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

I would say that my magazine has similar conventions to real products and some unconventional features. 

The title of my magazine 'Beat' is typical of a music magazine as it relates to music. The irregular thing about my title is that 'Beat' relates to all kinds of music but my magazine is just based on the indie/alternative genre.
The cover is conventional as the masthead is placed at the top of the magazine which most magazine do, also the title is short which i guess is done to make it more recognisable to audiences and many magazine do this e.g, NME, Q, Clash. Having a short and bold title will also grab the attention of readers and this attracts them to the magazine. I did this on my magazine for this reason.
The main image on the cover follows the rule of thirds with the image being directly in the centre which many magazines do and unconventional magazines may not follow this at all and have their images anywhere on the page. This is effective but i thought that my magazine would look better if i followed this and have my image in  the middle. Having the image i the middle also helps the cover lines stand out as they can be used evenly in the space around the image, which i have done with cover lines either side of the image and the main cover lines on the image.
My front page is set out in a fairly simple manner, the main image takes up a large part of the page as it's a mid shot. This resulted in a  few blank white spaces, so I put cover lines in than i originally planned to.  I feel the final cover has enough content to fill the page but not so much that it looks overcrowded.

My contents page is set out in a more complicated way although I feel that it is still easy to understand and read. I have made lists of the features included and images of the main stories in the magazine. The contents page is split up into three columns, i feel that this is quite conventional as many magazine use this similar layout with an image at the top of the page with the contents underneath.

The double page spread is set out in quite a formal style, this arguably goes against the normal conventions of the indie/alternative genre where the layout can be fairly messy and a bit unconnected in places.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? - DRAFT

My artist Jake Levigne (left), Noel Gallagher (middle), Orlando Weeks (right)

The image of Noel Gallagher(right) shows him in a similar style to my artist. They are both wearing a similar jacket with it zipped all the way up. I would say that the style is the only thing similar to my artist as he is younger and plays a different genre of music. This is the sort of style my target market likes.  Appearance wise I have compared him to Noel Gallagher although my artists does play a different genre. Indie artists that i compare my artist Jake Levigne to are Orlando weeks (The Maccabees) but my artists character is a bit more outlandish and has a 'louder' personality with the way he performs on stage which can be seen in my article. The two are also in the same social group, they are both white, middle class .The Maccabees are an example of what type of music my audience enjoy so having my artist playing the same type of music but also making him an enthusiastic character will appeal to readers of Beat magazine.

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? - DRAFT

IPC Media is a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the United Kingdom, with a large portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year. 
Some of it’s leading magazine brands include mens magazine Nuts, Marie Claire & Look (fashion), What's on TV (TV guide), World Soccer, Uncut (rock) and NME which would be the closest competitor to my magazine. 
I think that IPC Media would be suitable to publish my magazine as they only currently publish two music magazine; Uncut (monthly rock magazine) and NME (weekly indie/rock magazine). Although this may mean that a company would not want to take on a similar magazine to one that it already has, IPC Media as shown above has some magazines that are even more similar and would have very similar audiences for example Marie Claire & Look which are both fashion. 
I think the difference between NME and BEAT is that it is a monthly magazine unlike NME which is weekly. Also i think NME is selling more now to a mainstream market than it used to. I think that IPC Media having a indie/alternative music magazine would suit them nicely as it would be monthly and wouldn't effect the sales of NME. 
A magazine publishing company is responsible for editing the magazine and putting it out into the media. Magazine's are published on a regular schedule and the company doign this has to keep to that schedule and produce the best possible magazine. IPC Media obviously has great experience in this as it has done it with many magazines spread across many genres.

4. Who would be the audience for your media product? - DRAFT

My ideal target audience would be those that are interested in the Indie/alternative musical genre between the ages of 16-30. I think this age range is suitable as my magazine is targeted to a young audience. I feel my magazine isn't aimed towards a certain gender as indie is a genre which is popular in both men and women. My target audience media consumption is heavy with them enjoying listening to music, watching TV, browsing the internet, reading magazines and going to the cinema regularly. A typical member of the audience will be interested in new and current music in the indie/alternative genre. Their musical interest would include artist such as The Maccabees, Foals, The Courteeners and The XX.

I chose this age gr

5. How did you attract/address your audience? - DRAFT

Cover:

Masthead; This will attract audiences as it is positioned at the top of the magazine making it visible from a shelf. I used a large bold font in block capitals which would make it hard for audiences to miss and therefore attracts them to the magazine.

Cover Lines; The main  cover line attracts audience as it is large and bold which makes the cover stand out. Other cover lines stand out well from the background and they appeal to my target audience. For example the 'Glastonbury, Reading & Leeds' cover line attracts the audience as i have targeted my magazine to younger people who enjoy music festivals. 

Main image; The model i used on my cover have the same style as my target audience. This makes the magazine appeal to them as they can read about people similar to them in a way.

Price; The price can be seen on top of the bar code in the bottom left hand side of the cover. I've priced my magazine at £3.99. I think think this is very reasonable price as 

Contents Page:

Bands/artist featured; The bands that are featured are popular with my target audience and this will make them want to read further.

Main Image; The image is of the same person used on the cover but has a change off background and colour included. Also that it's a large image shows it's importance over the other features of the magazine which makes readers interested to read further in to this.

Double Page Spread:

Main Image; The image takes up the entire left page and shows the model in a different environment. The model is seating down and looking directly at the readers which appeals to the audience.

Pull quote; I only used one pull quote which is on the left page above the model. Pull quotes attract the audience to read further as they show a glimpse of information that is included in the main article.

Headline; 'Jake Levigne' is large and bold and spreads across the right page and becuase of the size attracts the audience to read further.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product? - DRAFT

Camera:

To take my images I used a Canon 600D. I found that the pictures on this were of a much better quality than other cameras. The images I took with the camera were both inside and outside. The lighting for the inside was bright as there was daylight so there was no need for a flash. Outside it was bright as well and there was no need to use the flash on the camera.  I learnt how to use the camera, by that I mean I learnt about the different settings and filters and how to use them correctly.

Computer/Laptops:
I used the school computer sand an Apple MacBook Pro to create my coursework. I used both of these for research and planning in to my magazine. I didn't really learn anything new about these two computers however I did learn how to use the software more efficiently on them such as Photoshop.

Adobe Photoshop CS6:
Adobe Photoshop is a graphics editing program which I used to create my magazine. Since I started this coursework I have gradually became better at Photoshop. The main thing I feel I learnt is how to cut using the lasso tool properly which I used mostly to cut out images (for example the cover photo). I created my Cover, Contents and Double Page Spread with Photoshop. Having very little experience with this program before, throughout this course I have learnt how to use Photoshop.

Blogger:
I posted all the stages of my coursework through blogger. I learnt how to use Blogger and from this I posted the research, planning, drafting, final pieces and evaluations.

Prezi:

I used prezi during research in my coursework, it help me with my magazine pitch and others. I learnt how to put a presentation together on Prezi.

USB Flash Drive:
I used a usb to save coursework on to use on different computers. This really helped me throughout the course.

Slidshare:

I learnt how to use slidehsare to show PowerPoint presentations I’ve made on my blog. I found slideshare really useful during the course as PowerPoint presentations are an efficient way of showing information.

Safari & Google Chrome
These are the two search browsers i used in the research and planning stage of the coursework. They are both very useful for researching and planning as they come up with images and information on magazines. I didn't really learn anything new about these two internet browsers.

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

Comparing my preliminary magazine to my final i think i have firstly improved on the layout of my magazine. In my preliminary i think i used the space very poorly on both my cover and contents page. The cover page on my final piece i think i used the space well and kept it simple to give it a nice clean look.  The contents page on my final i thought was much better than my preliminary but i feel i have struggled with the contents page throughout the course. The preliminary magazine contents i thought was vey poor, from then i tried a few layouts. Research on magazine did really help me and the inspiration for my final contents page was Esquire magazine's layout.
Secondly, I've learnt how to make images more aesthetically pleasing. In my preliminary the images were very plain with them all being on the same background. From this i thought carefully where and what type of images i would take. The main images i used in my final piece all had different backgrounds and colours and they all weren't the same type of shot. Looking at the final images compared to my preliminary images i think i have really improved them and made them much more aesthetically pleasing. 
Overall i think that i learnt a lot and improved in every area of the magazine from my preliminary to my final magazine.