Evaluation questions:

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

I have picked up a lot of knowledge and tricks from photo shop throughout the duration of the development for this magazine, from cropping multiple pictures, feathering out sharp edges of cut out images, using the magic wand to transfer letters for titles and sub headings to stacking up layers to make sure that each feature is noticeable and not hid behind another.
I also focused a lot on lighting and placing of the pictures I took, the macro setting as alright for the close up and more detailed shots needed, but I much preferred my editing of the simple shot consisting of the band featured doing poses, and then adding animal heads over their faces. I tried to make it look as realistic as I could, so I changed the colour sequence on the background of the magazine as well as separately for each head, hence the yellow/orange tint.

Q: How did you attract your audience?

The main attraction is the title ‘SoundWaves’ with the sea as the background and the tagline of ‘the sea is always there’ which is a term mostly used by surfers. I also featured some well known Surf band/artist names such as waves and black flag, and the logo of the ‘Vans Triple Crown of Surf’ and ‘Surf Punks unite’ under the title.

Q: Who would be the audience for your media product?

My target audience are the surfers who listen to surf punk, reggae and Dick Dale, that and those who enjoy art. My magazine consists of the Latest surf competitions and news, the best spots of the season and the best gear to get, mashed up with strange and colourful art, photography and a wide variety of music and gigs – because this is what I usually look for in magazines, but I find that most lack all of these elements.

Q: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and Why?

SoundWaves is like NME magazine (who are owned by IPC media) in the same way as the layout of the contents page, almost the same idea as the front cover, (although mine is mainly surf related), the target audience, however is not the same as NME is all about the music that is out in the here and now all new music from the small indie bands to the larger icons such as Kasabian and Oasis. They know what the target audience likes so they know what to feature on the cover and how to lay it out in a way the audience will be drawn in. Soundwaves, however, contains a mixture of media and small bands. Even though NME is based upon a wider audience and sold in every superstore and newsagents, where as SoundWaves is more based upon a niche audience and sold in surf, skate, or even art shops.

Q: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My Magazine represents youth that surf and love art, that kind of social group is small but wide spread worldwide. Hence the production of SoundWaves, the title itself suggests that it is a music magazine – and by looking at the more in depth features and advertisements on the cover which are all surf involved. That and the extra bits of art and festivals dotted around the contents page, either on the ‘Regulars’ or on the featured pages column.

Q: In what ways does your media product challenge forms and conventions of real magazine products?

The masthead that I have featured is much like something seen on NME, the band taking up most of the cover and the other features overlapping the image and the bold title above the top of the page. The contents page is much like Q’s – in a way of the layour, simple and featuring the main articles on the left, and the regulars in the small and compact column on the right hand side. With the subscribe page underneath, flowed by the ‘highlight of the wee’ which highlights the biggest gig or something out of the ordinary that happened in the month.

Q: Looking back at your preliminary task (College magazine) What have you learnt in terms of progression from that to the full product?

I have learnt a lot more about Photoshop and the skills that I didn’t have before have developed. Also, the idea of focusing on a real life audience like the surfer region brought forward more of a creative and realistic approach to the task set; I also enjoyed the challenge of the step by step pre production stages.
Where as in the college magazine, all I did for my pre production ideas was draw something up on a piece of paper, I didn’t know much about taking pictures or editing the colour scheme to my liking. The cover image for the college magazine was a lot more amateur than the SoundWaves one, due to the newly developed Photoshop skills .