Final Piece

This is the overall outcome of my magazine. If you click on the images, they will appear bigger for a clearer picture.

Poporama!

Front cover

Contents Page


Double Page Spread

Foundation Portfolio Evaluation

I have now completed the foundation portfolio task, using photoshop. It is called ‘Poporama!’ and I decided to produce my magazine within the Pop genre. I have produced a front cover, contents page and a double page spread with photography and interviews.

Top of the pops is a existing magazine within the music industry. Here I am looking at the conventions of both music magazines, my own production and Top of the pops and seeing how they use, develop and challenge each other. In both magazines, you can see from my research and planning that I have incorporated the glossy front cover style, similar fonts and images of celebrity icons. It also gives an insight into the content inside the magazine by showing different images and exclusive information on the front cover.

Here is my contents page with another pop magazine contents. They are slightly different in the layout, but both portray the correct message to the target audience. They both feature exclusive content, reader interactivity included in the content, and both fit the genre of pop itself. Bright colours and the house style shown on both, are represented clearly through the contents pages.

The double page spread again has used bright colours that fits into the pop genre. As shown in this slide the double page has used the famous icons to represent the music industry. Celebrities are used to attract the audience, as well as the exclusive features shown in both magazines. My magazine has used these conventions of a pop magazine which is already on the market. The house styles has been carried throughout each page which can be clearly seen here.

‘Poporama!’ presents particular social groups in a variety of ways. To show this I have compared it to NME which is based around the rock genre, rather than pop. They tend to show the social groups by using bright and dark colouring, different style of language and different content information. This will attract people who are into this particular music and genre, whereas mine has more girly features and celebrity advice which will fulfil the reflecting of social groups.

I have gained an understanding of the different publishers and how they fulfil their audience needs. If I were to publish ‘Poporama!’, I would use IPC Media. This is because they show a high success rate, and already publish the well known music magazine NME. Statistics show that they reach most of our population within Britain and produce a high variety of magazines. IPC media have a big audience who constantly invest within there company. ‘Poporama!’ will reach my target audience and become a success if published with IPC.

My target audience for ‘Poporama!’ is shown through the layout and colouring of the magazine itself. It shows that it is aimed at young girls, from around 9 years old to early teens who are still in need of finding their identity. Outgoing girls who like to talk about music that falls into the pop category are also the perfect audience for ‘Poporama!’. Escapism through the uses and gratifications of a magazine, shows how my target audience would feel the need to read the magazine as a way of leaving the real world and becoming closer to their celebrity idols.

Attracting my target audience within my front cover was thought about thoroughly in the production of my magazine. The low price will encourage people to buy the magazine and the celebrity icon giving advice within an exclusive interview, will make the young girls want to learn more about themselves and escape the real world. The pastel colours straight away reflect who the magazine is aimed at so it is distinctly different from others that already fall into the pop genre. Free inserts like posters in this case make people want to buy the magazine more than if it was without. This is an effect used by many magazine producers, as girls and other audiences want to use these for themselves.

The learning process when producing ‘Poporama!’ was very challenging. When we initially started to use Photoshop, I was very stuck with the process and I didn’t feel I was learning a lot when I wasn’t seeing a possible outcome. However, through trial and error and practicing on Photoshop with a lot of my time, I managed to produce my magazine to great effect. I have learnt a great deal whether it be time management, or the planning and research. It has made me think carefully about everything when it comes to production, and how important planning is before you start. The images I have used were thought about extremely carefully from the costume to where they were taken, as the genre has to been shown clearly.

The blogs in which we were asked to keep, made me confused at the beginning of our production. However, after being told about how to produce them effectively, I found that the blogs were for track of progress and to show how we overcome problems. Blogs posted recently whilst doing both the preliminary task and final task include images of what would work, and progress of my magazine itself.

From the preliminary task to my final music magazine, you can see there has been great changes. The development in skills and outcome can be seen through the different magazines as shown in this slide. I have taken the challenges and problems which occurred during the preliminary task and tackled them, which overall has made a huge difference. I was constantly developing new skills throughout both tasks, and this progress is also reflected within my blogs.

To conclude this foundation portfolio production, I have learnt a great deal. Through the process of trial and error, I was able to produce a pop magazine to a professional standard. Within my presentation I have included the enjoyments and challenges that I have faced and overcome. There are icons which show which blog will reflect what the slide is about with detailed reference, and if the images of slides are clicked on they will appear bigger so they are clearer to see.
I am proud with my achievement, and feel that the magazine production has been an enjoyable task. Although it was challenging, I have put my skill to good use and worked hard in order to get my magazine to the standard that it is. I have learnt that in order to complete a task on this scale, patience is the key to success.