Evaluation

Slide one

The following are annotations of my music magazine front cover, double page spread and contents page explaining how they are conventional.

Slide two

For my main media project I created a brand new metal music magazine.
My music magazine does not represent any particular social group overtly. However it could be argued that metal music fans are represented through the magazine. This is because of things such as the main image on the front cover and use of direct address.

Slide three

As the two main rivals for my music magazine, “!Kerrang” and “Metal Hammer” are both published by Bauer, the obvious choice for my magazine distribution would be IPC due to competition. However my choice of distributor would be Bauer to cover all aspects of the market.
My magazine would be sold in Newsagents & Supermarkets. Music stores such as HMV, it would also be distributed in the on-line HMV store. It would also be sold in WH Smith and would be available by phone or over the internet for monthly subscription.

Slide four

The target audience for my music magazine is metal music fans aged between 13 and 25.
To attract/address my audience I produced a set of questionnaires in order to find out such things as my target audience's preferred colour scheme and favourite bands.
The contents of my magazine were also an important factor for attracting and addressing my audience, for example including things such as competitions and using direct address.

Slide five

The following slide is feedback from my audience research questionnaires.
I asked my audience if my front cover appealed to them, and if so which parts of it?
100% said yes, some of the responses were:
“The image and many bold titles”
“The layout and design look professional”
“The main image is very striking”
I asked my audience if the front cover appealed to them
80% said yes
I also asked my audience if the language I used in my article was appropriate
And if so which parts of it
90% said yes and some of the responses were:
“It is very relevant”
“It is good and not to informal”
“Yes it is very good and very informative”
I asked my audience if they found the featured and regular content listed on the contents page appealing
100% said yes

I finally asked my audience what improvements they think I could make to my magazine
Some of the responses were
“More images”


“Nothing, I would buy it”
“More images on the contents page”
“Use of more images”

Due to these responses I added more images to my contents page and changed the arrangement
Through the process of constructing this product I have learnt about new technologies. These include the use of Desktop publishing and learning that anyone can publish from their own Desktop through the use of programmes and a printer. I have also expanded my knowledge on Adobe Photo Shop, Quark Express and the use of a digital camera.

Slide six

Looking back at my preliminary exercise product I feel I have progressed in different areas. I have expanded on my creative ability and learnt how to put ideas into practice and have learnt how to apply and adapt my ideas. I have also progressed with my technical skills in use of computing.

26th January – 30th January

This week we began the evaluation of our music magazine. To begin I created an “evaluation” section in my PowerPoint. To show that I had followed the codes and conventions of a music magazine I annotated my front cover, contents page and double page spread.

19th January – 23rd January

This week I began creating questionnaires for my audience research. Once I had compiled the questionnaires I began handing them out and retrieving feedback on my magazine. I handed out 10 of the following questionnaires:

Questionnaire
Please could you fill out this short questionnaire in order to give me feedback for AS media coursework, thank you.
Does my front cover appeal to you? IF so what parts of it?
Do the colour schemes I have used appeal to you?
Please circle Yes No
Do you think the images on the contents page portray metal music?
Please circle Yes No
Do you think the language I have used in my article is appropriate? If not, what could I change?
Do you find the featured and regular content appealing? (see contents page)
Please circle Yes No
What improvements do you think I could make to my music magazine?

12th January – 16th January

This week I created my contents page in Quark Express. I used my previous designs and filled in my regular, featured and “on the cover” content. I then edited my images in Photoshop and imported them into Quark. I took time to work out appropriate positioning for my images and decided on the final design. I finished my magazine this week and handed it in to meet the deadline.

5th January – 9th January

This week I created my double page spread in Quark Express. I created my title and added in my stand first. I then continued to change the planning of my sketches and re-position the image so that it was on the right hand side of the article. After positioning my image I imported my text and cut my article to fit in.

15th December – 19th December

This week I began to create my magazine front cover using Photoshop. I imported my front cover image and edited the opacity to change the lighting and mood of the picture. I continued by adding in my title, “amplify” I embossed the title, changed the resolution and gave it a red outline to link in with the blue and purple colour scheme of my cover lines. TO finish the front cover I added in my positioning statement, “Can YOU handle the noise?” issue date and bar code.

8th December - 12th December



This week I made a final decision on the images I would use for my music magazine. I began taking the pictures and gathered the following:












I decided to use the first image for my front cover; I edited the opacity of the picture in Photoshop to make the contents of the image clearer. I used this picture because the person is looking directly at the camera, and the image portrays that of the metal music genre.






I took the above images of a drum kit for my double page spread. I decided to use the first image because of the lighting and the effect the picture has.

I took the following images for my contents page; I decided to use the first image as it uses direct address and therefore targets my audience.






















The above images were taken
as ideas for my contents page, I used
two of the images because they related
to articles in my featured content.