Preliminary task

Here is my preliminary task.

Evaluation - Links to YouTube.

http://youtu.be/cWpag37YRGg - Question 1

http://youtu.be/BEyJNwPubOk - Question 2

http://youtu.be/S_5TH_dblGk - Question 3

http://youtu.be/fEqaGWTuz-U - Question 4

http://youtu.be/Up0KjuTNVpk - Question 5

http://youtu.be/ldtiER0INVo - Question 6

http://youtu.be/RH0UehPF-v4 - Question 7

All of these videos are unlisted, so no-one without the link can view them.

Here is the script that I used for my evaluation. I may have added some words here and there to make it sound better.

1.       In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The title of my magazine is Undead. This suggests that the type of music is rock/punk, which is also pointed out by the bands listed on the front page and by my models clothing and pose/posture. In all of my images my models are wearing dark clothes or clothes with other bands names on. This was on purpose to let the audience know that this is the kind of music that this magazine supports and promotes.

My choice of models had to be ones that would suit the band style and the magazine style too. My first model is on the front cover, I chose him specifically because he had long hair and the mentality of a rock star, which would make him able to pose for the images correctly.

My title font is Myriad pro; I thought this would be perfect for the style of my magazine, as it is not too perfectly shaped nor it is too distorted that it would create discomfort whilst reading the title.

My written content is perfectly suitable for my style of magazine, especially on my double page spread. I have included a question and answer which is standard for a magazine of this type. There is also a background of the band and general information about them and their tours, which is also standard for this style of magazine.

The music genre of my magazine is punk/pop and the way that my magazine suggests that is the mise-en-scene of my images, my title, my font and my written content. My layout follows all of the conventions of other magazines. I have put all of my sell lines down the left side of my front cover, with the exception of a couple on the bottom. My contents page and double page spread also follow general layout conventions of other magazines of this style.

2.       How does your Media product represent particular social groups?

The postures of both of the images are quite similar; this is something that I strived to emulate when creating my product. The facial expressions are also quite similar which leads my product to convey conventions of punk/rock styles of magazines. Both are staring right at the camera although my models eyes are wide open whereas Chester’s eyes are squinted to show the expression on his face as a more serious one. Both are wearing different costumes but they both conform to the conventions of costumes. They both have different hairstyles but that is not highly relevant to the style of the magazine however it does say a lot about the social group that one particular person may be a part of. Overall, I think that these elements of the photos represent a young social group who love music, and who aren’t afraid to be who they are; weather they show that through being a bit extreme with their appearances, or by their personality.

3.       What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Kerrang magazine is the magazine that I would consider related to my product the most. Kerrang magazine was published in the UK by Bauer Consumer Media; this publisher has made Kerrang a successful magazine for over 30 years. The other magazines that Bauer Consumer Media produces are; Zoo, Closer and Match! These magazines prove that they cover a wide range of magazine genres.

Some mainstream magazines are handed out at venues by using busy spots and locations to generate a bit of interest for the magazine. Some magazines are subscription only magazines, whereby you have to order them online or by telephone to purchase them. Lastly, some magazines are only sold in stores, which for some customers is an inconvenience which would detour some customers from that magazine. Obviously being able to distribute your magazine via all three methods would be the best way to distribute my magazine, and Bauer Consumer Media would be the best distribution company for my magazine as there isn’t as much competition as other distribution companies would have.

4.       Who would be the audience for your media product?

The perfect audience for me media product would be as the image shows. As you can see this person would be the most stereotypical person to purchase my magazine. He has long hair, dark clothes, and skinny jeans. The fact that he has all of these would indicate that he doesn’t care about what others think of him as long as he is happy, which is the general attitude of the audience of my magazine. This is why this would look like the stereotypical audience for my magazine. This person probably likes loud, heavy music which may often disrupt others. They would spend their time playing games or talking to friends, and of course listening to music. They would spend their money on going out with friends, maybe on games and clothes. They would go to see Sci-Fi’s or comedies but movie taste usually depends on the person. The reason that they would buy my magazine is because my magazine appeals to them, as proved by my audience feedback.

5.       How did you attract/address your audience?

One of the ways I attracted my audience was by putting interesting sell lines on the front cover of my magazine which would appeal to my target audience. I used promotional posters from the main focus of the magazine to interest more potential customers, because people will buy it just for the posters. I included popular bands for some of my sell lines.  I used most of the conventions of a normal magazine, such as barcode in the bottom left, masthead in the top right, sell lines to the left of the page and in line with each other, date, price and cost and I also have one main sell line underneath the masthead. I have one main image and a few sub images.

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

Here is an Image I made on Photoshop showing all of the equipment that I used, this includes Facebook ( to recruit my models ), Blogger ( to upload my progress and work ), YouTube ( To upload my evaluation to ) and the computer + camera that I used for my photographs. Using all of these has given me a much greater understanding of their uses and how effective they can be for Media. They have helped me a lot in the creation of my product. Without the use of Facebook, I would not have been able to recruit the models I wanted to use and I would have had to resort to using someone from my college who may not have the correct look I was aiming for.

7.       Looking back at your preliminary task (the school/college magazine task/short continuity film sequence), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from that to your full product?

Looking back at my preliminary task, I would say that I did quite well considering I had only a few short months to get to know Photoshop and develop my skills with it. Some of the aspects of that I liked from my preliminary task such as, how I positioned the masthead and following all of the common conventions of other magazines. The layout on my real product however, is much better than the one from my preliminary as my skills have developed in all aspects of media, which helped a lot when I was making my product. When I made my preliminary task, I knew almost nothing about photography, yet I managed to take a decent photograph and use it for my front cover and some for my contents page too. This is completely different when I was taking photographs for my main task, as I knew what I was doing and which angels I needed the models at and how close I needed them to be and of course, which pose I needed them to do. The font used on my preliminary was not one which was suited for my magazine as it wasn’t as tidy as it could have been which is what would have been needed as it was a magazine for a college. Looking at the font of my main product I can see that it is suited well for my style of magazine as It Is not too messy, yet it isn’t too neat that It will discourage readers from thinking that it isn’t their kind of magazine.

The mode of address on my preliminary task is somewhat vague, as I had only been studying for a few short months. However on my main task I am certain that I know of whom I am addressing and how to get my product to interest them.

An example of my Photoshop Practicing

Looking at this piece of work, from month ago, and looking at my current product, I can say that I have come a very long way in terms of my knowledge of the industry with the conventions of magazines, and my Photoshop skills. This was when I first started thinking about designs for my front cover, obviously this one was not going to be thought about any more, as I had most the conventions of magazines wrong. the masthead is in the wrong place, the barcode is in the wrong place, the date and issue number is in the wrong place. 

However; even though there are a lot of bad things about this magazine I do like how even at the start of me not knowing much about Photoshop and conventions, I made the magazine look decent enough, with the fiery background and the photoshopped band members to be in front of the fire. Also this is the image that I wanted to use, and there was no room for the Masthead at the top left corner.

Possible layout of my double page spread

This is one of the layouts that I like for my magazine, I have just quickly put the images and text on here just to see what it would look like. With a big of work this may start to look really good.

Rationale Questions - Double page spread.

Double page spread flat plan rationale questions

Colour usage: The colours I am going to use for my text title will be black or green to highlight either the mood of the band and to stand out on the page or to outline the craziness of the band with the colour green. I will use the colour White for the first paragraph indicating a new start to the article, and then as the article continues I will use either purple or green, depending on which colour I use for the title. The colour from the title will contrast with the article as they will be on opposite ends of the colour wheel, or at least colours that contrast well.

Image usage: for my double page spread I am going to use 3 separate images with the page separated in half at the top and then in half horizontally at the bottom, the top is where the singer will be, and the bass guitarist will be on the bottom left and the drummer will be on the bottom right. The singer will be looking down at the other two, with the other two looking at each other in shock or with a star struck/ confused look on their faces. The images on this page will be close ups as that compliments the personal level of the article itself, also the camera angle will be eye level so it again compliments the personal level of the tone I’m creating with the article. There will be black background so it doesn’t steal focus from the images, and it makes the expressions easier to see.

Text usage: the narrative voice for the magazine article will be male as it is written from a male point of view and the context used in the article points towards a male narrative voice. There will be a joke/pun at the top of the page underneath the title of the page, probably something to do with the bands funny antics. There will be their slogan “We’ve come to conquer” near the top of the page making the readers aware that the article is about Misfits of Mayhem.

Layout and Font: I will use the same font as I used for my masthead on the front cover to indicate that this article is important or worth a read. I will use the font Tekton for the article as it suits the style of the magazine and it will assist readership of the article. I have created a photograph framing of sorts for the bands photographs; this is to create an effect of wackiness within the band. The frame looks like this, the singer will be on the top, and the other two will be on the bottom squares.

Rationale Questions - Contents page.

Contents page.

  Colour usage- The reason I have chosen to have a black background is because it makes the red writing stand out, additionally it conforms to the general pattern of this kind of magazine. There will only be two colours on the contents page so it will not conform to a three-colour scheme.

Image usage- I am using a large image at the bottom of the page underneath an article about the image below. I have also used images down the right side of images of articles on other pages so the images are related. Most of the images will be of bands doing gigs and bands posing with their instruments to let the audience know what the article will be about. They will mostly be mid shots of the bands; however the gig photos will be long shots as it’s hard to get photos of gigs close up.

Text usage- There will be the use of teasers and hooks such as “find out what the band has been getting up to on page 12”  Title of content at the top of the page will be in the same font as the front cover’s masthead. There are not going to me any enigma codes, sell lines, headlines; however there will be puns as captions on some of the images.

Layout and font- The contents text on the top of the page will be the same font of the masthead on the front cover. The Article title’s font is going to be in the font sans serif / impact, as these fonts stand out and are easy to read. The layout is easy and simple to read which also follows an easy format to read. I haven’t placed anything in diagonals because a contents page needs to be easy to read and follow as it is essential for the audience to be able to find which articles they want to, otherwise they would have to take time and find it themselves. If it wasn’t easy to follow the magazine wouldn’t be very successful.

Rationale questions - Front Cover.

Rationale Questions

 

Front cover-

Colour usage- The colours I used for my front cover are red for the main text and white for the non-main text, the masthead is going to be colored black, thus conforming to the three-shade colour scheme. Colours will contrast well as all colours make each other stand out, and don’t look similar.

Image usage- The images I will have will be the front cover of three people using a mid-shot with an eyeline match with the audience. The other images I will have placed along the bottom as a lesser known band image x2, then I will have a gig image of an upcoming band, then it will be followed by another lesser known band image, lastly there will be an image of the promotional item that I am including in the magazine.

Text usage- There will be a male narrative voice as the images are all men. There won’t be any key words. There are teasers such as “read now to find out about the music event of the year!” and “Don’t miss out!” There will be sell lines that relate to the main image and that relate to what’s inside the magazine, which can be used as teasers and can be seen as enigma codes.

Layout and font- for the masthead the font will be Sans serif bold which will make it look appealing to this kind of audience. The main sell line will be Sans serif/impact to make it stand out from the other sell lines/enigma codes. The layout helps the readers eyes come down the page, from the masthead to the main image, then to the main sell lines/enigma codes, then to the sell lines, then to the images across the bottom, then finally the barcode.­­­ I have put the bar of images along the bottom on a diagonal slant to conform to the “Z” shaped format.

The convention, the producer and the target audience of my text.

The conventions, the producer and the target audience of my text:

1.    I plan on keeping all of the conventions on my text simple so that the reader wont get confused and that it illustrates the simplistic conventions of the whole magazine. In my images I intend the light to be dark to suit the style of the magazine because males suit this style, I will have to ensure that you can clearly see what I have photographed too. The font will be bold for the title and sub titles to make them stand out; however the font for the text itself will be fairly small and not bold in comparison to the title and sub title. The text may be limited however there will be enough information in the text to explain what the audience will need to know. The colour palette will be a mixture of three main colours which are, red, black and purple, having these three colours makes the magazine conform to which style of magazine it is.

2.    The distributors of my magazine would be a producer who has a reputation of signing pop-punk artists as this is the style of my magazine and their music would probably be featured in my media. Producers who also have a reputation of influencing great pop-punk albums would also be involved in the making of my product. The producer would also have to be a big fan of my media.

3.    My target audience is within the age range of 16-20 years of age and the majority is male. The audience would probably be determined by social class and background, as working middle class people. However working middle aged people would probably not enjoy my media as it is aimed more at the younger audience as not many older people listen to pop-punk music. These people would dress in skinny jeans/normal jeans with checkered shirts and trendy shoes.

4. Companies/ brands that would support my magazine would be some clothing brands like Vans would support, this is because they base their company on pop-punk and pop-rock. Retailers such as earthworks would sell physical copies of my product as we have a similar target audience for what we both want to sell and that would mean more income for both of us, and establishing with the customer a place which sells the things they want to buy. Supermarkets like asda and tesco would also probably sell copies of my magazine, however this would mean giving them a percentage of what we make as they don’t have very many things in common to sell alongside the magazine which would result in fewer sales.

The Recce

The recce

1.    There are minimal risks in the places I have decided to take my photographs as they are very safe locations, so risks are minimalized. The only possible risks would be if the path or grass was wet and the models slipped over and hurt themselves, and these risks will be reduced if I decide to choose a day with no rain beforehand.

2.    To ensure that the risks are minimalized I will try to pick a day were there has been no rain to make sure the models cannot fall over and hurt themselves.

3.    The time of day and weather will affect the outcome of the photographs, I would rather take photos in the dark so the dramatic effect will be in place, however that would not be possible as my camera will not take the photograph unless the flash is on, so I figured that taking the photographs during the day and editing it to be dark would be my best bet. If it was raining that would also be really good however I cannot use my camera in the rain so I will have to edit the rain in –If I decide to go with a rain look, also rain is a potential hazard so it would be best not to take the photographs in the rain.

4.    The background to my photographs will either be matching the photograph itself or edited in by using Photoshop. If I could get a natural background to look professional enough then I will use it, otherwise it is going to have to be edited in using Photoshop.

5.    Taking the photographs outside propose a number of lighting problems. If it is really sunny that day the camera lens will not focus properly and the photographs will have to be taken another day. If it is really dark the flash might spoil the mood also.

6.    I do not need permission to take photographs in front of the castle, or in a back alley next to my house. I chose these to create a dramatic effect and to see if the mood would set properly.

7.    I do not need to book time in room for a professional photo shoot as the venue’s I have chosen to take my photographs are good enough for the effect I want to create.

8.    Other people/ crowds will be an issue for me however I have chosen venue’s suitable enough to prevent seeing other people/ crowds.

9.    I am very reliant on friends as they are my models. I had a plan B in order if none of my friends could not help me, I would have asked someone to take photographs of me in the same venue’s.

Looking at previous years work.

Looking at previous years work at my college, there are a number of things that I can learn from them.
Firstly and most importantly, I can see what the examiners look for in a piece of work, and I can then utilize this to my advantage. I can then see why that person got the grade they did by what work they did. Then I can see what kind of quality the examiner is looking for and then make my work have the same kind of quality or professionalization. Other things I could learn from previous years work is what fonts work well with different styles of magazines. I could learn what type of image suit different styles of magazines and I can learn from their mistakes too.
There is one persons work from last year in particular that I had a few inspirations from. They had a bar across the bottom of the front cover which had images inside them, this was in my draft front cover, but unfortunatley I was unable to make it look proffesional enough to make it into my magazine. They had big writing for the title of the double page spread too, It looked really good, and I thought that it would work well in my magazine, provided I changed the colours and the words as well. then I had to change the layout of it. Nevertheless, It inspired me to make my own, in a similar fashion to the work of the student of the previous year.

Which Images I didn't use and why/ Images I am contemplating using.

It goes without saying that for all of these images ( If I were to use
them ) the background would be cut out and replaced with a more suitable one in Photoshop.

This is the first image that I took, one of the reasons I did not use this image is because of the sign that the model on the left is holding up, it isn't visible enough for the photo to be viable. Also the angle of the poses are a little off, they should have been took straight on at an eye level.

This is the fourth photograph I had took. The pose we were going for was a bit different than what should have been took. The best pose for my magazine front cover would be one person and for the pose to be serious to demonstrate some of the conventions of this style of music.

The reason I did not use this image was because the model sneezed just before this image was taken, leading him to have an unprofessional facial expression, through no fault of his own. Needless to say, I did not use this photograph.

This is one of the images I am contemplating using for my main front cover image. It great in every aspect I can think of, pose, lighting, eye level. I think it fits the position of front cover image very nicely. All I would have to do to make this image my front cover is crop out the background and focus in on the model so it would be a close up image.

Another image I was contemplating using for my front cover is this one. The lighting is good, the pose is great and would suit the style of the magazine and the eye level is also good. Plus I wouldn't have to do much in terms of editing as this image is already portrait, which is perfect as magazines are portrait too. The only things I would have to do would be take out the shadow in the background on the left, and remove the lens marks in each corner.