Final media evaluation-MEGAN SZRAM

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real life media products?
My media project (student magazine) uses a variety of general coventions such as; A bar code, issue number and price, and a creative masterhead. To create the barcode individually we downloaded a font called 3 free of 9. The barcode was positioned in the bottom left hand corner of the magazine as it fiited in best with the layout.The issue number and price was placed underneath the masterhead in smaller print, however if i was to do it again differently i would put it in bigger print as the magazine is reasonabbly priced at £1.50 this is relatively cheap and would apply to the purchacers as the productive audience would obviously be students. The master head 'Artistique' is placed at the top of the magazine aligned to the left as many other magazines do the same as it's effective and works well with the layout that we had in mind. The font that was decided upon was called BaroqueAntiqueScript and it worked extreamly well and looked profesional. The house style was creative and has many benifis as the magazine editions are based on different fine arts such as drama, singing, photography which are all conneted with creativity.

Our magazine produces many original and unique styles of general convetions for example the photos were individually taken as a group-we all went out togeather and took a wide range of photos that would be suitable for our particular design. The photos (three of them) inside a poloriod design with text captions underneath to briefly explain the meaning and interest the purchacer. The contents page is particulaly effective page with a variety of pictures and text to make the page more eyepleasing. Again the pictures were taken from the many that we had taken before and considered suitable. Its divided into different topics of our magazines with page refrences and numbers to make it understandable and, quick to the point for the students, basically making life easier. A picture was used at the top of the contents page as our individual house style, which again is there to interest the reader.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The aim in our media product was to create a student magazine, 'student magazine' was clearly labeled underneath the masterhead which is easily recognisable. This particular design is aimed at students that are interested in creative arts. My individual style has a picture of a guitar as the background, so this makes this edition ditinctive on what the majority of the magazine is going to be about.

The picture simply elicits the main idea in a quick simple way without any extra information. The magazines udice is aimed at teenagers between the ages 14-19 so the language that is easily understandable, with small brief captions used on the page. The type of students that would be interested in this created styled magazine would be interested in subjects such as art, music, photography, or performing arts rather than the more acedemic subjects such as the maths and sciences. The colours used are harmonising and calming- the whites and turquoises.

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

I have found out the comany 'Trio CLP' produce a small range of magazines based on the same ideas such as photography, and music. Part of our magazines preffered topic is also photography and music. Our magazine woud fit in well with the range as our magazine is designed to only target the students that are interested in the creative arts side of their chosen subjects or hobbie's.

If they were to distribute and sell our product i would want the magazine to be sold in places such as canteen's, libraries, or in a local town such as Reading in some shops that are willing for it to be sold for example stationairy stores such as WHSmiths or Staples, as much students visit these places outside their school life therfore, i think these places would benefit the most.

Who would be the audience for your media project?

The aimed audiece would be students around the ages of 14-19, the reaon being this is the average age that they need the most help for example in their GCSE's and A'levels the magazine would provide tips to help and aso providing them with activities to do such as art galliries that are educational and relaxing. The students that would be interested the most would be students that take an intrest in subjects such as art, photography, music and drama.

How did you attract/address your audience?

There were a variety of different ways this was achieved. One of the ways in which this was done was by using the polaroid picture and caption blocks on the right hand side as this is an individual, unique idea that would immideately grab attentionof creative students, they would probably find it interesting. The indivudual magazines from the seperate group one are all creative and look different, they have obviously kept the same housetyle the main background picture fills the page and caters for the different monthly topics.
Under the master head it clearly states 'student magazine' so the custemors know clearly who its audience is aimed at. Activities and upcoming events for example, a local music live performing band- this will attract attention as young adults like to socialise and enjoy music. The contents isn't boring and dull in includes a variety of colours images and different topics depending on the issue.

What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing your media project?

There is much i have learned about the technologies by the process of making our group student magazine. In general there is a lot to go through to make the final roduct looking proffessionl and sellable; for example the way in which the photos have to be manipulated to make them look perfect, efficient and expertlike. I didn't think that it woud be as chalenging and quite a simple process,

The variety of different technologies that was used were helpful. The first use of technology was blgger; this was a helpful document that could easily save and record nd log work along the way that would help further on in the process.

Adobe Photoshop was a main priority which helped us to successfully compleate our magazine as it helped to manipulate the photos to give them the slightly more proffesional look about them and uniqueness; rather than using the origional image e.g if there was an object that didn't look right you could crop it out, or simply just adjusting the contrast or the brightness. If i were to use another document such as 'paint' it would have looked childish and less sophisticated and well put togeather. The work had o be save as 'J-peg' and then downloded onto our group blog. Using the computer/laptop was also the main use of technology as the majority of the the work was produced on here.

Publisher was used also as the other work such as font testing and colour testing was produced on here, as you can save it as a j-peg, and again upload the work onto blogger.com. The tools that were avalable on puplisher helped to anaylyse the work e.g arrow tool to make our research more clearer to help us produce our magazine in a less complicated muddled way.

• What do you feel you have learnt in the progression from starting the course to finishing your preliminary task?

One of the main aspects i have learned during the process of making the magazine is than, the making of it is much more harder than i origionally thought the process would be. For example the way in which the research helps to develop it successfully. I also learnt that other peoples ideas are very important when working in a group, to successfully compleate the task with less stress and confusion, so everyone knows what stages we are in, in the group. Planning is also of paramount importance as its more likely that everything goes according to plan. The hard work and work ethik is important as you have to be willing and positive to support the rest of the group so that there spirits are high. Its good to take other ideas into consideration, because some of the ideas are very helpfull and could even help to improve the grade. Magazine institutions/ producers have to go through a lot of tasks and effort to get there product to the high standards that they want to get to and it's not as easy as it looks.