5. 1 In what ways does your media product use, develop or
challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
In order to create my music magazine I have used
forms and conventions such as a masthead so that I
created a brand identity. I feel that I have used
many media conventions in the development of my
magazine, I have also used other music magazines
as my guideline so that my magazine looks as
professional as possible as well as being relatable
to other music magazines.
However I feel that my media magazine also
develops and challenges some conventions of real
media products. This is shown on my front cover,
as in other magazine the background behind the
person is sometimes removed and replaced with
another colour, or the person is surrounded by
objects (e.g. Chris Brown on the cover of VIBE).
Where as, instead I have kept the background so
that James Mack stands out and is your immediate
focus, otherwise the reader might get distracted by
a different objects in the background.
6. Plus by only having James’ head and shoulders, it uses the
convention eye flow, which means that the readers eyes naturally
flows from the top right hand corner to the bottom left. I have
taken advantage of this by placing James’ head slightly off centre
so that it is more in the left third of the page, which I have again
followed a media convention by doing this as I have used the rule
of thirds. This makes the image look instantly more interesting as
his head is facing off to the left but his eyes are actually looking
straight into the camera and at the reader.
Eye flow:
I have also incorporated eye flow in my front cover as I have placed
the text on the right hand side of the page with a ‘Plus at the bottom
of the page so that the audience will receive as much information as
possible.
The rule of thirds:
7. I feel another way that my music magazine has used conventions is through the use
of a brand identity. This is because throughout my whole magazine I have used the
colours red, white and black. I decided to use these colours as I felt that they are
colours that are frequently used in music and on instruments as well as the colours
being associated with different rock bands such as The Who.
I have not only shown this with the style of the magazine, I have also
shown in my images as Sam’s bass guitar is red and she is wearing a
black leather jacket and a white top. In my magazine I have also used
these colours in my logo, house style and boarder around every page.
Another way I have used brand identity is by placing a red watermark of a capital
M underneath the right hand side of the page as the first sentence of the article
starts with the word Max.
8. As well as that I have also created a logo for my magazine and have
house style that my magazine is easily recognised and people know
what it is, just like how bands or artists sometimes have a text that is
associated with them. For my house style I chose Poplar Std. for the
main titles and Prestige Elite Std. for the texts.
MAINFONT- POPLARStd.
TEXT FONT -
PRESTIGE ELITE
Std.
For the logo itself I have made a guitar out of the letter M as I
thought that the neck of the guitar could be made out of the leg of
the M. I have also included a pair of drum sticks, as guitars and
drums are essential in order to create rock music so I thought it was
appropriate for a rock music magazine.
10. For my contents page I decided to use guitarist Samantha Buval as my model as she plays
the bass guitar. For this picture I took it in a garden by the fence as I thought that it wood
create a good background as it would tie in with my title of my magazine WSM, which
stands for Wood Stock Magazine. I wanted her to wear jeans and a t-shirt with a leather
jacket as I thought it wood make her look slightly older and part of a rock band, as leather
is often associated with bikers and rock artists e.g. Kiss.
For the actual image of Samantha Buval I needed to edit it in Photoshop, in order for it
to look more professional and stand out. I first had to crop the photo and make it fit on to
an A4 sheet. After I had done that, I then used the Burn Tool to create the black edge of
the right hand side in order for the reader to be able to read what the contents of the
magazine was going to be. I then changed the levels of colour in the image as well as
changing the curves to experiment with the different "hues" of colour. I did this because I
wanted to make the reds in the photo more dominate as my colour scheme for my
magazine is red, black and white.
In addition to the red boarder I also added text to the page so that people will know what
is coming up in the magazine. For the text I used Poplar Std. for the "Content Page", as it
is my house style, and Prestige Elite Std for the rest of the text.
11. 2 How does your media product represent particular social
groups?
My music magazine represents a social group of older teenagers up, as I have
used a model who is 17 for my content page, a 21 year old for my front cover and
a band who are in their twenties for my double page spread. I feel that my music
magazine also represents people who are older as I have included artists such as
Eric Clapton, David Bowie and Aerosmith on both my front cover an content
page, plus because my magazine is called WSM (Wood Stock Magazine), I want
people who know what the event was to read it.
My magazine also represents older teenagers up as the
images I have chosen to use are slightly rebellious which
is the stereotype given to teenagers as well as rock artists,
just like the song “Rebel, Rebel” by David Bowie. This is
because on my content page Sam B is holding her bass
guitar in an unconventional way as she is holding it on
her shoulder and not in front of her.
12. Plus on my double page spread the images are rebellious as the lead singer ‘Max
the Fool’ is not wearing any clothes on his top half. This could seen to be
rebellious as again it is unconventional not to wear a shirt of some description
whilst playing a gig or concert.
Another reason the images
on my double page spread
could been seen to be
disorderly is because on the
right hand side in the lure
there is a photo of James
Mack smoking a cigarette,
which shows that the
magazine deals with adult
situations and stories. This
links to rock music as often
rock artists are associated
which drugs and alcohol.
13. 3 What kind of media institution might distribute your
media product and why?
I would want my music magazine to be distributed by a
media institution such as Future PLC, as they are the sixth
largest media company in the UK as of 2006. I would also
want a company such as this to distribute my magazine as they do have music
magazines, but they are not like mine, as WSM is a magazine that not only
promotes new, up and coming bands but it also follows older artists such as Eric
Clapton and Aerosmith. However because they do have music magazines it means
that they have contacts in the music industry. I would also want a company such
as Future PLC because they are not only experienced at music magazines, they
also have published more than 150 different magazines which span fields such as
video games, technology, films and photography, which means that if the
magazine needed advertising it could be promoted through the different
magazines in order to raise its profile. Plus it would be easier and more
convenient if I was to go with a company such as Future PLC who’s headquarters
are in UK as I would want my magazine to first be distributed in the UK and if it
became successful it could be distributed simply in countries such as the United
States and Australia as Future PLC also serve those areas.
14. 4 Who would be the audience for your media product?
For my music magazine I want my audience to be teenagers from about 17 up, as the
artists that I have included in my magazine range in age as I have used the band Max
the Fool and the Foolish Heart who are in their twenties, as well as artists such as Eric
Clapton, Aerosmith and David Bowie.
However I do realise that it is not ‘normal‘ for a magazine to not have specific target
audience age, I feel that I need to make the age range bigger in order to include the
artists that I want to interview and talk about. In that sense I am breaking a media
convention because the target audience is much bigger than normal, where as
magazines such as Vibe have an age range form 18-34 which is much smaller.
Nevertheless I do think that the predominant number of people reading the magazine
will be late male and female teenagers to people in their thirties, because of the fact
that I will be writing about new bands and their works and where they will next be
playing.
15. 5 How did you attract/address your audience?
I attracted my audience using eye catching images as well as interesting text along
side it to make people become more interested so they would want to find out more.
Whilst addressing my audience I tried to use formal language so that my magazine
seem more professional, where as if I had used slang it would have made the
magazine seem slightly less professional and amateur.
I have also use sophisticated colours; red, white and black in order to create an
appropriate atmosphere and mood for when people open my magazine and start to
read it. I have chosen these colours as they are often used for instruments such as
guitars, as well as black is seen to be a strong colour which is again often associated
with rock music as it uses powerful chords and rhythms to create the music.
As well as language and colour I have also addressed the audience through the articles
that I have written and included, for instance by placing a photo of James Mack on the
double page spread smoking it shows the audience that there could possibly be some
age appropriate articles in the magazine just like in most of the other rock music
magazines.
16. 6 What have you learnt about technologies from the
process of constructing this product?
I have learnt new techniques whilst creating this music magazine through the use of
technologies such as photoshop, survey monkey, slide share and blogger. Although I
have used photo shop before it has never been to this standard and because of this I
have been able to use more complex tools and techniques as I was able to learn what
each tool did properly. Whilst experimenting on photoshop I was able to edit my
photos successfully and I am happy with the results.
I have also use survey monkey to help me research which style of music, what may
target audience should be, etc. It has been very useful because it help me decided
which type of magazine would be most profitable in sales according to the genre of
music being included in the magazine. Plus it easily allowed me to assess the data and
make it in to graphs and analyse it.
As well as survey monkey and photoshop I have also used Blogger in order to create
my blog and present my work. I have never had to make a blog before but it was
simple to create it with blogger because it allowed you to easily upload your work, as
long as it was saved as a JPEG, and present it in a clear, smart form online.
17. 7 Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have
learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
18. 7 Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have
learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
During the progression from the preliminary task to the
full product I have learnt more about photoshop and
the skills that are needed in order to create a product
that looks professional. As well as that I have also
learnt more about the different camera angles needed
to create a better photograph. For instance when I was
taking the photos for my front cover with
James Mack, I was taking some of them on eye level with him or above him but they did
not look right because it made him look weaker and less important. Whereas having the
camera slightly below his eye level made him look more powerful, as it was as if he is
looking down at the people reading the magazine.
High angle
shot:
Eye level
shot:
Worm eye
shot:
I have also learnt that it is interesting to
have different models instead of having
the same one for the different pieces of
work, because in a real magazine it is
unlikely that the model will be on the
front cover, content page and double page
spread.
