This is my final front page for my music magazine.

This is my final double page spread article for my music magazine.

This is my final contents page for my music magazine.

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

When I look back at my prelim media product, I can immediately see some major differences within the magazines. Some being minor, and some others being major.
Firstly I can see a wider range of photography used within my media product. In my prelim task, I took all of my phots within one day, which I only used 2 or 3 photos. With my main media product, I took different photos, in different locations, and I used my time more wisely with taking them. This helped me a lot because I had a much more wider range of photos to pick from.
Plus my use of knowledge within using the technology has increased as well. I know how to use InDesign much more easier now and I know to use InDesign more than photoshop, which I did use a lot in my preliminay task. Using InDesign more has helped me to make my text easier to read, and and I could easily make changes to my text without switching to Photoshop.
Overall, doing my preliminary task has helped me a lot, to prepare me for the final task, how to do it, and it has helped me with my time management a bit easier.

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

I only started to do media A level at the begining of the year and I was new to all of the equipment and technolgy in media as I didn't do it for GCSE. I lacked the media knowledge at the begining of the year, I didnt know how to use Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator etc but after doing the prelim task I found it easy to use. Plus with other students in the class that were already familiar with the programmes, they helped me get use to the media technology and make the right decisions. From doing the prelim task and research, I now know what elements in a magazine make it good and which ones make it a bad magazine. Through doing this media task, I have learnt how to use the different Adobe prgrammes, different elements that make a magazine good and how easy it is to use the media technology.

5. How did you attract/ address your audience?

Firstly I attracted my audience by making the title stand out. I made it big, bold and I also gave it some colour. I didn't make the colour to bright becuase my target audience wouldn't like it. I went for a more dark colour and a more adult font of the title to make it fit in with the genre of rap and so that my target audience would like it.

My background colour had to be a dull, plain colour as the audience would be a more older age which means I didnt't want any major bright colours except from the white colour. I had trouble trying to find a background colour, so I looked at some album covers for 'Example' which resulted in finding the one on the right. I used this background for my final media product because the colour work, it helped represent 'Example', and my main focus of the magazine was on 'Example'. I think using these colours would help create a good effect as it helps promotes 'Example' and his album, 'Playing In The Shadows'. It would help viewers understand that this magazine's issue focus is on Example and his album.

For the text of my media product, I wanted to make it dark but so it stands out. To do this I used a black background throughout my magazine and I used a light blue, white, or dark blue Verdana/ Tahoma font to make it work. The text is really easy to read on the black background and it isn't too childish for an adult/ teenager audience. I hope that they would find the text easy to read and interesting.

I had to use good cover lines to make my media product grab the readers attention otherwise the magazine would be seen as boring and dull. If there is no good storylines, then there is no good magazine as I found out in my research. I lookeda t other magazines and good ones were 'Top artists of the Month..' and using different artists names on the magazine might appeal to other viewers. I incorporated different artist's names into my magazine like 'Tinie Tempah, 50 Cent, Kanye West, Drake and Eminem' as some viewers will prefer other artists to 'Example'.

With my magazine, I made my male model make eye contact with the camera to help grab the viewers attention. This is also known as the 'Gaze Theory' which means that when you take a picture, you make eye contact to help grab the readers attention and attract to reader to buy it. We can see this in most magazines, on the album cover above so I decided to use eye contact within my magazine to make it more successful.



4. Who would be your audience for the media Product?

As the main media product was a music magazine, the main target audience would be aimed at the people that listen to rap music because of the relevant stories and information included in my media product.

The magazine would be aimed at a more male audience because of the type of magazine it is. The models in my magazine are all male, and the names that are used (Eminem, Example, Tinie Tempah etc), and the colours that are used within my magazine. If i was to aim it at a female auudience as well, I would use maybe brighter colours, and i would include some female rappers names within (Nicki Minaj, Mc Bratz etc). As you can see, the reason I aimed my magazine at males is because there are not a lot of famous female rappers in the music industry compared to the male rappers.

 I used iconography in my magazine to help promote the magazine and show the genre of the magzine. Most music rappers wear hoodies, bling, chains, bandanas etc. I looked at what 'Example' wears more out of all of them and he wore the hoodie more then anything. I used a hoodie on the model to help show the relevant genre to the viewer. Also this helps pick the appropiate clothing for my models without having any fuss.
The age of my target audience would be a more adult/ teenage audience because of the relevant information. I hope that they would work out the magazine would be aimed at a more older audience by the use of the dark colours, the cover lines, the stories on the contents page, and the type of music. Even though rap music does branch out to other ages, younger audiences might find the information boring or not interesting were as and older viewer might.

So overall the target audience for my magazine would be a male dominated audience, a more adult/ teenager age for the magazine, and a viewer that prefers rap music to other genre of music (pop, rock, indie, metal etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8vR1hDB1eM&safe=active This website shows you one of Example's gig and the crowd would also be a part of my target audience.

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

My magazine would be distributed by a music industry, the major theme being rap because of the theme of my media product is rap. This would hopefully be distributed by them because I would want it to be able to reach the target audience for it to sell. However my magazine could be sold by a mainstream music industry as well becuase the type of rappers I have used within my magazine are mainstream.
http://www.billboard.com/#/ http://www.vibe.com/ This websites are possible musioc industrys that could sell magazines that are related with rap. Also my magazines could be bought at newsagents, music shops, and they could be sold on tour with some of the rappers names included.

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

My media product is based at a particular social group. My main theme for my magazine is rap so I would want my magazine to be aimed at a group of people that listen to rap music. I have used iconography to try and promte the rap magazine. I used hoodies, microphones, real peole that rap and jewellery in my photgraphy. Also my magazine would be more male dominated as the models are all male, the coulours are quite dark and rap does appeal more to men where as females would prefer to listen to pop.

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

Firstly I had to make my masthead stand out and be unique to the rest of the magazine. I made my title, cover the whole of the top like it has in this 'Empire' magazine, and i made it a complete different colour to the rest of my magazine. My background is black and white so I made my title blue. Also I adapted to the title and made adjustments to it so it could stand out from anything else.

My main image has to be able to grab and attract the viewers in so that they will want to read it and buy it. My main image has to cover up the whole of the front page as that is what the magazine's focus is on. If the main image doesn't stand out, then the magzine looks weak. I made my main image overlap the mast head if it had to as it is the main focus and I made it cover the whole of the page for effect.

My cover lines were of different fonts, and different colours like they are within this magazine. I used them in different places all over the front cover. I used different fonts for effects, and I used different colours to make sure they were identified as different things, like they have in this magazine for the different names of films.

Also the background has to be relevant to the product. In this magazine we can see the American flag as it represents Captain America, with my one I have used a black and white background to represent Example's new album 'Playing in the Shadows'. The backgroyund within the front cover has to integrate becuase it helps tell us what the type of genre the magazine is and sometimes help us focus more on the main story.

Drafts

These are the drafts that  i created to help me design my final product. By using my research on other magazines, I tried to combine different elements of the magazines to see which drafts would work.