Script of audio commentary to go with evaluation presentation

Due to a problem with uploading the audio commentary, I have had to upload a script instead of the audio to go with the evaluation power point presentation. 

Script of audio commentary of evaluation power-point presentation

Slide one: This presentation is based on evaluating my final products produced for my music magazine and the processes I went through to create my products in the way that I did. 

Slide two: before I could start creating my products I had to make sure I was clear on my target audience and how to attract them to my product the best I could. I decided to go for a target audience of people quite similar to me, as I thought this would make it easier for me to create a successful product. This is why I chose a target audience of people aged roughly between 15-20 years. I chose to target both genders as this would be slightly more challenging to create a unisex product and also because this creates a wider range target audience. I also chose to target an audience of people who like to be different and individual, and also interested in less popular music such as indie rock. These people are more commonly known as “hipsters” and “indie kids” in this society. I chose these kinds of people as my magazine target audience because I thought it would be a fun and interesting challenge to make a magazine that was slightly different from the more stereotypical pop music magazine, and also because there are less of these kinds of magazines being produced.

Slide three:  hipsters/ indie kids are described as people associated with independent music and non- mainstream fashion sense. They wear clothes with floral patterns or Aztec patterns and also may wear brightly colour clothes or less heard of clothing brands. Hipsters may also be into less popular kinds of sports like surfing and longboarding, and also listen to non-mainstream less commonly heard of genres of music.

Slide four: I had to think very carefully about how to use these features listed on the slide to make sure they attracted the hipster target audience I had chosen. Through the language I used, I tried to address the audience with an informal language to really intrigue the audience.  Using this language meant it was easy for the target audience to connect with and having an easy “chatty” language made the text more interesting for the reader to read and attracting them further into the magazine. I also used punctuation like question and exclamation marks. Using question marks created questions that address the reader and exclamation marks made it seem as though the writer was very enthusiastic when writing the magazine articles, which would again attract the reader. The font I decided to use was one that was very clear and simple, so it would make the text easy and straight forward to read, attracting the reader. I used the text in a variety of different ways, for example some parts were in bold and other parts in italic to keep the text looking clear but then also to give it a bit of variety and make it look exciting for the reader to look at. The content of my magazine includes articles about festivals and an interview with a slightly less mainstream indie rock artist, and also some free giveaways. I chose to include these types of articles because these are the kinds of topics that would attract a person included in the hipster target audience. The images I included I decided to edit to make them appealing to a hipster, so I edited the photos to make them look individual and unique which would attract a so called “hipster”.

Slide five: Overall I think my magazine is well suited to the indie social group and I feel my magazine represents this kind of social group as a group of unique individuals who feel passionately about music, particularly acoustic/ indie rock genres, which is typically how they are seen by other people in society. I feel that because of the unconventional features I included in my magazine, these relate with the target audience which makes them come across as individuals with a quirky sense of style who are interested in things that are slightly different from the norm. My magazine uses these unconventional methods in a positive way however, as some people may see being different as a negative thing, where-as I think my magazine has successfully used non-conventional features to represent individuality a positive thing. Some evidence from my music magazine to display these representations of an individual being is as follows. I have edited my photos in creative and different ways to reflect the creativeness and individuality of the specific social group. Also the interview with the main artist in my magazine talks about the meanings of her album that are quite confusing and different, again reflecting back on how people from that particular social group can be seen as quite confusing characters because of how they are so different. Also the way the musician is posed on the front page as hiding half of her face which reflects individuality and having hidden qualities, again reflecting that particular social group referred to as “hipsters”.

Slide six: The fact that this magazine is based on individuality and is slightly different from other magazines this could affect the different types of institution that would distribute it. I think that institutions such as small newsagents and newspaper stands would want to sell this product because the indie music magazine is a less commonly known genre compared with other genres such as pop or rock magazines, so they may be more interested in selling a magazine that is slightly different and less heard of, because the target audience may be more likely to buy magazines from smaller institutions. Also the larger institutions such as Bauer media might not be as prepared to distribute a product with a less commonly heard of genre and a smaller target audience as this will mean the magazine might not sell enough copies to gain a profit they would be satisfied with. Another reason why a larger institution may not be willing to distribute my media product is because it isn’t a stereotypical genre such as pop or rock, which tend to have a larger scale target audience which would mean more magazine sales and more profits for the company, so they would be more likely to take on a stereotypical pop magazine than one like my own media product, so I don’t think my magazine would fit in well and gain many sales being distributed by a larger scale institution, as it would just get ignored and over ruled by the more popular magazine products.  Smaller Institutions and places like schools and maybe at a small stall outside an indie rock concert would be more likely to sell my media product as the people who are more likely to buy this magazine are teenagers that would be found at a school or at a music concert based on the same music as my media product.  I think my magazine would fit in well being distributed from a smaller scale institution as it would be less likely to be pushed into the background and would be given equal advertising alongside the other media products being distributed by the smaller institution. I think it would stand more of a chance because people search for magazine products like my own from a smaller institution as they tend to sell products based on less heard of topics and genres like indie music, so I think this would be the place where my magazine would fit in best. 

Slide seven: The main theme for my music magazine is based upon an indie music theme. From my research I was able to find out what features make a strong music magazine front cover in general and what things I would need to include giving the magazine a clear indie music theme. My magazine follows a variety of conventional features of a music magazine, but it also carries a few unconventional ones, which I will explain further into my evaluation as to why I have chosen to include some of these unconventional features.  One idea I carried forward from my research was location of the mast head, which typically goes across the top of the page or in the top left hand corner. The mast head is located here because when on a shelf in a shop, the way the magazines are displayed means the first part of the magazine that will be seen is in the top left hand corner, so having the mast head here means it can clearly be seen on the shelf. My mast head follows this conventional feature as my mast head is located in the top left of my front cover. From my target audience research, I found out that people likely to read an indie magazine would like to see something slightly out of the ordinary, which is why I chose to put an effect on my mast head, to make it slightly different from the conventional idea of having a plain mast head of just one colour so that it was suited to my target audience. The colour scheme used to include a salmon pink colour, but from my feedback I learnt that this was not very appealing to a male reader as it looked like a feminine magazine, so to improve my magazine to make it appealing to a broader target audience of both genders I changed the colour to a shade of green, which I think also works better for the magazine and contrasts the bold red of the musicians lips who is part of the main image for my front cover. Again from feedback, I learnt that changing the main image to black and white, but keeping the lips in a bright red would give a good contrast to the other colours and would make the lips stand out as they are also central to the front cover. Also having the majority of the main image in black and white, made the surrounding text and taglines clearer and easier to read as the green contrasted the black and white and made it more appealing to the reader. My main image follows conventional and non-conventional methods. The conventional methods it follows is that it takes up the whole of the front cover and is a close up of the musicians face. Doing this makes it clear to the reader who is the main subject of the magazine which brings interest to the reader, enticing them to purchase the magazine. A method I used which is not seen as conventional is the fact that the musician is covering one eye and has the other shut, so there is no direct mode of address connecting the reader with the musician, however because of the main topic of the article, the main image links in well with it. I think the way the musician is posing also fits in with an indie music magazine as it is a slightly different pose that you would not expect to see as a main image for a front cover, from my format research I found that a typical main image would be a mid/close range shot of the musician looking directly at the camera, giving the illusion they are looking at the reader, drawing them in to the magazine. Another feature of my magazine that is not conventional is the way that the main image doesn’t merge over the mast head, to make the image blend in with the rest of the front cover, giving the impression the musician belongs there and the magazine look whole and complete. I have chosen not to follow this technique because the main article is about revealing hidden meanings, so having the musicians head behind the banner at the top of the cover hides her away slightly, which links it in with the main article topic. From my feedback I was also told to fill in the space located to the right of the mast head as it looked empty and made the front cover look bare, so I took this on board and filled the space with the face book and twitter logo, highlighting the fact the magazine can also be accessed electronically on different online blogs. I thought this would be a good feature to have on the front cover as many people from an indie target audience are in the age range where they would most probably have a twitter or face book account, so having this may make the reader think they would be well suited to this magazine and would find it interesting to read. The logos I chose are slightly different than the actual logos as they have a wood look effect instead of the typical blue colour. I chose this because it again fitted in well with the target audience in that they like things to be slightly different and also because the wood effect complimented the rest of the magazine well. When I was deciding the stories to include on my front cover I took into consideration things I had learnt from my format research with points such as making sure not too much of the story was given away, using the word “you” as a direct mode of address to connect with the reader, using questions that are answered inside the magazine which encourage the reader to buy the magazine, and also having giveaways clearly placed on the front cover which encourage the reader into buying the magazine. My front cover includes several of these features such as having a giveaway announced In the bottom right hand corner of the page and also using a direct mode of address with the word you in bold, underlined, and in a larger font than the rest of the text making it stand out. Doing this means it will be one of the first things the reader sees which will encourage them towards purchasing the magazine.

Slide eight: When carrying out my format research of contents pages for a music magazine, I used different methods and techniques to help me gather information on how to create a successful contents page for my magazine. I used online research, analysing other music magazine contents pages, and getting feedback and opinions from people associated with my target audience to see what they would like to see on the contents page of a music magazine with the theme of indie music. From this research, I was able to recognise conventional and non-conventional features of a contents page, and also what features work well and which ones don’t. My contents page follows many conventional aspects, but I have also included some non-conventional features, as this is what appealed to people in the indie music target audience. The first feature I put onto my contents page was the logo of the magazine which I located in the top right hand corner of the page. I decided to do this as it is considered a conventional feature to include the magazine title again on the contents page, as this helps the reader to remember the logo so that in the future they will remember what it looked like and will be more likely to purchase the magazine. I also put the logo in the top right because when the reader turns the front page the first thing they will see is whatever is in the top right hand corner, which is why I decided to locate the logo in this position. Another one of the conventional features I followed was clearly highlighting that the contents page is actually a contents page, so to make sure this was clear to my reader, I clearly positioned the mast head across the top of the page on the left, so it is very clear and easy to read, so the reader is instantly aware of what page they are looking at. From analysing existing contents pages, I found out that it is conventional to use either one of two main structure templates. The first is a listing structure, where the articles are simply listed in columns on the page, the other involves using puffs and taglines to highlight the main articles and features of the magazine. However for my contents page, I decided to follow the more unconventional method of structure which involves combining both types of layout together. I decided to do this because a frequent response I got from people associated with my target audience was that they liked to see some unconventional features that make the magazine different and more interesting than other magazines. I think using this structure was successful because it makes it clearer which articles are the main ones, but it is also clear where the other features and stories in the magazine are located. One thing I was very concerned about was making sure that the contents page had a clear layout that made it easy for the reader to see what stories are included in the magazine, and also that it was easy for the reader to know whereabouts in the magazine the story could be found. I spent a large amount of time focusing on how contents pages layout all of their stories without making the page look too busy and disorganised. I found that the most successful methods involved firstly splitting the magazine stories into two groups, the first one being feature stories that are only included in this week’s issue of the magazine, and the other is weekly stories, including the topics and articles that typically reoccur week after week. After doing this and using subheadings to clearly label the 2 different groups, the stories are then listed with the main article title and sometimes a small caption just giving an extra bit of information, making it more enticing for the reader to want to read on, another conventional feature I used in my own contents page. Each story was also laid out with a page number in a contrasting colour from the background. This contrasting colour feature made the page numbers stand out, again making the page clearer to follow. Using all of the above conventional features to organise the structure of my contents page made my contents page clear and easy to follow, but using some unconventional features made the contents page fit in with my target audience theme, making it more successful and appropriate. The number of pages included in my magazine I think is appropriate for the price I have set. My magazine includes around 70 pages for the price of £1.75, which I found out from my format research, is a reasonable price for the quantity of the magazine. The puffs included in my contents page I used to intrigue the reader into reading the main stories. The bottom puff photo is a shot of two musicians but they are unknown at this stage of the magazine, so this brings curiosity to the reader as to who the musicians are, making them want to read on in the magazine. The other two puffs located above that photo, are to do with the big summer giveaway and the photos show some of the prizes to be given away, but not all of them, which again will encourage the reader to read on through the magazine. The main image of the contents page is of the main musician featuring in the main double page spread article. The photo is larger than the others to make it stand out more from the puffs located around the edge. This photo again, encourages the reader to read on, as it features the famous musician that the reader will want to learn more about. Using the photos in this way was a technique that I had learnt from my format research. 

Slide nine:  The format research I carried out when learning about the techniques and features that make a double page spread successful, involved me using similar processes and research techniques to the ones I used to do research on making a front page and a contents page. some of the processes I used involved searching the internet for techniques, looking at already made double page spreads and comparing them to see what features were similar and what ones carried non-conventional features, and also asking members of my magazine target audience and my peers what they would want from  double page spread. All of this really helped me gain a better knowledge and a clearer understanding of what I wanted my final double page spread product to look like. However I found it more of a challenge to find out the different conventional and non-conventional features of a double page spread. I think this was because there are so many different ways to structure a double page spread but still have it be successful. The double page spread that I produced follows conventional features but I also added in some features myself to maintain the style theme of the magazine in having some non-conventional features which make it slightly different from other magazines. One of the subtle features I was able to identify was the location of the mast head, which is typically in the top right hand corner of the spread, and this is because it is the first thing the reader will see when they turn the page, catching their attention and making them want to read the article. Something I decided to do myself was to put the mast head on a slight angle, giving it a slightly informal feel, which would appeal to the young target audience for my magazine. Another thing I found out that was very important when making my double page spread, was the length of the article itself. From research and asking members of the target audience for the magazine, I discovered that the reader would be more likely to read an article that was clear and was about a page in length at the maximum. This is because an article of any longer length would bore the reader and they would lose interest in the article altogether. It is also essential that the article is laid out clearly so it is easy and not difficult to read. In my double page spread I used a simple layout and decided to clearly separate the questions from the answers by putting the questions in bold and underlining them making it easy for the reader to distinguish between question and answer, making the article look simple and easy to read, encouraging them to read the entire article. Another feature that I found in every magazine double page spread I analysed was that a quote from the article was taken and put in a larger font. The quote generally tended to give away an extra bit of information about the article but not enough information, and doing this makes the reader intrigued further into reading the full article to be able to fully understand what the quote was talking about. This conventional feature is one I found very important and decided to carry it forward to my own magazine double page spread. Another feature I decided to add myself was putting the quote on a green background, giving it contrast and making it stand out, attracting the reader and engaging them with the article. When carrying out format research of the images used in a double page spread, I found that all of the spreads included at least one large main image taking up around half of the spread, and some of them included puffs, normally on the opposite side to the main image. In  my magazine I decided to only use one main image as there was not enough space for puffs to be included on my spread which would overcrowd the spread and make it look scruffy and make the article look difficult to read, making the reader become uninterested in the article. The main image also has the model acting as a direct mode of address to the reader, as it appears as if they are looking at the reader, which engages them with the musician and encourage them to want to read the whole article. I used this conventional feature and took it into consideration when choosing my final image to use for my double page spread. One other feature I thought of myself to include to further entice the reader to read on through the article was to add a small arrow in the bottom right hand corner of the page next to a small piece of text reading “continues on the next page!” I chose to do this as it encourages the reader to turn the age to finish the article and also makes them aware that there is more of the article to be read. When carrying out my format research I saw that a few magazines did not have a feature like this, and the article continued to the next page, which some people may not be aware of and not finish the rest of the article which may leave the reader confused and disappointed with what they think is an unfinished article.

Slide ten: Comparing my preliminary final product with my fully finished music magazine products, I feel that I have learnt a lot about what makes a magazine successful and have gained a large understanding about how to professionally and successfully structure my products and what to include in them. When working towards my final preliminary product I did not think I needed to do very much research. I soon realised how important it was to carry out detailed format research as this constantly improved my knowledge on how to create my products successfully. There are a lot more features to take into consideration than I first thought when it comes to making a music magazine and even details as small as the location of the bar-code can determine whether a front cover is successful or not. I also learnt about how to effectively edit photos appropriately and also how to use in design effectively, meaning I could use it properly to create a professional final product to the best of my ability. I also learnt that one of the best ways to keep improving is to receive feedback of each product to see where improvements can be made. In comparison with the knowledge I had when making my preliminary task product compared to the knowledge I had after carrying out my format research for my final product, I feel I have learnt a large amount about how to create successful and also the professional products many different things that need to be taken into consideration when creating these kinds of products.  I also think that my full final products are much improved from my preliminary final product  and show a much higher level of professionalism and the skills I have developed through my format research working towards my final products.