2. In what ways does your media product use,
develop or challenge forms and conventions of
real media products?
3. Throughout my magazine I tried to used a variety of generic
conventions. I learnt and experimented with these conventions
whilst completing my Codes and Conventions task at the start of
the year: http://j4k360.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/c-task.html
I looked further into codes and conventions by looking
at magazines that cover the genre of music that I will
look into to see how they used the codes and
conventions:
http://j4k360.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/magazine-front-
cover.html
Front Cover:
When making my front cover I tried to include as
many codes and conventions that I could. The
conventions that I have included have been
highlighted in a blue box. One of the main
conventions I used was the left third. To achieve this I
put all of my cover lines into the left portion of the
page and I have done the same with my mast head
and the cover star credit.
4. the decisions for the layout and design of my magazine were greatly influenced by
one of kerrangs front cover that featured Hayley Williams. I think I focused on
that in particular cover because it featured a female rock artist which was the
main focus of my magazine.
I have highlighted the similarities of my magazine and kerrangs
to show where I have got my inspiration
from. I tried to replicate the cover star
credit and how they change the font and
the font colour. If I included more text in
cover star credit I think it would have
looked more like kerrangs cover. I used
similar fonts to kerrangs cover such as the
font of the screamer at the bottom and the
top of my magazine as they are near
enough identical.
Influences:
6. Contents Page:
The layout of my content page was mainly inspired by Kerrang as
they. I started to look into different content pages so I could see
what I should be aiming to make:
http://j4k360.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/content-page-analysis.html
What I liked the most about the Kerrang content pages was the
layout. The layout inspired me to try my own version of it and i took
my picture for the content page so it would go perfectly with the
layout I had chosen. I found that the layout
Kerrang chose was more eye catching than
any of the other layouts as it has the
huge image on the left third that grabs the
attention of readers immediately.
I replicated my own version of the screamer
at the top of the page for my magazine but to
make sure it wasn’t completely copied I
rotated mine so it wouldn’t take up as much
space at the top of the content page.
7. Contents Page:
I kept to my house style of red, black and white, this
was quite important as all of the rock magazines
never break the house style they always keep to it
on every page. By doing the same I believe that it
made my magazine look more professional. I kept
my content page consistent with the front cover as
all of the bands that I named on my front cover I
have included in my double page spread. I also
included the cover story in the content page by
writing a quote that relates to the cover story
underneath the featuring artist. To keep the focus on
my artist I used the effects on Paint.net to make her
lipstick brighter so it would stand out. I chose for
my artist to have red lipstick so I could keep to the
house style.
8. Double Page Spread:
My inspiration for the layout came
from one of kerrangs double page
spread:
http://j4k360.blogspot.co.uk/2014/1
0/double-page-spread-analysis.html
I wanted my double page spread to
look similar to this because I like the
image to take up the whole right side
of the magazine so it will grab the
reader. Although I said in my blog
post that I wouldn’t include a image
on the left side of the magazine I
changed my mind because the picture
creates an effect of mystery and as it
also relates to the article directly
above the image.
I kept to the house style on my double
page spread but I feel as if I didn’t really
use black at all. My article is written in a Q
& A format. The questions are written in
red writing so they can easily be
distinguished from the rest of the text. The
Kerrang double page spread didn’t use the
Q & A style of article but with my chosen
house style and layout the question and
answer style worked better.
9. How does your media product represent
particular social groups?
10. My magazine was aimed at teenagers and young adults who enjoyed rock/Indi music. I
kept to the same target audience as kerrang (15-24)and by doing so I was able to see
how I can make my magazine to be suitable for the people I wanted
to reach:
http://j4k360.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/target-audience_19.html
Cover Star:
My cover star “Meth” showed that she is
someone who doesn’t show a lot of her self away
which is shown by her appearance. She always
looked at the camera and always hid her face
which was exactly the way I wanted to portray
my cover star. I did this so my cover star could
relate to her target audience as teenagers are
always quite secretive and they don’t want to
share their emotions. I believe I that I captured
that look from the pictures I used as I believe it
shows the view of teenagers very well and my
target audience will be able to relate to her.
11.
12. What kind of media institution might distribute
you media product why?
13. The genre and audience of “Hurt” magazine is very similar to the ones of Kerrang. I can
see my magazine working with a major distributer that produces magazines of the
same genre and target audience.
I researched into two major distribution
companies:
http://j4k360.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/orga
nisation-location.html
Including IPC media
IPC distribute huge magazines such as NME and UN
CUT. But IPC only produce two music magazines and
I don’t think that they are a suitable company for my
magazine as they don’t make magazines that would
reach my target audience and match the genre of my
magazine.
14. The distributor I have chosen is Bauer Media Group
http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/
I have chosen them because of their wide range of magazines, including Kerrang, Q
magazine and more. I have also chosen them because they are involved in such a wide
range of media as they are involved in Magazines, Radio, Television, Mobile and online.
Hurt magazine will fit in well with them as they produce the same genre of magazines
and they are continually looking at my target audience.
15. Who would be the audience for your media
product?
16. My magazine is aimed at male and female teenagers
and young adults aged between 15-24.
I asked people between 15-24 to answer a
questionnaire that would help me with the
development of my magazine:
http://j4k360.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/organisatio
n_21.html
The results of the questionnaire helped me to find
out how I could make my magazine appeal to my
target audience as I got the target audience to tell me
what they wanted in the magazine.
18. Masthead:
I think the name of my magazine is
quite catchy. I think it is a good way to
describe the genre of the magazine as
a lot of rock songs are about pain. I
like the simplicity of the name makes
it better for my target audience as the
name is easy to remember which
works well for teenagers as they have a lot of pressure with
exams and work so they wont have to think very hard to
remember the name of the magazine. I used the font for Hurt
because my target audience chose it when I asked them in
my survey. The choice of red for the masthead was a god idea
as it stands out when using my other house colours and it
was easy to incorporate into the rest of the magazine.
19. I used the three colours that my target audience
chose from my survey. I used this so I could reach
my target audiences wants and needs.
Black is usually seen in rock magazines for its
connotations of mystery and sinister nature.
Black was the best for the text as it was easy to
read and it worked well with red which was my
secondary text colour.
White was mainly my base colour as it made the
black or red text that I used stand out even more.
I used red lipstick on my cover star as it connotes
danger, power and strength which is what most
rock stars show when they are portrayed in the
media. I also used red for my secondary font
colour as it made the questions and the pull quote
in my article stand out and allowed me to split up
the questions from the text.
Colour:
20. Cover lines:
Cover lines are used to show the audience what
else is going to be included in the magazine and
they draw in more attention from readers as they
can see that other bands that they like are
included. By using bold and bright colours for my
cover lines it makes it easier for the reader to
notice them when they walk past the magazine. I
have also used a readable font so the reader can
read the cover line without a problem.
Images:
In all of my pictures I made sure that my cover artist
was making eye contact wit the audience. This built a
relationship between the artist and the audience.
However some of the relationship is broken as at all
times we don’t see the other side of her face so the artist is only
looking at you with her one eye. This can still attract the
audience as the relationship between them is made complex
and mysterious due to the eye contact.
21. What have you learnt about technologies from
the process of constructing the product?
22. Whilst making my product I had to use different programs to construct my magazine. I
had to use: Paint .NET, Microsoft Word and Page-Plus
Here are the strengths of each program:
Paint.NET Microsoft Word Page-Plus
Very easy to use and understand Easy to use and understand Pre made layout for us to put the
different parts of the magazine into the
correct space
Ability to add effects. And has
useful tools like magic wand to
easily remove parts of objects
and images
Able to go back and change
mistakes easily
Ability to save document as a PDF and a
JPEG
Allows you to have multiple
layers to the work so you can
add more depth and so you can
select the object you want
without a hassle as it makes
sure your images aren't over
crowded
Spell check prevented
spelling mistakes when
making my article
Able to go back and change mistakes
and edit pictures
Able to add shapes and text
easily
23. Here are the weaknesses of each program:
Paint.NET Microsoft Word Page-Plus
Unable to edit text after
unselecting the layer which
meant I had to re make a lot of
my text for the magazine which
took up a lot of time
Image placement wasn’t very
responsive and took along
time to be able to place my
images in the correct place
The positioning of the text was very
unresponsive as it would always place
the text in a uneven manor
Limited choices of shapes meant
that we had to import the
shapes as images from other
programs
Unable to save the
documents as a JPEG format
The cut out studio wasn’t very
responsive as it would always try to
delete parts of my cover star instead of
the background
the effects were of low quality and
made images look extremely pixilated
The layers weren't divided so when
trying to select the a shape it would
select the text instead
All of the programs that I used helped me in the development of my magazine. The most useful was
Paint.NET as it had the best tools like magic wand that made it possible for me to create my front cover and
content page. The effects on Paint.NET were far superior to the effects on Page-Plus as they were of higher
quality. I preferred the placement of text on Paint.NET over Microsoft word as Paint.NET gave me the
freedom to place my text where I wanted it without a problem.
24. Photographic Choices
Before taking photos of my cover star I had
to have a general idea of how my cover star
would look and act for the photo-shoot. I
looked into other female rock stars and how
they posed for their photos and the facial
expressions they gave for the photo-shoot:
http://j4k360.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/orga
nisation_21.html
This research made my photo-shoot a lot
easier as I already knew how a rock-star
should look. In a lot of the Kerrang front
covers the cover star will either give eye
contact and give no emotion or they will look
away from the camera and give no emotion. I
wanted to do the opposite so I could make
my cover star relate to her target audience
(15-24) so I wanted my cover star to give eye
contact to create a relationship and give no
emotion to give her the mysterious and dark
look that most rock-stars have.
25. Blogger was a way that I could show the process I
went through to whilst I was making my
magazine. I found it difficult to use as I'm not very
good at describing why I did certain things in my
work. So my blog posts weren't as detailed as
they could have been as I would struggle to write
about my choices. Blogger was I good website
though as I could access my work at anytime
which made it easier than storing all of my work
in a folder. And I liked the ability to go back and
edit my work as much as I wanted so I could go
and add another picture or more information to
an old blog post.
Blogger:
26. Looking back to your preliminary task, what do
you feel that you have learnt in the progression
from it to the full product?
27. Preliminary Task: Main Final Task:
In my preliminary task the cover lines are unreadable as the background clashes with them. The
layout I used Is simple so it leaves a lot of space around the magazine which makes the magazine
look empty.
28. Overall I am happy with the way that my magazine turned out. I think that I have
fulfilled the brief in the making of my music magazine “Hurt”. I have created a Rock
magazine with a appearance that stands out due to the use of bold fonts and eye
catching colours. I think my strongest part of my product is the content page due to
what is my favourite image and the layout of the content information.
