Missing content page

I just realized that I didn't upload my content page and I am sorry even though I think it was due to a connection problem.
The two pictures are of one of the member of the Crapwerks and his stage costume, the other is a screenshot of Lmms, one of the programs.

Coursework evaluation

Coursework evaluation

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

• For my magazine cover I decided to use a slightly unconventional format that is often used by the magazine “Q”: the central image is a drawing instead of a photo and it occupies all the central/right part of the magazine. The title and the masthead are in the top right of the magazine respecting their standard position in most music magazines, but the main cover line is at the bottom of the magazine,in the sweet spot, instead of being in the middle. Between the masthead and the main cover lines  there are the other cover lines. The price, date and barcode are all in the bottom/right corner of the magazine. For the contents page I placed the articles and their info scattered in the page to  give a sense of vitality to the page. It could be rather uncommon, but I think it will work  fine. In the double page I decided to present an interview to the band that made the front cover of the magazine, plain and simple.

2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

• The concept of this type of music magazine came from my necessity of having one in the real market. There are no, as far as I know, magazine like this in the market  so I thought I could use this lack to produce something in part original. The idea behind this magazine is to share my knowledge of the open source world of softwares related to music production and to give space to emerging bands  and their music. There is an enormous community of people around the world that invest time and effort in producing softwares and hardwares for free and available for everyone in the world that has never been advertised on the traditional medias, with this magazine the audience will know the part of it that is related to music production.

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

• I don’t know any company or institution in particular, but my plan would be to start with a reduced edition of the magazine distributed for free, but with some ads, online to start make it known. After that I could start proposing an extended edition of the magazine, always distributed online but for a small charge. If people is willing to pay to read my magazine then I could start thinking about looking for an involvement from a known company to set up a real magazine with a paperback version. The advantage of this magazine is that even though it is very specialized it covers different topics: computing, linux & open source software and music of course. This mean that I can contact companies that are now publishing or willing to publish one a magazine related to these subjects.

4) Who would be the audience for your media product?

• This is a magazine made for a niche market and that will be bought by a niche audience. This is because of its specialisation in the topic treated in it. The aim is to attract that slice of audience that ,like me, felt the lack of this kind of magazines in the market and that have “alternative” interests regarding music. We are aiming for an open minded audience ready to listen to new  and valid music that is not to be found elsewhere on traditional medias, to those who are tired of purchasing extremely expensive software to cultivate their passion and that are looking for a free, valid alternative and to those who just want to start making music, but don’t want to risk to invest money in something they don’t know will like.

5) How did you attract/address your audience?

• The first issue is very important because has to attract a new customer that has never seen nor heard of the magazine before. To try to attract customers I decided to focus on three things: a captivating central image combined with the choice of colours, the use of keywords like open source, free and alternative to, and the band presented in in the cover. The use of the keyword open source in the title of the magazine will guarantee that people that work or are passionate in the world of computers will be intrigued. The repetitive use of the word free in the masthead and in the secondary cover lines and the central image will hopefully attract that young slice of audience looking for something different in the field of music and for opportunities and advices to start a home recording studio for their limited finances.

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

• Before starting this project I had never used Adobe Photoshop or any other similar program. It was quite difficult at first, but because the task didn’t require particular professional skills I managed to learn the necessary things with online tutorials and guides. I also never had any interest in the blog, to be honest, but now apart from knowing how to use it, I also discovered the world of blogs and bloggers and I find quite interesting and entertaining.

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

• If I look now at the sixth form magazine cover, of which I was pretty proud at the time, it makes me laugh : I do not consider it an excellent work and I probably wouldn’t be intrigued by it myself if I saw it on a shelf. Nevertheless it was necessary to practice with the available software and to realize that putting a few written line on a picture is not as easy as it seems. I reckon I did a better job this time, but I usually need to not look at something for a while to decide if I still like it or not and where I should have done different. I guess looking at your work as if it was someone else’s is important for future improvements.

 

Double page

Solved the problem with the fonts.
This is my double page spread in which I interviewed a member of the Crapwerks project.