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

From making my college magazine I have learnt:

• How to use Photoshop better. I now know how to use most of the tools such as the spot healing tool, also how to brighten images and change the colour of the images for example my model on my contents page.
• How to use an SLR digital camera. I learnt how to use the buttons on the camera and also how to focus lens. I now know the lighting is better outside than inside.
• How to edited images to look better. I now know how to cut around an image to make the edges not as sharp also how to brighten the images to make them stand out more. I can now smudge the edges on an image to make them look more smooth so they do not look like they have been cut out.
• I now know how to address the target audience more. For my college magazine I don't feel that I got the attention of the target audience where as for my music magazine I really concentrated on what the target audience will be looking for, I looked at magazines similar to the one I wanted to make and copied their ideas.
• I can now fill in all the gaps on a page to make the magazine look more packed and busy and not boring. As you can see on my college magazine it is very plain and has a lot of gaps and spaces. Where as on my music magazine there is no gaps I have filled them in with small images and love hearts. It now fits more with the genre.
• I dressed my model on my music magazine in clothes that fit with the genre and my magazine design, where as on my college magazine I just took an image of a friend from media who was just dressed for a day at college. So I now know how to dress a model for a certain genre.
• I have also learnt how to use columns. On my college magazine I have not used columns where as on my music magazine I have used a column on my contents page. I am glad I know how to do this because it looks so much better.
• On my college magazine the fonts used don't really fit with the genre where as on my music magazine I have used a font on my masthead that really fits with my genre and the size is more appropriate. The size of the font for the cover lines on my college magazine are too big where as on my music magazine they  are small and look better. I now know how to choose appropriate fonts and font sizes.

Evaluation: What have you learnt about technologies from the process ofconstructing this product?

                                                              

Here is a bit more description about the technologies that have helped my make my music magazine.

SLR Digital Camera

This is an image of an SLR digital camera on the right. I had no experience with an SLR before making this music magazine. I found that using this camera has helped me get better quality images to use on my music magazine. I am glad I have now had experience with an SLR because it may be able to help me in the future. 

Adobe Photoshop

This is an image of the photoshop logo. I used photoshop to make my whole magazine. I used indesign to make my college magazine contents page but I found that I preferred photoshop. With the different things that photoshop can do I feel my magazine has come out the best I can do.

Mac Mini

On the right is an image of a mac mini, this is what I used to produce my music magazine. This mac mini allowed me to use photoshop, blogger, prezi everything I needed to do the best I could in producing my music magazine.

Blogger

On the right there is an image of the blogger logo. I had never used blogger before and I think I caught on very quick. Blogger is where i have been updating my progress and storing my progress for  my media teacher and examiner to see.

Prezi

Here is an image of the prezi logo. I used prezi for one of my evaluation questions also for some audience feedback. I used this at school so I already has an idea how to work it. I found it easy and fast to use.

Flickr

I used flickr for one of my evaluation questions. I had never used flickr before but I found it quick and easy to use.

In-design

I have used in-design for the contents page of my college magazine. I had never used this before but I caught on quick and found it easy to use.

Evaluation: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

As you can see by looking at these two images from two very similar pop magazines, they have similarities and differences.

Similarities 

• Both of these images have a shot type of Medium-Long. I used this shot because I wanted to take up a lot of the double page spread by using this shot type it allowed me to do so. I feel that on both images the shot has been used to show body language and expression, on my Popworld magazine my model wants to be seen as happy with her smiling and playing with her hair shows confidence and that she is in a positive position. Where as on Top of the pops magazine her body language is being seen as mysterious/ sad showing that there must be a twist in the article. In both images I believe that the image says a lot about the article.
• On both images the models faces have been brightened up showing their facial expressions, I feel that this is good that the models face is standing out because she should be the first thing the audience see before the masthead of the double page spread.

Differences 

• My model is wearing make up but you can not really tell because we made it look more natural, where as on top of the pops the model has deep eye make up on making her look rather scary which I think does not fit in with the pop genre that is why I did not do this.
• My model is wearing really bright clothes and her hair is bright where as on top of the pops she is wearing dull clothing and her hair is a dark dull colour so she is not really standing out on the dark background where as my model is standing out on the light background.
• My model has her hair neatly tied up where as the other model just has her down which doesn't look as nice.
• My model is wearing more jewellery with earrings that really stand out and a necklace, also a nose piercing. Where as the other model only has a necklace on which does not really stand out.
• My model just looks more girly and up for being in a music magazine where as the other model does not really look girly or that happy.
• My model is giving a great big cheesy smile where as the other model is giving a smirk to a certain extent.
• The hands of the top of the pops model are kind of hiding behind her where as my models hands  are fully on show with nice bracelets.

How I have represented young people 

• I have made my model look really happy and bright this is stereotypical of a teenage girl for her to be smiley and in nice bright clothes. I dressed her in a bright purple top and bright jeans so that she stands out making her look bright.
•  The way it is very happy and bright and all positive not negative shows that young people are good. This is not stereotypical because young people are seen as thugs and naughty so my magazine shows who they really are and what they can be.

How I have represented gender 

• My target audience is females. So I have made my main model female, a very feminine female. She has really long girlie hair and girlie colours fitting with the genre.
• I also chose to use feminine colours such as pink and purple to represent my genre. These colours will then also attract my target audience.
• With the fashion advise I have then represented the female gender because females love shopping and buying stylish clothes.
• My model is looking strong and powerful and happy this is not stereotypical because the males are supposed to be the strong and powerful but I have made women feel that they can feel powerful too.

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

These are annotated JPEGs of my magazine using Flickr.
Click on the images to take you to the annotated JPEGs that are on Flickr.

Evaluation: How did you attract your target audience?

Here is a Prezi showing how I have attracted my target audience to my magazine by using:

• Photographs 
• Colours 
• Fonts 
• Layout
• Text

Evaluation: Who would be the audience for your media product and why?

This is Millie, she is 16 years old and loves to buy pop magazines. She loves fashion she shops at places such as New Look, International, River Island, Top shop Etc. She likes to listen to bands such as One Direction and McFly and likes to listen to singers such as Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus, JessieJ Etc. Her Favourite Tv programme is ICarly from Nickelodeon. She loves doing activities with her friends and family and loves animals. She also loves to text, go on Facebook and Twitter.

I believe that Millie would buy my pop magazine Popworld because she is into all the things that my magazine has to offer. She is into fashion my magazine gives good fashion tips and advise where to buy the latest cool clothes. She is also into pop music which is perfect seen as my magazine is a pop magazine, it has the top 40 songs, posters of famous pop singers that she likes, information on these singers that she likes she can have it all just by buying Popworld. She says she likes to do activities with her friends and family and also likes to text, go on facebook and twitter which is amazing because she can win all of this in the competition. Encouraging her to get involved with a chance of winning things she loves. Also on the double page spread it gives twitter and facebook information about the new pop singer she can then get involved with her on these social networking sites. I believe Popworld is the perfect music magazine for Millie.

Evaluation: In what ways do your magazine use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Here I am comparing my music magazine to a very similar magazine Top Of The Pops, showing how I have used elements from this magazine ( Use ), how I have used it but made it different ( Develop) and how I have used something totally different ( Challenge ).

Front Cover

1. Use - Here I have copied using the word pop in my masthead from the pop magazine Top of the pops. I have done this because it simply shows the reader and audience what the genre of the music magazine is.
2. Develop - Here I have shown this as a develop because it is showing that we have both used a lot of images but I have made it different by using more images because I wanted to fill up that space to make it more packed like a pop magazine should be.
3. Challenge - Here I have a different colour of background. Top of the pops have a plain white background where as I have used a gradient to make it pink from white so it does not look plain, it also fits with my colour scheme.
4. Develop - Here I have used the way that this magazine has advised people how they can look better. I have changed it by not advising them to look better but to smell better. This is advertising the perfume and also making the audience feel they can make themselves more attractive.
5. Use - Here both magazines have the main cover line as the next biggest size after the masthead. I have chose to do this so that the famous name of the pop singer will stand out and attract the audience to buy the music magazine.
6. Use - Here the bar-codes are in the same place with the price of the magazine next to the bar-code. There is a bit of a difference because the issue number on top of the pops is next to the bar-code where as on my magazine Popworld the issue number is under the masthead.
7. Use -Here I am showing the way that both of the magazines use the same colour scheme of pinks. The mastheads are the brightest of the pinks. I have copied this because I think it works really well with the genre and stands out like a masthead should.
8. Develop - Here I am showing how both of the models are dressed up with make up and dangle earrings , with there hair down nicely. There is a bit of a difference here because the model on the top of the pops clothing is more fancy and glamorous I didn't want this for my model as you can see she is dressed casually with jeans and a nice collar top. I wanted her to look casual so the audience will feel that they can look as nice as her even by dressing casual.
9. Challenge - The model on top of the pops takes up most of the front cover where as on my magazine I have chosen to not make my model take up a lot of the front cover, she still stands out without having to take up all the the page. Also the shot taken of the model for the top of the pops magazine is a medium long, concentrating more on her upper half. I have chosen to do mine differently and take a long shot of my model showing her whole outfit, because I felt her whole outfit fitted in with the pop genre and I feel the way she is positioned is good and different.
10. Use - Here I have chosen to highlight that both top of the pops and pop world have used quite a lot of boxes around their pictures and text. I chosen to copy and use this because it makes the page look more packed which is what a pop magazine should look like. It also has been used to make important things stand out for example on pop world the information about the competition has been made purple and then put in a white box to make it stand out to the audience.

Contents Page

1. Use - Here I have highlighted that my magazine and top of the pops have both used images of jewellry and make up accessories, I chose to do the same because I needed to fill some space and I felt that this was the best thing to use because it fits in with the pop genre.
2. Develop - Here I have identified that both magazines have big bold page numbers, I have made my magazines different. I have made my page numbers stand out more by doing them different bright colours and then putting them in a bright coloured love heart making sure that the number stands out over the love heart.
3. Use - As you can see there is two 3 boxes this is because the same thing has been used in two places. Both top of the pops and pop world have used 'We love .....' I chose to copy this because I liked the way they had done it and I felt it would make my magazine better and fit more with the pop genre.
4. Develop - Here I have shown that both magazines have again used the colour pink. We have both done this but used different shades of pink, top of the pops is brighter than popworld, I chose a duller pink because I wanted the other things on the page such as the images and the text to stand out more than the boxes and welcome.
5. Challenge - I have noticed that top of the pops have a lot of white spaces on the contents page where as popworld doesn't, I chose to make my magazine different by filling in the gaps with love hearts of different sizes and colours. I did this because I felt this made my magazine look more busy making it look more pop. It also attracts the target audience because it makes the magazine more girly.
6. Use - Here I have shown that both top of the pops and popworld have used boxes and shapes behind there text and images. I chose to copy this because I felt that it worked really well with the pop genre and could make my magazine better.
7. Challenge - I have pointed out that both magazines have a main image of a celebrity on the contents page. But my magazine, popworld, has more images, I chose to do this because I did not feel that top of the pops filled there space very well it does not look as packed as popworld. I feel that my magazine looks more pop because of the business.

Double Page Spread

1. Use - Here I am showing how both magazines have the main image taking up one of the A4 sides of the double page spread. I chose to copy this because I feel like the image is the main thing about the double page spread because it allowed the audience to know what the page is going to contain. Even though these are both images from a pop magazine my image looks more like pop because it is smiley, bright and happy.
2. Challenge - I have noticed that even though these are both pop magazines which are meant to be aimed at girls, the colours on the top of the pops double page spread are blues which you would associate with boys, where as on my magazine I have used really feminine colours like pink and purple. I chose not to copy the blues because I don't feel this relates to pop in any way, there is not even any sign of other bright colours to brighten the page up, where as my magazine is very colourful which I prefer.
3. Develop - For both magazines we have used an interview for our articles. I chose to do this because introducing a new pop singer I think should start with a interview to get the audience used the the person. We have done it differently because the top of the pops interview is rather negative, where as my interview isn't, mine is positive, which is what a pop magazine should be like.
4. Develop - Top of the pops have their page numbers in the centre of the A4 page and not in bright colours. Where as on my magazine they are in the corner all bright and they stand out. I chose to do this because I feel that pop magazines should really stand out and catch the audiences eye by using bright colours I believe my magazine has done this.
5. Use - Here I have pointed out that both magazines have used columns, even though top of the pops has columns of text on both A4 pages and mine doesn't they are still the same in this way.
6. Use - Here I am showing how both magazines have used boxes and shaped behind their text. I chose to do this because it makes things stand out and makes the page look more packed and it also looks good on this top of the pops double page spread so I copied it.
7. Challenge - I have noticed that on top of the pops they have quite a bit of space between the images of text, I did not like the look of this when it is meant to be a pop magazine so I did it differently. I added girly love hearts to the spaces making it more packed making it more pop.

Production: Music magazine complete

Research and Planning: Social networking feedback

This is all good feedback that I got by putting my front cover, contents page and double page spread onto twitter and asking people to reply with any advise that they have.

Prodction: Complete front cover and contents page

Now I just need to add a couple of things to my double page spread and then I will have finished my music magazine.