MEDIA STUDIESEDWARD MARSHALL

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE, DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

I have followed the conventions of a music magazine in many ways when design and producing my music magazine, the ways I have done this are by using big bold fonts that catch the eye for example one font I used called ‘PLANE CRASH’ has a distressed kind of look to it and was big, bold and in capitals, when white this stood out well from the background causing it to be noticed straight away. This fits in with the alternative/indie genre and also fits in with the conventions of a genre magazine for example other magazines of the genre such as ‘NME’ used a bold and capitalized font which looked good in the aspect that it stood out but it didn’t have that interesting font look it was a bit bland so for my main cover line I made the font more interesting.

The colour scheme of the magazine fits in well with the alternative/indie genre as the red white and black gives it a good feel as it fits in with the genre. The red connotes love and passion, in this context I was going for the love and passion for music. The white connotes purity, in alternative/indie its mainly the classic way of music guitar, keyboard and drums keeping the purity in the music whereas the RnB genre is mainly sound effects and not as many instruments. Finally the black connotes power, what this meant to my magazine was the power in the story's and what the magazine could bring to the consumers. Also these three colours are stylish and they fit in with the target market of teens and there are many magazines with the same colour scheme an example is ‘SPIN’ which has the red, black and white colours.

The bands I used for my cover lines and contents page were of the same genre, Arctic Monkeys and Coldplay being the main 2 band for my magazine this makes people more aware of what type of genre it is as people will recognize those well known bands. As they are from the same genre the consumers will notice them and want to read the stories making the magazine sell well. As in the same ‘NME’ clip shown on the right arctic monkeys are on the same genre of magazine.

The shot I have used in my media magazine use the same kind of props as in the professional magazines, have used drums, drum sticks, guitars and the same dress code that’s fits with what the stars from the indie and alternative, casual dress with jeans and a shirt. Also the cover lines on the magazine are short and sweet which get to the point straight away which is similar to the SPIN magazine and the Q magazine.

The logo I previously had didn’t fit the genre as well as the new one I have added, this is why I changed the logo towards the end. I think the new one with the bold fonts works a lot better and fits in with the magazine more, also it keeps the original style of the capital letters but uses it in a different style.

PLANE CRASH Font from my media magazine which is interesting and bold.

Font from NME, Bold and Attractive.

HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?

The magazine represents certain social groups in many ways, some of these are good as they hit the target audience for example the colour scheme and the fonts, these give of a young music infused social group feel as the colours are vibrant and have a deep black included to contrast the white and red. The fonts are mostly bold and capitalized which represents shouting and being loud like most young music fans are.

WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?

The kind of media institution that I would want to distribute my magazine would be IPC Media under the IPC Magazine division this is because they already have respected music magazines on the market such as NME and Uncut along with many other types of magazine from Soap Life to Nuts this means that they are experienced in producing magazines and they will be able to make sure the magazine get a good advertising campaign. The conglomerate of IPC Media is Time Inc. these are very respected and are one of the best in the media industry

WHAT WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?My target audience for my magazine is indie/alternative rock fans aged 15-25. My magazine attracts this target audience by the way I have chosen to present it, I have added a contrasting colour scheme to the magazine as well as using bold capitalised cover lines and bold distressed looking fonts, this appeals to the young target market as it fits to the conventions of the genre whilst maintaining an aesthetically pleasing look and feel to the magazine.

The photos used in the magazine appeal to the target market as the models used are wearing casual clothing's and not formal just a casual look as you would expect from this genre.

The magazine uses a casual and informal method of address which make the magazine easy to read as it is more talking to you rather than talking about different subjects.

Fretboard uses a linking magazine name to a main instrument from a band which adds to the effect of the genre wilts using story's that will drag in the reader when they see the front page. Examples of these story's are features on Ed Sheeran and Coldplay.

HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE?

Does the magazine fit the genre?

Yes

No

Would you buy the magazine at £3?

Yes

No

Are the shot types typical of the genre?

Yes

No

To find out if my magazine appealed to the target audience I handed out questionnaires and interviewed some peers that fitted the target audience, in the video below you will find out what they’re response to the magazine was when interviewed and what the liked and didn't like about the magazine, fonts, photos, colour schemes and layout were all talked about in the interviews so here is they’re feedback.

Here is the feedback from the questionnaires:

Here is an analysis of what was said in the video above, the feed back on what my peers said was mainly good they liked the colour scheme, layout and the photos. The mention on the title was that since it is 2 colours it draws you to the magazine, mainly the mast head straight away and the effects around the images were picked up on as being effective and professional.

All of the interviewees picked up on the colour scheme as being related to the genre but in my questionnaires it was mentioned that the colour scheme had a more rock genre look and there was a few people who picked up on this.

Generally everybody liked the layout of the pages one mention was that the Large numbers on contents page looks appealing and different from other magazines. The double page spread was mentioned as being laid out well as the picture was placed in a good position.

Bad mentions were that without being told some people thought that it was a rock genre magazine as the colour scheme was thought as being rock related as well so this was a downside to the colour scheme. The fonts were mentioned as being good but the main font for the article was brought up as being boring and maybe I needed a more fancy/genre related font. More cover lines was also suggested in the interviews.

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCCESS OF CONTRUSTING THIS PRODUCT?

Photoshop – The technology skills I have used when producing my logo and magazine was using Adobe Photoshop, using this in preparation for making my magazine enabled me to edit the photos and remove the background so they were ready to have a custom background added and enabled me, if I chose, to place parts of the text behind the photo to give of the effect of them standing in front of the text. I also used Photoshop to add effects to the logo to make it more than just plain text, I done this by adding a gradient and a stroke. Videos of these are shown below.

VIDEO – Logo

VIDEO – Cutting out

When it came to producing the magazine I used the text tool to add cover lines and I added the logo and a website address to make a masthead. After I had my cover lines in place I added a gradient background consisting of grey and white ready for the photo to be put in place. Finally to add the flame effect I wanted I chose a selection of brushes and then chose the 3 colours, (black, white and red) to add the flame effect to the magazine. To make the final adjustments I added a barcode, date and black boxes which made the cover lines stand out more and have a place on the page rather than just being scattered around.

Photography

When doing my photography I went in to a room where a few people were playing as a group and then I got some shots this was, this meant that they were actions shots, using a short exposure time this meant they weren't blurred. I also used a range of shots for example high and low angle shots and mid close ups as well. I tried out body shots and two shots but these were no good so I went out and re took some photos with only one person in and then edited them out.

LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK, WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PROGRESSION FROM IT TO THE FULL PRODUCT?

PreparationWhen researching for my magazine I looked at a wider variety of music magazines from the genre I chose than I did with the school magazine I looked more at the types of fonts, layouts and colours used in the magazines and I had a wider range of professional magazines which were hard to find when doing my school magazine. This meant I was able to pick up the conventions easier that with the school magazine making me able to put together a better plan for my music magazine.

Planning When planning I was able to draw out more designs and take my target audience into account more as it was narrower than in my school magazine as I was appealing to a certain target audience rather than the school so this made it easier to pick a colour scheme and fonts. I put together 3 layout plans for my music magazine which eventually got adjusted and changed when finally making my magazine, but with the school magazine I didn’t do many versions of a plan I just put it together without thinking about it as much as my music magazine so the planning time was much more beneficial.

DesigningSince doing my preliminary task I have advanced my skills in photo editing/design software. For the music magazine I migrated from using Adobe Illustrator to use Adobe Photoshop as I was became better at using Photoshop and I became more experienced with the software. I also had a better idea of what sort of shot types I want to take to use in the magazine rather than just going to get a few different types and choosing the best one which I did for my school magazine, so I became more prepared and I planned what I was going to do more thoroughly and made various different drafts of the pages with slight changes and in the case of the contents page many different versions. This enabled me to pick out what I wasn’t pleased with and put it right and made it look more professional which I didn't do with my school magazine and you can tell the difference it has made, I think this is a valuable skill to be picky when looking at your work and trying to improve it and making it the best you can or better and this is what I done with the design of my music magazine and I think it worked very well.