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

I feel that I've learnt a number of things that did help during this task and will help me in projects in the future, these things I've learnt being:

Time Management

During the preliminary task I found myself falling behind in work over and over again, especially when it came to creating parts of my blogger as well as creating the practical work. During this task I found it all much easier to handle, with the help of the Time Plan I created, I could schedule myself different parts of the week to do different elements of the project. I was more organised and was less stressed as the deadline to hand in the work came closer.

Software

I have learnt new skills in programs such as Photoshop and InDesign that I didn't know when starting to create the preliminary task. This has helped me further develop my work and add effects and methods of laying out objects that I didn't know before.

I now also understand the importance on InDesign with creating and laying out text. I used Photoshop to create the text in my preliminary task because I found it easier to manipulate it in that software, now I know how to do almost the same effects but in InDesign. This is sure to help me greatly in future projects also.

Photos

I now see the importance of the quality of photography in the projects. I was very lazy when it came to taking photos in the preliminary task and just took them around school. I now see the benefit of going outside the school gates to take images as their is a wide range of events related to my product that I can capture. After my preliminary task the photography was one thing I felt let my overall piece down as it was very generic and boring, now I understand how lighting and costume is also effective as well.

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

The process of creating the product has helped me greatly to learn new skills in software and camera. I was required to use and think more about the technology I used in order to make my task more effective. I believe that with the experience I've learnt in this task, it will be a huge benefit when I must carry out similar tasks in the future. I also believe that how I now use the camera when it comes to lighting and editing the pages has greatly improved during the process of this project.

During my preliminary task I didn't use InDesign at all because I just couldn't learn how to use it effectively in order t maintain the quality of work I had originally planned. I just found that designing my magazine in Photoshop was so much easier than doing it all in Indesign. Now I realise the real benefits of InDesign and have managed to work with it.

I used a my own Cannon camera as well as a school one to take my images. I now know how to use both much better than I did previously, from different settings in lighting and contrast to how to use depth of field to create a more engaging image. This has helped me not only for future use in school projects but for personal use as well.

When comparing my Front pages and Contents Pages from the school and music magazine I can see the strengths of my work and how I have improved. I can see how better use of mise-en-scene has made the music magazine look far more presentable and professional. The photography is much better with more interesting images and better use of lighting, this knowledge of camera effects and presentation is something I didn't know much about when first starting the project.

The online technologies I used were Blogger, Prezi, Dropbox (to transfer files from school to home) and SlideShare. I now see how effective they are in presenting work in a more interesting way like I have done in previous posts. My better use of ICT technologies in this task will help me in both this and other subjects in the future when it comes to presenting and documenting work and progress. Before this task I found creating a Prezi was very challenging and I could barely create a mediocre one, now I can create them with ease as I used it multiple times during my evaluation.

Finally, I have always felt the using Photoshop was my strongest part of my work, I had never struggled with creating what I wanted but I faced more problems in the music magazine than I did for the school one. These problems helped me improve in my ability. This was the first task that did cause me to find ways round tricky problems that I previously didn't know how to fix. One example being adding colour correction to the model on the double page, I wanted him to have a similar look to how professional magazines have theirs, with the use of the internet and messing about with the software, I found a professional looking colour correction.

Magazine Evaluation - How did you attract/address your audience?

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

Identifying the audience for my magazine during the planning process was very important as it shaped the style of the magazine I created, it is one of the most important elements of the successful marketing and production of media. My magazine is aimed at readers between the ages of 17 - 24, a young demographic and so this meant my designs would be less formal. I picked my target audience as it’s the same for other rock magazines such as Kerrang and Mojo. The age range of people buying music magazines is usually in the target age range I picked and so this would mean more sales of my own magazine. By using my research, I could see what was and what wasn't appropriate in a magazine aimed at a young audience.

On the right is an image of what the target audience of my magazine would look like. Young, mixed gender and not hardcore rock fans as my magazine isn't aimed at fans of the more hardcore rock such as heavy metal.

My target audience isn't gender specific unlike some pop genre magazines, rock magazines don’t tend to have a target audience not of both genders. Creating a magazine that only appealed to one gender would be unnecessary as rock isn't a male or female specific music genre. This would also limit sales of the magazine.

Those familiar with the artist featured on the cover are the most likely audience for my product, with an image of the artist featured on the front pages as well as the band name, this would attract those who are interested in reading something about that artist. Also with the lures around the image with other artist names, there are more reason for a fan to just look at the cover page and be interested.

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

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

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