Evaluation Q6

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

I have learnt a lot about technologies and programs as I have constructed this product. Things I hadn't done before like, creating magazines, editing photos to a good standard and using blogs have increased my knowledge efficiently. I will definitely use what I have learnt in the future if I intend to do similar work to this. Also I can use techniques I have learnt for even little things like making cards etc.

The photo above is me constructing my two page spread. InDesign is probably the most complicated programme I learnt to use. At first it was just a load of buttons and little images that I saw no way of getting my head around. I've learnt how to create a book, magazine, and all types of documents. Indesign could also be very efficient for card making aswell. Changing text, colour, rotation, editing size are all things I could easily do to an image on Microsoft Word, but on Indesign it looked very complicated. I eventually got the hang of it all and learnt my way around Indesign. I still feel that this was the most complicated programme in the process of contructing my production. 

Another program that gave me a wider insight into technology was Photoshop. I found this very fun to use and I liked playing around with different alterations of my photo and deciding which one would go best one my cover, contents and two page spread. At first I found using the layer a bit tricky but I soon figured it all out. In terms of what I had learnt, I learnt how people who make the magazines do it all. I had never considered layers before when people made front covers but now it clearly makes sense that they do. I have also learnt the amount of work it takes to make a good front cover. I used to think you just had a picture and placed various pieces of text around the page but clearly with serious editing and concentration and other effects/techniques I can see now that its actually much more than that. Photoshop has taught me how serious and creative magazine editors and creators actually are. It takes more skill than I initially thought it did.

As I used Blogger, I learnt a load of techniques and shortcuts to make my blog look more presentable. When making presentations on Google Drive, Flickr and Prezi I wasn't sure on how to export those presentations onto my blog. However, through various Youtube tutorials I slowly figured out how to embed presentations to my blog. I had heard of embedding however I wasn't quite sure what it consisted of. Using Blogger has taught me all about it and now I have posted a range of presentations on my blog by embedding the link into the HTML section when I'm creating a post. I feel that I would be able to export presentations on other softwares using embedding and feel that I have learnt something very beneficial in the technology department.

Evaluation Q5

Evaluation Q4

Evaluation Q3

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

When planning which media institution to distribute my magazine, I was mainly aiming for the top distributors such as Seymour, Frontline and MarketForce. When researching I became aware that MarketForce, CoMag, Frontline and Seymour are the top 4 primary distributors in the UK. I was however, curious as to how they distribute their products. I found out that distributors like MarketForce and Comag are actually owned by other companies like IPC and National Magazines. On the other hand, Frontline is not actually owned by its clients which are BBC, Bauer etc but do not offer their services to any other publishers.
The chart below shows the market share of the top 4 distributors in the UK. As you can see Frontline seems to have the larger market share. This could be predictable knowing it has clients such as BBC, Bauer etc.

I preferably would want my magazine to be institutionally similar to VIBE magazine, as that is the magazine that I had the most inspiration from. I liked how the magazine presented itself and how it is very well distributed. The magazine is also a huge success too, so institutionally I'd follow the steps of VIBE magazine. VIBE is in partnership with Time Inc. This is a very successful distribution/publishing company as it publishes over 130 magazines. These include Time, Essence and Entertainment Weekly. It also owns the UK media house IPC, therefore can take credit for other magazines like Marie Claire, NME etc.

Spin Media would most likely distribute my product as it handles a large amount of pop culture, music and entertainment magazines from VIBE to Spin to Celebuzz. It also handles online blogs, accounts and websites of the magazines it owns which would be efficient for my magazine as I intend to have online websites as I have displayed on the contents page with Facebook and Twitter links. I feel that this distribution company would efficiently gather a larger audience for my magazine as it clearly has good experience doing so. It handles official websites of that of Kim Kardashian and Britney Spears therefore I would be able to trust this company to handle my magazine and its work, account and websites too.

Another media institution I think would distribute my product would be Bauer Media. This company says it 'reaches over 19 million adults every week' which I think is a great audience to even consider my magazine. I have also acquired the knowledge that Bauer Media handles a lot of popular, everyday brands ranging from magazines like Closer, to radio stations like KISS FM and channels like 4Music. This is clearly a very popular and successful media institution that could distribute my product creatively and of a high standard. My magazine incorporates a lot of general magazine conventions therefore I feel that Bauer Media would look into my product. I also have the unique selling point of targeting to two genres of music (Rap/Hip-hop) therefore I hope Bauer Media would see that and take that on board.

Evaluation Q2

Evaluation Q1

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of music magazines)

My chosen genre was Hip-hop/Rap initially. As the magazine planning went on I realised that I seemed to be keeping to solely rap rather than hip-hop however, my conventions do include both genres of music. My colour scheme was Red, black and white which I thought were appropriate colours for such a genre as colours like yellow or pink are deemed as more ‘pop’ colours and more ‘girly’ as it were. Rap magazine conventions seem to be more predominantly for the male genre however they do incorporate features that include both ultimately. Conventionally, rap magazines target a male audience (e.g. Vibe Magazine) and seem to feature more male artists. The artists usually featured in the magazines adopt serious facial expressions connoting a sense of confidence and almost aggression. The sense of presence is accentuated by a low angle and the representation of my cover model.

However, in my double page spread, I explore a new side of my star image which is laughter. The rap artists don’t usually smile and show teeth as this may show vulnerability and soften the serious image rap artists usually give out to their audience on their magazines. As you can see above, the vibe magazine cover with Eminem actually sticks to my chosen colour scheme that I had chosen which was a good template for me to use. Quite a lot of the rap magazines involve the colour scheme red, black and white; therefore it was easy to follow that convention when applying conventions to my magazine.

When doing my contents page, I followed the main conventions of these Empire contents pages. I liked the fact that the contents was simple and wasn’t crammed with pages and pages of information. I was looking for something like this as I wasn’t feeling a ‘jam-packed’ contents page, just a simple page displaying brief information of what is to happen in my magazine.

I used the convention of putting the page number large, caption of the page in red and additional info of the page in a smaller black font. I developed the conventions of this magazine by using this page to create more media attention for my magazine as a whole. I did this by displaying Twitter and Facebook links at the bottom left corner of my page, this would develop the convention by also persuading and reminding audiences of how to find out more information of my magazine.

I challenged the forms of convention by adding certain features to my magazine for my own benefit. The ‘Features’ section on my magazine and the ‘RAP-iD talks to MAMMI-C’ on my two page spread was a major challenge that I decided to do, which eventually became a success. I also challenged my colour scheme convention by incorporating the colour grey into my black, red and white colour scheme on my front cover. This worked better than planned therefore I decided to keep it. However I stuck to it more carefully on my contents and two page spread.

2- Page Spread Step-by Step

I've decided to have my 2 page spread on a black background. My 2 page spread model is quite simple, as I feel that most rap 2 page spreads aren't that extravagant. I feel that this enforces the colour scheme and also a range of my photos are against a black background. First, I made the background of my logo black so I could make it fit in with the black background.

I've currently started by extending the photo 

across both pages. The space will be where the writing will be placed. I've remembered the page numbers as that is a key bit people forget so I've made sure I did them first. I've made the page colour black to keep to the colour scheme and I also feel it would be better this way as the Red looks nice on that background.

So far I have added part of the interview, the image, the key quote and the headline. I have kept to the colour scheme and used various techniques that follow my 2 page spread idea that I was working from. I need to add additional information underneath the main picture and also another quote. I may add a smaller photo incorporating the other artists I had taken pictures of.

I decided to reverse the sides of the page. making the picture go on the right instead of the left. I feel it looks better this way as the formation of the text and picture before looked a bit awkward, especially as I was going to include more text underneath the picture. Now it should look more sufficient.

2 Page Spread idea

This is my 2 page spread idea. Although its not from a rap magazine as such, I like the simple yet presentable way its been done. I'd like to make my spread along the lines of this.. ultimately. If anything I may crop the picture and put a bit more text underneath. This is from one of my Empire film magazines at home, where I had looked through all of them to find sufficient 2- page spread templates I could use for my magazine. This is a 2 page spread promoting 'The Internship' a movie with Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson. Though, I realise that this genre doesn't relate to my magazine, I really like the template and intend to use it on my magazine.

Contents Template

I used this as a template for my contents page. I liked the simple display and how its not crammed with lots of page numbers and information, just brief and key bits. This was what I was trying to achieve as I made my design. From these contents, I incorporated the banner, positioning of the image and page numbers and colours when making my contents page. I didn't however include the mini image at the bottom right as I wasn't able to fit space in without messing up the page number formation. I did however like that I these contents pages also coincidentally maintained my colour scheme of red, black and white, which was efficient as I was working on this. I hoped that my layout showed a hint of this layout and due to my final production looking a little more simple, I hope the essence of this contents page can be seen.

Changes Made Part 3

First Front Cover

This was the intial front cover that I had tried to make. The inital response from my peers was not as I had intended as one comment I received was that my font looked as if 'It was from WordArt'. With a comment like that I knew quite a lot of changes would have to be made. The font, puff and maybe text could of done with changes. I did however receive compliments on the picture I had used as the background and the banner at the bottom, so I didn't change these areas when it came to improving what I had done.

This is an improved version of what I had done on my front cover. The new masthead received a lot of compliments and seemed to get a good response. A few things were added like the date, issue and price and the barcode which is essential to the magazine. A few tiny changes were even made to this choice for the final cover however the changes are minor e.g (less of a stroke on the puff, and smaller barcode size)

Changes Made Part 2

Bad Choice of Masthead

Initially I was apprehensive about using this masthead due to my fellow colleagues not particularly liking it. When I first found it however, I thought it would fit efficiently onto my magazine however advice from my audience made me choose otherwise. When I had tried to fit this masthead onto my magazine it didnt look right or suit my colour scheme either. My white, black and red scheme didn't go well with this as I had imagined it would.

This ended up being the final choice for my masthead. It is a drastic change from the intended choice, however I feel that this change was efficient in making my magazine fit in with my colour scheme and give a more 'rap' vibe as well. I liked the shadow effect that I had given the font as I didn't want a solid font I wanted that edgy effect to go with it. I realised that this font was appreciated more by my focus group and colleagues therefore I felt that it would be a good decision to chnage it. As the first masthead choice did not get the response I had initially intended it would get.

Changes Made Part 1

First Choice

 I felt that the backdrop of my first choice was not as professional as I would've liked a rap magazine to look. It also wouldn't necessarily tie in with my colour scheme as I would of wanted the main colour to be black with extra red and white fonts, not the other way round.I think this change was for the better as I 'm definitely happier with the photo I chose rather than my first choice. Not many rap magazines are against a white background and if they are a large amount of editing is used to make up for it. I realised that this wasn't the best cover as I couldn't visualise it myself as a rap magazine cover. Therefore, if I couldn't even visualise this as the cover, how could I carry on?

Photo I Chose

I initially was going to have the photo of my model infront of a white backdrop however, this is the photo I have used for my front cover. I used the magic wand tool to smooth the background and get rid of the bizarre colour change on the background. I also cropped the length of the image as its clearly too wide to put on a front cover. I appreciate the background also as it ties in well with my colour scheme which was black, white and red. This worked very well with my newly changed brand which consisted of a bold red font as oppose to the silver one I had intended to have before.