Final Completed Work

Front Cover of 'Classical':

Final Contents Page:

 
Final Double Page Spread:

Overall, I am very pleased with the sample magazine I have created. If I was to change anything in the presentation of my work, I would have a lot more colour in my double page spread as it seems very bland to me. I think that would have been the icing on the cake.

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

For the preliminary task we were put into pairs to work rather than it being an individual project, as well as this we only had to produce the front cover and contents page. This greatly reduced the workload as we had less work to do with 2 people doing that. I feel that less research and planning was necessary for my preliminary task as there was no double page spread to create so we did not need to find out what type of article would feature in a college magazine. The subject of the magazine also meant that we did not have to research so much, we were targetting people our own age, who were college students like ourselves. We already knew a lot about what we needed to include and who we needed to design for. I think that preparation the 'Grades N Babes' magazine was minimal and we designed the front cover as we made it, the coverlines were off the top of our heads. For my classical music magazine I thought about every aspect of the production in great detail, just creating random work was not enough for a more sophisticated magazine. So I have learnt that preparation and planning is a very useful thing to do, I believe my front cover and contents page would not look nearly as good as they do without sufficient research. Also, when editing photos and playing about with different colour schemes to see which worked the best, I feel I had more freedom in my final project as I was working to what I felt was good rather than trying to accomodate for two peoples ideas and thoughts. The timeframe to complete the preliminary task was much shorter as well so there was not much time for editing pictures.


Creating a detailed time plan and organising the time spent working in this project is something I have learnt to do from my experience with the preliminary task where I ended up trying to complete the contents page in the last few hours of my deadline. I found that creating a time plan for my work and trying to stick to it closely gave me a much better idea of where I should be in terms of work progression.


When taking the photos for my college magazine I did not take a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to have and how I wanted the model to be looking. It was simply a case of walking round college with a camera and hoping to find the right person with the right pose. Luckily for me I think that the main image has come out very positively and looks very good, but to try and work by this philosophy for my main project would be foolish. I took a lot of time deciding where I wanted to take the photos, who I wanted to take a photo of and when I should do this to have the right level of natural light. I definately think this has paid off as my main sell looks very fresh and natural, exactly the connotations I was looking for.

In terms of familiarity with programs I think I have improved dramatically using Quark and Photoshop especially. I was very reluctant to use Quark in the preliminary task because I was not able to do any good work on it simply because I didn't know how to use it. Through practice and regular use I like to think that I can use Quark quite well. When using Photoshop for my college magazine I would often get confused by the layers and how to use them to my advantage, i have now become accustomed to photoshop and think in the future I will be able to create some more good work from this experience.

In my preliminary task I did not take a lot of consideration into my target audience research. Once again, this did not matter too much as I was a member of my own target audience so I knew exactly what should be on the front cover and how to attract the right audience. For my main project I was quite close to, but was not in the target audience I was aiming at. Had I been more of a classical music fan I would have been in the area again, but because I wasn't, I had to do a lot of research into what classical music fans want to see in a magazine and what would make them buy a magazine. I continually referred to my research when creating the work, had I not created such a detailed profile, I would not have been able to focus my magazine to the specific area of society. When choosing fonts, colours, images and layouts I was looking back to examples of popular magazines all the time, taking ideas and checking that I was still working within the genre. Considering all the areas of my target audience was a big help for me throughout the process. 

Question 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

For contructing my magazine front cover I used Adobe Photoshop CS2, for my contents page and double page spread I used QuarkXpress. I had very little previous experience with both programs before starting this project.

QuarkXpress:

 

I used Quark to create my contents page and Double Page Spread. The program is used by professionals all over the world and has all the tools necessary to create very attractive documents. Upon starting to use this program I soon found out how to include images, text, different fonts etc at great ease. I found it very helpful that you can create columns very easily and the text will flow smoothly through the layout you have created. I have been very impressed with what you can do on Quark and would definately use it again rather than move to another program such as Photoshop to make my contents and double page spread.

Adobe Photoshop:

Before starting this project I had not used photoshop at all, it seemed quite alien to me but it soon became an incredibly useful tool for me.

 

 It was quite a hard program to get used to mainly because there is so much you can do with it. Once I had grasped the basics I started to edit photos with the greatest of ease. I specifically found the Stamp Tool to be a great function. Creating professional looking photos was definately a big part of my magazine creation. I created my front cover with Photoshop, using fonts, colours and layering images throughout. Being able to manipulate images and text endlessly creates a very good user-friendly system. It was easy to create exactly what I wanted with not a lot of hassle. I learnt a lot about the layering on Photoshop throughout my learning, they can be used to help in a variety of ways. Linking some together and rasterizing them helped me greatly. To be able to use the photo editing functions of Photoshop I had to learn how to use a Digital single lens reflex DSLR camera, I had used similar cameras before so this was not too hard for me to use. I did pick up some tips though on how to take a good picture that will go well in a magazine. I think I have used some good images throughout.

Blogger:

I have used Blogger all the way through my coursework to keep track of and manage all my work and learning. It is a very easy to use website and has been very useful for me when looking back and work and storing images etc.

Changing the appearance of my blog has been very easy and looks very attractive. Throughout blogging my work I have been including screenshots, videos and slideshows very easily. This has helped me to show my work in quite unconventional ways and makes the blog a lot more 'readable'.

Windows Movie Maker and Digital Video Camera:

I decided to gain some feedback on my magazine from a few people who agreed to be interviewed for their opinions. For this is used a Sony Digital video camera, I had used this before so had knowledge of how to work it as well as use a tripod.

A program I was unfamiliar with was Windows Movie Maker which I have on my laptop at home. This program was very helpful to me and was very simple to use. It enabled me to edit the videos I had of the interviews and add a soundtrack to make the videos a lot more interesting. I decided to make one of my videos black and white rather than colour, this was very simple and gave a good effect. Learning how to edit videos on this program will be helpful throughout my time at college and hopefully further into life.


YouTube:

Once I had filmed the interviews on a digital camera and edited them appropriately for my blog I had to find a way to embed them for simple viewing. The best way to do this was to use YouTube, I have uploaded videos to YouTube before this project so this wasn't a hard task for me, I did have to learn how to embed the video to my blog though. This is a very simple process that involves using the HTML code editor in Blogger. Having these videos on my blog has been very useful as I can evaluate the answers given in the interviews and refer back to the answers with great ease.

Question 5: How did I attract my audience to the magazine?

I have created a video to show the different ways I attracted attention from my audience in the magazine. This includes, fonts, colour schemes, smart layout etc. please watch the video below for more information.





I used a quite formal Mode of Address throughout the front cover and contents page which changed into an informal one once into the interview on the double page spread. I think people who listen to classical music like to have a certain amount of class in the things they read so i tried to keep in line with this in both the actual content and the appearance.

Question 4: Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience I have targetted in the production of my Classical Music magazine has changed slightly from the audience I chose in my Research and Planning. I originally wanted to aim my magazine at all ages and incorporate all areas of life, this was very hard to create and seemed to not be the best idea as old and young people want different things in a magazine to attract them. I decided to choose a younger audience and cut out my target of over 30's. This gave me more freedom with the image I used and the layout of my front cover.
I think that classical music is a widely listened to genre of music so this gave me a good area to work in. My target audience is male or female, any social class, quite possibly a creator of music. I would say my audience are in the A, B and C1 area of the Jicnar scale, I don't think they are the type to be protesting and fighting for independence, they are probably very happy to work hard and listen to their classical music in peace. I think they would probably dress very smartly and be aware of their appearance at all times, this is why the smart and fresh look of my front cover would attract their attention. Smart and creative people do very often reflect this in their appearance, I have used a model dressed smartly to try and create a relationship between then reader and the magazine. Hopefully this will make them think that they could be in the place of the young composer I am portraying.
I am going to show a group of people my work and gain some feedback on it, some will be in my target audience and some will not be. This will give me a good chance to gain information on how my magazine looks to people who would not normally look at classical music magazines and also those who would.

These are the responses I had from my friends and classmates after uploading my work to the social networking site, Facebook. The people were only asked what there general opinion of the work was, so the answers are not very informative at this stage.

- "Yeah really good mate, definately think you would see this in a shop or something"

- "Very well presented and layed out, its obvious you put alot of time into the placement of your coverlines etc. The page is very minimalist but i think it encapsulates your audience well, i'm guessing the audience is sophisticated teens/young adults?
maybe you could have used a bleeding effect causing the main image to overlap the masthead, but to be honest it looks great as it is :)"

- "It's good, very realistic for the classical music genre." 

- "Looks like a professional one! Loll x"

- "Really like the layout and colours used, would definately think about buying this Mike"

- " The image used is really good, gives a nice fresh feeling and the colours used compliment this very well. Could have included more pictures in the contents and double page spread to use more space up and make it seem like the magazine has lots to offer."

- "Really good images used, more would be good. Fonts are good and look smart, very professional look, impressive. Could have had another model to give it more variety."

From this feedback I can see that the general opinion of my magazine is good and that it is attractive to look at and I have achieved a professional look which is paramount to a magazines credibility. The negative points i can look at and take into consideration are that I could have included more images to make the magazine seem fuller and more exciting, also that I could have used more than one model for my pictures, these are useful points and most probably correct, I could improve these aspects if I was to do it again.

This is an image of someone who could be in my target audience.

These opinions and comments are very useful to me, but they are very simple and do not give me a very good impression of what people think of my magazine. I am going to be interviewing a few more people about my magazine and recording the feedback to analyse. This will give me a much better idea of how my magazine appeals to different people. I will talk to people who like classical music but have not bought the magazines before. This will be good to see if my magazine would appeal to first time buyers. Hopefully I will find out if I have targetted my audience successfully or not.


1st interview: Loz
Loz is a friend of mine who has never bought classical music magazines but does like the musical genre and would be open to reading one if he liked the look of it. He fits into my target audience.




From this interview I know that the magazine cover is pleasing to look at and could be a major part of attracting readers. Loz has picked up on my target audience being younger than expected for classical music listeners, hopefully this means I have targetted well and have included features that show this clearly. Loz has mentioned that the picture used in my double page spread could have been clearer and more focused, this is true as quality has been lost through different programs used.


2nd Interview: David

My next interview is with another friend of mine who is slightly out of the target audience. He is a regular listener of classical music. David buys a lot of music magazines regularly but has never bought one specifically aimed at the classical music genre.





From this interview I have found out that my simplistic and uncluttered approach to the magazine was received very well on first glance, this part of my research was time well spent. The target audience David thought I was going for was a much larger range from what I have actually aimed at, this could show that I have not aimed it too specifically and could be a good thing as to not alienate other groups from my primary focus. David has said he cannot think of anything that would improve my magazine which is definately a very good point for me, this shows that in his opinion I have created a professional looking piece of work which he would consider buying.

Question 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Media Q3

View more presentations from Mike Paul.

Question 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

On my front cover I have represented a classical music composer stereotypically in the sense that he looks smart, respectable and well dressed. But the fact that he is a young, smart-casual man and not an old, suit wearing man is going against the strong stereotype that all composers are dressed in Victorian clothing, e.g. Beethoven, Mozart etc.


The specific group I am representing is young adult males in the classical music genre. I have chosen to show them in a respectable fashion, as is stereotypically expected. The clear, bright sky background connotes vitality and naturalness. Having the model dressed in a shirt and jumper with no tie connotes a friendly and open approach to the music, going against the idea that composers are part of an elite group of people and creating a feeling of togetherness between audience and creator.

Evaluation Question 1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

In general, Classical music magazines are very simplistic and have only a few different colours used on the front cover. This is because the simplicity creates a sophistication that cannot be gained through the use of neon colours and hundreds of strap lines.

As you can see from the examples above, the magazine below will gain a lot more credibility because of the uncluttered, light, professional look. The upper 'OK' magazine is crammed full of articles and bright lights trying to attract readers, the model is in a bikini showing a desirable body for woman with a correlating coverline telling them that they can gain the body shown. Displaying the price, so that people can see how cheap it is from far away, is also a way of drawing readers in, 'Listen' have not done this as it is a specialist magazine and the audience will seek out the magazine.


On my magazine front cover I have not put too much information on it to try and keep the sophistication, this is working with the usual conventions of Classical magazines in general. The masthead for 'Listen' is a thin, plain, sans serif font which has connotations of sophistication, I have used a similar style for my own magazine which conforms to conventions. The stereotype that classical music listeners are smart, educated and respectable is one that I wanted to reflect in my magazine. Professional magazines manage to do this, I think that going against this convention would be harmful to my audience matching, from my research I have not come across anyone who is a fan of this genre and is against the stereotype. It is widely agreed on so seems right to reflect this. I have tried to show a smart looking mode, looking in no way confrontational but at the same time strong and powerful. I think this connotes professional nature.

The way I have developed the generic design of a Classical music magazine is to include a few more cover lines and another image on the front cover. I liked the way that the front cover looked smart and not too cramped with information, but I also wanted to show that the magazine contained a lot of articles to interest the reader.


I have decided to go against usual convention of classical magazines by showing a rather young model on the front cover, popular belief is that classical music composers and artists are very old, grand looking men. Because I am aiming my magazine at a slightly younger than normal audience, I have decided to create a character the readers can relate to and even aspire to be like. Most of the classical magazines I have researched have older gentlemen and women on the front covers, very established and famous composers.