Evaluation Question 7

Looking back at my preliminary task I would say that I have learnt a substantial amount, in many different areas. Whether that be how I approached this task or the actual design/look of my final product. I feel that my final coursework product was enhanced by my ability to play around with the software I used during the production of my magazine, software such as Photoshop, InDesign and dafont.com. Although I felt that my preliminary task was finished to a relatively high standard by the time I had completed my Full product I could see the improvement on my own skill level, for example I was able to add a diagonal strip onto my Front cover which I had neglected to do on my preliminary task as I didn't know how to do so.

I learnt other key lessons such as the importance of time management and how to spend time more effectively on coursework. When i started the AS brief I had an extremely laid back approach and took to long on my research and planning leaving myself a restricted amount of time for my actual product, which was worth the bulk of the marks. Although I was able to finish my product to a high standard I have learnt the importance of approaching my work with a sense of pride and determination, i can achieve this by setting myself goals to complete in a short amount of time.

The front cover demonstrates the most noticeable improvement as i was able to use Photoshop to edit the brightness and general quality of the photo. The image I used on my Final Product proved to be much more challenging to edit as I decided to use a pre-existing background, unlike my preliminary which I used a white background for. I had to use a different set of skills in my coursework as I had to tackle the Contents and double page spread for the first time, my first draft of my contents was similar to my 'Talbot Times' Front cover, being extremely simplistic. I then had to redraft this as I felt it had the possibility to drag my mark down. 

In my preliminary task I had to extract the image from a much larger image, a problem I had to face during the production of my final product. My placement, design and creation of cover-lines improved as I was able to make sure they were all aligned properly as well as making sure that they looked sleek and were appropriate in regard to the genre of the magazine and the target audience. although the task itself was different the preliminary task helped me to understand the small changes I would need to make in order to target my audience correctly for example my genre meant that i could target the younger listener, for example teenagers or the older, more hardcore fans, early to late 20's.   

Evaluation Question 6

Through creating this product I have learnt about the wide range of tools that I can use on adobe software such as InDesign and Photoshop for example the ability to import different fonts off of the internet, from websites such as dafont.com, this aided me a great deal as I was able to import the font that I used for my mast head and my cover-lines. The ability to change/enhance a pictures quality, brightness and contrast helped me to achieve specific looks that helped with the connotation of my genre. Finally crop tools and eraser tools on these software’s have allowed me to add a unique effect to my images as well as the ability to merge 2 pictures together effectively.

Online tools such as popplet and blogger have allowed me to present my work to a higher standard whilst also helping me organise my work and answers to evaluation questions into sections and then subsections. Dafont.com has helped me to create a unique product as it has taught me about the ability to share and create different fonts online. Dafont was key for me as it allowed me to be far more picking when it came to selecting my fonts as I felt that the pre-installed fonts that come with such software as InDesign and Photoshop were to generic and weren't good enough for an As coursework piece. 

Photoshop and InDesign have taught me about the importance of alignment within a music magazine as my original draft had cover lines all over the page and looked messy and scruffy whereas when I redrafted and aligned them all it looked clearer and sleek, the ruler tool helped to achieve this look as a green line would appear on my page if the text/image/table was aligned with another on the page.

Whilst using Photoshop I learnt the importance of contrast and brightness when trying to manipulate an image. The Images I manipulated were the image of TYB, my featured artist, on a bench and the image of Queen-E on my contents page. The Queen-E image was relatively simple to do as I took the original image of her on a white background. all i had to do was find the background I wanted to use, crop my model out of her shot and place her onto this image. the difficulty lie in making this new image realistic, as i didn't want the fact i had just cropped and pasted her onto a background to be very obvious. the reason i decided to alter the original image was because I felt it needed to have more generic conventions, specifically the dirty and impoverish feel that many artists of the grime genre strive for.

The image of TYB was slightly more challenging to alter as i wanted to keep the floor, bench and model of the original shot but replace the background, as i felt that it didnt connote the grime genre strongly enough. I therefore had to find an appropriate image of a graffiti covered street that would match the parts of the image i wanted to save. The real challenge was adjusting the brightness of the different levels and making sure there was no apparent seam between the two images. I again used the Quick lasso tool and the sliders that control brightness, contrast, exposure and colour levels to create what i believe to be an all round appealing and believable shot.

Websites such as online mood board creators allowed me to add a different form of image to my blog which taught me about presentation even within my planning exercises as it helped to make my idea clearer not only to others but also to myself. Soundcloud again helped me to present my tasks in a different way which helped to show a wide range ICT skill.

The Camera I used was a Cannon EOS 700D. This process helped me hone my camera skills in as they were up until this point relatively basic. I learnt the importance of shot composition and the effect this can have on the way an audience interprets an media text. The composition of my shots was vitally important as my artist needed to have the rugged bad boy looks of a grime artist but also needed to look somewhat approachable and respectful of who he is and where he has come from. I feel that the shots I have taken help to portray this message.

Evaluation Question 5

Evaluation Question 4

     Who would be the audience for your media product?

Evaluation Question 3

I feel like a company such as Bauer media would distribute my media product as they have a wide range of music magazines, with a wide range of different genres. Therefore I think that they would be interested in my product as it seems to plug a gap in the market. BARZ will have very few primary competitors as many other publishers don't see a magazine for the grime genre as a viable option. I feel that they underestimate the potential readership, as most young male in the UK are listeners of Grime, although it is mainly targeted at the younger audience it would gain following of older readers who are Hardcore fans of the genre.

The fact that i have used more than just music to target the audience helps to gain their attention as some may buy the magazine to see what cars are 'hot in 2015' and some may buy it to look at the fashion associated with the grime genre. Then there is the language I have used, readers will not feel intimidated by the language as it is not to complex, this again enable them to target a younger readership as well as a the lower demographic (C2DE) who may not be as well educated as readers of other magazines.

I think that there is a large potential readership as grime is no longer a regional genre with it gaining a large following from areas such as Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow with artists such as Maverick Sabre and Bugzy Malone becoming prominent artists from these areas. Also Urban areas such as London and Manchester are beginning to bring the genre to the attention of the genre public by playing the genre on stations such as 1 Xtra or Heat F.M.

In conclusion I feel Bauer could make a large profit and gain a monopoly share in the grime scene genre if they distribute my magazine.

Evaluation Question 2

Evaluation Question 1

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

Audience Feedback

Mr Woodward (27): 'although this isn't a genre I am familiar with I like the style of the magazine and the idea behind the audience that the magazine is targeting, although the contents page is slightly weaker than the rest of the magazine'

Tracy Walker (51): 'What is the genre? Sounds like it needs a good scrubbing. What is that boy wearing on his feet?'

Danat Tungushbayev (16): 'I like the layout of the magazine and the house style draws you in and makes you want to read more. You wouldn't even have noticed that the artist wasn't actually a rising star in the scene.'

Derek Edmond (59): 'The magazine is nice but I have no idea what most of the articles are or who they are about. What is a huarache and is it contagious? The layout of the magazine is nice although there is something else needed on the contents page. Also the language is fairly basic'

Emily Jerman (17): 'The music isn't one of my favorite genres but I don't mind listening to a bit of it occasionally, the magazine is very 'boyish' so i wouldn't say that I am part of the target audience but I can see why boys would want to read this magazine'

Clara Lane (26): ' the magazine is definitely not designed for me although I like the look of it. The genre is not one of my favorites at all!'

These answers have helped me to understand how to target my audience as they were taken after my first draft was complete, this helped me to tweak it so that it definitely targeted teenage boys. It helped that the older man found the language basic as this meant that it wouldn't be to complex for the targeted audience.

Final Product: BARZ

Production Update 5

Today I created my first draft for my contents page although I have decided to change it, as i have decided that this will be the most likely to drop me marks. I felt that it was to basic and that in order to achieve the maximum amount of marks possible. I decided to keep certain aspects of the contents such as the main features column and the separate contents section

Production Update 4

I have begun to redesign my contents as I have decided to use a black background as my house style as i feel that it allows the contents to look stylish yet simple. I have decided to use the same font as the Masthead to again try to keep to the house style. My double page spread is written up and I have begun to place my articles around my Pull quote and placed my images around the page.

Production Update 3

Today I have begun to start placing the images on my contents page, finalizing my first draft of my Front cover, Writing up my Article and placing my cover lines on my front cover. I feel that there are to many blank spaces on my first draft off my cover, so i have decided to add a strip with a few small pictures, as I feel that it looks sleek and makes the cover more complete.
For my contents i have used the triangle method for 2 images and used normal images for 2 more. I have decided to place them on opposite sides of the page which I feel helps to make the page pop out to the reader.
The most difficult thing I did today was placing the cover lines as it is extremely tedious making sure they all line up properly, they are all the same size and make sure that they dont cross over an important part of the cover photo.

Production Update 2

Today I took pictures for my Front Cover and double page spread. I have decided to go with having only one image on my front cover as I feel that my house style is going to be simple but easy to understand what genre I am going for. I have changed my Masthead font as i felt like the previous font didn't really suit the genre of music I had chosen. I have decided to go for a font I found on dafont.com called 'Capture it' as i feel that it looks better and also fits the genre of Grime much more effectively.
I also began to set up the template for my contents page, I have made one small change from my mock up which is getting rid of the row of images and placing them in different place around the page. like my mock up I am keeping one section for main features and another for general contents. I will also put the mast head of the magazine in the corner of the contents page. I will also take pictures of other 'artists' so that my contents page is not just full of images of my artist.

Production update 1

This was the first lesson of production and although I do not have any photos to add to the magazine yet I played around with some fonts and created a basic template for my Front cover and contents page. I created a masthead using dafont.com, using a screenshot of the title of my magazine and editing it on Photoshop although I had difficulty with making the font chosen fit and suit the magazine and its genre.

I am trying to keep the layout of the magazine as close to my mock up as possible, although I have already decided it will not have a white background as I feel it will look to simplistic therefore I will try to use a more natural background to match the genre.

Textual Analysis Biilboard

Textual Analysis Mixmag

Textual Analysis Kerrang

Target Audience

As you know grime is not considered a mainstream genre although in recent times has gain masses of fans due to song such as 'Shutdown' and 'Wicked Skengman 4 which have been released over the course of 2015. during the early days of the Genre Artists gained notoriety through the use of social media sites like BeBo and MySpace but now rely heavily on sites like SoundCloud, YouTube and Twitter.

I think that especially in the modern world it is vitally important that brands such as music magazines become multi platform as otherwise they run the risk of become irrelevant and outdated. sites such as YouTube and Twitter offer a fantastic opportunity for magazines to adapt by uploading recorded interviews, new songs and Vlogs.

The Audience I am targeting is becoming increasingly dependant on technology such as Iphones, Social Media and the Internet that it would be ridiculous not to use other platforms as well as written word in order to make a successful brand. Other Brands such as NME are now reliant on their online readership as the capital coming from magazine sales were so obsolete that they became a free magazine.  

Twitter is a great way for my magazine to promote itself as 95 to 99% of its target audience will have Twitter. Also with the site being so popular amongst the artists within the genre it can gain lots of attention if just one of the big named artists feature in an Article and retweet the Magazine. The readership also don't want to be bored with pages and pages of text so the 140 character limit allows my magazine to work out the best way to grab the attention of the potential readership with such limited characters. 

Sites such as Instagram have become very popular photo sharing social media outlets over the past few years and could be used by my Magazine to show the Artist they have featuring in their latest edition as well as videos of Artist 'shouting out', or bringing people attention to, my magazine. Again this is a very popular Social Media website within my potential readership demographic as they are young teenagers which is also who Instagram is targeting itself to.

Targeting an Audience

Age: 13 – 19 years old

I will try to keep the language quite basic so that the reader finds it an easy read as if the language is to complicated they will not enjoy the magazine and therefore will not want to read it.

·         Talk about things that will affect and interest them, there will be no point in talking about some of the deep and more meaningful parts of the genre such as unemployment and racial matters as this will not interest the reader whereas fast cars, branded clothing and humour will be things that will really interest the reader and make them want to read the magazine.

Gender: Predominately male

·         The genre of grime is a patriarchal genre of music (male dominated) which has made women feel very isolated from the genre therefore it would be safer to target the male audience with articles about cars, girls, games consoles, sports and branded clothing such as Fred Perry and Franklin and Marshall which are Brands that are heavily associated with the genre.

·        The fact that the lyrics are often hard hitting and very meaningful is again something that makes the genre a very male dominated music as when people think about music that is focussed primarily towards girls the language is much softer and airy, I will take this into account when writing my articles as I feel that if the articles are too light hearted then the male audience will be uninterested and bored by the article, equally due to the lower age of readers I will not make my article to hard hitting as I don’t want to have a negative effect on the reader.

·         I will try to focus on the more upbeat sub-genre of grime the ‘Party’ part of the genre as this is the most popular with this chosen age range but it’s the more positive, upbeat part.

Demographic: C2DE

·         The genre itself has already quite blatantly directed itself towards a very specific audience of ordinary or ‘common’ people. Therefore the audience demographic I will target is that of the lower class, this will be achieved through the use of basic or colloquial and unspecialised language, also by using images that they can associate with the genre for example images of graffiti, nice cars and the use of language that is used within them genre that is classed as slang, for example phrases such as ‘whip’.

Location: Urban Areas such as Dagenham, East London and BarkingsideThe areas in and around the east of London are where the biggest stars of the genre are from areas such as Dagenham, Hackney and The Manor are the birth place of stars such as Dizzee Rascal, Chip, Devlin and Lethal Bizzle. I will use this to my advantage by producing articles on these artists to attract the more casual listeners but with the focal point of the Magazine being up and coming and maybe less established artists for the Hardcore listener.

Quantitative Analysis

MY SURVEYIS AVAILABLE AT https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HPTPTT3