Preliminary Task
Wednesday, 19 May 2010
Friday, 7 May 2010
1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? Looking at my final product you can see that i have used many of the codes and conventions of existing products. Through researching these existing brands and noting down common trends e.g. Big/clear masthead, visible date/barcode/issue number and the central image having direct mode of address, I am able to use these forms when producing my own product. By adopting and developing these trends where possible i can make my product more professional and appealing. Below is some evidence of me experimenting with an idea for the style of my masthead. 
I played around with a number of styles such as adding a pattern overlay. I kept the second screen grab as my masthead. However, after asking various people’s opinions i made further changes as it appeared too “in your face” and busy making it too distracting. Because of this i kept my masthead simple like my style model NME but with style so it would still be recognisable. Below is my final masthead and next to NME’s you can see the clear similarities. I thought making changes was a wise decision as many mastheads are simple like Q and KERRANG. 
I challenged the normal codes and conventions as most magazines do not have any sort of background or background image, the central image covers this, in my product I included 2 pieces of graffiti art. I did this as the results from my questionnaire from the question; “what do you associate alternative music with?” several answered with graffiti. I thought that adding some graffiti would make my cover look more creative and would please my target audience. I altered the original image my making the purple darker using the burn tool and enhancing other faded colours. Original image 
This is how I presented the anchorage text. I challenged normal codes and conventions as normally the text does not have a background to it. I did this to show i contrast to the text and to make it more eye catching than other cover lines on the cover. 
I did this by using the slice tool to cut the edges of a normal rectangle to give an edgy appeal. To some cover lines on my front cover i used the stroke tool to add the different coloured outline to the lettering. I kept others in standard form like on existing products. Looking at the barcode on my product you can see my barcode looks unusual. However, i have adopted this quality from my style model. This choice has already been commented on so the picture to the left is justifying why i made this choice. 
The larger image above is the image after i had started to put colour into the fringe using Photoshop. I saved over the original file by mistake so this is the image before it was completed. I used the colour replacement tool over the original hair colour to make it red and on the eyes to make them ‘bluer’. I used the burn tool to darken the skin colour, clothes, headphones and other parts and used the lighten tool to make things lighter in colour. I mainly stuck to the normal codes and conventions when producing my contents page. With well knowing brands, an editors letter is not always included, mine being a new brand i thought this would be sensible to include. I also clearly advertised how to subscribe to AMP because almost every existing product now has this. On the contents pages of other products, content is frequently divided into feature and regular content with the occasional different subheading like ‘live’ and ‘news’. I followed this technique as through surveying people they agreed that this made it easier to read and follow. The lists of contents are also not in numerical order this also common. At first i had images scattered everywhere in different places which i changed through the advice of my teacher. I referred back to my research on contents pages and when comparing the two it was clear i had a lot of work to do to make my contents page look professional. I chose to change my layout to a more consistent layout. I settled with all text in the first two columns followed by images in the last. I went against normal codes and conventions when making the title of the contents page. I wanted to include an amplifier somewhere in my product, so i chose to include one in my title. Using Photoshop i made my title. 
i did this so that it would correspond with my positioning statement “plug in live loud” and i also thought that this could be representative of my brand. When making my double page spread i also stuck strictly to normal codes and conventions as i was most worried about making my own as this was a first. I thought it would be best to stick to my style model as closely as possible as i didn’t want to add something as a risk and it turning out “tacky”. During the production i went against my original plan of having the main image to the left with the text following and changed the layout to the image in the middle with the text around it. I made this choice as me, my teacher and others felt that it just didn’t work. I was able to set up an interview early on into the course with the band that i have featured in my article using MySpace. Therefore i was lucky to get a lot of the major preparation work done earlier such as, writing up the article and i made sure to include drop quotes within the article as it is very unusual not to do so. I produced the stanfirst on Photoshop and imported the image onto Quark. When researching double page spreads it was obvious that a good stanfirst was important to grab the attention of the reader and a nice way to start the piece. I tried to be as eye catching as possible without looking over the top so once again i used the slice tool to add edging to the shape.
This is Philippa Ward comparing my product to an existing one
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? My product represents the social groups that are mostly interested in alternative music. NME, an alternative music magazine is loved by those with the style of “indie kids”, this is still representative of alternative music also. By looking at the central image on my front cover you can see the vibrant colours that are associated with alternative music and that it instantly draws in attention. I have done this because i wanted to create a retro, ‘preppy’, ‘mismatch’ approach to the style and presentation as this is the dress sense of my intended audience. This also translates through the text font, colours and style. I also wanted to be able not to completely marginalise my product to one particular social group therefore i left some styles open to some other social groups. I chose to do this as when doing the survey a lover of kerrang also liked to read Q magazine. I also had to be aware of the best colour trends to consider so make sure that it wasn’t gender biased and also to consider what content was included for the same reason.
3. What kind of media institute might distribute your media product and why? My style model for my media product has been NME magazine. The institute that distributes this product is IPC media- the UK’s leading consumer magazine publisher, which has over 85 iconic brands such as LOOK, Marie Claire, NOW, Nuts and more to suit a variety of different audiences. For example, genres include; music, sport, gossip, TV listings, gardening, hair and beauty, animal care etc. The field was launched in 1853 and within a year became the largest newspaper distributer in Europe, with 24 pages. It had its own correspondent throughout the Crimean War and its November 18, 1854 issue ran a series of personal narratives in January 2010. IPC Media restricted around the three key audience groups; men, mass-market women and up-market women. Therefore this would make IPC media the type of media institute that can distribute my media product due to their long list of music brands listed with them already. Here is a link to their website where i obtained my information. http://www.ipcmedia.com/
This is a video i made about IPC Media
4. Who would be the audience of your media product? The audience of my media product would be my intended target audience. I asked two people to say what their favourite type of music is, their favourite band/artist, hobbies and favourite magazine. As these people will be the audience of my product, i have tried to address these interests in the production of my product. Person 1: Pop/Rock, Paramore, Listening to music/photography/drawing, KERRANG Person 2: Indie, OK GO/Internet browsing/friends, NME
5. How did you attract/address your audience? I have tried to address my audience by including relevant content to what they like and making my product look interesting and appealing to pull in my intended audience. I have done this by including popular bands and various competitions which have shown to be popular from the surveys that i conducted, for example i have included a competition to win ‘Skull candy’ headphones which are all the range today. I thought this would be very appealing to my target audience. I have tried to make the pictures most appealing as many said that it was the pictures that make them want to read the content of magazines. Below is an individual evaluating my product to an existing product.
6. What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing this product. During this course i have used different technologies when producing my product. These consist of still and video cameras using to take my selection of images and camcorders when filming the band for my interview and while people were evaluating my product. I also used mobile phones to record sound clips that i sent to the computers, the internet and of course the computer. The software i used was Photoshop and Quark Xpress7. I constructed my front cover using Photoshop and my contents page and double page spread using Quark. I was familiar with Photoshop as i have already used it several times during highs school work however, Quark was new to us all this year and it took a lot of time getting used to using the software with precision. I found this difficult as i was too familiar to how Photoshop worked but through determination and experimentation i was able to adapt to using it. I have learnt the effectiveness of different camera angles and how they can enhance a certain mood that you would like to create through the image and also how to adapt myself into learning new things under pressure such as, learning to use Quark. Through using the internet to research existing products i was able to broaden my understanding of the industry of making magazines. This was through learning about how things are used for marketing and pleasing intended audiences such as the contents and layouts of magazines. Here is some evidence of me using the software needed.
7. .Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you think you have learnt in the process from it to the full product. Firstly when making my preliminary i put into practice what it would take to make everything on my product original (my own.) I then came to notice what i would have to improve on if i wanted to gain a good grade in the course. I realised i would have so much to think about when producing my own product on many different levels. This was from colours to contents to images and layout. I knew that i would have a lot to research. At first the idea of making everything original scared and worried me as i thought i wouldn’t be anywhere near ready or capable. However, throughout making my preliminary my mind was eased and the worries started to fade. It was easy to evaluate and research existing products and adopt the good qualities. Getting feedback along the way was vital as i could pick up on things i couldn’t see myself that i would have to change or improve. I asked one person to look at my preliminary compared to my final product to see if they could notice any improvements in my skills. Demi Smallwood said: I can clearly see that you have improved in many ways from understanding the effectiveness of layouts and colours and you have also gained a lot of experience from the different software’s used because the final product defiantly looks more professional that your preliminary. I think the uses of colours and style on your final as your preliminary looks very uncoordinated and miss matched. The final product is very eye catching and appealing and i can tell straight away that it is aimed at perhaps indie kids or alternative music lovers as it looks like it would fit in the same category at Q and NME magazine.
I played around with a number of styles such as adding a pattern overlay. I kept the second screen grab as my masthead. However, after asking various people’s opinions i made further changes as it appeared too “in your face” and busy making it too distracting. Because of this i kept my masthead simple like my style model NME but with style so it would still be recognisable. Below is my final masthead and next to NME’s you can see the clear similarities. I thought making changes was a wise decision as many mastheads are simple like Q and KERRANG. 
I challenged the normal codes and conventions as most magazines do not have any sort of background or background image, the central image covers this, in my product I included 2 pieces of graffiti art. I did this as the results from my questionnaire from the question; “what do you associate alternative music with?” several answered with graffiti. I thought that adding some graffiti would make my cover look more creative and would please my target audience. I altered the original image my making the purple darker using the burn tool and enhancing other faded colours. Original image 
This is how I presented the anchorage text. I challenged normal codes and conventions as normally the text does not have a background to it. I did this to show i contrast to the text and to make it more eye catching than other cover lines on the cover. 
I did this by using the slice tool to cut the edges of a normal rectangle to give an edgy appeal. To some cover lines on my front cover i used the stroke tool to add the different coloured outline to the lettering. I kept others in standard form like on existing products. Looking at the barcode on my product you can see my barcode looks unusual. However, i have adopted this quality from my style model. This choice has already been commented on so the picture to the left is justifying why i made this choice. 
The larger image above is the image after i had started to put colour into the fringe using Photoshop. I saved over the original file by mistake so this is the image before it was completed. I used the colour replacement tool over the original hair colour to make it red and on the eyes to make them ‘bluer’. I used the burn tool to darken the skin colour, clothes, headphones and other parts and used the lighten tool to make things lighter in colour. I mainly stuck to the normal codes and conventions when producing my contents page. With well knowing brands, an editors letter is not always included, mine being a new brand i thought this would be sensible to include. I also clearly advertised how to subscribe to AMP because almost every existing product now has this. On the contents pages of other products, content is frequently divided into feature and regular content with the occasional different subheading like ‘live’ and ‘news’. I followed this technique as through surveying people they agreed that this made it easier to read and follow. The lists of contents are also not in numerical order this also common. At first i had images scattered everywhere in different places which i changed through the advice of my teacher. I referred back to my research on contents pages and when comparing the two it was clear i had a lot of work to do to make my contents page look professional. I chose to change my layout to a more consistent layout. I settled with all text in the first two columns followed by images in the last. I went against normal codes and conventions when making the title of the contents page. I wanted to include an amplifier somewhere in my product, so i chose to include one in my title. Using Photoshop i made my title. 
i did this so that it would correspond with my positioning statement “plug in live loud” and i also thought that this could be representative of my brand. When making my double page spread i also stuck strictly to normal codes and conventions as i was most worried about making my own as this was a first. I thought it would be best to stick to my style model as closely as possible as i didn’t want to add something as a risk and it turning out “tacky”. During the production i went against my original plan of having the main image to the left with the text following and changed the layout to the image in the middle with the text around it. I made this choice as me, my teacher and others felt that it just didn’t work. I was able to set up an interview early on into the course with the band that i have featured in my article using MySpace. Therefore i was lucky to get a lot of the major preparation work done earlier such as, writing up the article and i made sure to include drop quotes within the article as it is very unusual not to do so. I produced the stanfirst on Photoshop and imported the image onto Quark. When researching double page spreads it was obvious that a good stanfirst was important to grab the attention of the reader and a nice way to start the piece. I tried to be as eye catching as possible without looking over the top so once again i used the slice tool to add edging to the shape. This is Philippa Ward comparing my product to an existing one
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? My product represents the social groups that are mostly interested in alternative music. NME, an alternative music magazine is loved by those with the style of “indie kids”, this is still representative of alternative music also. By looking at the central image on my front cover you can see the vibrant colours that are associated with alternative music and that it instantly draws in attention. I have done this because i wanted to create a retro, ‘preppy’, ‘mismatch’ approach to the style and presentation as this is the dress sense of my intended audience. This also translates through the text font, colours and style. I also wanted to be able not to completely marginalise my product to one particular social group therefore i left some styles open to some other social groups. I chose to do this as when doing the survey a lover of kerrang also liked to read Q magazine. I also had to be aware of the best colour trends to consider so make sure that it wasn’t gender biased and also to consider what content was included for the same reason.
3. What kind of media institute might distribute your media product and why? My style model for my media product has been NME magazine. The institute that distributes this product is IPC media- the UK’s leading consumer magazine publisher, which has over 85 iconic brands such as LOOK, Marie Claire, NOW, Nuts and more to suit a variety of different audiences. For example, genres include; music, sport, gossip, TV listings, gardening, hair and beauty, animal care etc. The field was launched in 1853 and within a year became the largest newspaper distributer in Europe, with 24 pages. It had its own correspondent throughout the Crimean War and its November 18, 1854 issue ran a series of personal narratives in January 2010. IPC Media restricted around the three key audience groups; men, mass-market women and up-market women. Therefore this would make IPC media the type of media institute that can distribute my media product due to their long list of music brands listed with them already. Here is a link to their website where i obtained my information. http://www.ipcmedia.com/
This is a video i made about IPC Media
4. Who would be the audience of your media product? The audience of my media product would be my intended target audience. I asked two people to say what their favourite type of music is, their favourite band/artist, hobbies and favourite magazine. As these people will be the audience of my product, i have tried to address these interests in the production of my product. Person 1: Pop/Rock, Paramore, Listening to music/photography/drawing, KERRANG Person 2: Indie, OK GO/Internet browsing/friends, NME
5. How did you attract/address your audience? I have tried to address my audience by including relevant content to what they like and making my product look interesting and appealing to pull in my intended audience. I have done this by including popular bands and various competitions which have shown to be popular from the surveys that i conducted, for example i have included a competition to win ‘Skull candy’ headphones which are all the range today. I thought this would be very appealing to my target audience. I have tried to make the pictures most appealing as many said that it was the pictures that make them want to read the content of magazines. Below is an individual evaluating my product to an existing product.
6. What have you learnt about the technologies from the process of constructing this product. During this course i have used different technologies when producing my product. These consist of still and video cameras using to take my selection of images and camcorders when filming the band for my interview and while people were evaluating my product. I also used mobile phones to record sound clips that i sent to the computers, the internet and of course the computer. The software i used was Photoshop and Quark Xpress7. I constructed my front cover using Photoshop and my contents page and double page spread using Quark. I was familiar with Photoshop as i have already used it several times during highs school work however, Quark was new to us all this year and it took a lot of time getting used to using the software with precision. I found this difficult as i was too familiar to how Photoshop worked but through determination and experimentation i was able to adapt to using it. I have learnt the effectiveness of different camera angles and how they can enhance a certain mood that you would like to create through the image and also how to adapt myself into learning new things under pressure such as, learning to use Quark. Through using the internet to research existing products i was able to broaden my understanding of the industry of making magazines. This was through learning about how things are used for marketing and pleasing intended audiences such as the contents and layouts of magazines. Here is some evidence of me using the software needed.
7. .Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you think you have learnt in the process from it to the full product. Firstly when making my preliminary i put into practice what it would take to make everything on my product original (my own.) I then came to notice what i would have to improve on if i wanted to gain a good grade in the course. I realised i would have so much to think about when producing my own product on many different levels. This was from colours to contents to images and layout. I knew that i would have a lot to research. At first the idea of making everything original scared and worried me as i thought i wouldn’t be anywhere near ready or capable. However, throughout making my preliminary my mind was eased and the worries started to fade. It was easy to evaluate and research existing products and adopt the good qualities. Getting feedback along the way was vital as i could pick up on things i couldn’t see myself that i would have to change or improve. I asked one person to look at my preliminary compared to my final product to see if they could notice any improvements in my skills. Demi Smallwood said: I can clearly see that you have improved in many ways from understanding the effectiveness of layouts and colours and you have also gained a lot of experience from the different software’s used because the final product defiantly looks more professional that your preliminary. I think the uses of colours and style on your final as your preliminary looks very uncoordinated and miss matched. The final product is very eye catching and appealing and i can tell straight away that it is aimed at perhaps indie kids or alternative music lovers as it looks like it would fit in the same category at Q and NME magazine.
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