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

For the preliminary task i learnt how to use the basic skills in photoshop and indesign. By doing this it then had me set for making my media product so i had already got to grips with the software I just had to widen the things that i used within the software. I have learnt how to use different kind of technologies like InDesign and Photoshop in order to be able to create my media product.
From my preliminary task I learnt that you have to base everything around the audience that you are creating you're media product too. For my preliminary task i didn't carry out any research regarding the audience . However with my main task I carried out a wide range of research so I knew exactly what my target audience wanted to see in the media product that I was making.
   Before i started my music magazine i planned out how i wanted my magazine too look. The reason for this is so that i had it set what i was going to do and how it was going too look.Also by organising my self like this i will have done more planning that i did for my preliminary task therefore i should hopefully get a better grade as it is more thought out. Also even though the images used for my main task are not the best pictures ever i feel i have made an improvement in the pictures used. For my preliminary task I did not use photoshop to edit any of the images , where as in my main task I edited all of the images that I used. Another thing i feel I improved from my preliminary task to my main task is the actual writing that went into the double page spread of my magazine. I put thought into this writing and thought about how the people that would be reading it would interpret this writing.
For my music magazine i changed it a number of times as i went on but with my music magazine i did not change it once. The reason for this being that i analysed the music magazine more and thought about everything aspect of it .

   I feel as if i have made an massive improvement from my preliminary task. From the things i have learnt that have now contributed to my music magazine. However i still feel like i could improve my music magazine . For instance i could of made the photography of the pictures a bit better and maybe been more minuplated than they are. Also i could of done more research into other music magazines of the same genre so that way it would of been more easier for me to create my magazine.

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1XPPsd9xF0
This is a youtube video of me which explains the things i have learnt.




















To edit and enhance the pictures that i was using for my music magazine i used photoshop. Photoshop is one of the top editing program. This is the first time that i had used photoshop so at first it was difficult to come to terms of how to use the program. One of the main tools that i used on photoshop was the pen tool which is used to cut around a picture and get rid of any things in and around that picture that you would no longer want to be in there. Also the crop tool came in good use when trying to get rid of empty space that i did not want to be in the photograph.

Using indesign was difficult at first as it was the first time i had used this program for anything. It was hard to know what to do at first when i was starting my magazine. When i came to terms with how to use indesign things became easier. The one thing that made an inpact on my double page spread was the text wrap. This made a good effect on my double page spread it gave the people that would be looking at my magazine more to look at and that would be what they looked at straight away. Also on indesign i learnt how to make different background colors for my magazine. Now i know how to use indesign i could design a magazine easily without needing any help or guidance on what to do. 


 Using the mac's was also difficult as this was the first time i had used mac machines. They are completely different to normal computers and work in a completely different way. The different programs on the mac were hard to use at first but when i got used to how it worked it was fine.

Using survey monkey was good as it was something that i had never used before. Also it was a good way to find out the different things that i needed to find out for the planning of my music magazine.

Using blogger was a different experience for me as it is something that i had never done before. It was an easy website to use and to get to terms with using. It is a good way to show your work.

How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted and addressed my audience by first of all using a person on the front of the magazine that fit the target group of people that would be seen to buy this kind of magazine and also appear inside the magazine. Also i used people that are the same kind of age of people that would be buying the magazine. The reason why i did this is so that before they even buy the magazine and read it they feel some sort of connection with it . Also models that look the same as people who would be buying the magazine .The clothing that the model is wearing on the front cover of the magazine is clothing that the readers of the magazine would also be wearing , and that may be advertised inside of the magazine.I also made the publication an affordable price so that people that age who may not have a job will still be able to afford to buy the magazine. Also if people are out shopping and happen to have spare change on them this would be an convenient time to buy the publication. I have also included the chance to win things in the magazine as this may draw them in more. Also throughout my magazine i have used bright colours , as these colours are the typical colours you would expect to be inside an urban music publication.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my magazine would be males and females but mainly aimed at males. They would be between the age of 16 and 25. They would be from working and middle class backrounds. They would also enjoy listening to R&B , Hip-Hop , Dancehall , Drum and Base and Dubstep.

This is an example of what a female audience may look like. Her name is Toni.She is currently at sixth form studying a levels film, english lang , psychology and drama. After her a levels she is hoping to go to university. She enjoys listening to r&b , hip-hop and dancehall , which would all be featured in my music magazine. She also enjoy's shopping , being with friends and partying. She lives in northampton and to earn her self some extra money she works in a hairdressers in the town centre . From this money she gets she spends it on the things she needs buying clothes, cinema , going out with friends. She shops at new look , river island , top shop , miss selfridges and primark.










This is an example of  what someone of my audience may look and be like. Hi name is Jake. He is currently studying music tech at college. He is very interested in music and likes to record his own music as well as listening to it . Hoping to go to University next year and study something to do with music as that is where his interests lie. He listens to all the types of music that would be featured in my music magazine . He lives in Northampton one day hoping to move to Nottingham.He shops in different kinds of shops like topman, money clothing , the styles of london and also varies different over online shops.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

I have looked at several media institution's that could publish my magazine . There is a different range of institution's that i have looked at from Future Publishing to The National Magazine Company . I thought long and hard about the different institutions and which ones i think would be suitable for my product. I had to think about the different pro's and con's that there were in each different institution and which was right for my publication

The first institution that i decided to look at was ipc media. Ipc media was founded in 1963, they publish all sorts of different genre magazines. From home and life to photography. One of its most biggest selling publications is what's on tv - 120,918. The institution does not has not produced any music magazine's which is why i feel this institution would not be the right one to be producing my music magazine.

The second institution that i decided i would look at is Future PLC it was founded in 1985 by Chris Anderson. This institution produces a variety of different magazine's from games , film , music and cycling. Some of its biggest sellers are T3, Total film and guitar world. I have choose against using this institution the reason being that even though it does publish music magazines i do not think that it publishes the right magazines to be able to add my Urban music magazine to the list of magazine it produces. Also they mainly specialises in computer magazine's which is a completely different end of the chart to what my publication is. However they do produce some kinds of music magazines but they are rock and different kinds of genre magazine's that are different to mine. Which is why i cam to the conclusion that it would be inappropriate to use these as my music institution.

The institution that I decided i would use to publish my product is Bauer Media. Bauer Media started in 1875. They have published many successful  products from Kerrang and Q which are both well known music magazines. To Heat , Closer and Grazia which are also well known and popular women's magazines. Kerrang i UK's best selling weekly magazine selling 43,253. Along side with Q which is the UK's best selling monthly magazine selling 100,172. From these circulation figures along i can see that my magazine would benefit from being published with Bauer. A|so the other things that Bauer produced help to bring in my target audience. To concluded from looking at all of the other institution's i believe that this would be the best for my product to get the full reconsignment that it would need.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The stereotypical social group for an Urban music
magazine is a black young male . The model that is on the front of my magazine is a young mixed race male . In the picture he is smiling makes him come across as more approachable and well mannered . However as he fits in to the typical male that you would expect to be on the front cover of a Urban music magazine , some part of him appears and comes across as unapproachable. Also the clothing that he is wearing makes him become less approachable in the eyes of the media . As he is wearing dark colour's and his jacket that he is wearing is a hoddie. The connotations that could be said about him is that he is a typical black boy that may be involved in some kind of crime or bad behaviour. Also the name of my artist is very unusual and a name that you wouldn't really hear people use. This shows that the social groups that would be reading this article about this artist are unique and unusual and like these kind of things.

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

My music magazine was a Urban music magazine , in most Urban and Hip-Hop magazine's they use bold font's and bright colours. In order to keep this convention the same I decided to use bold fonts and colours like red and black that stand out to people that would be looking at the magazine. I did this in order that people that normally read these genre of magazines would notice that my magazine is of the same genre.

I have used the same two colours throughout my front cover and my contents page and kept all the fonts the same. The two colours that I have stuck too are red and black. On my double page spread I am going to add a different lighter colour so that I challenges the normal conventions of having the same colours all the way through which is what you would normally see in a Urban music magazine . The reason that I am going to do this is so that I can make my magazine unique and although it will look like a typical Urban music magazine it will have its only little twist to it .
On most magazine's there is a selling line 'UK's best selling urban music magazine' in a way i have chosen to develop this by not writing a selling line but instead a tag line which say 'the base to your urban music'. As the magazine is called Base it ties in well and i feel that it fits it perfectly . Also this may draw more people in to read the magazine.