Evaluation Question 7

 7. Looking back at your preliminary task (the school magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full production?

Its a pretty amazing feeling to actually finally be at the final part of this project. It has been a long and hard journey and hopefully it had paid off. But happy i am on the fact that i have improved so much over the course of just a couple of months. I have learnt so much in progression that my mind fails to recall all of them at this moment in time. As i recall though over the period of time. Before i was careless and reckless on how color actually had an important role in the magazine, how less area should be left blank, how text should successfully be incorporated into the magazine. For my prelim task i basically used default settings for everything i did not customize any part of the production, i had text on default, i had font on default and i barely had any idea of how it made a difference on its appeal. Looking at both these cover in front of me at the moment there is nothing but proudness in my eyes. It is pretty obvious on how my post production skills have improved immensely because when i was constructing the prelim task i had to learn along the way how all of it works but at the time of when i got to creating my final task i had been so familiar with photoshop and indesign that it took a matter of seconds to get something done. My photography skills have immensely improved aswell because as said before i did not go into the depth of my dslr and just stayed on the surface of it operating on automatic mode but since i've been into this project i've learnt so much more about photography in its operating modes, camera angles, camera movement and all that jazz.

Evaluation Question 6

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

I dont know where to start, i have learnt so much in the process of constructing this product that i cant really put my mind to it. This process has given me so much more perspective in my approach towards media and music altogether. First off i had a dslr camera that i had mostly used on automatic function. This project pushed me into learning the secrets of photography and what modes and at what settings pictures are taken at, camera angles, camera movement and all that jazz. Second off i learned the basics of post production and i'm happy to say that i can actually photoshop now. I used to look at these magazines and extremely photoshopped pictures and used to think to myself "how in the world is this even possible?" which was probably one of the driving factors that lead me to take media as a subject. But now i feel that i actually understand photoshop and editing and it just feels so good to have in my repertoire. Not only that but this project took me an even further level in understanding of post production by the introduction of Indesign. I used to look at blogs and go through them my daily without knowing how they worked and not needing to know how they worked but now i have blog of my own which actually feels quiet interesting and updating these posts feel pretty fantastic as im basically showcasing my work to the public eye. 

Evaluation Question 5

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

I tried to appeal to my audience by relating the cover of my magazine to famous popular magazines such as Rolling Stone magazine and "Billboard" magazine. Fonts i used for my magazine were not with such a rough outlook but a rather smooth look relating to how Rolling Stones has their logo set out. I attracted my audience with the use of color and how it complements other elements in the magazine such as the masthead colored red and the guitar also being red stands out at first glance for a sexy appeal.

Following on the path of the great Rolling Stone magazine i decided to keep the model in the center of the magazine for her to be the center of all attention when the audiences are intrigued by it because just as Rolling Stones i wanted to keep one image and a rather simplistic background and when you have one image you want to make sure that image stands out for the audience to see in amazement.

My colour scheme was mostly a range of colors but throughout mostly black, white and red stand out the most and i feel this as very appropriate given on how magazines already use these colors for their production which gave me enough comfort to go along with them.

I tried attracting my audience through props and costumes because a cover of the magazine is what really reels a consumer inside which is why i added a little bit of glamour to the model with high mascara on her eyes, hair covering part of her face, holding a guitar on her back and having this bruno mars type hat on which is basically music in a nutshell with an element of sexy attached to it.

For the contents page i really kept a design of my own and did not

try to base it off any other magazine already out because i wanted at-least one element of the magazine to be completely original because that shows potential.

This is how i chose to display my double spread page, as seen above is the double spread page of a katy perry article in the Rolling Stone magazine to which i took some inspiration from but added a couple of my twists and turns as well. First off i added a picture to the article page because i believe only text makes it unappealing and uninteresting, secondly for the second page i added a quote of a fictional hit song my the model which would seem to attract the audience more if they have been part of her musical career.

FeedBack:

First off i thought why not get some feedback from the person i've been working with all along. Srraa has been a very close friend of mine for a long time now and i trust her opinion on what she to offer in terms of criticism or in terms of loving my project. 

Secondly i got some good feedback from my fellow students and friends whom i shared this with. 

Mehr had to say: Wow Sarim i did not know you had this in you, looks pretty professional, i love the guitar and how it is perfectly matched with the color on the title of the magazine, good job, i hope you do good.

Muneeb had to say: Woah dude insane, how did you get enough time to do all this, i thought this was professional stuff and it took months or so, but nice work man, i really like how you have actually managed to keep it simple but it seems so exquisite, tell me when the first issue comes out, ill be sure to get myself a copy.

Hamza had to say: This is pretty amazing work bro, haha and i thought i was good at photoshop, but wait a month ago you said you did not know anything about photoshop, how did you learn so fast. I like how you've kept the background plain and simple just and most bad magazines fail to do and the best ones do. If i'd had to guess i'd say the genre for this magazine looks pretty obvious being kind of pop because the acoustic guitar and the hat gives it away!

So there you have it, most of my friends think its a nice piece of work and they all mostly recognize the genre and what stands out in it. I feel this feedback i received from my peers has been very important and the positive points and praises i received for my products helped me learn about my own product from the audiences viewpoint.

Evaluation Question 4

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


To display the audience im aiming for i created this glogster to actually show rather than tell.
I added pictures and names of bands, food places, teenagers, clothing to depict what kind of
interests my audience would have if fascinated by the idea of my magazine.

Evaluation Question 3

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

The production process of my magazine would be as follows:

• A meet with the founders on a new and upcoming artist who has been having a rather large influence on the music industry (New Ideas).
• Researching on relatively similar products on the market
• Basic plans laid out
• Actual construction process
• Distributed by a huge institution for large scale consumption

To be honest i cant really think of a magazine who would actually be willing to distribute my product except for the one and only Rolling Stone magazine. I based most of my genre on it and the attitude i took towards the construction of the magazine was of that which would relate to the construction styles of magazines such as Rolling Stone.

Theres no particular company that owns Rolling Stone magazine rather there are the founders of the magazine such as Jann Wenner who also owns Men's Journal and Us Weekly. I believe that Jann Wenner would best fit into the category for distribution of my product because looked at Rolling Stone's previous music magazines, most of the genre they include in it is very similar to my creation which is pop.

"The magazine was known for its political coverage beginning in the 1970s, with the enigmatic and controversial gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. Rolling Stone magazine changed its format in the 1990s to appeal to younger readers, often focusing on young television or film actors and pop music. This led to criticism that the magazine was emphasizing style over substance. In recent years, the magazine has resumed its traditional mix of content, including in-depth political stories, and has seen its circulation increase" Wikipedia.


This just emphasizes more on how perfectly my magazine would fit into the young audience music based pop format of the magazine. My magazine is essentially focused on the idea of a rising pop star and her influences on the the music industry. Rolling Stone magazine tends to do that with young and coming up artists which i think is a perfect representation of what i had hoped to achieve with the creation of my magazine. In the above picture Adele is used for the the main focus of this issue of the magazine, and when thought of Adele is basically a rising star not relatively known before a year or so. Rolling Stone due to its popularity tends to publicize artists who are thought of as "The Next Big Thing" which is what i have aimed to do with my magazine which is one of the reasons Rolling Stone would be a perfect distributor for my magazine


When thinking of advertisement of my magazine i would definitely at first opt for the internet. Over the course of the internet i have seen stars rise up, products rise up and so much more has been offered by the internet that i believe it would be the best format for advertisement. Otherwise TV would be another format on which advertisement would prove successful and billboards just as well. Rolling Stone has been  a part of the magazine business for over 45 years now and they dont really need much advertisement anymore because of its already huge consumption. 45 years ago it advertisement was extremely simple, Tv, billboards and radio were the main formats but now with the inclusion of in the internet its ironic how it can either be huge overnight success or just a flop altogether. It depends on how much you are willing to spend on advertisement in the beginning rather than consumption of the magazine, the more you advertise in the beginning the more it starts to pay off later on which is part of what i believe.

Evaluation Question 2

2. How did you represent social groups?


My magazine targeted a social groups with the characteristics of being in the genre of pop. Perfect examples of what i hoped to achieve was the representations such as taylor swift, demi lovato, miley cyrus and so on. They are young 15-25 year old with a passion for music and a very appealing look towards younger audiences. What i hoped to achieve with my representation of social groups was that with my model i wanted her to represent pop mainstream singers in the U.S nowadays because at the moment they have a huge fan base and are recognized all over the world for their music targetted towards younger audiences. You can recognize mostly these kinds of social groups by their passion towards music in a soft and gentle way not to punk/rock but very smooth and an eye catching look emotional look.

The main features of social groups like these are acoustic guitars to display their genre of music being soft and gentle, props such as bands and hats to display their funk in their gentleness. A very down to earth representation was i hoping to achieve with the construction of my magazine and i did not aim for going into territories along the lines of being too punk with bangs, and that whole emo gothic idea attached to it. I planned on my model representing iconic figures such as taylor swift known for her lovely singing voice, her light casual make up, her easily styled hair, her dressing seemed as appropriate giving away something but not too much for sexual attention from the male audiences. Again sexual appeal is what what one of my main focus was on but with keeping the social group representation to somewhat limited or with boundaries defined.

Evaluation Question 1

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

Looking at my final product i'd definitely say that i did get a chance to challenge real media products because of the reason that my magazine was based one of them. Looking back at the research i expressed how i adore the magazine of Rolling Stone and the way they have used their media forms and conventions for the past 45 years or so in extreme ingenuity. My final product challenges their forms and conventions on the way i constantly went back and compared to a number of the Rolling Stone magazine covers, content pages, double spread pages and so on. That magazine provided the basis for me to go ahead on the genre i did without any hesitation because it gave me comfort to know that what i wanted to do for about the first time had already been done for the past 45 years in Rolling Stone and i could gain in my experience in what they have done.

This is my final cover page and in comparison

to a word wide recognized magazine such as

Rolling Stone what i did was that i kept the idea of

color dedication  not to as full an extent to how 

Rolling Stone sometimes uses it. I kept the color

dedication or a  limit as can be seen the red is seen

in most of the cover and it stands out with the guitar.

The background i kept plain and simplistic just as the

one on the left because again i believe that the 

audience gets sidetracked or distracted with too many

images in the cover page which is why i kept it simple

with one image that is the main focus of this magazine

to which the colors symbolize the importance in their

complementary nature. Again i love the idea of

covering the masthead with part of the image because

it gives it a more realistic look as most of the 

magazines of today do. Kerrang as an example uses

too much images and distaction is created and it 

is not really clear what is actually being focused on

so just as Rolling Stone magazine i kept it on

focus with one image for a better appeal.

Looking at these types of covers is where i got my 

inspiration from because they have that simplistic 

look towards it and not too much over done in terms 

of text and images, just a single mid shot image of a 

person with a relatively simple plain background, the

color used in this cover complements other parts of

of the elements used in this cover for example

Johnny Depp as a part of a prop used a relatively 

dark green jacket to display himself and in order  for it

to create appeal and attraction textual colors match the 

jacket colour. This gives a rather dedicative feel to it as

because of the jacket is green all the rest is also set for 

green which gives relative importance to the person being  displayed in the cover of the magazine.

For the contents i did not really research on what kind of magazine i wanted to base it on, even though at the creation time i thought that that might be the best idea to go for, but as time progressed i wanted one specific part of the magazine which was completely my idea and did not take on any idea of Real Media or challenge them in that much of a way. So what i went with on my contents page is my model actually standing on higher ground a ledge of some sort, so that it would be relatively easy to photoshop because she and the ledge were basically part of the foreground and the rest was the background. I thought it to be a good idea to just have this image in the contents page again having a very simplistic yet original touch to it. On the sides i have the contents posted with different colored text to symbolize the uniqueness of each topic.

I kept to being original on the creation
of the contents page and did not
really reasearch much or at all on
the construction of the contents
because this idea that had formed in my
head seemed brilliant at the time and
towards the end to me it proved
successful.

For the double spread page i wanted something similar to Rolling Stone's incorporation of the idea of having one page dedicated to text and one page dedicated to imagery. Too much text is not appealing and too much images is not either so keeping it in the balance was a good way for me to go, i went ahead with this idea and for my double spread kept a page for the interview with just a small picture creeping out of the corner to have something to put an image to when reading the article. For the second page i had a completely black and whitened photo of the model playing piano with a quote of her fictional hit song.

"As well as the text the picture plays a large role in this it's the fist thing that the reader will look at so it either has to be of a sexual orientation or have vibrant colours" Joshua Cragg

This is believe to be a very accurate reading of how the double spread is supposed to be, a page fully dedicated as an image of the person really appeals to an audience in a sense that it enhances the imagination of the audience to put an image to what they are reading on the article, to better relate to the article, to better understand circumstances written about in the article.

This is how i chose to display my double spread page, as seen
above is the double spread page of a katy perry article in the
Rolling Stone magazine to which i took some inspiration
from but added a couple of my twists and turns as well. First off
i added a picture to the article page because i believe only
text makes it unappealing and uninteresting, secondly for the
second page i added a quote of a fictional hit song my the model
which would seem to attract the audience more if they have been
part of her musical career.