However, the process of production has changed significantly when compared it with my other task. I feel that my time management could have been published a bit more. But it has improved overall. I can use the technological systems better than I did before despite that, I'm not the best at fully using it and could improve my skills and I do not possess the technological prowess I desire.

Also my skills have improved by analysing and being inspired by conventional magazines making photos more effectively and appropriately. my skill sin using technological systems have improved considerably aswell.

Evaluation question 6- What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

In this blog post, I will be answering my evaluation`s question 6

when creating this media product, I utilised a collection of technological programs and technologies, for example adobe indesign and adobe photoshop. In addition, Ive learnt a lot about these programs, information and tips I didn't know before. they were absolutely imperative for my media products construction and improved my media greatly.

Technologies used:

• Adobe Photoshop
• Adobe Indesign
• Internet explorer
• Mobile phone(iPhone 4S)

Adobe Photoshop

 Adobe Photoshop is a graphics editing program, that allows me to edit the photo's I'd taken, it was extremely useful in the development of my media product and helped me vastly in adjusting images and photos. It was one the prime programs that created my magazine pages. An example of me using Photoshop`s facilities was when I changed the photo`s effect to a greyscale one. Photoshop made this possible as I was able to manipulate the image on the program.  Not only that on the front cover of my magazine I constructed my format and template, changed the opacity and transparency of certain images and fonts, so that it would maximise readability. This simply wouldn't have been possible without this convenient  technology. However, photoshop isnt built for text and writing like InDesign is, but is more specialised for photos and images.



Adobe InDesign

Adobe InDesign is a desktop publishing software application. This program had a major function in the process of generating this media product. This program allowed me to easily format my template and layout of my article page, with great proficiency and accuracy. It was the basis where my whole magazine was put together. At first, I made the choice of doing all of my pages on Adobe photoshop because I was more familiar with how it operated. However, as time passed and being prompted by my teacher, I had to use InDesign, simply because it turned out to be better with textual data as photoshop is more specialised with handling photos and images. The outcome of this transition from photoshop to indesign was positive.





Internet explorer

Although, Internet explorer had no direct relation in the construction of my media product, it still allowed me to gain inspiration from other hip hop magazines, in  which i leaned and applied the conventions of real media products to my own product. I also used Internet explorer to research real media products and analyse how they use the conventions and why. Nevertheless, without Internet explorer, I may have lacked the sufficient resources for me to research the genre and audience of hip hop.






Mobile phone(iPhone 4S)

My mobile phone also played a part in this as well. With my 8 megapixel camera, it was easy to take photos on the move. However, the quality obviously lacks the high standard of a professional, photo specialised camera. Nevertheless, the phone also has applications that make it convenient. I could use these apps to edit photos like I would on the computer but not with such precision. Furthermore, with the Internet features, I could do research, gain images and more almost anywhere.



Conclusion

Ultimately, I used a collection of different technology and they have all  helped me with my objective of constructing  a Hip Hop magazine front cover, contents page and double-page spread article in a diversity of ways and without it; the end product  that I generated would be noticeably  less professional and of a much lesser quality. Furthermore, It would have also resulted in me being less conventional in my production and showing less cohesive and clear research, planning, skills and evidencing

Evaluation question 5- How did you attract/address your audience?

Evaluation question 5 how did you attract/address your audience

Firstly, I`d liked to establish that my target audience was aimed at primarily teenagers and in this blog post I will talk abut how I attract/address my audience and how I did it. I will refer to the mise-en-scene of my media product

In my photos I used urban fashion to portray the genre of hip hop. The photo below is the fashion sense of a famous hip hop artist. my photo has a similar fashion style when compared to the celebrity. I used conventions from his costume in order to attract my target audience which is the same as the hip hop celebrity.

I used the colours black and white for most of the magazine. these two polar opposite colours are meant to reflect how teenagers can be bright, joyful and happy, whilst also be under stress,depression and despair at the same time. the colours represent the two sides to teenagers.

 I used images of people in the same age range so that my magazine would be more favourable and resulting in the magazine attracting my target audience. I included a picture of a concert, to teenagers it would usually be clearly identifiable that the picture is that of a concert but to other people for example a 40 year old man, they may find it difficult to identify. Although, my media product primarily consists of male photos, I did include some female ones as well so that it attracts the female fans of hip hop as well.

my mode of address in my article page, I used simplistic language brushed with  some sophistication. i did this because it makes my article more professional and also I examined other hip hop articles and tried to adapt their style. Indeed, my target audience are teenagers, so it wouldn't be reasonable for me to you highly sophisticated formal language, I made sure my writing and font were clearly readable and understandable.

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

Media evaluation question 4 from zachsmythe25

Who would be the audience for your media product?

For my magazine to be successful, it is vital that we establish a specific target audience that I believe my magazine will appeal to in particular and the demographics that we believe would enjoy the film the most through factors such as relating to the photo sand fashion. We believe that the main demographic who would enjoy this magazine are males and females aged between 13 and 28 years old. I chose to pursue and attract the teenage audience because I am a teenager, so this makes the concept of the teenage audience easier to understand as I can relate to it my media products target audience is aimed at teenagers but it wasn't restricted to only teenagers. However I felt that that the elements of my magazine would be most suited to people within this categorical zone. geographically, my audience would be from my magazines country origin- the United Kingdom

why are they are attracted
why are teenagers so interested in this music genre? I am referring to the uses and gratification theory.One of the major reasons why Hip-Hop is so popular with young people, is because of its  association with fashion and other elements such as dance and partying, two activities teenagers take great joy in doing. Furthermore, a lot of the hip hop artists are young, so I applied this to my magazine creating a sense of realism



Feedback
I asked my friends on what they thought about my magazine  I got feedback from my target audience so that I could make further improvements and adjustments if I needed to. this feedback allowed me to identify my magazines negatives and act upon them in my next production. with the feedback, I concluded that although my magazine was quite good and attractive, there were minor changes that  I could have made so that the magazine`s quality is improved overall

How I attract them
 Although, my magazine is somewhat different from a typical hip hop magazine, i used media conventions so that I can attract my target audience. I used teenagers in my photos to attract them so that the audience find it easier to relate to. In most of the photos I used, there were a mix of races, for example I used a afro-british person on the article page, but then used a white british person on the contents page. I used aspects of each race so that i could attract a larger audience.

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

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



An institution is a company that disperses a media product for audience consumption. An example of an institute would be Bauer the media publishing company. Bauer Media Group is a multinational media company headquartered in Hamburg, Germany which operates in 15 countries worldwide.

Magazines are primarily distributed through media companies and then exhibited through newsagents usually local, and  because of this, its convenient for customers to pick up a magazine with ease. Music magazines is just one of the many types and genres that are distributed. since my magazine is music-oriented, I thought that the company Vibe might distribute my media product because "Vibe Media is a leading youth-oriented music brand providing entertainment and lifestyle content to the culturally diverse music fans around the world". Since my magazine is aimed at a young audience as well, it would be reasonable for Vibe to distribute my magazine. Vibe is an international company meaning they distribute globally. Furthermore, my magazine is similar to Vibe`s magazine for example I placed a subheading at the very top just above the masthead. This feature is identical to Vibe magazine as they did the same thing. Nevertheless, Vibe is an international media company, and this would be ideal for my hip hop magazine because Hip-Hop has many races as an audience.

In addition, I think that newsagents would be a suitable distributor because since my magazine is aimed at teenagers. The young don't work and have a limited finance when compared to working adults so they may not be able to afford prices like subscriptions. Teenagers also might find it more convenient if the newsagent is local, so that they don't have to travel far.

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

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

• my media product is aimed at male and female teenagers primarily around the age of 13- late 20s, since it is a hip hop genre based magazine, it would be appropriate and reasonable to aim for the same target audience as the hip hop genre. usually its middle-class people or lower class citizens who listen to Hip Hop music, so i started from there.

• the societal view of teenagers varies at times. teenagers are quite often seen as wild, disobedient and totally lax about everything, I believe this socio economic group are called hedonists. overall they are seen as careless and only want to have fun and a good time. however, there are juveniles who are hard-working, serious about life and determined. I tried to portray the teenagers in my magazine as the latter. the expressions on their faces are meant to indicate that they are hard-working, serious and determined to reach their pinnacles

• Also teenagers attire is another thing that can be viewed stereotypically. Generally, they wear hoodies and hats. I tried to convey this through some of my photos. Another aspect, teenagers are commonly associated with is sport. I took a photo of a friend with his skateboard to reflect the sport and active theme that teenagers can relate to.

my representation of them

• I represented the image  teenagers in a much more mature perspective. typically teenagers are seen always lax and disobedient. I represented them as serious people. the males in my magazine are wearing white tees some of their body muscles are showing, this helps portray that they athletic or power hungry. i did this by showing their physicality  I used the photos of people who are within the same age range as my target audience as it wouldn't make sense to place images for example of someone in their late 50s in a teenage orientated magazine .This allows the audience to relate to those people in the magazine making it more captivating

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

Evaluation brief

Hello, this is my evaluation briefing. In this blog post, I will outline what I will do and demonstrate in my evaluation.
the questions below will be the main set of questions I will be answering in detail and with precision.

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

for a Level 4 which is  16–20 marks  i will have to demonstrate the following skills and understandings:

Excellent skill in the use of appropriate digital technology or ICT in the evaluation.

Excellent understanding of issues around audience, institution, technology, representation, forms and conventions in relation to production.
Excellent ability to refer to the choices made and outcomes.
Excellent understanding of their development from preliminary to full task.
Excellent ability to communicate.

Feedback/improvements









In this blog post, I will display and evaluate the feedback I have obtained from my fellow media students and more importantly, my target audience who judged my magazine pages.

To gain feedback for my magazine pages, I asked people from my target audience on what they think about my production.

Feedback on Double Page Spread

Using the feedback I got from my target audience, I decided to implement these changes for example one of the people I asked said that "you're magazines front cover should have a more distinct color in addition to the black and white to highlight important aspects". I have changed my front cover so that it highlights the important aspects by adding a red font for some subtitles on the page. This allows it to attract the audience's attention. I used all of the feedback I achieved to make improvements to my magazine.  the most significant improvement i did was the reformatting of the contents page. I saw this as the weakest page out. I have shown images in this blog to show the changes I made to my production.






Feedback on Double Page(continued)

Feedback on Front Cover

Feedback on Front Cover

 Front Cover



Contents Page

Double Page Spread

Final complete product of magazine

final version of double page spread

In this blog post, I will display my final version of my double page article for my music magazine product. I will be identifying the goods and bads of the production and evaluate the production and the process in creating it.

This is my final version of my double page article and I think its really good. Its my second favorite part of my magazine losing losing to the front cover. I feel as though it looks like a professional magazine cover and it has good conventions applied such as the use of page numbers. Also, I applied the use of quotes effectively, I placed one quote in the middle of text and made the other bodies of text wrap around it. Furthermore, I added a quote and placed in on the main photo, I positioned it so that it doesn't block the image out and so that it gets its own attention.  I like the photo itself, Its an attractive photo and It doesn't seem inappropriate for the genre. In addition, I added subheading at the bottom so that the page looks more conventional. I highlighted it so that it attracts the readers attention and so that it adds color to the page, and reducing the chance of the page becoming boring and dull. I added an "advertisement" element on the photo so that it is more professional, again I made the circular shape yellow so that it attracts the target audience.  Nevertheless, the page is not perfect, there are some spaces that seem unnecessarily empty at the top near the title. This dead space can make the page less attractive.



final version of contents page

In this blog post, I will display my final version of my contents page for my music magazine product. I will be identifying the goods and bads of the production and evaluate the production and the process in creating it.



I like this contents page because of the color. Although I followed the same black and white house style as the front cover, I integrated some colors into the page such as red. Also, I think the background image is very good, the colors and the photo itself were an ideal choice for this page. I placed images by the bottom to illustrate what other kinds of articles are inside the magazine, just like a real professional magazine content page would. Furthermore, I placed page numbers onto the images making it clear what page these images relate to which would make navigation much easier. Nevertheless, I think that the layout could have been much better. I did add the conventional features like the "features" section  but I feel as though I could have added more conventions to the page.

Whilst making the contents page, I rushed a little so somethings are out of place. .

final version for front cover

In this blog post, I will display my final version of my front cover for my music magazine product. I will be identifying the goods and bads of the production and evaluate the production and the process in creating it.

I really like this front cover because it looks conventional and attractive. This has got to be my favourite part of the magazine. I like the template because it is well set out and The format isn't messy.  It includes generic magazine features such as a list of celebrities/music artists. The text is easy to read and stands out.  I included an barcode and a magazine edition date to make it more of a professional magazine standard. I placed a subheading just above the main heading/title because it filled the dead space and emphasised the conventional look of the magazine. I decided that to go with the colours of black and white, because a lot of Hip-Hp magazines usually include dark or bright colours such as black and white. Therefore, I made my magazines concept colours black and white, also because these two colours are very easily readable when put on each other. Furthermore, the colours of black and white coordinate well with my front covers colours. For the main subheading "the revival of Ken Rebel" i placed the black font on a white background and the white font on a black background, optimising the readability and attractiveness. The photo itself is quite good, it applies gaze theory effectively and is appropriate to the genre. The poses in the photo look "cool" which Hip-Hop artists are seen to be or want t be seen as. However, the cover is a little blurry when printed out, this could be due to the greyscale effect or because of the quality of the camera I used. Next time, I will have to take better quality photos.

Creating this front cover proved to be difficult in some ways, finding the right picture that I approved of took some time, and also I didn't really have the expertise of the programs like Adobe photoshop. Also, I should have managed my time more effectively, as I had to rush at some points in the process

Development of double page article

In this blog post, I will talk about my double page article developments,the positive and the negative points and how and what I improved through each draft

Draft 1
 

This was my initial layout for my article. it is not complete yet, but I am just showing the base layout of the page. I had planned on putting the main body of text in 2 or 3 columns on one side of the page and placing a A4 sized picture on the other half covering the page. I decided to add a caption on the photo "Ken Rebel @ 10:00 02 Arena". I added this to induce a sense of realism and distinctiveness for my magazine article because I havent really seen this use of captions often for it to be considered generic or conventional. Additionally, I followed the same housestyle colours as the two previous pages, black and white, this makes the template colours more consistent.

Draft 2

This is my improved version of the contents page. I had made some major modifications to the previous version, for example the template, I have changed it so that the Main image is in the middle of the double page spread. I did this so that I could induce a sense of uniqueness and distinction. This type of housestyle is not used typically. I also add a quote "all I want is success". This is a conventional trait many magazines apply to their own articles.






Draft 3

After much time and consideration, I chose to revert to the original draft but improve and adjust it more. For example I added a caption that the columns of text wrap around and I added a simple but conventional feature page numbers. I chose this style of layout because it looked more professional and it appealed to me more than draft 2`s layout did.

Development/Construction of Contents page

In this blog post, I will talk about my contents pages developments,the positive and the negative points and how and what I improved through each draft


Draft 1

For my first draft of the contents page, I tried to go for the simplistic look. I followed the same template colours of grey scale as I did with the front cover. I added a huge contents heading in an vertical position on the right hand side and I had changed the opacity/transparency level so that the white almost fades in and makes it look cool. I made the subheadings of each paragraph blue, so that it increases readability and also because there needed to be some colour on the page apart from black and white. the negative aspect about this production is that there is no pictures excluding the background image. I like the background image because the flag represents the hip hop genres country origins and the two people at the front are hi hop artists, although this will be quite difficult to tell, since it is in black and white and you cant see the faces at all. Furthermore, it doesn't have enough contents like a typical contents page would.



Draft 2
This is the improved version of my contents page, I had adjusted it a lot to make it better in many ways. for example although the subheadings were blue, some were still difficult to read, so I changed some to blue and red and added a stroke of white. by doing this, I used the colours as well as the American flag in the background to represent and imply the origins of Hip-Hop. In addition, I added photos and images to make it more attractive and presentable. Within each photo, I placed a page number and changed the transparency level so that it doesn't stand out too much to take the readers focus off the photo and it also has quite a positive effect on the overall contents page. Nevertheless, I added more contents to make it more generic to a professional contents page. also, I added a regulars section to make it appear like a contents page. I also placed the title of the magazine "Urban Beats" at the top of the page just to make it clear what the magazine`s title was and make it more recognisable.

the rest of my photos

This blog post relates to the remainder of all photos taken previously. These are some of the photos that I`ve taken which are up for consideration. I have yet to decide whether or not to put them in my magazine. I'm also in the process of deciding where exactly I should position my photos and images in my magazine. For example the contents page. In relation to all the pictures below, I think that  fashion is appropiate to the genre and can be attractive for the viewers.

 

Photo 1

This picture displays a man in a studio. I took this picture at a small studio. I think the picture could be used as a contents page image. Its a good image because it has musical aspects such as the speakers and the tuner. I wouldnt use this picture as a front cover main image because it doesnt really attract a viewrs attention, however I would use it as an image that is placed on a contents page.


 

 Photo 2   
                                                             
I really like this photo because it has a cool theme to it. it applies gaze thoery well and attracts the audience`s eyes. However, the only problem is that there isnt much colour which can make it dull to some people. I took this photo at a concert last year. the photo is appropiate to the hip hop genre because it clearly shows two rappers on a stage and has the American flag behind them representing the origins of the genre. For me, this image is a type of photo that is used in the background, not as a front cover or articles main image.

                                       

 

 

Photo 3 

 

This photo is a two-shot and shows two people wearing an urban attire and this is appropiate because my magazines name is "Urban beats" and hip hop genre usually promotes or displays urban fashion. I like this photo because of the greyscale effect and the poses that the people in the photo make. It is attractive and would act as a good, appropiate front cover image.

 

                                        

 

 

 

 

The following photos were all taken at a preorganised mini-photoshoot by myself:

 

Photo 4

 

I like this photo becuase of the pose the person in the photo does. I think this would act as an ideal image for either the front cover image or the double page spread image, becuase its an attarctive photo. I adjusted the brightness of the photo so that it catches the readers eye.

 

 

 

 

 

Photo 5

I prefer this photo above all the other simply because of the grey scale effect and the fact that theres three people which is an element that is not often seen in Hip- Hop  magazines. It would go well well with my magazies concept theme colours- black and white. Furthermore, I like how the model in the phot, is looking directly at the reader, I think it applies gaze theory effectively and appropiately, I believe this photo would work best as a front cover image because its attractive and thats what a front cover needs to be. However, the only negative about this photo is that the effect makes the photo a bit blurry or this could be due to the fact that I zoomed in when editing the image.

Photo 6

this photo is the original photo of the one above. I havent made any modfications or adjustments to this one. Firstly, the people in the photo look far away and the wall behind has wires that ruin the photo. I edited the image by cropping out some of the background, also I optimised the size of the cropped image so that the people in the photo looked closer. Afterward, I added the greyscale effect