FINAL EVALUATION

This evaluation is to show what I have done throughout all of this coursework starting from the very begining and the very first time I started to use Photoshop when creating a school magazine (a front cover and contents page) for our preliminary task, to the finishing product of my new Music Magazine named InD.

I have now completed the foundation portfolio task, using photoshop. It is called ‘InD’ I decided to create a new music magazine within the 'indie/rock' genre. During this course I have produced a front cover, contents page and a double page spread including images I had taken and interviews.
This will show you the stages I had to complete and the obsticles I had to cross when creating both of these products. I have displayed these points in a simple slideshow presentation and have written in more detail about them all to give you a clear veiw of it.

In comparison with my magazine is NME magazine, this is in the same genre as what I have aimed my magazine on. Here I am looking at the conventions of both music magazines, my own production and NME and seeing how they use, develop and challenge each other.

As you can see in both magazines, you can see from my research and planning that I have tried to include the main picture of a band, similar writing and the title being bold and standing out compared to the rest of the front cover.

Here I am comparing my contents page for InD magazine with another indie/rock magazine contents. They are quite similar in layout as I liked the way that this magazine used boxes and bold writing as the headings for each main section of the magazine, so I tried to incorporate this into my work too. Also both portray the correct message to the main target audience and the main features within the magazine. Both also present a clear house style and the same font throughout the magazine contents similar to the front cover.

My double page spread here has used the house style colours that fits nicely into the magazines genre. New bands and gig/ tour listings are used to attract the audience in this type of genre of magazine, so I also tried to portray this in my magazine by creating a new band called 'The Nerve' and also adding made up gig dates using the same font throughout and keeping the markets needs and wants in mind. The house style has been carried throughout each page which can be clearly seen here with the blue, red, black and white colours.

When completing this task I had to keep the target market in mind. To show how I have based my magazine on a specific target group I have compared it to a pop magazine 'Top Of The Pops' to show the differences between the two. This pop magazine uses bright colours, with different content and celebrities that attract a different audience. Whereas my magazine uses more of 'new' band information and darker blocks of colour, this attracts my social group more than the pop magazine would as it is not their style and what they would want within a magazine.

After researching different publishers, I have gained understanding of the main competitoirs and how they fulfil their audiences needs and wants. I think if I were to publish InD I would use IPC Media. This is because of the fact that they published NME magazine which is in the same genre as mine and they have a high success rate. I think if I publish with IPC my magazine would reach the target audience well as statistics show IPC's magazines they publish reach most of our population within Britain.

I could have used other publishers such as Emap and Bauer. The first magazine that Bauer had published was Bella which is a womens magazine still going strong today. Some other examples of magazines that Bauer publish are:
Kerrang, Q, FHM, Mother and Baby

EMAP is a British media company, specialising in the production of business-to-business magazines, and the organisation of business events and conferences. In 2006 it had a turnover of £1.154 billion. Some examples of magazines that EMAP have produced are:

Smash Hits, SPORT, Mean Machines, Internet Magazine and Computer and Video games Magazine.

At the beginning of 2008, Bauer expanded its portfolio further by acquiring Emap’s Radio and Consumer Magazine divisions and changed the name of these new UK businesses to Bauer Media.

I did not use these other publisher companies to distribute my magzine as I think that IPC MEDIA would be much more of a success if they create InD. Also because of the fact that they produced NME magazine which is in the same genre as what I am aiming my magazine to be in. Therefore because of this I think that my magazine will become a great success and reach my specific target audience.

The main target audience for InD magazine are teenage to young adults interested in the indie/rock genre of music. This is portrayed through the colours and language used within the magazine. The uses and gratifications for this magazine is mainly escapism and/or personal relationships (with celebrities) as the target audience leave the 'real' world and get to read interviews on 'new bands' which helps them get closer and get to know them better.

I tried to attract my audience through the front cover of the magazine as this is what hooks and draws in the reader, this meant I had to think about this the most so I got it right. If I didnt then I would not attract the main audience and would therefore be a failure of a magazine as they will read other ones instead. The exclusive interview on the front cover is to entise the reader and the low price would encourage them to purchase the magazine. This effect is used in most magazine within this genre as this is what the target audience want and expect within these magazines. Other factors such as the use of colours and font and language styles are also used to help entise the reader too because I wanted the colours to relate to the genre of the media.

The learning process was extremly challenging when creating my InD magazine. This was especially hard when we first started to use Photoshop, I felt when using this program I was not creating as good a quality as others in the class and therefore put myself down because of the work produced. However to overcome this, our class was lucky enough to have one of our school IT technicians in one of our lessons to talk us through what can be done on Paint Shop Pro, this really helped me as I took notes on what was said so that when it came to us using the program i could refer back to the notes i had previously written. When i got stuck using this and the notes did not help me I either tried to work it out how to do it myself or if that didnt work I asked other peers or teachers for help. Doing this not only let me get my up to a higher standard but I also learnt a lot from listening to other people.

I have also learnt a great deal about planning and research. This has made me think more carefully about what should be included and how this should be produced, for example how to place the 'actors' when taking pictures or even what type of font to use to show the genre I am trying to put across to the reader clear enough.

At the begining of this entire project I was very confused about how to use the blog feature we were asked to keep a kind of up-to-date diary in. However once I started to get the hang of this and was able to add images and slideshow presentations to it, I think it helped me show what problems I had, how I overcame them and what I had achieved throughout. It will definatly help me in the future if I need to use the internet for this type of work again.

As you can see in this slide after using and practising Paint Shop Pro a few times there is a dramatic difference between both my preliminary task and the final task of creating a music magazine. This difference has been achieved by me overcoming problems that have occured, asking for help when needed, and planning and researching musch more than the first task. Nearly everytime I went onto the Paint Shop Pro program I developed a skill and learnt something new which I am proud of as it reflected in my work.

To overview of my foundation portfolio I have learnt so much through the process. It took me a while to get in the swing of things but through trial and error, and definatly a lot of hard work during most aspects of this project I have come to a suitable standard and a professional looking music magazine.

Within this presentation I have shown what I have achieved and overcome the challenges I have faced. If you would like to view the slides bigger you can click on them and they will open a new window and appear bigger so they are clearer to see.

I am very proud and happy with my final achievement, and I have enjoyed planning, researching and finally creating a finished music magazine. Even though it was challenging in some areas, I have tried my hardest in order to get my magazine to a high enough standard. I have learnt that to create a product such as this one, you will need hardwork and determination to finish it.