Evaluation by Victor Chan

1. Evaluation
By Victor Chi-Chung Chan

2. In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
My production follows most of the conventions of magazine in the design, especially the layout.
Generally, magazines’ front cover contains the title of the magazine, main image, and some
headings/sub-headings to explain what the contents are in the magazine.
Like the title, I put my magazine’s title on the
top of the front cover. Therefore the audience
can easily recognise my product. The main
image cover most of the cover, since photo
would attract the audience than words. I
followed this convention to place my main
image, which also the photo of its cover story.
Because of its large size of picture, audiences
immediately know the members of the picture
is the highlight of this issue. At the bottom right
of the front cover, a barcode with price
underneath is placed. This is a traditional
design so the audience can easily see the
price.
Title
Barcode
&
Price
Main
image
Front Cover

3. So it is not hard to observe that the layout of the
magazine mostly follows the conventions of
music magazine, it also happens on the theme.
Since the genres of my project I decided it to be
Rock N’ Roll and Metal, the style of it is usually
gothic and evil.
In my magazine, I followed these conventions.
The fonts style, especially the title - Linvin’ Rock
and the band name of the cover story, is in
gothic style.
Gothic
Style font
For the tones, colour scheme is the best element to present the tone of my product. The themes of the
Rock and Metal genres are usually about death; evil or even anti-Christ, blood is an idea the bands
usually put in their music. So I use the colour red and black for the main tone, red represents blood and
black represents darkness, a theme of devil can be expressed in the colour scheme.
In the contents page, black and red dominate
the whole page, because it’s my magazine’s
style. The fonts are red and the background of
the page (excluding images) is black. In the
double page spread, the background is also in
dark-red with the texture of woods, which has a
tone of depression.

4. In the double page spread, the
background is also in dark-red
with the texture of woods, which
has a tone of depression.
Double page spread
Texture of
woods

5. Variation:
All the conventions I followed are about how to catch audience’s attention, they are the best ways to
transfer my idea to the audience visually. But there are still some variations I have in my production to
impact the old ways of magazines.
Since the theme of Rock and Metal are usually
about goth, which the history can be traced back
to thousands of years ago. As a result, the style
of it is old and historical. But in my project, I
planned to make it different. I preserved the
traditions but also added futuristic ideas into
the magazine, because the issue of my
production is about the prediction of the industry
of future. This is a challenge for me because the
theme of the genres is old but I mixed futuristic
elements, like font style and colour scheme, into
it. The secondary colour scheme is blue and
white. They sound a bit opposite to red and
black, that’s the impact I just mentioned. I
observed there are many sci-fi movies are
covered by colour blue, so I adapted blue to
represent future. Also white represents
brightness, opposite to darkness. In the style of
the photography, white is the background of the
photo shoot. It provides an impression of we are
looking at the future.
White
Background
Blue

6. Futuristic
Font
To explain the idea of this impact, I added a
tagline on the front cover – ‘The futuristic issue’
and ‘The music guide of the future’. I
emphasise ‘future’ on the front cover, even in
the font style. I believe audience would be
interested in how we put this idea into an old-
fashioned theme. The product makes a
chemical effect in it.

7. How does your media product represent particular social
groups?
There are some stereotypes of this music genres, it’s also represented in my project. The age of
the models is the one I considered carefully. In fact, the age range of Rock and Metal is very wide.
There are some young bands existing, present rebellion like Asking Alexandria, to old artists like
Ozzy Osbourne. But in my project, I chose not to cover all the age range. My theme of the issue is
future, so I picked the models who look young to represent like they are the future of the industry
since they can last long in this industry. Everything is new from them; young social group is a
good representative for future. In my cover story, two members of Reverse Rage represent
young generation.
Young
Generation

8. Male models were adapted for the photo
shoot. As a matter of fact, males are more than
females in this industry, so the reason I chose
males is quite reasonable. In the stereotype of
male, they are portrayed as strong, superior
in many media. So the models in my photo
shoot look confident. I deliberately used low
angle for the image on contents page. Low
angle can provide an impression to make
characters look menacing and in-charge. The
clothing of male artists is portrayed casual in
my photoshoot. In fact, the fashion of Rock and
Metal can be variable. There are quite many
costumes in these genres. But I eventually
chose my models dressing simple. Because I
observed the music artists nowadays are
dressing quite casually. They usually just put on
T-shirts, instead of gothic costumes like 1980’s.
Simplicity is a trend in this generation, so I told
my models to dress T-shirts in pure colours.
It ended up the members of the band in cover
story dress black and white respectively.
Low angle used for contents page image
Strong arm
of the male
model

9. The social groups are quite variable; there are not many stereotypes in Rock and Metal genres. But
there is one social group not often appears in these genres. It’s talking about racial group. Coloured
people do not often appear in British Rock and Metal, especially African people. They are usually fixed
to appear in Hip Hop music, but in Rock and Metal, most of the artists are white. Therefore, all the
models in my project are white people.

10. What kind of media institution might distribute your media
product and why?
Institutions are companies that would publish magazines. The famous ones are IPC Media
(NME), Future plc (Metal Hammer, Classic Rock), etc.
(NME)
(Metal Hammer,
Classic Rock)
(Q Magazine,
Kerrang!, Mojo)

11. The first thing I would avoid is choosing the institution who have published magazines sharing similar
audience group with me. The blueprint of my project is adapted from NME magazine. So the styles are
quite similar to NME magazine, which is published by IPC Media. Therefore, I would not choose IPC
Media. According to the data, there are many institutions have published magazines with Rock/Metal
genre, but not all of them share the same age range of audiences. Therefore, I choose Future plc to
distribute my product.
NME: Young male
Target readers:
Metal Hammer: Young male
Classic Rock: 35+, male
Q Magazine: Median age 29
Kerrang!: Median age 22
Mojo: Median age 37

12. There are two magazines published by Future plc - Classic Rock and Metal Hammer. According to the
audience profile, the target audience of the audience of Classic Rock is mature adults whom mean age is
37. Since my magazine’s mean age is 18, so they won’t overlap each other. Metal Hammer’s age of target
audience is quite young, there is no exact number but they claim they are young male who are quite similar
to my product. But Metal Hammer mainly focuses on Metal genre, it does not cover Rock N’ Roll. So my
target audience will be different with other magazines published by Future plc and it will not compete with
them.
Metal Hammer: Young male
Metal genre
Livin’ Rock: Young male ~18
Metal and Rock genre
Classic Rock: 35+, male
Rock N’ Roll genre
different genre
different target reader

13. My magazine is not only published in a magazine form, but also in other media. In my magazine, there are
competition and festival organised by my media group. The competition aims to choose some new bands
who are willing to involve into the music industry. For the festival, we will invite the most influential bands
worldwide in Livin’ Rock Fest. It also interact with the competition, the final four will perform and the
champion will be chosen in the festival. The festival will be held in different city every year. In my production,
there are following news about the Linvin’ Rock Competition and festival on the contents page. Audience can
win free tickets to the Livin’ Rock Fest in Paris. It helps me extend the influence to worldwide.
Competition Livin’ Rock Festival
Image from contents page
Image from contents page
Image from front cover

14. Who would be the audience for your media product?
My target audience has been clear since I’ve done my audience research.
In the result of the audience research, most
respondents are students (29 out of 38) and
young adults around 18. Males are more than
females about a half. Therefore, we knew what
the tendency towards music in this audience
range is. My product can be planned for young
audience who are mostly students.
Students(~70%)
Mean age: ~18.02

15. It also reflects they like Rock N’ Roll the most
(60.53%), followed by Pop (42.11%) and Metal
(26.32%). As a result, I decided my magazine
is made for young adult students, who like
Rock N’ Roll and Heavy Metal. The reason I
didn't choose Pop even they are ranked
second audience love the most, is Pop is not
so related to Rock or Metal much. Instead,
Rock and Metal can be combined in one
magazine since they are usually performed by
bands.

16. It is not only because of the questionnaire
result, the interview with the teenagers also
reflect a similar idea. According to the interview
in the audience research, two interviewees
called Lewis and Tom, they mentioned that
they like red and blue for the colours, because
they are kind of dark people. I interpret them as
rebellious teenagers. So I picked Rock and
Metal because they are the symbol of
rebellion. The theme of the genres is usually
about demons and death, it fits the young
audiences’ tastes.

17. Since the audience are mostly students. I
assume that their purchasing power is quite
low because they focus on study instead of
work. It is reflected on the questionnaire. They
prefer a cheaper price for the magazine, like
£2-3 (30.77%), and it is the price range they
usually spend for music magazines for a
regular magazine. So I eventually decided to
price £2.20, a price which students can afford.
As a result, according to the data above, I
decided my magazine is set for young adults,
around 18. They are the representative of
rebellion, so they like Rock N’ Roll and Heavy
Metal. Since they are usually students who
don't have a high purchasing power so the
price of my magazine is quite cheap which is
£2.20.

18. How did you attract/address your audience?
There are a lot elements can attract the audience. But most audience want some actual stuff
which can only provided by the magazine. This is the feature can make the magazine unique.
Every audience wants to have more features in an issue. Since they are not satisfied by the
information or news anymore. In this generation, these information can be found on the internet,
there must be other media will spread the information from your magazine. Therefore, if I can add
something collectable, audience will be more satisfied by the actual materials instead of words
only.
In my product, I decided to add an A3 poster
in each issue. Posters are quite common but
usefully attract audience. They would like to
collect posters because posters can be posted
for a long period; customers think it’s worth
buying.
More than that, I also designed a trading card
for the cover story artists. Trading card is a bit
different since it is portable. Customers can
even exchange the cards with each other. In
order to address the audience these features, I
use blue bubbles to impact the red on front
cover. So customers can be attracted when
they first see the cover. Then in the contents
page, I use the same colour to lead the
audience to the page where the poster and
reading card are.
on front cover on contents page
Trading card design
on front cover
on contents page
Memo notes to
address the
audience about
this features

19. It’s not hard to observe that blue is the leading colour to these special features. In addition to poster and
trading card, there is another stuff which audience can get from the magazine. The value of this is much
higher than them - they have a opportunity to win free tickets of Livin’ Rock Festival in Paris by buying
this issue. In the bottom of the cover, I also used blue to address this feature. There is a blue line with white
fonts on the bottom to address this message: ‘WIN: TICKETS TO THE 4-DAY LIVIN ROCK FESTIVAL IN
PARIS’. I put it on the bottom since they are not the most important. Because audience are not 100%
chance of getting the tickets, so I put them in the bottom as it is a secondary bonus.
Only colour is not enough to get their attention.
In order to address them the poster and trading
card are free, I deliberately added ‘FREE’ in a
large font inside the bubbles. So customers will
not doubt about if it is free or not. The message
is very clear, we have to tell the audience
what’s good in the magazine in an obvious and
clear way. For the free tickets of Livin Rock
Festival, I avoid to mislead the audience that
they will surely get the tickets. So I use ‘WIN’ to
imply this is a lucky draw. The language must
be used very carefully to avoid misleading, but
also can attract the audience.
on front cover on front cover
Plug:
Bottom line
on front cover
Inside
the contents
page

20. Special features are not the only things to
attract the audience. I also address the theme
of the issue clearly. There is a big tagline –
The futuristic issue, it’s telling the audience this
issue is about the prediction towards the future
of the industry.
Inside the contents page, the topics of the
articles, interviews are concentrated on future,
such as new technology, future plans of the
bands, etc. Audience will have a clear vision
about what topics the issue will contain. This is
a good idea that to have all topics
concentrated. So the audience would have
more ideas that what the issue focuses on. If
they know more about the topics, then they will
be more likely to buy it if the theme is what they
are interested.
Tagline
Theme
Inside
the contents
page
“How will they impact the world!”
- This is about the future plans of the
band.

21. What have you learnt about technologies from the process
of constructing this product?
In the whole project, we relied on the use of technology, because we need many software and
hardware to help us visualise our ideas. From the beginning, we used Microsoft Office
Powerpoint, Words. Then we used a program called Survey Monkey to make the questionnaire.
We had to upload our progress to the internet, so I used Blogger and Slideshare as a platform to
present my work. Google Drive as well, it is a good tool to back up my files in case there is any
accident that the files don't work on Slideshare anymore. After that Adobe Premiere was used to
visualise my interview recordings. During the post-production period, I used Photoshop to make
the front cover and contents page. Also InDesign was used to make the double page spread.
Apart from the software, hardware is also
important to digitalise all the actual stuff. During
the audience research, there was an interview
for the teenagers. I used recorder to record
the sound of the interview. During the
production phase, I used a DSLR to take the
pictures for my product. And at last: computer,
the hardware I used for most of the time, from
research to post-production.
Adobe Premiere (left)
Photoshop (middle)
InDesign (right)
Microsoft Office
Powerpoint (left)
Words (right)

22. The first thing I learnt is how technology helps me gather information during the research period. All the
research, such as the reader profile of music magazine, I understood their target audience’s tendency, so
my project can be specific for certain audience. I analysed these famous magazines to get their method to
success. For example, most of the magazines about Rock and Pop, their target audience are teenagers to
young adults. Then we can conclude that, if we want to attract younger customers, Rock and Pop would
be the best genres we should focus on.
Internet is not only a method of receiving
information, I also used internet as a tool to
spread messages. During the audience
research, we had to study the tendency of
people around us. So we made a questionnaire
to get these data in order to plan the direction
of the product. The more respondents, the
information would be more accurate. But I
didn't use pens and notes to get these data by
asking people one by one. Instead, I learnt how
to create a questionnaire on the internet by
using Survey Monkey. The message can be
spread out quickly. More than that, this brilliant
website even helped me calculate the
percentage of each item of a question.
Therefore I saved a lot time on calculation; I
could focus on other progress.

23. After I had gathered all the information, I used Powerpoint to organise them. It is a useful
program that I can present my work in many slides with a lot of pictures to illustrate my
ideas. The information can be more organised since I could order and categorise the
information. People can read my plan and analysis easily.
In the interview, I chose to record but not to film
it. So it was supposed to be only sound instead of
videos. But still created it in a video format. I
didn't film the whole video because I knew it
would make any difference except we can see
the interviewees’ mouth moving. Therefore, I
decided to only record it then I added pictures
and subtitles in a video. I used Adobe Premiere
for this progress. I had used it before but this time
I had to add a lot of words into it. I also added
pictures into it in order to make it look
interesting and dynamic. Because there were
lots of contents in the interview, so many were
required. I had to breakdown the recording into
many parts, I learnt how to edit a short-length
video from that.
Some of the pictures I used in
the video:

24. During the post-production period, I leant
how the use Photoshop to edit my photos. In
fact, I had studied Photoshop before; I knew
some basic functions of it since I’ve been
using it for photography. But this time, I could
even fix some mistakes and make changes for
something I couldn't control during the photo
shooting. Initially I planned my models would
be wearing black and white T-shirts, but one of
my models didn't have a full-black T-shirt. I
continued the photoshoot on that day then I
tried to fix this problem on Photoshop. I learnt
how to use the quick selection tool to select his
T-shirt. After that I turned this part to black-
and-white. Also there were some spots on my
models’ faces, in order to make their faces
look smooth, I used the ‘spot healing brush
tool’ to erase them.
Before After
Before After

25. One more piece of software I learnt to use is InDesign. Before that, I only knew how
to use Photoshop to complete designs. But then I learnt to use InDesign since I was
suggested to use it. It is a really good program that helped me composite the
double page spread. Like the space between the paragraphs and columns, I could
set the whole composition before I start. The resolution also ended up in a higher
quality than made in Photoshop. That just enhanced my knowledge about using more
programs to do designing work.
Gap between
columns

26. Apart from the software, hardware is also important
which I couldn't do without it. During the research
phase, I had to record an interview about what
nowadays teenagers like. I learnt how to use the
voice recorder. For the photoshoot, camera was
essential. But I study photography so I didn't have
many problem on working a camera. Instead, this
was the first time I took photos in a studio. I learnt
how to operate studio lights. It is quite an
interesting experience to me because I could
actually make something the professional
photographers do. They are very essential for the
production because it helped me visualise my ideas.
In studio

27. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you
have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
In the whole progression, I now have more ideas and knowledges about designing a magazine
through all the progression.
Looking back at the preliminary
task, we were trying to create a
cover page and a dummy contents
page for college magazine. The
front cover was not designed
thoughtfully; it wasn’t an appeal to
audience. Like the use of colours,
I didn’t consider what the colour
scheme should be used. The
colour of the title and the
background overlap each other.
The language is also not
effectively sending message to the
audience; customers would not
know what the cover story actually
about. I wasn’t considerate on
doing it because I didn't have any
pre-production before making it.
Preliminary Task
Front cover Contents page
dummy

28. Then when we started our actual project, the first
thing we did was analysing other magazines.
This is an important part before we started the
planning the production. In the magazine
analysis, we picked three music magazines’
front covers, contents pages and double page
spreads. I chose Metal Hammer, NME and
Classic Rock to analyse. I gained some basic
ideas of how those magazines attracting the
audiences’ attention. Every tiny detail on a page
is the designers’ careful plan, such as the colour
scheme, props, costumes or even font size.
Overall, they first make all the details matching
each other; the whole tone will be comfortable to
audience. Like Metal Hammer, they mainly used
a tone of goth and darkness. So the designers
wouldn't add other elements to go against this
theme. The second thing I learnt from magazine
analysis is what we can add to attract audience
that the magazine is worth buying. General
customers like to get more stuff with a lowest
price. So I should think about what I can add into
the magazine. In the magazines i had analysed,
they all had some special features such as
posters or chance to win free tickets. Because
audiences aren't not satisfied by information
only. Instead, there should some actual materials
for them. Therefore, it will persuade them to buy.
Pages from the analysis

29. The progress following magazine analysis was
audience research. There were two parts of
this process: questionnaire and interview
respectively. In the questionnaire, there were
total 41 people answered my questionnaire.
Most of them are students and around age 18.
So I understood this questionnaire is reflecting
the tendency of young students audience.
Some more questions about what music
genres they like, what price they would like to
pay for a magazine. These information helped
me build up a direction of what kind of
magazine I was going to produce since I know
what it can attract them. In the interview, I
asked two people whom age are also the mean
of the respondents in the questionnaire. The
questions I asked were not anything about
magazine this time. Instead, I asked about their
hobbies. So I know what style my magazine
should be in. This progression helped me build
up a clear idea that would make my product be
an appeal to my target audience.
Planning of the audience research
Comparing the data

30. After the research, it’s time for me to work on my product. Since I had finished
researching, I could create my own ideas based on the information I’d got. We first
created reader profile. So I would have a clear idea of what my audience were going
to be. This is a very important step. I always looked back at the audience profile to
remind myself what target audience my music magazine was for. For example, what
do they like, is there anything I could do to please them?
Reader Profile Style

31. After that I had to plan the visual details of the product. I created a pitch document, which is about
how I was going to plan my final production.
After that I had to plan the visual details of the
product. I created a pitch document, which is
about how I was going to plan my final
production. Like the layout plan, how I was
going to compose the images and article.
Also flatplan, I had to think carefully what the
pages were going to be. Would there be a lot
advertisement? Where should the cover story
be put? Just after the contents page or in the
middle of those 80 pages? Those are the
things I had to consider very carefully.

32. I also planned the sample stylesheet for the
colour scheme so the whole product would look
comfortable. And the last thing is photography
planning, all the pictures appear in my
production should be planned in here. Since I
had learnt the conventions of the magazine
design, I also wanted to make some changes
from it. I mixed the gothic style of Metal genre
with a futuristic style from electronic music.
And the last thing is photography planning,
all the pictures appear in my production should
be planned in here. Since I had learnt the
conventions of the magazine design, I also
wanted to make some changes from it. I mixed
the gothic style of Metal genre with a futuristic
style from electronic music.
Sample of photography planning

33. When all those planning were finished, I could
finally began my photoshoot. This is quite a
new thing to me even I study photography so I
should have no problem with operating a
camera. But it was the first time I took pictures
in a studio. So it was quite hard to visualise my
ideas from my mind. I had planned what the
production would look like, but I wasn't familiar
with it so the pictures didn't look the same with
what I had planned. In order to solve the
problems, I did some research about studio
lighting. Then I adapted a simple lighting
method - 3 point lighting. The next time I had
the photoshoot again, I controlled the main
light, fill light and the reflective background as a
back light. The photos ended up quite beautiful,
the models looked very dynamic.
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Contact sheet

34. The photoshoot didn't take me so much time,
because I had to spend a lot time on post-
production. It is about how I would make them
look from only some photos to an attractive
magazine product. I used Photoshop for the
contents page and front cover, plus InDesign
for the double page spread. It was a real
challenge for me because I’m not good at
design. Fortunately, my planning helped me a
lot and it led me the direction of my production.

35. In the whole project, we spent a lot time in research and
planning. It makes me understand the importance of pre-
production. Making a magazine is about knowing what
the audiences want. Through the pre-production, we
sorted out what would attract audience the most. Then I
design my magazine’s features to be fitted to audiences.
Preliminary Task
Front cover
Contents page
dummy
Final
product
Front cover
Contents page

36. Through the 8 years since The Reverse Rage first staged in Berlin, a lot of great music has been made
such as Go to Hell, Burning Angel and Sounds of Hell. Now their influence has invaded Britain and even
some Asian countries. Such huge success makes people eager to know more about them, behind the stage
– what they are actually like.
R: ‘So many people have asked this
f**king question before (laughter).
We are The Reverse Rage so we usu-
ally look angry on stage and tend to
make Anti-Christ music due to our
music genre. But actually, we are both
married and have children. Our per-
sonal lives should be a little bit differ-
ent than what you’ve seen in concert.’
L: ‘So you guys are actually good
people, aren’t you?’
R: ‘We are always good people, just
swear a f**king lot. (laughter)’
M: ‘I think the general public usu-
ally have a misunderstanding that
rock stars or metal heads must be evil
worshipers, some of them are, I won’t
say there aren’t any, but at least not
all of us. In fact, this image is just a
theme, It’s more like an expression of
our music. To be accurate, we are art-
ists. We haven’t killed anybody (looks
at the camera), don’t worry.’
L: ‘How did you deal with the neg-
ativity towards the change of your
music when the demo of your newest
album –Dead Water was released?’
M: ‘I saw some of the reviews of it
are quite narrow-minded and unfair.
Some said our music is going back-
wards just because we our music gen-
re’s got a bit different. But the logical
gap of them, is we decided to change
doesn’t mean it’s bad. Sometimes
we got quite pissed while looking at
these reviews, like their stubbornness
can destroy our effort in one second.
If you can’t regard music open-mind-
edly, everything must be rubbish to
you.’
L: ‘But I also saw some reviews said
your music is getting boring, not be-
cause of the changed you just men-
tioned, but you have used all your
talent…
M: ‘We accept that kind of com-
ments, at least it’s quite contributing
to us. We do think about that, but
never assure that we will follow their
direction.’
R: ‘For me, it’s all about bad taste. I
can’t judge it — it is what it is. Even if
we put something out that we think
is fantastic we can’t expect everyone
to share our opinion. They have their
right to criticise but I’m entitled to ig-
nore too. People like us not only be-
cause we made good music, but also
we are insistent to do what we want.’
M: ‘Yeah, we can’t only follow the
majority, or otherwise our music will
not be what we want, but…
R: ‘Becomes pop crap.’
The Reverse Rage
R: Ryan Eisenstein
M: Mike Lang
L: Livin Rock journalist
M: We heard of that a lot and
understand what their concerns are.
But something they should under-
stand is good music isn’t limited
by how you play it, but the music
itself. If we think this way of mak-
ing music works, then we will keep
going. We are not bothered whether
it is electronics or guitars or pianos
or stuff… What we think first is the
quality of the music.
R: And we hope the audience won’t
be so f**cking stubborn anymore, we
are determined to change the world
of metal.
Be continued in next page...
Double page spread