Question 4

Question 3

Question 3 Evaluation

View more presentations from superstarsinger.

Question 2

Question 2 evaluation

View more presentations from superstarsinger.

Quark Xpress

Adobe Photoshop

Question 4 & 5

Who would be the audience for my media product?
How did you attract and address your audience? [video answer]

The audience for my media product are young people - late teens and early twenties, are interested in classical and/or classical crossover music but have never read or experienced much of that genre before.
The psychographic profile of my audience member would be a young person, possibly still at college or university with an interest in classical music. So there lifestage would either be flying/flown the nest or still quite comfortable at home with Mum and Dad.
The demographic profile of my audience is quite varied apart from really the age range. But gender, class, race is left completely wide open.
The ways in which I created my magazine to appeal to my audience was to make it challenge ideals about classical music and what kind of person would enjoy it but also to stay within some boundaries i.e. keep the pretty girls on the cover.

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

I think during the preliminary task I learned basically how magazines were supposed to be produced and the different things you had to consider when making one. Also I learned what looks professional and what doesn't, how to use a camera properly and definitely how planning and preparation is key - although we pretty much winged it for the preliminary project, just going with whatever ideas came to us at the time.

I think my knowledge and skills about the magazine industry has greatly improved and my creative skills for coming up with an idea for a music magazine have been influenced by what I've been learning in class. However, the technology did limit me in what I could do, only because I didn't really have a clue as to how to use it effectively. I think if I'd have spent more time on the preliminary project getting stuck in with Photoshop and Quark Xpress, I wouldn't have had any issues when it came to the actual coursework.

I will honestly admit that my organisation of time has been shocking, but I think I've just about pulled it off! My magazine seemed so simple to create in my head, but going back to the technology - it just took me twice as long to do everything everyone else seemed to grasp instantly.

However, I'm quite pleased with my photographic skills as my front cover girl for Crescendo looks amazing, as I tried a couple of different shots and frames to get the final profile/portrait shot just right. The background wasn't necessarily what I would have chosen, but my time management wasn't brilliant so myself and the model ended up going out in the rain taking photographs of her in the woods - thinking a naturalism theme would work just as well!

Learning about the conventions of magazines has been really useful as before this project I would have never known what a screamer or a masthead was, let alone create on and talk about them!

Finally, I think the biggest thing I've learned from undertaking this project is that creating a magazine is alot of hard work and it hasn't been easy, but it has been alot of fun.

Question 6: What have you learned about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

The Equipment: DSLR camera - Nikon D60
The Software: Adobe Photoshop and Quark Xpress

The new technology that I have used while creating my magazine has enabled me to achieve this task by giving me the right tools to create a magazine that looks professional and maybe something that I or my audience might want to read. I would describe it was cutting and pasting different images and texts in my mind and putting them onto an A4 piece of paper, but alot more tricky and alot more technical than that!

I do think that this technology does mean that even amateurs can produce a magazine, as long as they know how to really work the software and the equipment. It can be reasonably professional if you get the gist of everything, but if your a whizz with the camera or a complete Photoshop geek - you can honestly produce something that people would mistake as being professional.

Blogging did help me plan what I wanted my magazine to look like, but it didnt help me learn how to use the software any better. I really did struggle with the software, as it took me so long to do the simplest of things. I did look at a tutorial on Youtube about Photoshop and that helped me a little and I got the basic idea in the end, but Quark Xpress was a complete nightmare for me!

The Evaluation - Question One: In what ways does you media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media?

Firstly, to review the objective I had for my magazine was to create a classical crossover magazine for young people to experience popular classical crossover music.

In comparison with Crescendo, to be honest my magazine could look at a lot more professional compared to the likes of Music and Classic FM but I think the similarities are the way my magazine looks. The front cover has for example the usual conventions of a classical magazine - the glamorous musician, the natural and picturesque background and the serif masthead. However, I wanted my media product to challenge the conventions of the higher-arche classical magazines such as Gramophone. Crescendo is a lot more light hearted and fun than the serious and very traditional classical magazines that are around at the moment, and its also designed to be approachable and easy to read for young people who want to or have recently discovered classical crossover music and want to learn more. Its also meant to be purely for entertainment purposes rather than factual information about the genre of music.