OCR Media Studies – AS Level

Unit G321: Foundation Portfolio in Media

Evaluation

Name: Forrest SmythCandidate Number: 6747Center Name: St. Paul’s Catholic CollegeCenter Number: 64770

Set Brief - Print

Music Magazine – Production

Preliminary Task, Log Book and Evaluation

In what ways does your Media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

My magazine, across the 4-pages, ‘repeats’ (Steve Neale) codes and conventions from magazines such as ‘kerrange’ and ‘Rolling Stone’ as my inspiration as I tried to replicate their codes and conventions in my magazine. I mainly used Rolling Stone magazines colour scheme as I used the colours red, black and white thought my magazine as well as similar fonts to keep continuity in my magazine. For my front cover I made sure that I had the main features/conventions such as: - Bar code- Date- Price- Issue number- a unique selling point- Main image + Headline- Cover lines- Masthead- Strapline.For my contents I kept to the conventions by adding in: - Page numbers- Posters- Pub lines- Web Address/Social networking sites I did this for convergence, so my readers can access the same information but in

formats that they may find easier to access or use. For my double page I used a different photo but of the same star appeal (Daniel Lawrence) with a plan background so that it would reflect the conventions of a music magazine. I made the questions and answers very clear to read so as to make it easier to differentiate from. I did this by clearly showing who was the interviewer and interviewee by the use of the initials. Also I made them different colours. I have also appropriately credited work to the Photographer, Stylist and Editor in small text as is orthodox for a magazine . I put this at the end of the interview. Finally I added social networking logo’s as well as an other form of convergence; a promotion online so that readers could go online a read or listen to the full interview.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

The denotation of the representation is the action of speaking or acting on behalf of someone or the stat of being so represented. When I was making the magazine I used different materials that would appeal to different social groups e.g. ‘Emos’, ‘Punks’, ‘Goths’ etc. however if I changed my magazine so that it appealed to more social groups my magazine would have been more successful as I would have had a larger audience that would have been interested to pick one up and buy it. Since the genre I decided to pick was Rock, it did have a fairly large audience I found this out as I did a questionnaire to find out what type of magazine would sell the best. Rock was the highest voted closely followed by Pop. I ensured that the bands that I had picked related mainly to rock but also slightly also to pop. I did this by picking bands that have crossed over and have worked with some pop artist, I did this in hope that some of my audience would recognise them and pick up a copy this widens my audience.

One social group for my magazine could be workers where their job is repetitive, this is because of this magazine could act as a diversion (Katz) as they could get away from the worry and stress of their work. Rock is seen as a modern genre of music this means that another social group would be teenagers and it can help them into becoming ‘Social climbers’ (Maslow). They would be able to see what the ‘stars’ (Richard Dyer) get up to in their daily routines.

The magazine across the 4-pages, helps to represent the male starts in a positive way due to the lighting that I used on the front cover. I wanted to get a lot of light onto the picture because it would show Daniels softer side. Also he was dressed in Christmas things to draw the readers in and also to empathises the fact that it was a Christmas issue.

What kind of media institution (Publisher) might distribute your media product and why?

From the research that was completed pre-production, I found that Bauer Media group may publish ‘Tune In’ because they are brilliant in creating ‘personal relationships’ (Katz) with their readers and I really believe that my magazine does this well especially with my editorial.

Also my magazine has a lot of synergy and cross-media convergence which will allow the readers to access the content in many different ways since I have social networking sites in association with my magazine, and this is made very obvious on al my 4 pages.

The similarities of my magazine to ‘Kerrang’(such as the way in which the promotions are displayed) also ‘signifies’ (De Saussure) that Bauer may think about distributing my magazine because with similar codes and conventions that sell Kerrang displayed for a different music sub-genre may be something of interest to the publishing group.

YOU MUST address the following criteria in order to achieve an A – B grade in the Evaluation.

Task

• YOU MUST evaluate you’re the Pre-Production and Production tasks you have completed by answering these 7 Questions, which MUST NOT be altered in any way!

• YOU MUST also utilise a variety of technologies to evaluate your work as this will ensure you achieve the full marks, for example Answering the questions on a separate Evaluation Blog Page, Presenting your answers on Prezi, embedding images/video into a presentation, Producing a Podcast OR a combination of these and many more.

In what ways does your Media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Example sentence starters:

The magazine, across the 4-pages, ‘repeats’ (Steve Neale) codes and conventions from…

There are examples of some ‘difference’, however, in terms of the forms and conventions in my own media product for example….

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Example sentence starters:

The denotation of representation is…The magazine, across the 4-pages, helps to represent…For example, on page….

What kind of media institution (Publisher) might distribute your media product and

why?

Example sentence starters:

From the research that was completed pre-production, I would envisage that … may publish ‘name of magazine’ because….The similarities of my magazine to ‘name of magazine’ also ‘sgnifies’ (De Saussure)….

Who would be the audience for your media product and why?

Hartley’s seven subjectivities

According to Hartley’s seven subjectivities,

Katz’ Uses & Gratifications theory

According to Katz’ Uses & Gratifications theory, ,

Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs

According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, ,

How did you attract/address your audience?

In order to attract the intended target audience of.. I decided to….

The inclusion of codes & conventions such as… helped to appeal to the target audience becasuse…

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this

product?

The denotation of the software used to construct the media product entitled ‘name of magazine’ was…

In order for this product to look fit for purpose and appeal to the target audience, I decided to create… using the… tool because.

Refer 2-3 examples at least and conclude

Photography Planning – Front Cover

Photography Planning - Contents

Photography Planning - Interview

Analysing my Front Cover

Neatly annotate the Screen Grab of your Final Front Cover –

4-5 Annotations at least and apply appropriate media language.

Arrows should be RED as well!

Screen grab of Magazine page positioned in the Center of the slide

(Remove the BLUE box once placed in as well)

Analysing my Contents Page

Neatly annotate the Screen Grab of your Final Contents Page –

4-5 Annotations at least and apply appropriate media language.

Arrows should be RED as well!

Screen grab of Magazine page positioned in the Center of the slide

(Remove the BLUE box once placed in as well)

Analysing my Double Page spread Interview

Neatly annotate the Screen Grab of your Final Double Page Spread –

X1 page per. Slide!

4-5 Annotations at least and apply appropriate media language.

Arrows should be RED as well!

Screen grab of Magazine page positioned in the Center of the slide

(Remove the BLUE box once placed in as well)

Audience Feedback -

This is one method of gathering Audience Feedback needed to get a Level 4 (16 – 20 Marks)

• YOU COULD produce video interviews of what people think of the work, as well as explore other more creative means of gaining feedback.

• This should be neatly presented in your Blog Page (embedded).

Looking back at your Preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I feel that, having completed the preliminary task and learning about the demands of this production process, I have learnt…

There is evidence of progression that I feel particularly demonstrates how I met the demands of the production process, for example…