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

Looking back at your preliminary task (the school magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product? on Prezi

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

From my school magazine project to my music magazine project I have learnt and progressed my skills in technology understanding and usage. I had previous experience in Photoshop working with the lasso and magic wand tool but I gained a greater usage of layering and effect tools to make my magazine as professional as possible. The website http://www.dafont.com/ was also another way in which I used technology to improve my magazine. Dafont have a series of imaginative and theme specified fonts which programmes like IPhoto and Photoshop lacked. These could be print screened into Photoshop, cropped, re-coloured and placed on any part of the magazine I desired.  I also learnt how to use programmes more efficiently such as Animoto and IMovie when creating my Pitch and voice over documentary's. I learnt how to make my information and presentation look allot more professional and personal to the genre and target audience I was trying to reach.

5. How did you attract/address your audience? (FINAL)

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

My magazine audience would be primarily Young Alternative groups but could attract such groups such as Indie Scenesters or Skaters. Most of this target group shop at stores such as HMV to find various mainstream musicians/bands but may shop at more independent online shops and search engines to find new music they enjoy such as Band Camp or YouTube recommended playlists. This group is always looking for more unknown and alternative bands so my magazine style suits the larger quantity of the group but it also offers news on mainstream artists within the rock/indie genre so this will relate to the Indie Scenesters and the Skaters. A large amount of my target audience will all wear similar clothing usually from mainstream shops such as Top Man & Top Shop so this similar clothing will be on the artists of my magazine therefore the audience increasingly relating to the contents. My audience will read magazines such as NME, Q, Kerrang and possibly Rock sound so essential bands such as Green Day, Muse and The Kooks have to be mentioned or featured to gain the audiences attention because this will be bands a large range of the group will listen to, but I also have to ensure that the new alternative bands coming through the music industry such as Francesqa, The Joy Formidable and The Ettes relate or have similar styles e.g. instruments, genre, clothes, hobbies, to these larger more well known bands so they can relate to these “unknown”, “underground” bands. My audience also watch large amounts of television, this consisting of programs such as Mock The Week, QI, Russell Howard and Jackass. This is because the genre is very laid back and the target audience are influenced by music that consists of fun, energetic scenes, which pushes this target market group away from Emo and Scene Kids. 

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

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

 

My artist Sammy James is reasonably similar to the Paramore front woman Hayley Williams. They both have similar fashion traites through clothing ranges like Topshop, River Island and through the same style e.g. skinny jeans, tops and jackets. They both enjoy simialr music, rock, indie and also being interested in mainstream pop icons. Thye have similar instrument hobbies as Sammy plays bass guitar and Hayley guitar whilst both playing tabourine parts within their bands songs. The Sammy artist is alot more confined within herself , quiet when around others she doesn't know intill on stage whilst the Hayley character is known for being always confident and having a large personality for example, loud, outragoues, strong opionated and this relates to both music genre's they create, Paramore being a stronger rock band whilst Ghosts being a more indie sound based band. 

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? (i.e. of music magazines) (FINAL)

Through researching the most highly rated magazines within their genres I found the most used conventions, and how professional magazines used them to promote and look aesthetically pleasing to the target audience. Through this I found the most popular front page layouts known as the “F” and “Z” format. I particularly liked the “F” format because it allowed cover lines to run down the left hand side with the main cover line standing out across the page, so I decided to base my front cover around this. 

When researching I particularly looked at Kerrang and NME magazine and took inspiration from the way both magazines set up their double page spreads. On one side they had the main article with “News” tabs and such and on the left page have an image relating to the article and I knew I wanted to set my article similar to this maybe having a quote or fact text box with the main image. I also took inspiration from Q magazine when deciding how to set out my contents page. I decided that I wanted to use large coloured rectangular text box’s to split the contents into different sub-headings and I also wanted to have images that would preview stories inside.

I decided to look at magazines that were similar to the genre I had decided indie and rock so I researched allot into Kerrang, NME, and Q magazines. When choosing my colour pallet I took allot of inspiration from NME and Q magazine because they were nearer the genre I was looking at. They frequently used the red, white and black colour scheme with the special change once in a while so I knew this would be appropriate scheme for my magazine. Using this colour scheme is very useful and I also decided to develop the use of the colours with changing certain letter colours in a word to make different words and different letters stand out.

Researching magazine’s that had a similar genre was very important when creating my magazine and also had a massive influence on my decision making because you can analyse and relate to why they have used certain conventions to gain an audience and to promote their magazine to the target market.

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

I have particular learnt from my prelim the essentials it takes to create a good front cover image. I have learnt the importance of positioning, direction, lighting and angle to atract the auddience. For example with my final front image I have found a front face image is much more bolder and attention grabbing than the side view image used for my prelim, this is also because the model is looking straight into the camera (therefore right into the viewers eyes) this makes the magazine allot more appealing and grabs the attention of the reader. The positioning of the image is very central unlike my prelim because I found as I moved my image around it was allot more attention grabbing when placed in the center, this is because it goes through all the points of interest on the rule of thirds so all attention and eye contact is attracted to the image.
Moving from my prelim and mostly learning from trial and error I found that a main cover line had to contrast well with the front cover image in order not to stand out incase  the readers eye contact was taken away from the image to quickly. I also found that quite a low positioning on the page was the best because it went through a line of interest. I found it difficult to have the right colour to blend in with the models clothing and the rest of the magazine colour scheme where as my prelim was easy because the model's clothing was black. I found placing a background around the wording was just as effective and in this case looked very aesthetically pleasing and matched the rest of the page.
When creating my banner I thought much more about the advertisement side and what real purpose this element has. On my school magazine I simply added it to give the page more colour and the text didn't show offers or any insight into the magazine as it just simply stated subjects within the magazine that the reader would have already known. Instead of the same thing happening on my music magazine I gained an understanding of how to advertise certain features within and as shown I decided the text would show the extra features of the magazine that might reach out to a wider audience and might be an added bonus in which makes them decide to buy the magazine.

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

From my school magazine project to my music magazine project I have learnt and progressed my skills in technology understanding and usage. I had previous experience in Photoshop working with the lasso and magic wand tool but I gained a greater usage of layering and effect tools to make my magazine as professional as possible. The website http://www.dafont.com/ was also another way in which I used technology to improve my magazine. Dafont have a series of imaginative and theme specified fonts which programmes like IPhoto and Photoshop lacked. These could be print screened into Photoshop, cropped, re-coloured and placed on any part of the magazine I desired.  I also learnt how to use programmes more efficiently such as Animoto and IMovie when creating my Pitch and voice over documentary's. I learnt how to make my information and presentation look allot more professional and personal to the genre and target audience I was trying to reach.

5. How did you attract/address your audience? (DRAFT)

My magazine is aimed mostly to Young Alts so to attract this audience I used a variety of techniques on my different pages. The front cover is the most essential page because this is what entices the reader. To make my magazine appeal to this audience I concentrated on the cover lines making them relate to the genre and to the music they listen too, so in this case I placed well known bands such as Green Day, Muse, AC DC, The Kooks, The Vaccines to get them to understand what the magazine was offering. I then used a banner to show the audience some features they would be interested in, for example posters, which suits this group of alternative teens because they are renoun for sticking them up on bedroom walls and making them into calendars.

It was also essential that I showed my unique selling point which is the fact my magazine promotes smaller unknown bands, to do this I placed a large front shot of my artist (in this case she being a unknown member of an underground band) in the center placed around all these well known bands which in this case make the audience seemingly interested, because they feel they need to find out who this artist is because knowledge within their music genre is a big factor within their social standing.

For my contents I split the page up into 5 main headings, this making it easy for my laid back fun searching audience to find what their looking for with relative ease.  It also makes the smaller niche audiences that could become interested in my magazine to search for the more mainstream artist features. The images also make the magazine interesting and intriguing to the audience, the two smaller images consist of weird faces and actions which interest the group because they want to find out about the story behind these, and these crazy and weird actions also make them further enticed. My main story image is the largest this is so most attention is on her, there is no heading around her deliberately so the audience still no not much about her but her page number in large lettering makes the audience once again interested in finding out who she is.

My double page spread try’s to relate to the audience through different fonts and colours, which make certain quotes, and important factors stand out. For example the main heading “GHOSTS” is in a distorted chipped font, which relates to the jerky rock exterior the artist, shows and the genre of music they create. The black heading across the image “behind the album” shows what the article is about but still doesn’t reveal anything about the band so the audience are intrigued still to find out who the female character is. The quote “dinosaurs and pyramids” is deliberately coloured differently to stand out from the text, this is so the target audience read this first and the words “dinosaurs and pyramids” is so weird and none connected this relates to what they are looking for and why this artist/band is for them. 

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

My magazine audience would be primarily Young Alternative groups but could attract such groups such as Indie Scenesters or Skaters. Most of this target group shop at stores such as HMV to find various mainstream musicians/bands but may shop at more independent online shops and search engines to find new music they enjoy such as Band Camp or YouTube recommended playlists. This group is always looking for more unknown and alternative bands so my magazine style suits the larger quantity of the group but it also offers news on mainstream artists within the rock/indie genre so this will relate to the Indie Scenesters and the Skaters. A large amount of my target audience will all wear similar clothing usually from mainstream shops such as Top Man & Top Shop so this similar clothing will be on the artists of my magazine therefore the audience increasingly relating to the contents. My audience will read magazines such as NME, Q, Kerrang and possibly Rock sound so essential bands such as Green Day, Muse and The Kooks have to be mentioned or featured to gain the audiences attention because this will be bands a large range of the group will listen to, but I also have to ensure that the new alternative bands coming through the music industry such as Francesqa, The Joy Formidable and The Ettes relate or have similar styles e.g. instruments, genre, clothes, hobbies, to these larger more well known bands so they can relate to these “unknown”, “underground” bands. My audience also watch large amounts of television, this consisting of programs such as Mock The Week, QI, Russell Howard and Jackass. This is because the genre is very laid back and the target audience are influenced by music that consists of fun, energetic scenes, which pushes this target market group away from Emo and Scene Kids. 

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your magazine and why? (DRAFT)

Bauer Media Group is the institution I choose to publish my magazine because of the similarity between the magazines they publish and the one I wanted to create. Bauer Media Group are well known for publishing Kerrang and Q magazine and because Kerrang magazine is orientated around rock and Q magazine around rock and indie I thought this would be a much suitable institution. My magazine is similar to their genre’s but appeals to a more music developing niche whilst also appealing to young teenagers who are constantly trying to find new music and the next big thing, for these reasons I think the intuition would like to publish my magazine.  Looking at the demographics of Q magazine they had a majority audience of males at 60% to 40%. This was similar to the demographics I wanted but I still wanted to make my magazine available to a wider selection of female audiences. To do so I decided to have a young female model to attract a young female audience because they would be able to relate to each other. This institution would distribute my magazine because it’s different to their already distributed magazines but offers a similar genre of music in which they know there is a large growing audience for.

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? (DRAFT 1)

My magazine is aimed at people who enjoy finding new and upcoming talent whilst also enjoying the larger bands within the indie rock genre. This genre is about being bold and being different so my proposed front cover image fits this stile. The test shots don’t express my true idea but a catalogue expression would really intrigue the audience and the face makeup would make the artist look innovative and different suiting the genre. The female artist will also gain a male audience if following the theory of Laura Mulvey’s “Male Gaze”. My font is very bold like the indie clothing style but keeps the rock like features with the full red and black colour schemes.

On the double page spread the writing is deliberately split to make it easier and less formal for the reader, so they seem relaxed and comfortable and can easily relate and enjoy reading the article.

My contents page has different parts that suit my target audience for example, the reviews section is something that would really intrigue the social group because they are constantly looking for new music within this genre so new reviews will show them possible musicians they could find themselves listening to and also will quickly tell them what the band are all about making it easier and more helpful to them. The style is very relaxed and easy to follow so it’s easy for the reader to use and keeps those comfortable and intrigued so they find it easy to find parts of the magazine that suit them.

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

Through researching the most highly rated magazines within their genres I found the most used conventions, and how professional magazines used them to promote and look aesthetically pleasing to the target audience. Through this I found the most popular front page layouts known as the “F” and “Z” format. I particularly liked the “F” format because it allowed cover lines to run down the left hand side with the main cover line standing out across the page, so I decided to base my front cover around this. 

When researching I particularly looked at Kerrang and NME magazine and took inspiration from the way both magazines set up their double page spreads. On one side they had the main article with “News” tabs and such and on the left page have an image relating to the article and I knew I wanted to set my article similar to this maybe having a quote or fact text box with the main image. I also took inspiration from Q magazine when deciding how to set out my contents page. I decided that I wanted to use large coloured rectangular text box’s to split the contents into different sub-headings and I also wanted to have images that would preview stories inside.

I decided to look at magazines that were similar to the genre I had decided indie and rock so I researched allot into Kerrang, NME, and Q magazines. When choosing my colour pallet I took allot of inspiration from NME and Q magazine because they were nearer the genre I was looking at. They frequently used the red, white and black colour scheme with the special change once in a while so I knew this would be appropriate scheme for my magazine. Using this colour scheme is very useful and I also decided to develop the use of the colours with changing certain letter colours in a word to make different words and different letters stand out.

Researching magazine’s that had a similar genre was very important when creating my magazine and also had a massive influence on my decision making because you can analyse and relate to why they have used certain conventions to gain an audience and to promote their magazine to the target market.

Final Magazine

My Front Cover Dilema (Proccess)

AFL Activity - Peer Evaluations - Feedback

AFL Activity - My Evaluations

 

The Process To Finished Draft

1st Draft (Cover, Contents, Double Page Spread)

My Pitch Evaluation

Overall I think my pitch went quite well, my Animoto explained allot about my magazine in 25 words and for this reason I didn't receive a massive amount of questions.  I think my pitch went successfully because I knew and done a large amount of research before hand so I was able to answer any questions easily and I could justify why I made certain decisions.  I think my pitch made me think about how I'm going to go about finding my artist, and how I'm going to go about the photo shoot. For example I need to have a reasonable idea about how many photos I'm going to have to take, and the mies en scene for the double page spread.

Test Shots

By doing my test shots I've realsied what I need to do to make my photoshoot go well. I need to think about how many photo's I need to take and I need to think about my location. I also need to improve in my own photography skills because I found it difficult to explain to my model what I wanted and what poses would be effective. I also need to improve on my shot taking because allot of it was rushed and not planned.

Mock Ups

Text Ideas

Institution Publishing My Magazine

Bauer Media Group publish Q magazine and Kerrang magazine. Q magazine varies in music genre's from pop to rock (including indie) so this could be an effective publisher as they know the market. As they also publish Kerrang they know the rock audience and because my magazine is aimed at Indie-rock it matches the two type of magazines they already publish so it would be a correct genre of magazine to be published by these.

Draft Article

“Tell It to Someone Who Cares!” the band’s lead singer Sammy James has been in the recording studio for the last 3 months and can’t wait to delve into the ins and outs of the band and the music she loves! We sat down with her and found out even more about the band and the bright future ahead!

Q:  Working up to the release of the album, how excited are you!?
A: Buzzing! It’s been a massive amount of work to get this far, and there is still a short period of that to go, but it’s starting to feel worth it, and we all can’t wait to start releasing new songs and video’s!

Q: There’s allot of media and press stirring up anticipation for the album “Dinosaurs & Pyramids”, do you feel any pressure in delivering music that suits them?
A:We will make the music we love, not what people want and expect, so to answer that question I believe the music we create will be our best music.

Q:  You’ve been compared to allot of artists and bands, but what makes you guys significant?
A: I think you only need to look at us to gain an understanding of what we’re about. The dress sense the haircuts, we all have our individual style but we all love the indie rock music that we make, but that doesn’t stop us going beyond boundaries!

Q: What do you mean by going beyond boundaries?
A: Well we don’t just stick to the same style; we like to make our music unique and make it important to ourselves, so our songs show emotion and may meet hot topics which aren’t usually associated with our genre of music.

Q: You’re really positive about the bands motto, do you think that helps?
A: Without a doubt, any band or artist who isn’t confident in their own music or style is never going to make it in this kind of industry. You have to believe in your own music and you shouldn’t be changed by people’s perception. It’s all about sharing your opinions and your feelings, not somebody else’s and as a band we help each other.

Q: You speak about being in a band, how is that different from a solo artist?
A: I always knew I never had any intentions of being a solo artist; I always loved playing guitar and couldn’t wait to join in with people playing different instruments. I suppose the best times are always being together, practicing and having a laugh constantly just makes life seem all the more adventurous! Something that wouldn’t be there if I was a solo artist.

Q:  You’re new single “Raaw!” has become quite a large hit within the indie and rock world, why did you decide as a band to release this ahead of anything else?
A: I think we all came to an agreement that we wanted a song to represent what the album is going to be like and I think we’ve been successful in the terms of representing the band and what we stand for. The song is to a quick tempo but also has slow paced break downs which just shows what’s in store, to be honest shows our brilliance! (Sammy laughs)

Q: Can you give us an insight on how the recordings gone, and what you’ve been up to?
A: It’s a magical time in any band! You look around you think “my god! Is this actually happening?” and then you go crazy! It’s not the same as being in the garage and making new music, but seeing everything come together is a great feeling. We have all had a great time along with the production team, and some great evenings!

Q: You seem the most outrageous character out of the band, is this true?
A: Ha-ha! Well I think the guys will agree with you but they’re no Samaritans! Jamie has been in plenty of trouble involving a fisherman’s rod and an extreme amount of calpol but that’s his story to tell!

Q: You all seem to hold good memory’s together, are you guys like family?
A: Yes! My brothers are everything to me even if were not blood related, this is actually a very weird experience for me, being interviewed without them by my side, but they really pushed me to do it!

Q: More on the music side of your life, what influences have you had?
A: Well I, Jamie and Dan have always had similar influences which I think is why we work so well together. We loved the rock 80’s and 90’s and even older decades but I think we look particularly on artists who are working around now. The Joy Formidable, The Kills and even The Ting Tings but we also have taken inspiration from Jimmy Hendrix and Kurt Cobain who helped change music.

Q: You’re music has created an ever growing fan base, but you have had your fair share of critics
A: Tell it to someone who cares! Every artist, band or orchestra has people who insist on trying to change over people’s opinions. We will have people who dislike us, but stuff them! We will only care about our fans, and we will create music we that we like.

Q: Can you give us any insight on the album? Or the name?  Just where did that come from!?
A: Dinosaurs and Pyramids, well funny story! We were all going out for a celebration night after finishing our tour and we still hadn’t decided on an album name. We came up with various ideas but none of them we were all fully comfortably on. We decided to stop thinking about it that night and just have fun and that’s when we came across Jamie’s awful jumper choice! Consisting of high dinosaurs, pyramids and planets, straight away we said Dinosaurs and Pyramids, and we stuck with it!

Q: Well, you sure live a weird but wonderful life! But is there anything you can reveal about the upcoming months?
A: I’m really not allowed to say, but stuff it! Get ready for some releases in the near future, and get ready to buy our new single that we will be putting out there next week!

Q: Anew single! Fantastic news, anything about it particularly?
A: “Frankfurters” will be out late next week! So, get ready to go crazy! And our album will be available for pre-order at the same time sooooo go spend!