Friday, 15 April 2011
Evaluation
Joe Megson – Media Studies Coursework Evaluation
When working on this product, I went through a number of ideas. I am happy with the final product and believe I have created what I wanted to create.
The planning stage of this coursework helped me develop my ideas, as I looked on the internet at existing products and based some aspects of my product on what I found. Particularly, the shot of a guitarist playing a guitar on the front cover is based on a similar picture I saw on the cover of an issue of Kerrang! Magazine. Similarly, my original front cover, with the four band members, was based on a shot of Oasis I saw in Q magazine.
My finished product and my original product are very different. Although I retained the classic rock theme, I only kept one image from the original product. I also changed the name of the magazine, and completely changed my double-page spread, due to negative feedback of the original product. I changed the title of the magazine from “Rock” to “Flashback”, as it is a far less generic, memorable title. The cover image was changed from a mid-shot of a whole band to a mid-shot of a single musician playing an instrument for two main reasons: firstly, because, in the original image, the individual people were clearly doctored into the same image, creating vast differences in lighting between the subjects of the image. Secondly, in the original image, the band members were merely standing stationary, creating a bland image which was neither related to the fact that it was a music magazine, nor would it catch the eye of any potential buyers of the magazine were it sold in shops. This was changed by changing the image to a mid-shot of a single person playing a guitar, removing the need for much editing, and giving it relevance.
The contents page was originally bland and plain, not containing much. I improved it, in my opinion, by firstly changing the image to a more colourful long shot of a band, allowing for the background to be in the image, adding more colour to the page. This also allowed me to take the image from that page and use it on the cover, as a mid-shot is better suited to a cover than a contents page, as the cover has a larger image, and, in order to get the attention of potential buyers and give a clear and immediate picture of who is featured in the magazine, the focus must be on the artist rather than the background of the shot.
Although the original double-page spread did not attract a great deal of negative feedback, I decided to change the double-page spread to the feature shown on the front cover. I decided to make the black background used in the double-page spread the house style of my magazine: a black background with red and white lettering. I chose this house style as it is aesthetically pleasing, as well as reflecting the rock music style. Another reason I chose this style is that red and black are the colours featured in the logo of the band AC/DC, one of my personal favourite rock bands, who are popular and well-known through my audience of adults who are interested in classic rock music.
I have followed a number of conventions of music magazines in the finished product. The cover features a mid-shot of a musician playing a guitar. Midshots are often used in music magazines to get peoples’ attention and make it immediately clear who is featured in the magazine, and my cover follows this convention. It also follows the convention frequently used in music magazines of having the names of bands and features in the magazine along the bottom of the cover, and the conventions of straplines both below the masthead and the banner headline.
The strapline “No Download Required” references the digitalisation of music, and the fact that the magazine is based around classic rock music, which existed, and was most popular, before the rise of digitalisation. This may appeal to my target audience of adults interested in classic rock music as they will have listened to the music on vinyl records and CDs. In this way, the strapline helps build nostalgia, a reason why people may buy this magazine.
My cover page is also quite conventional. It maintains the house style of the other pages, and is split into two different groups: new features and regular features, as is the case with many magazines, not just music magazines. The image of one of the features in the magazine and the editorial note are also often used in other magazines.
The double-page spread is conventional, with a large image taken up half of it, and a headline containing a quote from the musician across the top of the pages.
My magazine gives a positive representation of the social group of working-class people. The musician featured in the double-page spread and on the cover, according to the interview, began busking in the city centre before becoming famous around the country. The article claims that he is among the best tribute acts in the world and describes him with respect despite his lower-class status. It is, however, implied in the interview by the musician that he now has quite a large amount of money.
I believe that, were it a real magazine, the magazine may be sold by Bauer Media. As I learned during the planning research stage, Bauer Media produce a variety of magazines, including magazines like Q. This magazine is similar in some ways, as it too is a magazine about rock music, but also fills a niche in a market: classic rock music, of which few magazines exist, also found in the planning and research stage. Alternatively, it may be a (quite substantial) supplement to another magazine, as it is a lower-budget magazine which does not feature interviews with big-name classic rock bands which are still around today, instead containing features on the history of the genre and readers’ opinions. As for interviews and other such features, the magazine focuses mainly on tribute acts.
The audience for my magazine is primarily adults who are nostalgic for past music and may not be inclined towards contemporary rock music. This is reflected primarily in the musicians featured: tribute acts who play classic rock music, as well as articles and contests related to classic rock bands, such as the history of rock mentioned on the contents and cover pages. Nostalgic adults who listened to rock music in the past may enjoy reading this as it would remind them of earlier years. My audience would be mostly working and lower-middle class, or the C2 and D SEG demographics. This is because the chosen music genre is not often considered a “high” genre, like classical music, for example. The class of my audience is reflected in the magazine’s low price of £1.99, as well the positive representation of a lower-class musician in the double-page spread’s article. The contents page also does this to a lesser extent, with the image of the band members of AB/CD sitting and relaxing in a field, rather than somewhere like a large venue or a house.
Through creating these media products, I have learned how to create and manage an online blog. Furthermore, I have learned to use Photoshop to some degree by moving, cutting, resizing and erasing parts of, images for use in my media product. I also used a scanner to upload hand-drawn drafts to the computer something I had not done in previous coursework pieces. However, the final product was very different to the hand-drawn drafts.
In my opinion, I have learned a great deal about the creation of such a media product as a magazine since the preliminary task. For example, in the finished product, I edited the background out of the original photograph which I then used for the cover. The cover I used in the preliminary task still contained the background of the original shot, creating a non-eye-catching image, which also included the subject’s shadow. These problems were fixed through editing the shot in the finished product. The contents page in the final product is also considerably better than that of the preliminary task. The original contents page contained a blurred image taken from the internet and one large list of contents. The final product contains an original photograph, which does not take up the entirety of the page and so does not make the contents harder to read. The contents are also divided into two sections, making it easier for readers to find regular features of the magazine. This was not done until the final product. Another aspect I included in the final product was the use of a consistent house style.
Overall, I am happy with the finished music product. I think I have followed the conventions of music magazines effectively to create an eye-catching, entertaining music magazine which reflects and attracts its target audience well. I believe it is a vast improvement on the original product in its representation, cover effectiveness and overall visual quality. If I were to do this task again, I would produce more planning in the planning and research stage, so that I know exactly what I want to include in the product, and not have to make a drastic change late into the task, as I had to do in this case due to negative feedback for the original product.
Thursday, 14 April 2011
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