2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Evaluation question 2 from eleanorsimmons

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

Evaluation Draft: 7. Looking back at your preliminary task (the school magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

I think that by comparing my preliminary work to my final magazine shows how my skills have developt throughout the planning, research and making of my magazine.
Even though I have used the same backdrop on each shoot, I can definitely tell that my final magazine's images are of a better quality as I have learnt from my preliminary that lights are an important aspect to consider when taking photographs.
I think that I have learnt how to make my magazine layouts more aesthetically pleasing, by using different colour schemes which compliment the content of the pages. I have learnt the importantace of choosing the correct font to suit the genre of the magazine.

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

Adobe Photoshop CS6

I used this programme to construct my many Double page spreads, Contents and Covers. At the beginning of this project, my skills were very limited as I had never thoroughly used photoshop. Yet I did quickly develop on photoshop as it is a programme that is not hard to navigate. I found photoshops '30-day trial' very useful when it came to the last stages of making my magazine as it allowed me to use photoshop at home as I would at school.

Canon 1000D (Camera)

I used this camera on my draft images, I found this camera very comfortable to use as I am used to taking photos with it.

Fuji FinePix (Camera)
I found this camera very easy to use. Yet personally I am used to DSLR's, so I found it frustrating not to be able to use all the other functions available a DSLR. Yet this camera was great on a tripod so it didn't blur.

Lights/White Pop-up background.
Without these lights, my images would not be as good quality. Also if I did choose to use the magic wand tool on photoshop it wouldn't require as many steps as the image will contrast more with the background.

Computer
I have used my own computer at home and the ones at school. I sometimes found the school computers frustrating as they occasionally crashed. Though this did help me to learn to save my work regularly. But I have done most of my work at home on my iMac as this is how I prefer to work.

Prezi
I used this online programme to give a visual representation when presenting my ideas in my 25 word pitch. I think that this programme is very useful and allows me to present my ideas creatively. It has recently become a lot easier to use, as you can import Powerpoint files straight to it, like Slide Share.

Slide Share
I used Slide Share to present my initial test shots on my blog. I found this very easy to use, as like Prezi you can just import Powerpoint files.

Microsoft Powerpoint
This is very easy to use, I used this programme to layout the slides that I would later import onto Prezi or Slide Share

Animoto
Animoto is an online programme where you can upload your images and it has professional-looking animated templates. I used this to present my moodboard and used a HTML code to upload it onto my blog.

Memory Stick
My memory stick is where I kept most of my work as I worked on two computers, so this made it easier to transfer to each computer. Yet, my memory stick occasionally couldn't store all my photoshop trials as there wasn't that much space available.

Internet Explorer/Google Chrome
As I present my work on blogger, I need access to the internet. I find google chrome a lot easier and quicker to use and I think it is easier to upload images using google chrome.

Evaluation Draft: 5. How did you attract/address your audience?

Cover

• Bold, interesting title.
• 'Local Gig guide' 'Open Mic guide'. This will attract my audience if they're musicians themselves. 
• List of featured artists that are popular in this genre, they would want to read more about them
• Quote 'I'd never wear a meat dress.' This references Lady Gaga's crazy outfits. This attracts the audience as it shows that this artist is not as worried about her appearance  unlike mainstream pop artists.
• Natural pose with distinctive eyes, this shows her carefree attitude, which may attract the acoustic folk audience.

Contents Page:

• Use of image with an acoustic guitar, reinforces genre of magazine which makes the audience want to read more.
• Also, an image of a new artist may generate more interest in the magazine as it is showing new singer/songwriters in the magazine.

Double Page Spread:

• I have used two pull quotes on my double page spread. 'I'd Never release anything without putting my heart into it'. This will attract my audience as if they have an interest in songwriting they would relate to this quote. My second quote 'I must have played over 150 gigs last year...' this again could relate to the reader as it shows that she appreciates music and playing gigs.

I hope that certain aspects of my magazine reflect the target markets' own interest, hobbies and style as this will make them feel as though they can relate to the magazine much more and it will make the reader feel much more comfortable when reading the magazine as they would have a much more personal connection to the images and article.
Also, i think that if this magazine is promoting artists that are similar to their own style it will make them feel more confident as they will look at the 

Evaluation Draft: 4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

My ideal target audience for this magazine would be a female between the ages of 16-30, who has an interest in acoustic music and songwriting.
The reason I have chosen a wider age range, is that folk music is not very popular between teenagers nowadays as more mainstream musc is being produced, and there is a wide older audience for this genre, yet I feel that the style that I based my magazine around wouldn't attract much of an older audience.
My audience should be interested in artists such as 'Laura Marling', 'Ben Howard', 'Bon Iver', 'Lucy Rose' etc. These artists all feature on my cover/contents. Yet they are not 'celebrities' which shows that my magazine shouldn't interest an audience that wants to read about celebrity life or mainstream pop stars.
I aimed to create a magazine that targeted a wide audience of both genders between the ages of 16-30. 
An example of this is a 17 year old female student. Currently studying her AS levels in creative subjects. She regularly attends gigs around her local city and has a big interest in music and follows many musicians. Her style is simple, I hope that this reflects her in my magazine as I thought about the use of a more simplistic layout, and styling the artist in neutral clothes to reflect her not being worried about her image. This is my ideal target audience that I think that my magazine is aimed at, and I hope that readers similar to my exampled reader can relate to a magazine that reflects there interests, hobbies and style.
In my article the language used was semi-formal with some shortening of words. I wanted to keep the tone less formal to keep the readers attention as the audience are probably reading this magazine causally and if it was too formal it may put the readers off carrying onto the rest of the magazine. This has also shown through the question and answer layout as this is quick and easy to read and keeps your attention throughout.

Evaluation Draft 3.What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

A company like Blaze Publishing will ensure that my magazine sells by getting the magazine into shops and on shelves. For my magazine, I think that of the three circulating methods, Paid Circulation is best suited as this will ensure a profit is made after publishing my magazine.

I think that Blaze is a suitable institution to distribute my magazine as this institution publishes 'Acoustic' magazine. 'Acoustic' Magazine is a similar genre to the magazine that I produced.

 I think that Blaze is a good institution to publish 'Awe' magazine as they can use their expericences from publishing 'Acoustic' magazine to help to sell, promote and publish it.

Blaze may not want to publish my magazine as they already have a magazine of a similar genre (acoustic) and this may put them off investing in AWE magazine as they are already selling a magazine that is a similar genre.
I think that they may invest into the publishing of my magazine as Awe magazine differs to Acoustic magazine as it is not focusing on the instrument, but the artists. Awe magazine will feature many different artists with personal interviews whereas, Acoustic is very to the point and has a more male-based target market shown through the red, grey and black colour scheme.