In both AS and A2 level I have learned how to use my creativity and digital technology skills in every way possible. I used many different programs in order to ensure I could achieve the best grade possible.
Firstly, in AS level I used two specific programs: Photoshop and InDesign, to complete my magazine. I had previously learned how to use Photoshop as I had taken GCSE Media, where I had to create a magazine for this year too. Therefore, I already had knowledge on Photoshop which meant I could improve my skills even further. With Photoshop, I was able to edit the images I would use for my magazine. With this I used tools such as the crop tool, airbrush tool, the cutting tool, colouring tool and many more, to change the look of my image and suit it to my music genre. I found that the original images I used were very raw and in order for them to 'look the part', I needed to add filters, remove blemishes etc to make it look professional and suitable in every way possible. But of course, in order to do this I needed extra help. Instead of asking teachers, I used my resources carefully and went on YouTube, searching for tutorials. With YouTube I found useful videos which guided me through air-brushing, for example, which is a task I needed particular help on. I had never airbrushed a model before, so using this video to guide me, eventually lead to me knowing exactly what to do when it came to this.
Secondly, I used InDesign to actually produce my magazine. Through InDesign I would import my completed/edited images and make my magazine look professional by using many different tools. I found particular tools much more useful than others, such as the 'stensil' tool, where the program gives you temporary lines on your magazine to help you line up features in your magazine and measure them correctly. In comparison to GCSE Media Studies, we did not use InDesign to make our magazine - we used Photoshop - so features like this were really enlightening and insightful. I found that I could create my magazine a lot more professional-looking in comparison to the previous year with InDesign.
In comparison to this, in A2 of course we've had to complete a music video. Evidently, we've had to use different programs in order to do this, and this was mainly Adobe Premiere Pro. The tools in Premiere vary very much so from the previous programs we have used such as InDesign, as this is a program of course for editing videos, where you do not airbrush etc.. However, we could use very similar tools such as we can still add filters, crop the videos, etc.. With Adobe Premiere Pro I could pick suitable transitions between each of my pieces of footage after I had filmed, such as fading them into each other or just using a straight cut. I could also use tools like the slow motion tool, which I used with creativity in order to portray a dramatic, emotional effect in some of my shots. For example, when my actors are 'arguing', I used the slow motion tool to slow down this scene by 30% - otherwise I found that normal-paced scenes like this were less effective. Furthermore, I used the marker tool to mark certain points in the music video of where a certain lyric begins, so that I can start some of my footage here and get the miming right. Therefore it looked a lot more professional and believable. So, you can see how the tools provided really changed the perspective of my music video and gave it a successful effect.
Lastly, over the course of two years for both A2 and AS I have used little pieces of technology that have particularly helped me along the way with small things, such as the websites: Scribd, Slideshare and Issuu, which I used to upload all of my work to my blog in different ways. Also, I used the program Cam Studio to screen-capture my progress and how I produced things, for example the 'heading of my magazine' or the 'miming in my music video'. Overall, my development in the creativity and digital technology department has been really successful. I have been able to develop my understanding and knowledge of programs I would have never before been able to use, and from this education, learned how to use tools and understand further how all of this can benefit me and my work.
Research and planning
In terms of research for my AS coursework which was to
create a magazine, I did many different research tasks in order to ensure I had
enough knowledge on magazines and the genre I was making my magazine on: R&B.
A particular task I found really helpful was the ‘Codes & Conventions’
task, where I created a powerpoint on: the front cover of a magazine, the
contents page and the double page spread. To create these documents, I used
Google in my advantage to find out what the typical conventions of a magazine
are. This helped me establish simple aspects of a magazine that I could
replicate in order to make mine look as professional and successful as
possible. Through this, I was able to find out the typical colour scheme used
in magazines, the image size, the page numbers used, that they use large
headlines, etc. It also gave me an idea on pricing, what the model should look
like, and that I should include a website and a barcode. I truly believe that
without this research I would not have known properly about these small
features and therefore would not have been able to make my magazine as
professional as I did. I also did similar product research where I Google
Image’d previous magazines and analysed them in terms of their features which
again helped because I knew that these were professional magazines that could
inspire me. Along with many other research tasks, some particularly helpful
tasks are for example the ‘existing mastheads’ document I made, where I searched
for mastheads that existed for magazines. These gave me masthead ideas as it
made me realise that headings should be short, cutting and they should stand
out – therefore it stopped me from picking a long, complicated masthead for
example. Another poignant research task was the audience research I collected
through making a questionnaire and handing this out to my class peers. It asked
questions such as “what is your favourite genre of music?” and “what do you
look for in a magazine when purchasing it?” After receiving the results I put
the data into a bar chart which enabled me to look at this feedback. This was
really useful because it did influence me in how I created my magazine, for
example I found that the majority of people in my class preferred R&B music
so I wanted to make my magazine an
R&B genre even more so after this. The other advantage of using my AS Media
Studies class as the audience for my questionnaire was that they were actually
my target audience, making the feedback even more suitable and reliable.
Furthermore,
in terms of the planning for my AS coursework, firstly we completed a
preliminary task. This consisted of producing a quick magazine for our school,
Haydon, in terms of a front cover and contents page. I found that this task really
helped me because looking back, it was really quite tacky and
unprofessional-looking, so my improvements have been massive. I believe that
this task was a head-start for me, showing me what I think of a magazine before
I had done any research or planning for my actual main coursework magazine.
However, when planning for my actual magazine I made use of important tasks
like the ‘props & costume’ task. In this task I ‘Google Imaged’ typical
costumes that male and female models wear in existing R&B magazines. I
concluded all of these costume images in a power point and uploaded it to
‘Blogger’. For me, this summarised the type of things my model should wear and
how I should create her look to make sure she represents the R&B look
sufficiently. Furthermore, I found some tasks really useful in terms of
defining the R&B genre for me, such as the mood board and colour
connotations task. With the mood board, I found many different images on Google
that I felt linked to the R&B genre and put them all into a powerpoint. For
me, this task really made me realise what R&B actually is and what I think
of when it comes to mind – influencing how I styled my magazine. Furthermore,
the colour connotations defined each colour in terms of what emotion/feeling
they give off. This ensured that I used the right house colours in my magazine,
instead of using grey for example which would have given off a grey and classy
impression, which is not what an R&B is meant to be. So, I used the house
colours black and purple: black being plain and authoritive, and purple being
quirky and ‘cool’. I also did a lot of independent planning for my magazine,
such as going to shops and finding existing magazines on the shelf, taking a
photo of them and doing a micr0-analysis of them, which I found really opened
my eyes to what I actually appreciate in a magazine, therefore inspiring me for
my own.
In contrast
to AS, in A2 I had to create a music video which was really different to AS in
many ways. In order to prepare me in every way for the production of my music
video, I did a lot of research on the song I was using itself (“Guns and
Horses”), the song’s artist (Ellie Goulding), the artist’s producer/director
and the genre itself (Pop). One of the tasks I found particularly helpful in
terms of research was the ‘history of the Pop genre’, which helped me define a
music video, establish the origination of the music video in the 1930s, the
modern era and examples of ‘massive’ music videos. Establishing the history of
music videos I find particularly important because it helped me to continue
original conventions carried through, through decades that have made music
videos successful. Therefore I made sure to take note of these conventions to
use in mine. I also researched into genre, which consisted of defining genre,
how audiences use genre and theorists’ take on genre, such as Andrew Goodwin. I
also did the same for the pop genre which I found particularly helpful as it
portrayed to me what typical conventions the pop genre uses, which is of course
is my genre, so I knew I should re-use some of these conventions to make my
music video ‘conventional’ enough and professional so that the audience can
understand it and familiarise with it. What also added to this help was the
‘codes and conventions of a music video’ research I did. I also analysed
existing music videos, such as ‘Rude Boy’ by Rihanna which I found really Post
Modern. By analysing each convention of ‘Rude Boy’, a pop song, I was able to
establish how this music video was made successful and how I can apply certain
conventions to my own music video. I also researched my target audience,
talking about my primary and secondary audience, and what sort of people I
think would watch my music video. By establishing my target audience, I knew I
was now able to use certain conventions to appeal to this audience which made
me feel really organised. Furthering this research even more, I worked to
receive audience feedback by handing out a questionnaire to random people in my
year at school. The questionnaire asked questions such as “what sort of setting
do you think suits an acoustic guitar best?” After collecting the results, I
put the data into a bar chart on powerpoint for each question and concluded
each result, explaining how the results helped me. I found that this research
really helped me realise how I should make my music video to suit my target
audience, so I was pleased with this. Moreover, of course I needed research on
my digipak too. For this, I analysed
existing digipaks and explained how they were successful, what I appreciated in
them, and what particular features reinforced their genre. Using existing
digipaks as inspiration was really helpful because I knew that they were
actually successful, so by re-using some of their conventions, I had hope in
making my own music video successful. Lastly, in terms of research for my album
advert, I again did research of existing album adverts and analysed these too.
Another very helpful research task for my music video was analysing a previous
A2 student’s music video. Some professional music videos’ features are harder
to replicate, whereas I found that looking at an A2 student’s music video was
more realistic and helpful, because it showed me the extent to which we could
use our creativity in our music videos. I also found faults and positives in
particular previous A2 music videos, which inspired me as it made me realise what
mistakes I shouldn’t make in my own music video and what would be good ideas
for my own, too.
I did
everything I could to plan for my music video, digipak and album advert. I used
so many planning tasks to my advantage which I found really helped me.
Post-production
Post-production is the stage of where we have taken all footage/photos and are ready to 'better' and improve everything we have, and make it all look presentable to the best of our abilities. In AS level, after taking the photos for my magazine I used Photoshop to edit each one of my photos. I used all of my resources as best as possible, for example I used YouTube tutorials to help me use Photoshop to edit my photos. Although I previously used Photoshop for my magazine in GCSE, I wasn't sure how to airbrush my model and remove blemishes etc.. The tutorials really helped me, and being able to use tools such as the airbrush tool etc helped me make my images look professional and presentable. In GCSE we had used Photoshop to edit both the photos and create the actual magazine, in comparison to AS level where we were able to use a program called InDesign to produce our magazines. I found InDesign really great in ensuring that my magazine looked professional, as it gave me the privilege to use tools such as the 'stensil tool' where it would line up where the columns would be on my magazine so that I could line these up correctly without them looking 'wonky etc'. In terms of the final publishing of my magazine, I was able to use a website 'Issuu' to allow the viewers to flick through my magazine like visual pages. Again, this is another useful utility that allowed me to increase the professional feel to my final product. As you can see, in AS there were several different programs that really helped me in order to produce the best possible product and I was really pleased with this.
In comparison, A2 gave me a completely different perspective on post-production. I had one particular program I used in order to help me finalise my product to the best it could possibly look, which was Adobe Premiere Pro. I found Photoshop a lot easier to use than Adobe Premiere Pro as with Photoshop, like mentioned before, I had already used it in GCSE and was more familiar with it; however I found Adobe Premiere Pro a lot more helpful and insightful to just how much it can transform your work. After taking the footage for my music video, I used Adobe Premiere Pro to import these videos and edit them. Throughout this process I could use many different tools to adjust my footage to my preferred look. For example, I used the cutting tool to get rid of parts I didn't want from my footage, such as when Georgina might laugh before she begins her acting, I would cut this out to make sure it looks professional as possible and can be taken seriously. I also added different cut transformations to my videos to create a certain feel or emotion to them or to exaggerate their transformation which was really useful, such as the "film fade" which I used in between the transformations between the flashback shots and the performance/journey shots. I figured this would make it easier for the audience to establish what they were watching and to make it look professional. Another way of establishing the stage of the music video and adding an emotion to a shot was by adding a "black and white" effect to the gymnastic shots of Jessica, and also adding a slow-motion aspect to it which was really helpful. I felt like it highlighted the drama and emotion in the shot, so as you can see this is another great aspect of post-production.
Lastly, when doing the preliminary task we had to create a magazine for our school. After taking the pictures, we put them straight onto Photoshop without editing them, because we didn't know how to edit them at this stage. Therefore you can really see the transformation in a picture without post-production, because without Photoshop, an image would just be raw and may look very unprofessional.
Using conventions for real world texts
In order to create the most realistic, believable product that would attract our target audience as much as possible, we as students would need to use typical conventions from real world Media texts in both AS and A2 level. In AS level this meant I had to do a lot of research in order to ensure I had enough knowledge on magazines and the genre I was making my magazine on: R&B. A particular task I found really helpful was the ‘Codes & Conventions’ task, where I created a powerpoint on: the front cover of a magazine, the contents page and the double page spread. To create these documents, I used Google in my advantage to find out what the typical conventions of a magazine are. This helped me establish simple aspects of a magazine that I could replicate in order to make mine look as professional and successful as possible. Through this, I was able to find out the typical colour scheme used in magazines, the image size, the page numbers used, that they use large headlines, etc. It also gave me an idea on pricing, what the model should look like, and that I should include a website and a barcode. I also did similar product research where I Google Image’d previous magazines and analysed them in terms of their features which again helped because I knew that these were professional magazines that could inspire me. Along with many other research tasks, some particularly helpful tasks are for example the ‘existing mastheads’ document I made, where I searched for mastheads that existed for magazines. These gave me masthead ideas as it made me realise that headings should be short, cutting and they should stand out – therefore it stopped me from picking a long, complicated masthead for example. Therefore, here you can see how I reused many conventions of typical magazines to fit in with the "norm" and make sure mine looks professional and realistic. I also made sure to look at existing R&B magazines and I looked at the type of headlines they used etc. and made sure to word my headlines/sublines very similar to these in terms of phrasing, using slang etc.. This is because it is clear that these magazines appeal to their target audience for a reason and because they had a similar target audience to my own (teenagers/young people) I felt that reciprocating this typical 'slang headline' convention was important. This is just one prime example of how I reused typical conventions of real world Media texts in AS.
In terms of applying conventions from real world media texts to my AS level product, I researched into genre, which consisted of defining genre, how audiences use genre and theorists’ take on genre, such as Andrew Goodwin. I also did the same for the pop genre which I found particularly helpful as it portrayed to me what typical conventions the pop genre uses, which is of course is my genre, so I knew I should re-use some of these conventions to make my music video ‘conventional’ enough and professional so that the audience can understand it and familiarise with it. What also added to this help was the ‘codes and conventions of a music video’ research I did. I also analysed existing music videos, such as ‘Rude Boy’ by Rihanna which I found really Post Modern. By analysing each convention of ‘Rude Boy’, a pop song, I was able to establish how this music video was made successful and how I can apply certain conventions to my own music video. I also researched my target audience, talking about my primary and secondary audience, and what sort of people I think would watch my music video. By establishing my target audience, I knew I was now able to use certain conventions to appeal to this audience which made me feel really organised. I made sure to really look into the typical mise-en-scene of pop music videos, such as the typical settings they use, props and costumes. I discovered that a lot of 'love' pop music videos typically use a teenage relationship/breakup to appeal to their young target audience. Therefore this really influenced me into choosing this option for my music video and using an actual real-life couple as the main subject of my music video. I also looked into costumes etc used in pop videos and found that with acoustic-sounding songs often used casual costumes such as jeans etc to make the characters understandable/relate-able and believable to the young target audience. I also noticed that a lot of pop music videos use both performance and narrative-based shots that are balanced and flick into one another every now and then. I thought this gave the music video a really insightful view from the performer's perspective and found that it was really appreciated by the target audience, so I reciprocated this convention. Furthermore, I also found that the female protagonists used were always represented as innocent to provoke sympathy from the audience, and I noticed that it did in fact provoke sympathy/empathy in myself when watching the music videos, so I knew it was a great idea to use this convention and make sure my female protagonist, Georgina, came across as feminine and innocent as possible so that she comes across as a 'vulnerable victim' easy to relate to.
First Draft
This is my magazine first draft. Here, we have my front cover, 2 pages to my contents page and 4 pages to my double page spread. The magazine name I picked was 'the game' representing the competition between artists that they call the game. Ideally this gives my magazine a fiery feel to it as the audience will feel as if it will consist varying amounts of contrasting artists competing with eachother. I used the house colours of purple, black and white; - simple, classy and very R&B. As we can see, on my front cover I have used many sell lines to attract the audience and have made sure that they are bold with drop shadows in order to stand out. Furthermore, it has features to further attract the audience such as a mention of a prize at stake "WIN! Free signed Ciara CD" so that they are aware that they will get a reward back for their money's worth. On the contents page I have used a sort of triangular purple shape with a low transparency to add a 'funky' and quirky feel to the page. It will be intriguing for the audience to view a magazine with a few features to it that are different to the usual. For the listing of the contents' headings such as "on the cover" and "exclusives" I have used a 'fancy' script font that looks quite formal and pretty. I think this adds a classy edge to the magazine. I have used many pictures too, and at the bottom of the page I have put a picture of an iPhone with my front cover on it and text next to it stating that the reader can download an app for the magazine, and next to this is the 'Twitter' logo allowing the reader to follow us on the social networking site. This allows my young audience involve themselves with my magazine online too which is what many teenagers nowadays like to do; - go on social networking sites. As you can see at the bottom of each page I have put the month and year "December 2012" and the page number in bold next to it, so that the audience can easily navigate through my magazine. On the double page spread I have used a white quote from the article to instantly capture the reader's attention, and then "CASSIE STARR" in capitals. The text runs throughout the page, laid-out organised and easy to navigate through. Then, I have put a black and white 3x3 grid of close ups of my model doing different facial expressions. I figured that the black and white colour adds a classy look to the page but yet the juxtaposition between my model's contrasting facial expressions creates a quirky look to it that the reader may instantly be drawn to. At the bottom of the page, I have also added some slanted pictures of my model supposedly "at her last photoshoot" and her "excstatic at her fans' reaction to her new album release". This adds a realistic feature to my magazine as it is almost giving evidence for the things "Cassie" has done and events that have happened such as these. On the second two pages of my double page spread I have used a long shot of my model inbetween the text and also a mid shot just to seperate the text and keep the reader interested in what is being said and the pictures being shown.
Final Draft
Front Cover:
The final front cover of my R&B music magazine 'The Game' has a consistent colour scheme using the same purple, black and white house colours which contrast well with my model's skin tone in the main image, aswell as her bright red lipstick. Furthermore, I think these colours also juxtapose well with her pink, yellow and green floral crop-top which adds a quirky feel to my front page. I feel the use of the three main colours gives my magazine a basic, simple look which will be more appealing to the audience as too many colours will come across as too complex and confusing for the reader, therefore perhaps putting them off. I chose the colour white for my masthead as I feel the colour is refreshing for the audience to look at, plus I used a Bevel Emboss and Drop Shadow effect on it so that it stands out from the main image and is the first feature to grab the reader's attention. Furthermore, I felt it was important to have 'CASSIE STARR' my main artist's name in large capital letters as she is the most important artist in the issue. For my sell lines I used the font Century Gothic which is a basic font, taking away any complexity and too much variety from the page. As you can see, my sell lines "backstage with.. Rihanna", "tickets to see.. Miguel" and "private gig with.. Beyonce" follow a simple almost repetitive 'list-of-three' effect which is simple for the reader to look at and understand, therefore standing out at them more. This will create the effect that being able to attend these gigs, backstage passes and getting tickets for concerts is also easy which is exactly what my teenage target audience will want. I used the font Georgia with a black colour and Drop Shadow on the artists' names so that it grabs the reader's attention immediately and they instantly know what the selline is about. As you can see, I've also added a "+ top 10 R&B songs right now" selline where the number '10' is a white font in a purple box so that the reader's attention is brought to this instantly making them wonder what the number is about, along with the plus sign making the reader feel as if they receive extra for what they have paid for. Plus a plus symbol is simple and easy for anyone to immediately understand. Aswell as this, I felt it was crucial to include a feature about the reader being able to win a prize which will again make them feel as if they are getting more than what they 'bargained for'. I included this aspect in a purple circle shape which is different to the rest of the aspects on my magazine therefore making it stand out. Furthermore as you can see I have also included purple banners at the top and bottom of the front cover with a Bevel Emboss effect on them making them seem '3D', with them both mentioning awards, concerts and 'hottest and latest R&B music' on them. The effect of this will be that the reader will feel a lot of opportunities and information is included in the magazine and that it is worthy of the money they have paid for it. Finally, I feel that the body language of the model I used was important because I wanted her to dominate the page and represent my genre well. The fact that my model is using direct eye contact with the camera lense represents that she is not shy and is welcoming, creating a feeling of personal connection between the artist and the reader, making the reader feel as if they are 'the same'. This will lure the reader in more to read the magazine. My model's stance is very basic; - her arms up behind her head portrays that she is welcoming and confident with nothing to hide. Aswell as this, her curly, bouncy hair, bright red lipstick and colourful floral crop top suggests that my model is fun, flirty, unique and confident aswell as very feminine. This could both appeal to females and males as females may inspire to look like her and males may have a sex appeal for her. The crop top represents a calm, relaxed and casual nature about her which is very inviting for my teenage target audience as this is what many teenagers like to do, and they may feel she is just like them; - not too restricted with some of the flesh of her stomach showing.
Contents page
The contents page of my final magazine again follows the house colours of purple, black and white. Each headline "on the cover", "regulars" and "exclusives" is in a black bold script font to give my contents page a classy, mature and perhaps quite feminine look. I think this would be very effective towards the female audiences. For each topic name next to the page numbers, I have put it in purple capitals so that it stands out clearly to the reader from its black lower-case description below. This means that the reader can easily navigate themselves around the magazine. I have used an editor's note which is a typical convention of an R&B magazine, and introduced the reader to it. I have also made sure to use 5 effective images, one of which is of a male in order to create a sex appeal and attract female audiences but to also make sure that the male audiences feel they can relate and that the magazine isn't 'too feminine'. Lastly, I have made sure to include all social networks and contact details in a purple box such as Twitter, Subscription and a The Game iPhone app which will further attract my young target audience as they are more interested in going on these social networking sites on the internet and using technology to communicate and get involved. Furthermore, advertising my magazine's technology distribution means that my target audience can get involved with the magazine in their spare time too and more easily share it around with their friends.
Double page spread, page one
On page one of my double page spread I used a large mid shot of my model with a leapord-print furr coat on to create a quirky look which will intrigue the audience, and then used a quote stating "this is just the beginning" in a large black font with the words "this is" and "beginning" highlighted in purple. I decided that this quote would really stand out to the audience because it suggests that my main artist has a lot more in store for them which is exciting and intriguing for the reader. Below this, some of the article starts here.
Double page spread, last page
On the last page of my double page spread, the rest of my article is placed here. Then, on the right hand side I have placed a black and white 3x3 grid of close up shots of my model pulling different facial expressions. I decided this would have a good effect because it would show the reader that my model has many different sides of her and that she can be silly too, which will stand out to my target audience in particular as they are still young and are able to be silly too, so they can relate and will feel as if they are "the same". Also, below this a bit more to the right hand side I have used a near-long-shot of my model singing into a microphone. This shows an image to the reader of the artist actually performim
Evaluations
Evaluation 1: "In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?"
Transcript:
When I started to create my magazine, I firstly had to think about how I was going to make it appeal to the audience of the genre I had chosen as no magazine can continue into production without sales. I used similar product research to give me a better idea about the typical conventions of R&B music magazines and their success, aswell as carrying out a questionnaire with people who were of my magazine’s target audience and concluding the results of these. Once I felt I had gathered enough knowledge I began to create my own magazine with a target audience of people between the ages of 16-30 of both genders, but mainly females.
The most important characteristic of any magazine is to establish how you can differentiate yours from others, either competing against its typical conventions or going with them. I mainly wanted to make my music magazine stand out on a shelf, however I did take careful consideration of the R&B genre’s typical codes and conventions too so that my magazine didn’t seem too different, therefore looking unprofessional and strange. Firstly, on my front cover I created a white, bold masthead to make it look high class, sleek and basic in order to reflect the common connotations of a masthead but also to establish a brand font and image that would be commonly recognised within my magazine. Also, for magazines that have a young target audience, the colour white is commonly used as it holds connotations of youth and innocence, so I followed this convention. Furthermore, my model is holding direct eye contact with the camera lense which is very common of music magazines as they believe it creates a personal equality connection between the artist and the reader, however my model is holding a blank facial expression which is unconventional for an R&B magazine because usually in R&B magazines the artist has some sort of facial expression whether it be smiling, frowning or laughing. However I figured that my model’s outfit looks very feminine so to go against this, I needed something to make her look a bit more intimidating and different. The emotionless facial expression also reflects the characteristics of the artist and implies that they are rebellious and daring. This is appealing to the audience and therefore lures them into reading it as they want to discover the story behind the facial expression. Also, the image of my model is a mid-shot which is very conventional for an R&B magazine as most producers decide that mid-shots look best on front covers. I did decide to follow this convention by doing so. I then selected the colours of purple, black and white because purple holds connotations of royalty and quirkiness, suggesting that my magazine is different, going against typical conventions of R&B magazines, white being youthful, innocent and sophisticated, and black holding connotations of darkness and maturity. I have seen the colours purple and red be used in R&B magazines before so typically this is quite conventional. Furthermore, it holds the conventions of creating a relationship with the reader as when they see these colours they instantly know that it is my magazine. My magazine also holds the typical conventions of having a banner at the top and bottom of the page.
My contents page also conforms to the typical conventions of R&B genre magazines like Vibe as I have created an ‘Editor’s Note’, introducing the reader to my magazine and filling them in briefly of its contents. Most magazines in general have this on their contents pages. This will appeal to my target audience as it comes across as welcoming, therefore inviting them in further to my magazine. It also adds a personal effect to the magazine, reminding the reader that the magazine was actually written by a person who is just like them. I have also placed the ‘Twitter’, ‘app’ and ‘subscribe’ features to the page, therefore appealing to young readers who will be interested in social networking sites and the internet, allowing them to form even more of a personal relationship with the magazine as they are able to relate to it online too. This is very conventional of all magazines as the majority of magazines want to connect with their younger audience on this deeper level and aswell as this, being part of social networks online allows the magazine to be shared around quicker. This helps to portray my magazine as more aware of the zeitgeist (spirit of the age). Furthermore, what else is very conventional about my contents page as it includes headlines for each contents list, making it clear to the reader, which is what many R&B magazines do. Infact, I created these headlines due to inspiration from an R&B/hip-hop magazine called Vibe, so this just represents this in itself.
Finally, the double page spreads which I have used to conform to the house colours which I have earlier discussed in order to create a brand image and reinforce the relationship with the audience. Furthermore, on the first page I used this as an introductory page which is very conventional of an R&B magazine as it briefs and introduces the reader to the article about to be presented. However, what is unconventional about my magazine is that I created three purple boxes each consisting of things my artist has to say about other artists. I thought of this idea myself and have never seen it in any other magazine, highlighting that it is unique and unconventional to any other R&B magazine. Aswell as this, I also created a quirky black and white grid of different close up shots of my model making ‘silly’ faces. Usually, R&B models are quite posed and serious, but my model goes against this convention in these facial shots, presenting a completely different fun side of the R&B genre.
Question 2 evaluation: "How does your media product represent particular social groups?" evaluation question, made with Adobe Premiere Pro
This is one of my evaluation questions I created with Adobe Premiere Pro which I downloaded a trail version of at home and then recorded myself doing a voice-over for all of the text involved, just to make it seem more presentable.
At first I just made my evaluation question with Powerpoint, but then I figured I wanted to use more of a variety of programs with my evaluation questions to make it more interesting, so I print screened each slide I'd made and imported these one by one onto Adobe Premiere Pro. Then, after recording my voice-over for the movie, I imported this audio file and cut it up carefully so that unneeded parts were deleted and that they were measured up correctly with the right slides for the right amount of time. Then, I watched over the movie one last time and once I was satisfied I finally exported it and published it to YouTube. I'm glad I used Adobe Premiere Pro as this furthers my knowledge and skills of different programs, not just Powerpoint or Windows Movie Maker.
Transcript:
The type of magazine I was looking to create was of a similar genre and style to the magazine ‘Vibe’ but with more of a focus on R&B music that is not always shown as mainstream nowadays. I lead my magazine down this route as I find that mainstream music is too popular nowadays and that R&B music is underrated and not played enough. I gathered that this is a market that can appeal to many people’s needs as the market is unique and may satisfy those who agree that R&B is not played enough nowadays. My magazine will also include the latest album and gig reviews which will include the type of artists that are going to be expected in my magazine by the audience.
Firstly, the house colours of my magazine are purple, black and white. I believe that the colour purple holds not only connotations of royalty, but it gives the magazine a quirky feel too. Aswell as this, the black and white colours give my magazine a smart and sophisticated look to it, too. This clearly relates to the social group as these are characteristics that my audience are most likely to have as a person. However, the colour black also hints that my audience are mature, however the colour white suggests that they are still young innocent, representing the age I have chosen in my target audience and how it varies. The readers will also choose to read my magazine out of their interest in R&B music, therefore the use of loud, bold fonts will instantly stand out and appeal to them as perhaps they are likely to be different from the crowd and unique, which is exactly what my magazine is. I chose these house colours over colours such as yellow and pink because I feel that darker colours represent a clearer view of the music genre my magazine is about.
Next, on my front cover my model makes direct eye conact with the camera lens and looks confident with her arms crossed behind her head. The camera placement is at eye level with the model, suggesting that both the model and the magazine are friendly and approachable, and that they are the ‘same’ as the readers. Furthermore, my model is of a similar age to the reader as my target audience is young, so my model represented this successfully therefore more appealing to the reader. Aswell as this, my model’s confident pose and firm eye contact with the camera, plus a colourful floral top represents confidence and strength. Aswell as this, her curly bouncy hair could portray joy and fun, and all of these features may lure the reader in and perhaps make them look up to her as a strong R&B role model, wanting to be like her. Aswell as this, I did make sure that my model’s clothing was common for the R&B genre as the social groups viewing my magazine are more than likely going to want to look to my magazine for fashion tips and clues on what to wear.
Because my magazine is aimed at people within the social classes of B, C1 and C2 I have made sure to use simple English so that the reader is able to understand and read through it swiftly. Furthermore, I have made sure that my magazine is written fun and witty throughout so that it has a positive tone and the reader knows that the magazine has a good, positive attitude. However I have made sure its tone isn’t too laid-back and sarcastic or else it may come across as negative and mocking, therefore putting the reader off.
This is an evaluation question which elaborates on how I have presented my model and how this represents particular social groups.
This is an evaluation question which elaborates on how I have presented my model and how this represents particular social groups.
Evaluation 3: "What kind of institution might distribute your media product and why?"
Transcript:
There are four main magazine publishers within the media industry, all of which brand very successful magazines. The first is Bauer Media, which is Europe’s largest privately owned publishing group and it’s based in Germany. It publishes over 300 magazines within 15 different countries as well as TV, online and on radio stations. Bauer Media’s aim is to focus on ‘personal relationships’ with engaged readers and listeners, being one main intention of the magazine. But, because Bauer Media already publish Kerrang and Q magazine, it could create a tough competition between them and my own as both magazines are very well-known, so this could potentially bring down the overall sales of my own and therefore it wouldn’t be as successful as it could be.
The next is IPC Media, which is currently the UK’s leading consumer magazine publisher. This publisher engages with two thirds of UK women and 42% of men. They publish a range of genres whether it be TV, music or fashion, unlike some other companies. Also, they create content for not just magazines but mobile, online, tablets and events. Similarly to Bauer Media, IPC publish NME which is another music magazine. As the layout of the NME magazine is fairly similar to my music magazine, again, this would create a competition and therefore it would be unwise for me to choose this company as my magazine’s publisher as it would decrease the popularity and buyers of my magazine.
Conde Nast is another very successful publisher which publishes brands worldwide. It produces 18 consumer magazines, over 50 apps for mobile and tablet devices and 27 websites. Conde Nast’s publications are very audience-specific, mainly aimed at adult women. They appear extremely stylish and classy. Overall, I don’t think my magazine would fit into this category of style aswell as the language, because my magazine is younger with a different social class of language, therefore it wouldn’t appeal to the audiences of this publisher’s brands which potentially could affect the sales of my magazine massively.
The National Magazine Company is another media industry publisher. It is very successful, being one of the UK’s leading companies along with having 20 magazine brands. This company also has many digital websites: menshealth.co.uk, allaboutsoap.co.uk and runnersworld.co.uk. I have concluded that this publisher would be best suited for my magazine as currently it doesn’t publish any music magazine, therefore my music magazine would appear different and unique to anything they have published before, therefore attracting more readers and buyers. I want to introduce new topics and a new genre to unfamiliar audiences to attract new buyers and give my magazine a different feel to it, standing out from the rest. Aswell as this, The National Magazine Company publish equal number of websites as well, so this means that my magazine could be online as well as print. This would work out well as my young target audience use technology/the internet as a very important aspect of their lives so this would work successfully. The National Magazine Company would like my magazine because its large target audience allows more people to not only read my magazine, but if it is published by this company then buyers may look into The National Magazine Company’s other magazines they have distributed, meaning that their other magazines’ popularity and buyers increase rapidly.
I wouldn’t want my magazine to be published by a company called Miller Publishing for example because I have used a magazine called Vibe which this company published, as a style model for my own magazine. This means that there would be a lot of competition between my magazine and Vibe not only because they are of a similar appearance, but because they are of a similar genre too. This would mean that my magazine would have no chance to stand out, therefore decreasing its popularity and buyers.
Evaluation 4: "Who would be the audience for your media product?"
Transcript:
The target audience I have chosen for my R&B music magazine ‘The Game’ are teenagers and young adults between the ages of 16 and 50 as they will most likely have a wide interest and knowledge of music and they will probably find top ten singles, news about their favourite artists and find reading about artists very entertaining. Also, the younger generation communicate a lot meaning that information about new artists and magazines will probably be spread around quite quickly at these ages. Also, they will probably have a lot more time on their hands than older adults to read magazines.
Furthermore, the ideal reader of my magazine would be both males and females as R&B music is targeted at both genres, however it will be more targeted at females as my magazine is going to appear slightly more feminine than masculine. This audience would probably be very communicative in a busy town talking with others a lot of the time. In their spare time they would watch channels on TV such as MTV, 4 Music, VIVA, Smash Hits etc.. Their Sundays would consist of them listening to music and discovering news about their favourite artists and the music industry. Furthermore, the reason why I have picked this particular audience is because it is a young age where teenagers communicate a lot more and get into music a lot more and also start earning their own money so they would be able to pay for their own magazines, therefore the magazine would be affordable for them to purchase. Aswell as this, because the teenagers are interested in music at this age they will be more passionate about discovering upcoming news and therefore buying magazines to discover this.
Anyone younger than the age of 16 would probably not have a large passion for music because they do not know about past magazines so therefore they are still trying to discover about new magazines but do not have enough knowledge about specific genred magazines. I think that a male and female’s interest in magazines can vary depending on who the artist is, however I will make sure that my magazine contains information that both males and females will be interested in. This is also the age where young adults are maturing and beginning to become more independent.
The social class of my magazine will be mostly aimed at B, C1, C2 as the magazine will be written in simple English therefore it will not be too complex for the audience to understand for the lower social category so when they see the front cover they will not feel daunted, intimidated and put-off. Additionally they will have more time to read the magazine because someone in the social category A would be top level management which suggests that they will not have a lot of time to read magazines and perhaps also not a very wide interest in magazines.
Demographically my target audience will be aimed at any race as it will be ethically acceptable for anyone from any country. The people will be living in places such as perhaps Camden Town, either having a job or being in full-time education, in some cases both. This therefore signifies the Uses and Gratifications theory as there will be escapism due to the fact that the reader may want to explore and find out new things different from the world they are living in now or perhaps to get their mind off things.
The ideal target audience I have set for my magazine would preferably be people that shop at places like Topshop, River Island, Missguided and Urban Outfitters. This is because these shops commonly include the types of outfits that R&B artists wear. The females would be really into the jewellery as R&B artists usually wear a lot of jewellery to make themselves look glamorous. Furthermore, the advantage of my audience shopping in these particular shops is that they may all s0cialise and communicate at these shops, therefore share information about their latest/favourite magazines with eachother.
Moreover, I believe that other habits my audience will have is buying magazines often, music albums, posters and gig lists. They would also be very interested in tour dates and one nof the most important thing also would be that they buy tickets to see their favourite artists perform live often.
Furthermore, my target audience’s hobbies would be preferably based on listening to music, but also maybe dancing and perhaps singing/rapping to themselves. This is because these hobbies generally relate to R&B and a lot of dancing, singing and rapping is included in the R&B genre.
A typical reader of my magazine’s profile would perhaps be: their name being Stacey Parker, her age is 18, her occupation is college, she likes R&B music, attending gigs and similar events, researching about her favourite R&B artists, dancing/singing, fitting in with the R&B trends and wearing similar clothes to artists like Rihanna, and meeting new people through social events and groups. However she dislikes overrated singers and rock bands, anyone who judges music taste and people who are not open-minded. Her reasons for reading R&B magazines are that they are affordable, they include freebies such as single releases, interviews with her favourite artists, and that it gives out gossips on artists you can’t find anywhere else. Her all-time favourite artist would be Rihanna.
Evaluation 5: "How did you attract/address your audience?"
Transcript:
Throughout my magazine, I needed to make sure I included many aspects that would of fitted in with and attracted my target audience. To make sure my magazine would sell, I included crucial features that would clearly have a high demand from my target audience which are males and females (but mainly females) between the ages of 16-30.
Firstly, the fact that the majority of participants voted for R&B as their most favourite type of music has really reinforced my reasoning for wanting to make my magazine’s genre R&B. These results reassured me that I have definitely made the right decision in picking this genre. Also, the top-voted name suggested for my magazine through my questionnaire was ‘The Game’ and the least-voted was ‘Rhythm’. This suggests to me that my target audience like to see things that sound more exciting and suggestive (e.g the name ‘The Game’ which is inviting and fun) rather than going for things that seem less daring and more plain and predictable (e.g the name ‘Rhythm’) reinforcing my reason for making my magazine’s name ‘The Game’. I knew from these results that my choice of making this its name would instantly attract my target audience to its fullest.
The first method in order to attract my target audience would be through my front cover. This is the first thing that they see and it is highly crucial that it stands out to them amongst many other magazines on the shelf. I made my front cover stand out by using a mid-shot of my model which brings attention mainly to her face and body since she is closer up to the lense. As you can see, my model’s body language is welcoming with her arms open behind her head. This will attract the audience as it may make them feel that the magazine offers a lot and that the main artist is very inviting. Mise-en-scene-wise, the main artist of my front cover uses direct eye contact with the camera lense creating a personal connection and sense of equality between the artist and the reader which may attract them as it may make them feel less daunted/intimidated by a successful artist and instead feel as if they are ‘the same’, which is very luring. She is also wearing bright red lipstick which I adjusted the colour of to make it stand out more, and this use of makeup will make my model look feminine and create a sex appeal with my male audience, perhaps as will the direct eye contact, representing confidence that males are attracted to and females may admire. Her curly, bouncy hair creates a flirtatious vibe and her colourful floral crop-top is very casual which shows off part of her stomach. This will attract my target audience as this clothing will create the impression of my artist being relaxed which is what most teenagers like to be, and also casual, again making my target audience feel as if they are ‘the same’ therefore intriguing them. The floral pattern on her top makes my artist look very feminine, attracting not only a male audience, but the female audience too. Also, the fact that some of her stomach is showing may create a sex appeal for my male audience as it looks quirky and confident. Also, I edited my model’s skin on a program called Photoshop to remove any blemishes and give her skin an appealing clear and smooth effect. I hoped this would attract my target audience massively because some young females inspire to have good skin beauty-wise, therefore intriguing them; and most males generally find clear skin more attractive. Infront of the picture of my main artist, I put ‘exclusive with..’ and then ‘CASSIE STARR’ in very large, black font to give it a bold effect an instantly catch the audiences’ eyes as it stands out against the pale, feminine colours of the model’s clothing behind.
The fact that in my questionnaire I’d received a majority vote towards my target audience preferring a chance to win a freebie in my magazine portrayed that my audience would like to have a chance at winning in a magazine. I don’t think posters are that popular anymore as many teenagers resort to using technology to endure their pleasures so I decided to use a ‘WIN! FREE SIGNED CIARA CD’ feature on my front cover because CDs are something my audience can actually make use out of instead of just chucking it in the bin. Moreover, due to the proliferation of new technology, on one of my pages in my magazine I would alternatively give the option for my audience to receive a free download of Ciara’s CD with a picture of the signed CD included incase someone who doesn’t use CDs wins. This is because CDs are quite dated now. However I think the use of a CD as a prize is still effective because the winner can actually receive it and own it; - juxtaposed with an ordinary download which anyone can perform online.
Aswell as this, on my top banner it states “MOBO AWARDS & CONCERTS”. I’d concluded that from my questionnaire data concert and gig reviews were the second most wanted feature on a magazine, so I used this to my advantage and made sure that a mentioning of concerts was at the top of my magazine to attract my target audience instantly. Aswell as that, Mobo awards are awards given to R&B and hip-hop artists, so I knew that the mentioning of Mobo awards would be a lot more relevant to the R&B genre than a mentioning of the Brit awards for example. On my bottom banner I have ‘HOTTEST & LATEST R&B MUSIC’. I figured the adjectives ‘hottest’ and ‘latest’ would have a great luring effect on my target audience because it will give the impression that my magazine is up-to-date and ‘in’ which is what most young audiences aim for. Also, with my sell lines ‘BACK STAGE WITH..’, ‘TICKETS TO SEE..’ and ‘PRIVATE GIG WITH..’ along with the artists’ names, I have made sure to include Beyonce’s name there. This is because, when analysing my questionnaire’s results I discovered that Beyonce was majority voted by participants as one of their top three most favourite artists. Therefore, I took advantage of this, knowing that people liked her most, so I made sure I included Beyonce here to catch the reader’s attention instantly. Lastly, my house colours are black, white and purple. My questionnaire’s results showed that my target audience would most prefer a magazine with the house colours of turquoise and pink, with the second vote going to a draw between purple & black and black & blue. I wanted my magazine to look classy and basic so that it wasn’t too complex for the reader to look at and its appearance seemed worth the money, so the colour mixture of turquoise & pink seemed inappropriate and tacky for this. Furthermore, because my magazine’s target audience is male & females but mainly towards females, I felt that the house colours black & blue were too masculine and harsh for the magazine I was making. Therefore, I chose purple, black and white to give a classy, simple but bold effect to attract the audience.
On my contents page, I used a bold black script font for my headlines ‘on the cover’, ‘regulars’ and ‘exclusives’ to represent classiness which is quite feminine, attracting my female audience. Then I used a purple colour for the subject headline and a black font for the brief description of the subject afterwards. This therefore makes everything look easier and clearer to read so that the audience are not put off by any complexity and difficulty to navigate around my contents page. I think I used a good variation of images too, because I used another picture of my main artist in different clothing which was a leapord-print furr jacket with a denim shirt and burgundy red skater-skirt, representing quirkiness which is different and will catch the reader’s eye, along with other photos such as a picture of a male doing a casual pose which creates sex appeal for the females but also equality for the males. Next to each of these images I have included page numbers so that the reader can easily navigate to the page they want to. Lastly, I have made sure to include a social networking feature in a purple box including The Game’s twitter username with the Twitter icon which will instantly grab my target audience’s attention because many young people use this social networking site nowadays so they will be familiar with it, aswell as The Game’s app with a realistic photo of an iPhone with The Game’s front cover on it, and also a subscription feature which includes three different versions of my magazine front cover, attracting the audience because it portrays to them that my magazine has a lot of different things to offer for them and that they won’t just be subscribing to the same magazine every month. Aswell as this, the competitions/quizzes feature I have also included will attract my audience as they are at the age where most of the teenagers are fun, adventurous and competitive, wanting to play games and win things.
On the first page of my double page spread the quote I have used states ‘this is just the beginning’. I used this quote as the headline of my artist’s interview because it highlights excitement, making the audience wonder what else the artist has in store for them which is particularly intriguing. My questionnaire portrayed to me that an interview is the most-wanted feature when purchasing a magazine, so I took full advantage of this. On the second page of my double page spread I used an image of my ‘artist’ singing into a microphone therefore attracting the audience because it portrays that she is a performer and doesn’t just sit back and not take action in her career. Futhermore, I have used a black and white grid of different close ups of my model’s facial expressions, representing that she is quirky and has a fun and easy-going side to her too which will be very alluring to my audience. Aswell as this, I have used a ‘CASSIE’S TWEETS’ feature at the top of my double page spread so that the audience know she is active on social networking sites, just like them. Lastly, there is also a feature at the bottom of the page where my artist is ‘talking about other artists’, and since my questionnaire showed me that my target audience appreciate gossip, I gathered that this feature would be much appreciated to the audience.
The last aspect that would attract my audience is the Uses and Gratifications Theory. This theory consists of four reasons which tell us why people use the media. These are: personal relationships. This is where the magazine would create a ‘word and mouth’ effect where friends or family would discuss the magazine, creating their own relationship with another as it is something they both have interest in. Personal identity, which is where if someone becomes a frequent reader of my magazine, it would become something that is personal to them and something that makes them who they are. Then we’ve got entertainment, where my magazine would be entertaining to read and something that the reader would enjoy doing. Therefore this would persuade them into buying my magazine each week. Then, lastly we have information. This is where the main reason why people buy my magazine is to be informed of what is going on in the R&B music industry. My magazine would inform them of upcoming artists, personal details, album reviews etc..
Evaluation 6: "What have I learned about the technologies from the process of constructing my magazine?"
Transcript:
This is my evaluation question about the technologies I have learned how to use since creating my magazine. This includes me elaborating on programs such as Photoshop, InDesign, Voki, camera and photoshoot equipment and Blogger.
Evaluation 7: "Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learned in the progression from it to the full product?"
Transcript:
This is question 7 of my evaluation, going into details of how my skills have developed over the time period from completing my preliminary task at the start of Media studies to completing my music magazine. As you can see, I have created a video of me performing my essay through recording multiple videos of me (using my iPhone) reading out each paragraph and then put these together as a final movie on an app called 'Splice' and then uploaded this movie to YouTube. I then embedded the code of the video from YouTube and pasted it onto the HTML of this text here. As you can see, below this video I have also provided a transcript of my video too which is in Word document format presenting my essay in text along with pictures and examples.
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