1. Media Studies Project evaluation

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? On my front cover I have used balance to even out the left side and the right side of the front cover, I have done this by having the text on the left hand side near the top of the page where the masthead and the slogan is. The text on the right side of the cover is at the bottom of the page which leaves space above it for the main image, the two pieces of text also use the Guttenberg diagram as the readers attention is attracted to the top left of the page and the bottom left of the front cover. My front cover was different to my ancillary project in the layout, I changed the layout because when I had my main image on it did not look very good so I decided to change it so it would attract the readers attention to key areas like the text at the names of bands at the bottom of the page. On my contents page I have balanced out the left and right side by having all of the text on the left side and having a image of a guitar and guitar picks on the right this uses up more space on each side balancing the page. My contents page is different to my ancillary as I decided to base mine on a already existing music magazine, Metal Hammer, I did this because I thought that the target audience would relate more to this layout of contents page as it is similar to a magazine the will of read before. On my double page spread I have used the Guttenberg diagram as on the top left hand side of the page there is a blood splatter with the headline in it and in the bottom of the right page their is another blood splatter, I did this because the album review is about a album which is about getting back at the record dealers by “killing um’ all” so the blood gives it the effect that the album also portrays. Here is the double page spread and it shows how it uses the Guttenberg diagram

3. How does your media product represent particular social groups? The front cover represents a particular social group because I have based it on rock/metal music so only people who like that music will be represented by the image and text as it is about only this type of music, the text that is on the magazine also is about famous bands which many of the people in the aimed audience will know about and will probably like. The contents page represents a particular social group because I have based it on a popular music magazine that only people who like rock/metal music will buy and read, the background is a sort of ancient looking piece of paper which gives a gothic feel to it, this combined with the bold gothic font I have used represents the readers as the music is quite gothic and heavy. The double page spread relates to a particular social group as it is an album review of a famous band which the album is their first album, this relates to the group because many people who read the magazine would be interested to see how good the magazine has rated the album even though they have probably listened to it themselfs. These are some of the famous bands that are featured in the magazine

4. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? Music shops would distribute my media product as the magazine is about music but also places like HMV and WHSmiths would as they already have a lot of magazines that they sell that are related to my product, the magazine would benefit from these companies selling it because they are quite large and powerful companies but even the small music shops would help the magazine benefit as only people who like music would be shopping there, the companies also have a good advertising system, TV, internet, billboards etc and they both have websites of there own that could be used to advertise the product.

5. Who would be the audience for your media product? The audience for my product would be people that listen to metal/rock music or any music that relate to these types, many people who listen to this music like and play a musical instrument which will also relate to them as they will want to learn new songs to play. My product would also be for people who want to know about new tours and albums that bands are doing.

6. How did you attract/address your audience? In my product I used colours to attract the target audience’s attention by doing a survey to see what makes people buy a magazine, from these results I found out that the target audience like black and red colours, I used red and grey on my front cover because if I used a black background then the main image would not be visible but with the grey background the image stands out, so it will attract the readers attention. My double page spread stands out to the audience as it has a lot of things on it that stand out like the album cover and the blood splatters on the pages, also my contents page3 stands out as i have used bold text to make it stand out. Here is my contents page the red page numbers and the bold headlines for each page in the magazine help it to stand out so it will focus the readers attention on these areas.

7. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product ? In the process of constructing this product I have learned how to use Photoshop and most of the tools that you can use on there to edit images that you import onto the program, I also learned how to upload a image that I have took onto to Photoshop so I can edit the image. At first I struggled with editing images as I could not get them to look how I wanted but gradually over time and using the software I have learned how to do this effectively and quickly. I also learned how to create a blog on BlogSpot that I can use to upload my work onto using the functions on the website.

8. Looking back at you preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product From doing the preliminary project I learned how to do basic things on Photoshop but I couldn't do most of the things that I needed for my final work, it worked as a good practise run as I could use it to find a layout I thought looked ok which I could then use on my final product, I decided though on my final product to change the layout on the front cover and contents page to suit the target audience of the product, i also used the preliminary to build my photography skills so that when I needed to take the images for my final product I would know what to do and where to position the people in the images.