Friday, 16 January 2015
Thursday, 15 January 2015
Evaluation (DRAFT)
1.
In
what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and
conventions of real media products?
After looking at my finished
product, you can see that my magazine uses the codes of conventions that is
commonly used in R&B magazines such as XXL and VIBE. I have consistently
used the popular colour scheme of black, red and white within my front cover,
contents and DPS as these colours are regularly used within this genre.
Maintaining a consistent colour scheme allows the magazine to stick to the
house style whilst giving an organised and professional look. This follows with
a big, bright and bold masthead in capitals in order to stand out and grab the
audience’s attention. I made sure that my front cover image was a medium shot
which is advised for a front cover as it gives the reader a clear view of the
featured artist. My image also uses direct mode of address, I purposely used
this kind of shot to create intensity and a connection between the artist and
audience. Other conventions familiar in my magazine that are used in other
R&B magazines is the use of a skyline, cover lines, pull quotes and
teasers; I used a range of different font sizes for these but made sure they
were considerably smaller than the masthead as I wanted them to stand out without
taking too much attention away from the brand name ‘PRESTIGE’. I also used these conventions to give my
magazine a professional look that would help it look more realistic and compete
with other selling magazines in shops. One thing that makes my magazine
different from others is my double page spread.
Within urban music magazines, it is very common to use 1 large image of
the featured artist, however I used 5 small/medium sized ones. I did this
because I felt that the reason why my audience would buy that issue of the
magazine is because of the artist featured on the front cover, therefore they
should get their values worth and see a range of images of the artist to get a
rough idea of their personality and image. Another thing that differs my magazine
from others is the Q&A format I have used instead of a more journalistic
format with embedded quotes from the artist. The reason why I chose not to use
this format was because I wanted my readers to get a clear insight of exactly
how the cover star speaks which allows them to see how they are behind the
scenes.
2. How does your media product
represent particular social groups?
The models I have used for my
magazine are people who represent my target audience. They fall within the
target age group of 16-30 (majority students), by having people like this
throughout my magazine, it relates to the target audience for the reason that
they are similar to each other. The models represent the target audience well
due their ethnicity, as they are black females and my primary audience is
African’s and Caribbean’s. Another way
to represent my target audience is the clothing in the mise-en-scene of the
images. The clothing used was a very important part in the image I wanted my
models to portray. By having matching outfits, similar colours, and
fashionable, trendy designer clothes that are worn on a regular basis by my
target audience, represents the urban community. As the target audience is
mainly middle class black people who have an urban upbringing, they are more
likely to be interested in the models image as it closely resembles themselves.
In order for my magazine to represent the audience, I made use of slang such as
the word ‘swag’ to make sure that those reading the magazine can relate.
However I used majority standard English and made sure I did not overuse the
slang in order to maintain some form of professionalism.
3.
What
kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I initially chose Spin Media as
my magazine publisher, however after considering all the other possible
company’s, I have decided that Spin Media is not the ideal company for my
magazine. Spin Media is the publishing institution for VIBE magazine which is
also a music magazine dedicated to urban music. In 2007, Vibe bought Spin
Media. Spin Media is not an ideal publications company to publish PRESTIGE
magazine due to having a magazine of the same genre already on the market.
Harris Publications is the publishing company for XXL magazine which is also an
urban magazine. The company publishes 6 issues of the magazine over the period
of a year. XXL joins VIBE as the top 2 urban music magazines in the business.
HP would not be suitable reason being that they currently publish a magazine
very similar to PRESTIGE magazine. Neither of these magazine institutions would
be a smart decision to publish more than magazine of the same type of content.
Johnson Publishing Company is the largest African American owned publishing
firm in the world. They publish EBONY magazine and JET magazine which are both
urban magazines marketed primarily towards black communities. The content of
these magazine regard areas such as health, lifestyle, relationships, fashion,
entertainment etc. However it does not currently have an urban magazine dedicated
strictly to music in the market. Ebony Magazine was the first to be published
by JPC. Since 1945, JPC have continued to publish urban information concerning
various topics. Due to growing demand for the magazine in the UK, JPC have
started to distribute the magazine within the UK since 2008. Ebony is pushing
on a monthly basis around the world. JET magazine is an American weekly
magazine that is marketed mainly towards the black community. It is published
on a weekly basis to provide readers with new and recent information. Publishing
and distributing PRESTIGE magazine from the UK would further enhance JPC
presence within the magazine industry, PRESTIGE would become their first UK
based magazine which gives my magazine a mark whilst benefitting JPC and increasing
the company’s brand awareness. It also allows JPC to reach out to a wider
audience of those interested in urban music. The distribution methods for
PRESTIGE will be a magazine (main line of distribution-monthly issues
distributed across the UK and USA), E-Zines (an electronic format will be
created in order for those with electronic devices can also easily access the
magazine issues), smart phone apps (as smart phones play a huge part in day to
day life, information would be regularly posted and updated through this app),
twitter/Instagram/facebook (to keep the awareness of my magazine trending and
current on a day to day basis through social networking)
4. Who would be the audience
for your media product?
Kayla Campbell – 21 year old
nursery assistant. She has a degree in child care and inspires to be a full
time primary school teacher. In her spare time, Kayla usually goes to the
cinema, shopping centres and eats at restaurants. She also likes to party and
spend time with her close friends. She has strong interest in dancing and went
to a dance academy for 5 years throughout college and university. She
specialises in street dance.
Ryan Williams – 18 year old
university student studying music production. He lives out of London at his
university campus but regularly goes back to London to visit his family who
have a Caribbean ethnicity. He is a massive sports fan and loves to watch
basketball whilst also being a member of his university basketball team. Ryan’s
passion for urban music has resulted in him aspiring to be a successful music
producer and follow the same path as other producers such as Dr Dre and Kanye
West.
Dislikes:
Music Genre: Rock & Classical
Artist(s): One Direction & Justin Bieber
Album(s): Bound 2 (Kanye West)
Song: Party Rock Anthem – LMFAO
Movie Genre: Musicals
Movie: Hunger Games
Actor/Actress: Cameron Diaz
Fashion Brands: Super Dry
Likes:
Music Genre: Rap & UK Grime
Artist(s): Drake,
Kendrick Lamar & Chris Brown
Album(s): Take Care (Drake)
Song: Try Me (Def Loaf)
Movie Genre: Action
& Comedy
Movie: Think Like A Man
Actor/Actress: Kevin Hart & Meagan Good
Fashion Brands: Prada & Gucci
Dislikes:
Music Genre: Rock & Classical
Artist(s): Rihanna & 2 Chainz
Album(s): Yeezus (Kanye West)
Song: RED (Taylor Swift)
Movie Genre: Horror
Movie: Nightmare on Elm Street
Actor/Actress: Zac Efron
Fashion Brands: Primark
Likes:
Music Genre: R&B, Hip-Hop & Soul
Artist(s): Beyonce,
Drake & Nicki Minaj
Album(s): The Pinkprint (Nicki Minaj)
Song: Feelin’ Myself (Beyonce ft Nicki Minaj)
Movie Genre: Black Romance & Comedy
Movie: Think Like A Man
Actor/Actress: Kevin
Hart & Meagan Good
Fashion Brands: LV, H&M, ASOS & Zara
5. How did you attract/address your
audience?
·
Young attractive female on front cover – attract
males and female
·
Shes relatable – wearing trendy affordable
fashionable urban clothing
·
All black clothes are popular in urban culture
·
Shes looking at directly at the reader, straight
away creates a connection
·
Her image matches the meaning of the masthead
·
My skyline has very famous artists featured,
automatically attract the audience as they are urban celebrities – would not
have the same effect if used a different name eg lady gaga
·
Big and bold text to make the most relevant
artists stand out
·
Colour scheme – straight away know the genre
“I think
this is the strongest aspect of your magazine because it looks realistic and
professional. The image is in front of the masthead which makes it stand out.
The colour scheme and font used is consistent which makes it look organised.
Everything blends in well.”
“You have used a range of
different size of fonts which is good. You have also included teasers, the
price of the magazine and skyline. The model is looking at directly at the
camera which is good for attracting your audiences. Overall, well done it looks
pleasing, I would buy it.”
“Great skyline, masthead
and institutional aspects. - Improve the layout of your cover lines and teasers. Make pull quote
bigger.”
·
Used clothing to attract audience, wearing
designer/common/trendy clothing that is popular in urban background – relate to
models (same dress sense)
·
All the models used are attractive which makes
them more appealing to the audience
·
The colours are bright/vibrant which attracts
attention, gives a light mood – clear quality pictures engages readers eyes
·
No.55, model is holding a guitar – attracts
people who have interests in instruments/performing
·
Starbuck brand – people can relate
·
No.50 – interests those who like rap
·
I used successful celebrities featured in the
contents to attract and interest the audience – people who they look up or
aspire to be like
·
Regulars includes things like questionnaires,
involves the audience
“This is your best product-
it's unique and has a brilliant layout. Great additional photography. Range of
font sizes, images and colour make this look good.”
“Contents page looks full
with loads to offer which is effective in making someone buy it. There is a
wide range different of images used. Pull quotes are also used a few times
which is good. There can be more text on what the magazine offers but overall
it is good.”
“The contents page is
structured properly with numbers of the features on the images. You have
included regulars and your magazine name which is good. The pull quotes are nicely used as
you've used more than one. A range of different images are used, showing
variety. Overall, it's a good
contents page but the page numbers are missing.”
·
Used more
than one picture, automatically grabs audience attention as it is not a common
layout
·
Used words like new and exclusive to get
attention
·
The questions I asked were ones that would
really help my audience get a good understanding of the artist
·
Used word for word what the audience said
instead of just using a few quotes so that the audience good get the real deal
of what the artist is like
·
Consistent colour scheme, did not use vibrant
colours as I did not want to distract the audience from the text
·
Large amount of content used in DPS – good value
for money
QUOTES:
“A range
of different images are used, which shows variety. The phrase 'new and
exclusive' is good because it attracts the reader’s attention.”
“Perfect use of space, range of images which are suitable for the magazine and appeals to the
audience, best piece of production - add
some colour the differentiate the questions and the answers.”
6.
What have you learnt about technologies from
the process of constructing this product?
Camera
In this
task I had to take some photos within a photography studio. I had never used a
professional camera before nor had I used it whilst using other photography
equipment. I had to adjust the lighting when using the studio and for this
reason I learnt how to use a lighting umbrella, which its purpose is to keep
the light on the main focus of the photograph without much light escaping from
the picture. I learnt how to shoot photos in a variety of shots such as medium
close up which is used on the front cover. Using a professional camera has
benefited my production as it make my photos look very professional, therefore
helping my magazine to look professional and official.
Photoshop
For
the front cover of my music magazine I had to use Adobe Photoshop in order to
create our cover page of the magazine. Photoshop was a little hard for me to
understand at the beginning as I have never used it before. It’s a complex
program and took me a while to learn how to use the programme effectively as
well as how to use all of the functions. As I frequently used it, I became more
and more confident with regards to being able to operate the software. One
thing that I particularly found hard about using Photoshop was all of the
layers that I had to keep under control as I had several. I had to make sure
that they were position in the right order so that certain layers were
above/behind each other for example text layers the front cover image.
InDesign
I
found InDesign quite easy to understand as it was quite straight forward and
more practical to use for constructing my contents page and DPS. Photoshop was
more appropriate for manipulating images. I learnt how to import pictures to
JPEGs. I liked this software as I found it easier to explore and do things. One
challenge that I came across with was finding an image that would not pixelate
when on a double page spread. InDesign was similar to Photoshop, so I used
similar features and techniques used in Photoshop into my work that I did using
InDesign.
Blogger
When
it came to using Blogger, I found it quite useful as it is an easy way for many
of my class mates to access the work that I've done during lessons. It was a
great way for me to get feedback and help me to improve my work. Personally I
found using Blogger quite simple, this is because it is a straight forward
website where it doesn't involve a lot of editing requirements. Within this
task blogger was extremely useful as I was using it helped me to see exactly
where I am and what work I was missing when it came to creating my music
magazine.
Prezi
This
was a form of a software that I had never used before but I found it very
useful. It was a great way of organising and laying out my work whilst making
it look professional. I learnt that Prezi can be used to create interactive and
visually fun presentations, along with having a nice theme that suited the
genre of my magazine. I also learnt how to add text, import images and videos
and add pathways using this software.
7.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do
you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
·
I have learnt how to take professional
and high quality photos using a professional digital camera
·
I learnt through my research what an
urban music magazine looks like and what text sizes, image shots, layouts to
use in order to make my work visually attractive and realistic, for example in
my college magazine front cover, majority of the text was the same size (large)
and all in the a regular boring font. I changed this in my music magazine and
only made the most important and significant text stand out
·
I learnt where to position things on
my magazine
·
I learnt how to use a consistent
colour scheme throughout to make my magazine look more organised and
professional
·
I used a wider variety of pull quotes
and included a skyline to give the front cover more information of what will
come up in my magazine
·
I included a barcode and website for
my magazine (www.prestige.com) to
make it look more realistic.
·
Boring masthead in college magazine,
model looked like a random person however the music magazine looked more
planned and organised (specific clothes chosen for model)
·
Masthead font was much more unique and
eye catching
CONTENTS
There
is a huge different between my contents page for college magazine and my music
magazine. My student magazine used very basic fonts and the colour scheme was
not consistent, this was because I was not aware that there were particular
sites that I could access that specialised in different fonts. The layout of the
magazine was very boring and uncreative, it lacked the professional look that I
made for my music magazine. There was several signs of improvement as I used
much more images that were related to my genre and were eye catching, bright
and high quality. There is a much higher level of professionalism, which I feel
is because of the range of software’s I learnt to use efficiently within the
gap of producing each product.
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