How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I also created a video of the answer to this question, in order to present my ideas visually, including example and evidence of my research.

ANSWER TO QUESTION IN ESSAY FORM:

After closely studying my similar product research magazines, such as NME and Kerrang, I came to the conclusion that my target audience would have an interest in musical artists with characteristics such as being rebellious and unpredictable. For example, music artists I found my target audience to enjoy reading about were people like Pete Doherty, Amy Winehouse and Rolling stones. This is because of their rebellious take on life, leading to extreme circumstances and a generally exciting life. These characters would be shown in magazines such as NME smoking and drinking – highlighting their ‘don’t care’ attitudes. 

                I wanted to make my magazine appeal to the same audience as these magazines; because of this is chose to use a cover model that is young and attractive. Her dark hair conotates her dark side and the use of make-up, such as bright red lipstick and dark smoky eyes represents her confident and loud personality. This will instantly appeal to my target audience as the bright colours used for her clothing (e.g. her skinny jeans) and her make up will reflect her characteristics, implying she is an interesting person to read about.
                I have tried to make my magazine appeal to an audience who listen to rock music. I did this by using colours such as red, black and grey as a general house style as I found it was the most popular theme of colours used in other rock/indie magazines such as NME. The big bold fonts will also appeal to a social group with an interest in rock because it reflects the outrageousness of the music genre and how indifferent the genre is in general.
                I began my article with the sentence: “Everybody loves a rebel.” This is because it will have an instant impact on my target audience if they are scanning through my magazine. This type of language will stand out to them as they will have a sudden interest in who I am talking about. The general tone of my article is gossip-like and secretive. This helps to make my target audience feel the information they are reading is exclusive and makes them feel special as if they are the first to read it. This tone will also relate to my target audience as they will enjoy hearing gossip and secrets about rebellious music artists, forming a personal identification as they will aspire to be like them.
                My cover models facial expressions are generally cheeky, as she will slightly smile whilst gazing into the camera. This is effective as it will grasp the reader’s attention as they will be drawn to look at the page. This also creates a mysterious appearance for my feature artist, helping to sell the article further as the target audience will feel curious about her and want to read on. Her body language is dominant and confident, with poses such as her hand on her hip (shown on my second double paged spread) and her comfortable squat with relaxed arms (shown on my front cover). This will also appeal to my target audience as they will be able to form a personal relationship with the character, as my target audience will also be confident and outspoken.
                I wanted to portray my feature artist as intimidating, assertive but also approachable. This is because I wanted my target audience to feel slightly threatened by their confidence, as they would feel when reading about music artists such as Joan Jett. Especially because she is female, it touches the issue that males are most commonly associated with rock/indie music than females. This means that my magazine will inspire a female audience, making them want to read about a female rock artist that is successful, as they will be able to personally identify with her. And also surprise a male audience, as they will feel intrigued to read about a successful female rock artist and also will find her confidence and clear success attractive. 

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

IN ESSAY FORM:

When I created my preliminary task, I had little knowledge on how to use a camera, how to edit images on Adobe Photoshop CS3 and on magazines in general. 

Firstly, when looking at the front cover of my ‘Haydon Monthly’ magazine, you can instantly see lack of creative skills. My masthead doesn’t stand out at all, as it is near enough the same size as my main sell line. It is in a black, rounded font, therefore does not pop out the page, grasping the audience’s attention. The actual name of my magazine also shows that I had not considered what might stand out and sound interesting to my target audience of a school children and teachers. This page has a lot of white spaces; this will instantly make my magazine unappealing as audiences will not feel they are getting value for money when buying a magazine that does not have enough content to fill a page. There is also no consistency of font, by looking at all the sell lines, all of them are different sizes, some are bold and wide, where others are thin and small. Rather than displaying a different range of skills in text editing, which was my original intention, it just makes the magazine appear to be amateur and unplanned. As for the image, it suggests I was not aware of how to cut a photo out. This makes my magazine appear unprofessional as the cover model on a magazine would usually dominate the page and the sell lines would fit in around it. However in this case, the sell lines are placed on top of the image at times, making it difficult to read. For example: “come to the library for information!” is placed on a cream part of the image and is written in yellow, making it difficult to read.
                When looking at my contents page, it is clear I hadn’t considered a colour scheme. On the front cover, there are uses of blue, yellow, pink, black and white. Whereas, on the contents page, there is a use of black, red and white for the background. Therefore, if audiences were given both pages separately, the only thing that would suggest they are from the same magazine is the fact they both say ‘Haydon Monthly’, other than that, both pages are completely different. Again, on my contents, it is filled with white spaces; the fonts do not complement each other – making the page appear unprofessional and unplanned. And there is also only one image, this would be disapproved by the target audience as it would suggest the magazine is not worth its money as there is not enough content for the price, implying my magazine would be unsuccessful in a professional market.
                Now, if we look at my finished music magazine, we see none of these issues. The texts on all pages, particularly my front cover, complement each other as I have tried to consistently use blocked, square, bold fonts. This is because when studying my similar product research, I concluded that music magazines use bold fonts to conotate power and dominance. It will also help to make my magazine stand out to its target audience, against other music magazines on the shelf. As for white spaces on my front cover, it is filled with sells lines, indicating to my target audience that it is worth its money. I have made my cover model a lot larger in this page, in order to dominate the space more, and to imply that this person is the most important feature in this issue. My main sell line is very different from the splattered effect masthead I used, as I created it on Photoshop, making black boxes using the shape tool and placing white text on top of them, in order to create an original newspaper-like styled text.
My contents page is also much more professional looking, as I have five different sections, with headings for each feature, as well as explanations. My target audience will look at this and feel spoilt for choice as there is also a band index, displaying the different artists featured in my magazine. I have also tried to relate to zeitgeist on here, appealing more to the younger audience, by placing a Facebook sign and a subscription option, this shows I have tried to think more about my target audience when creating this magazine, and have thought about how to further appeal my magazine to them. And also, now it is clear I am aware of how to use colour range/magic wand tool to cut out images, to make my magazine seem more professional and for them to fit together more. 

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

IN ESSAY FORM


In the creation of my product I used a range of different technologies in order to produce a professional looking, well thought-out magazine.
Firstly, I did a photoshoot, using a Canon 55OD DSLR as I feel it is a camera I am most familiar with and am able to comfortably use and experiment with. The fact this camera is digital is another helpful factor as I was able to take hundreds of photos and also check over them, deleting those I did not feel content with. I was then able to transfer the photos from the camera to my computer instantly, saving a lot of time. I used this camera when taking photos of my models against a white back drop light by interfit portrait photography lighting, in order to create the right amount of light for my photographs to appear professional. Another feature of this lighting was that it had trigger lighting, this means it was in sync with my camera, and therefore every time I took a photo, the lighting would flash also. This ensured my photos looked as clear and professional as possible. For this particular shoot I used an 18-55mm 4.6 aperture lens, ensuring I could capture each image in a variety of angles and sizes. Whilst doing my shoot, I also set up another Canon camera on a tripod behind me, focused on the set. I then connected this with an interval meter. I then changed the time limit to 5 seconds, meaning every five seconds a photo would be taken of my photo shoot. This was to capture a time laps, displaying that I remained on task throughout the whole photo shoot and also works as evidence, proving that I took every photo used in my magazine. The lens of this camera was 50mm 1.8 aperture as well as using a polarised filter. This meant it would focus only on the set, blurring the background, giving the photo shoot a more skilled appearance.
Once the photos were taken, I uploaded them to my computer. After deciding which photo’s I wanted to use on my magazine, I began to edit them. For this I used a programme called Adobe Photoshop CS3. This piece of software allows users to edit, cut, change and even create images and graphics. I am quite familiar with this piece of software in an advanced manner. One key feature of Photoshop, that without would have made my magazine appear less successful, is the feature of cutting out images from their background. There are a few ways you can do this, one way being the Magic Wand Tool, allowing you to attach a line to the outline of your image and then cut it out. However, I found this cut my photos out in a rough and bumpy way, therefore decided to use Colour Range, which allows you to click on parts of the image you wish to erase and then edit to perfect using the Mask tool.
Another feature of Adobe Photoshop I used often was the Adjustment Layer option for photos, which I used to edit my photos father. In some cases, this was used to make my photos completely black and white (as shown on my last double page spread), in order to display my skills on Photoshop and also to make the photos stand out from the page more. I also used it for saturation, contrast, highlighting, shadowing, hue, exposure and many other effects for photos. This was again, to ensure my photos were of the highest quality and also to highlight parts of the photo, such as my models bright blue eyes or red lips, as both conotates seductiveness, making my magazine more appealing, drawing in the reader.
Popular sites such as Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Gettyimages have all contributed to my knowledge of music magazines also, as they have: provided me with information on particular companies; inspired me on different angles and poses my models should experiment with during the photo shoot; helped me to conclude with a particular style for my magazine; informed me on what the register of my article should be and so on. Lastly, Blogger has obviously been a huge part of the creation of my magazine, allowing me to document every stage of the production process, showing the different stages and features I considered when making my magazine.

My Target Audience

I decided to make a video of my target audience.
I gathered a mixture of boys and girls that would be most likely to read my indie/rock magazine and asked them what they thought of my product. This was really helpful as it informed me on what I have done correct and also made me feel as if i have created a successful magazine that appeals to its target audience.
I feel that it was an effective way to gather feedback, as it was a group of people, everyone had the confidence to put forward their opinions, forming a bit of a discussion. It has made me feel as if the efforts i have put in for studying my target audience have paid off.

Media Music Magazine My Target Audience

Diary #15

Today I completed my evaluation process. I have now successfully answered each evaluation question in depth and provided a multi-media presentation of the answer, in either a PowerPoint, which I have downloaded to Scribd and then uploaded to blogger; a Prezi including images; a Premier Pro video with a voice recording of my voice; or an essay with images to accompany it and illustrate my response.
I feel hugely content with my work and feel as if I have created a successful music magazine, that will relate to my desired target audience. I feel it represents indie/rock music in a realistic manner and also maintains to look professional.
I feel as though I have planned and researched my product to have created it in a way that will be recognisable to the public as a rock magazine. I have thought in depth about distribution, production and exhibition stages of my magazine.

Diary #14

This week I have been busy working on my evaluation questions. During the half term I spent time answering each question in detail, using about 500-700 words for each response. However, I felt it was necessary to show my skills within media software, so have spent the past two weeks using my skills to present each response in an interesting way.

I have used Premier Pro for some; this allows me to present images and quick clips of video to illustrate my response. I decided to use a Dictaphone to record my voice, reading out the answer to each question, upload it onto the computer and download it to Premier Pro. This is effective as I have now got a video of my response in speech with images working as evidence of my creations. I used clips from my similar product research and also my key concepts presentation, to highlight the scale of research and effort that has gone into the production of Collide magazine.

After creating two of these this week, I then moved on to my distribution question. Instead of doing another video, I wanted to present what I would do to distribute my magazine. I did this, by going out, using public transport and walking on busy streets, looking for billboards and advertising space I could photograph. I took photos of these advertisement spaces and uploaded it to my computer. I then used Adobe Photoshop to make it look as though it is a photo of MY advertisement of Collide magazine on the billboard/poster. This is effective as it highlights how I intend to distribute my product.

Camstudio videos on creation of product

I decided to create cam studio videos, showing the process' i had to go through in order to achieve my finsihed product. I did this by turning on cam studio, hiding all the layers on photoshop and then showing them one at a time. This shows how many different stages i had to go through in order to complete the product to the high standard it has been completed in.