Evaluation draft

Question 1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The genre of my music magazine is Dubstep, which is commonly called niche as of its small industry and target audience. I have used all the typical codes and conventions that must be used in order for my magazine to be succesful. This is due to the expectations my product has on its targeted audience. I have assured that my magazine has a clear target audience and i did this by handing out questionnaires to research what it was i should be designing. I have also assured that my magazine grabs the attention of the reader and that the design is suitable for its genre. Other music magazines often use bright eye catching colours, however my target audience requested duller, darker colours such as blue, black and purple. I think my innovations are likely to be proved successful because I have took my own ideas and the research provided by my potential audience and combined them to design and create my dubstep magazine.

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

There are numerous types of social groups in society today that we often take a stereotypical view on for example the 'chav'. The made up celebrity for my magazine is infact a real life fan of dubstep and a real life dubstep artist and the photographs of him show him DJing in a New Era Cap, an accessory that is apparantly a very common thing to wear amongst dubstep fans.

Here is a picture of a famous dubstep artist called BORGORE. You can see that he is wearing a New Era Cap so you can see that the hat accessory is not just a stereotypical idea.

The overall group my magazine is trying to represent are dubstep fans, people that live and breathe dubstep. The 'Dubstepper' is seen as a very laid back person and a hobby adopted by them is smoking cannabis. However this may just be a stereotypical view of this group of people.

I think I am offering an alternative and challenging representation as it is a new social group only defined in the past few years and has definitely appealed to the raget audience i was looking for.

Question 3. What kind of media institution mite distribute your media product and why?

My product is targeted at a small audience that is rapidly on the increase as statistics from you tube will tell you. Therefore my magazine could only be produced by a company at top standard for example IPC Media would be the most likely candidate as they already make magazines like NME that often includes underground artists. Dubstep is raring in the underground music scenes and is only a matter of time before it breaks through into the official charts.

This is a magazine made by IPC media.

My music magazine

Question 4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

The gender of dubstep fans is mainly male, aged around 16 - 30. However my magazine will not exclude females but the main target audience according to my research is male. The ethnicity and nationalities of the audience are very wide spread. L.A, America is considered the capital for dubstep however London, England is also a very key place in the rise of dubstep, and both places consist of very different ethnic backgrounds and nationalities. The socio economic status of my magazine would be around middle class; however, it is again very wide spread as it is attracted by both the working class and upper class in society. The target audience for my magzine is perfected in order to achieve success, it concentrates on mainly young adults and teenagers which the media today target on.

My research tells me that my magazine is to be targeted at fans of dubstep and the price range i have carefully chosen would be from around 2-3.00 pound. Also the magazine would be issued weekly making sure the reader recieves up-to-date information on tours and gig reviews.

Here is a picture of Skream, one of dubsteps most influential and prominent producers. I have included Skream in my magazine as i know that anyone who is a fan of dubstep, has great respect for him.

Qusetion 5. How did you attract/address your audience?

The first thing that attracts my audience is the big picture on the front of the magazine of my celebrity. It shows him in session working on the decs. The photograph of the DJ, that i have taken is from a side angle. This was because I needed to include the decs on the photograph as dubstep fans are interested in their technology. However, the first thing that the readers will see is the title. The font of my title is in graffiti style as their is a link between graffiti artists and undeground music artists. It makes my magazine look more underground which is the look I was trying to achieve. The title 'DISRUPT' shows a new look into music today and states a new kind of music, in a new genre. Here is a picture of my magazine title..

My audience feedback showed that people new it was a dubstep magazine and if not labelled it as an underground music magazine, which was exactly what i was looking for.








The front cover is the most important thing in my magzine as it draws my reader in, that is why I had to be very careful in choosing which artists to display. Here I had to mass amounts of research to label down not only the best artists in dubstep, but the most heard of and ones who experiment with different sounds as there are lots of different types of dubstep.








The Heading which is also in graffiti font attempts to draw my reader in more, stating that there is an exclusive interview with Skream. However as my made up celebrity is not a real life full time DJ, I used the name Skream as he is considered one of the best in the game and according to wikipedia.org he has played a very important role in the development of the genre.








Here is a picture of my main headline..

My contents page does exactly the same thing by telling you exactly were you will find every artist that is included in the magazine with the same graffiti style font.

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

I have basically gone from not knowing how to use In design and Photoshop to being able to fully operate them. Then i created my Blog, which was also something new i have learnt how to do. I have learnt how to use websites such as http://www.blogger.com/ , www.dafont.com and learnt how to take videos off http://www.youtube.com/. However i found that i was suffering from internet problems at home making it hard for me to post blogs and also uploading problems at college. I have learnt how to take different camera shots using a digital camera for example; long range shots, close up shots, point of view shots and canted angle shots.

Question 7. Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

i have learnt many new techniques from starting my preliminary task as you can see by comparing the two photos below:

As you can see the disrupt magazine clearly looks more proffesional than my preliminary task. I was very happy with my preliminary task when i first made it but now i can see it looks very unproffesional and i can see all my faults which i have changed before starting my final product.

Conclusion.

Overall, i feel very happy with my product. It shows the exact qualities of a magazine that dubstep fans are looking for. The lay out of my page looks very professional and the structure is very well organized. I think the fonts i have used are perfect for the genre i have studied. However my weaknesses would be the inside page layouts. My feature article is not layed out as i would have wished. However the quality of the article i think is just right giving an insight to a dubstep artist.

FEEDBACK:

More work needed on this Jack! See the feedback below...Also you need your questionnaires and audience feedback on here before your evaluation!

Introduction: Explain what your magazine is – name and genre of music that you have focused on .

Question 1:

Explain how your magazine is typical/challenged usual magazines (conventions of these needed – see the powerpoint in your pack on the magazine genre) Remember ot look also at the conventions of mag covers/contents/feature articles oen by one

Put the examples of the magazines that have inspired you (e.g., the examples you put in your blog earlier you can repeat these from your research and planning.)

Also focus on the music genre you have chosen– how did you communicate this musical genre through your use of colour/fonts/mise en scene etc? Put images/videos of artists/ bands and other similar mags on here also – if there are any!

Label your final pages to prove your points ( do this in word, powerpoint or photoshop – if in word/powerpoint you will have to use www.scribd.com to put it on your blog.)

Question 2: In detail – explain how you represented your characters .Explain in detail props, costume, facial expressions and body language (mise en scene.) How do you represent Dubstep as a genre/scene?

Use your photos/pages to illustrate your points.

Question 3: Which publisher (UK) woudl publish your magazine - do they publish similar magazines? put their images on here - link to the IPC/EMAP/Future publishing website here and look at their magazines they produce.

Question 4: Prove that music magazines are a popular sub-genre of magazines– look at recent circulation (audience) figures for them ( try wikipedia or google.) Repeat your findings if in your research and planning.

How does Dubstep/Dance magazines sell? Can you get any circulation figures for these popular Indie mags?

Is your genre of music popular – put some download charts on here – top albums of 2009 etc…

Question5: Use your audience feedback findings here – put in graphs/bar charts etc.. of some of the most important answers and analyse your findings. Pictures of people filling out your questionnaires etc…

Be a little more detailed in your explanations – what enigmas did you set up – how – think about subheading and headline on cover – images used etc..? Why do your ‘characters’ appeal to your target audience ( and any secondary audiences – older people for example)

What about your….

style (creation of a ‘house-style’/image)

use of colour ,

fonts,

layout (where images/text is placed on your pages)

locations ,

language used in your article,

House style

use of a recognisable popular music genre etc…

Question 6: A good start !

Be detailed in your response here – good thing and bad things about the equipments ? Instances where they were very useful or caused problems? Be specific about what your learned – in detail e.g. I learnt to apply colour filters to create an interesting final image that fitted the ‘house-style’ of my magazine etc….

Also don’t forget blogger and your blog! Good and bad things – a useful way to record your progress and planning?

Use screen shots of Photoshop and indesign, dafont wesite – images of Imac and camera used etc,,, ( you could find these on google images.)

Question 7 – Have you done this?

Remember don’t be vague!– mention shots, use of tripod, your editing in photoshop/indesign – what was not so great in the prelim – why better in final product – explain what your learned from making the prelim and how you applied this to your final product?

Put your prelim task in here again.

Remember you can do a question as a powerpoint if your wish and use the Slideshare website (www.slideshare.com ) to put it on your blog e.g. your graphs an charts on audience feedback – it will get you more marks!

FINAL Product - contents

Final Product - Front cover

photographs

these are the photographs i have taken for my media project -

The use of props in my photos are very important. they show the artist at work on the decs. The location I have chosen is at a club, live.

photographs - research

Here are photos of famous dubstep artists. This will help me to take a photo of my own for my project.

here is a photo of Skream DJ'ing. Skream is a famous dubstep artist and is considered one of the best.

Here are caspa and rusko, who are also two big names in dubstep

A photo of Borgore, dubstep Dj.

These photos have helped me grasp what kind of photos i should be taking for my project and i think now i am ready to start producing my project.

Feature articles

The feature article is the main article in a magazine. It has to be able to grab the readers attention and be read easily. The headings have to lay out what the story is about, whether it be an interview or an article on the musician. The feature article should promote something new about the musician e.g new tour dates, album etc.

contents pages

contents pages of music magazines should be bright and eye-catching making the reader to carry on reading. Also, the pages should be dominated by pictures. Here are some examples of music contents pages -

here we can see that there is a big image which dominates the page and a traditional layout of text.

this contents page uses bright colours to attract the reader and also uses a simple lay out of the page making it easy to read.