Evaluation of Year 12

Evaluation Year 12

What production skills did you learn/develop?

When making my magazine front cover, contents page and double page spread I have learnt that the media product must appeal to the institutions target audience. In terms of production, skills I’ve developed on the appearance of the magazine to make it bold and eye catching. And also to standout against some of the top institutions, such as NME and Kerrang! When making my music magazine I have also found that the magazine follow the main codes and conventions, emphasizing how important it is for the target audience to be able to identify a magazine. E.g. consumers will be looking for a title/masthead, a main image, barcode (showing the cost of the product) and news/information. Finally to make my magazine, ‘Volume’ I used other popular products in comparison to identify what makes a good magazine, which improved the understanding of a successful production.

What have you learnt in terms of management?

In terms of management I have learnt that time on various tasks must be divided equally to get a successful outcome, covering rich detail and making sure you cover all aspects to achieve the best final product. I set these into sections of research and planning, production and evaluating. Overall I have learnt that it is important to spend as much time as possible on planning and research to support the production (and distribution) of my final media product which was music magazine, titled ‘Volume’ along with the actual production of the magazine.

In terms of your research and planning's what did you learn about the magazine industry?

After looking at a range of other magazines in my research and planning, I have learnt that the layout is usually easy to follow, therefore is not too complicated for the target audience to understand. Magazines with a younger target audience will often have a simple, bright and colourful front cover and continue this throughout the magazine. However music magazines aimed at the older generation are often considered to have a set and consistent layout (this applies to the language used as well) I have also learnt that magazines think carefully about the distribution of their media product and who it will appeal to in that area, I have tried to interpret this into my own magazines distribution also.

In my research and planning I learnt that the magazine industry will commonly put a famous or well known face of celebrities or artists, suggesting they do this to anchor the audience and offers the audience escapism from their own lives into others (i.e. will get hooked in celebrities life, including romances and musical developments) 

What different technologies did you use? 

In my year 12 project of music magazines, I have used a range of different technologies, such as photoshop, I have used this program to edit various images being used in my magazine, ‘Volume’. Other forms of technology I have used is prezzi and slide-rocket. I used these to expand and show different forms of media and technology. Blogger is the main site I have used to update all of my work including, research and planning, production and final piece. 

If you did it again, what would you change/improve?

When creating my music magazine, I would change/improve upon the main images that were taken. I would have changed this by positioning the models (band members) differently, as it would be in a professional photo-shoot. E.g professionals would take a large set of images and select a few in which they want to use in their magazine and use different technologies to edited them, making it suitable for the magazine and it’s target audience.  Another thing i would change is to making the featuring article more dramatic/exciting, to keep the audience interested in continuing to read. To improve my music magazine ‘Volume’ I would have included more adverts, this is so the magazine can increase in profit, making money from other institutions, these adverts would strongly relate to the story or genre to appeal to the target audience.