Wednesday, 20 January 2016

Magazine Evaluation

Evaluation
I set out to make a cover page, contents page and double page spread for a film magazine targeted at males 15-25 more but also females. I picked this target audience as that is the common age range for these magazines and it would easy to gather target research.
For the research I looked at different film magazines and annotated them, labelling the key conventions. This helped me to see what is on a film magazine and what I need to include on mine. I did this annotation in a lot of depth so I could understand why this convention needed to be included. I also did a 10 question questionnaire aimed at my target audience so I could learn some more specific needs.
I think my research was quite effective as I gathered a lot of information that was very useful to me throughout the task. From my target research I leant what my target audience wanted from what they would want to see on the cover to what articles they want to feature in the magazine. I learnt what actors they would like interviewed and what features not to include. This shaped my magazine as I knew what to include and what features the target market would like to see. It helped with my colour scheme, layout and what fonts to use.
To help with the making of my magazine I learnt about representation. This is where the magazine appeals to the target audience because they aspire to be like the people in the magazine. The magazine helps give them a social identity as they will find the magazine relatable. 
I had to make lots of different creative decisions throughout making the magazine. I made the decision to change my contents page so that it had two columns rather than just one. I did this so that the contents page would appeal and because it was a key convention. I used black and red as main colours because they appeal to the target audience and work well together. They are bright and bold meaning it would interest the reader I used the font Empire Straight for all of my titles on every page as it was black, bold and suited the film magazine genre. For the text of the main article I used Tennessee Heavy SF as it works well with Empire Straight and appeals to the target audience. Another creative decision I made was to have a lot of photos on the contents and double page spread. I did this because I did not like the way one key image looked and thought the pictures fitted the article and tone better. I liked the way it looked on the page with the white space and it also meant I could write the article in little chunks which appealed to the reader.
I think my magazine follows the forms and conventions quite well as I included many of them. I based my magazine off the Total Film magazine as I liked the way it looked and knew that my target market also liked that style. I tried to use as many of the conventions that I could as I knew this would help my magazine look professional and will help it appeal to the target audience.
I think my finished magazine is vaguely successful. I am not a hundred percent happy with my title page as I feel it’s not the best. I think it could be a lot better so it looks more professional. This is the magazine weakness. However I did try to include a lot of conventions and kept with the same colour scheme and font for the rest of the magazine, meaning that there is house style. I am happier with my contents page and double page spread. All three features have my own images on but I am happier with my images on the contents and double page spread. I am happy with the layout of both these features. The strengths of this magazine are the use of conventions, the house style and the tone as I believe that the tone suits the magazine.          


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