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Wednesday, 6 May 2009
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
11.03.09 - evaluation
In what ways does your media product, use, develop or challenge forms and conventions or real media products?
My media produce uses the forms and conventions of real media products as I used KERRANG magazine as a template and got ideas from it which I put into my own magazine. It includes all the conventions that you would find in a rock magazine which is the type of music genre I was trying to create. I used bold, capital letters and dark, boy-like colours such as red, black and white as my main target audience was teenage boys aged 12 – 20 who liked the doom and gloom which is normally associated with rock music. It challenges KERRANG magazine in the conventions as it does not have a lot of pictures on the front cover or on the contents page which KERRANG has. I felt that my magazine did not need to have a lot of images as the ones I was using were expressive and they were also quite dark so I wanted to keep that feel to the magazine. This helped me come up with the name for the magazine because nothing has had to be photo shopped greatly because I wanted the readers to see the singers/bands in action and not being asked to pose for a photograph. Likewise with KERRANG, a lot of the photographs used in the magazine are from live shows/gigs/concerts as it gives the reader the feeling as if they were there. The front cover of my magazine has the most resemblance to KERRANG magazine as it uses a lot of the same conventions. The title of both magazines is in bold writing and stands out on the page; it also goes across the top of the page horizontally. But the colours differ, on my magazine the title is in a bright red whereas on KERRANG it is white with lines on it as if it had been smashed by a guitar which resembles the genre of the magazine. Again, on both magazines the band names are mentioned quite a lot as it will draw a bigger audience in as they won’t have to read through the whole magazine to see if their favourite band is mentioned, they will probably see the name on the front cover. There is also a similar give away of free posters advertised on both front covers. They are both put into a box, but on KERRANG it isn’t as in your face as I made it on my magazine. I thought I would make it bigger and bolder to grab the audience’s attention as a lot of teenage boys like to have posters of their favourite bands up on their bedroom walls.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The social group I was trying to represent was rockers as my basis was KERRANG magazine which has the same target audience. A definition of a punk rocker would be: “a teenager or young adult who is a performer (or enthusiast) of punk rock and a member of the punk youth subculture” (http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=punk%20rocker). I tried to do this by using the dark colours which rockers are stereotypically found wearing and I also took photographs at the gigs which they would be going to. The bands that I took photographs of were bands that would appeal to rockers and I thought this was a good way to represent that. Rockers are normally seen to be quite scruffy and aggressive in their behaviour. It is quite noticeable at gigs that they attend as “mosh pits” take place in which punching, kicking and pushing occur in time to the music. The rockers would say that they ‘lose themselves’ in the music.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The type of media institution that would distribute my media product would be the magazine publishers. They would send it out to shops such as WHSmiths or corner shops/newsagents. It would be these kinds of shops as food shops focus more on women’s lifestyle magazine and newspapers rather than music magazines. Also there would be a better choice of magazine at newsagents.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
My target audience is males who are into the rock scene and like going to gigs/live shows. They are aged between 12 and 20 and like the heavier type of music than indie. Generally the males would be quite scruffy looking, with dark t-shirts probably with band names/logos on them or they would have something of band merchandised. They might be quite fierce and aggressive when listening to this type of music as it would be their release of anger or sadness as the lyrics and music seem to have an aggressive and in your face feel to it. Also the music is never normally played at a low/medium level; it is always played at high volumes as this is how people feel they can experience the music better this way.
How did you attract/address your audience?
I tried to attract this type of audience by using stereotypically male colours such as red, black and white because if the writing was pink it would probably put them off picking up the magazine. In addition, I used bold, capital letters and font as this seems to be more masculine and it wouldn’t put the target audience off buying the magazine. Whereas if a girl wanted to buy this magazine she would most likely be a tomboy or she might even be slightly intimidated by the front cover as it is so in your face and represents a lot of boy conventions. I also used photographs which had been taken at actual gigs so the readers might recognise the band or if they had been there themselves and then wanted to read more about them.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
The technologies I used throughout making my magazine I had used before but this time around I learnt new things and became more confident doing the other stuff I could do before. The two main programmes I used were Photoshop and Microsoft Publisher. In publisher I managed to be able to make two A4 pages into one A3 page to make my double page spread. Also in my double page spread I had to make a picture go across the middle of both pages. At first I cut the picture in half and put each half on each page, but when I joined them together they did not match up so I had to make the two A4 pages together and then put the picture on top. And in Photoshop I got better at editing pictures (main one on the double page spread) as this was too dark as the original image so I lightened the whole photograph by going to the settings in image and using the black and white filter. But as that didn’t work the way I wanted it to, I went onto more settings and used a greyscale which was then more affective. I used Photoshop to put together the layout of the pages and insert the writing and pictures but only really used Microsoft Publisher to produce the double page spread which consisted of an interview and not just a couple of words like on the other pages. This meant it was a better idea to use Microsoft Publisher as it was designed for this purpose and was also the best way to join the two pages for the double page spread together.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back at the preliminary task I did, I feel I have to represent target audiences in a better way and use more conventions from looking at real media products. It was good to do the preliminary task as it helped understand how a magazine is put together for people who had never done anything like this before, like me. I have also learnt how to lay things out on the different pages as each page has similar things, like the colours and fonts. I also learnt more about the different types of shots that looked better on each page and how to align the writing around pictures. In addition to that I had to be careful that I didn’t over use one colour and that if I put writing over a different coloured background, it was still clear enough to read and furthermore that the writing was large enough to read.
My media produce uses the forms and conventions of real media products as I used KERRANG magazine as a template and got ideas from it which I put into my own magazine. It includes all the conventions that you would find in a rock magazine which is the type of music genre I was trying to create. I used bold, capital letters and dark, boy-like colours such as red, black and white as my main target audience was teenage boys aged 12 – 20 who liked the doom and gloom which is normally associated with rock music. It challenges KERRANG magazine in the conventions as it does not have a lot of pictures on the front cover or on the contents page which KERRANG has. I felt that my magazine did not need to have a lot of images as the ones I was using were expressive and they were also quite dark so I wanted to keep that feel to the magazine. This helped me come up with the name for the magazine because nothing has had to be photo shopped greatly because I wanted the readers to see the singers/bands in action and not being asked to pose for a photograph. Likewise with KERRANG, a lot of the photographs used in the magazine are from live shows/gigs/concerts as it gives the reader the feeling as if they were there. The front cover of my magazine has the most resemblance to KERRANG magazine as it uses a lot of the same conventions. The title of both magazines is in bold writing and stands out on the page; it also goes across the top of the page horizontally. But the colours differ, on my magazine the title is in a bright red whereas on KERRANG it is white with lines on it as if it had been smashed by a guitar which resembles the genre of the magazine. Again, on both magazines the band names are mentioned quite a lot as it will draw a bigger audience in as they won’t have to read through the whole magazine to see if their favourite band is mentioned, they will probably see the name on the front cover. There is also a similar give away of free posters advertised on both front covers. They are both put into a box, but on KERRANG it isn’t as in your face as I made it on my magazine. I thought I would make it bigger and bolder to grab the audience’s attention as a lot of teenage boys like to have posters of their favourite bands up on their bedroom walls.
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
The social group I was trying to represent was rockers as my basis was KERRANG magazine which has the same target audience. A definition of a punk rocker would be: “a teenager or young adult who is a performer (or enthusiast) of punk rock and a member of the punk youth subculture” (http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=punk%20rocker). I tried to do this by using the dark colours which rockers are stereotypically found wearing and I also took photographs at the gigs which they would be going to. The bands that I took photographs of were bands that would appeal to rockers and I thought this was a good way to represent that. Rockers are normally seen to be quite scruffy and aggressive in their behaviour. It is quite noticeable at gigs that they attend as “mosh pits” take place in which punching, kicking and pushing occur in time to the music. The rockers would say that they ‘lose themselves’ in the music.
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The type of media institution that would distribute my media product would be the magazine publishers. They would send it out to shops such as WHSmiths or corner shops/newsagents. It would be these kinds of shops as food shops focus more on women’s lifestyle magazine and newspapers rather than music magazines. Also there would be a better choice of magazine at newsagents.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
My target audience is males who are into the rock scene and like going to gigs/live shows. They are aged between 12 and 20 and like the heavier type of music than indie. Generally the males would be quite scruffy looking, with dark t-shirts probably with band names/logos on them or they would have something of band merchandised. They might be quite fierce and aggressive when listening to this type of music as it would be their release of anger or sadness as the lyrics and music seem to have an aggressive and in your face feel to it. Also the music is never normally played at a low/medium level; it is always played at high volumes as this is how people feel they can experience the music better this way.
How did you attract/address your audience?
I tried to attract this type of audience by using stereotypically male colours such as red, black and white because if the writing was pink it would probably put them off picking up the magazine. In addition, I used bold, capital letters and font as this seems to be more masculine and it wouldn’t put the target audience off buying the magazine. Whereas if a girl wanted to buy this magazine she would most likely be a tomboy or she might even be slightly intimidated by the front cover as it is so in your face and represents a lot of boy conventions. I also used photographs which had been taken at actual gigs so the readers might recognise the band or if they had been there themselves and then wanted to read more about them.
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
The technologies I used throughout making my magazine I had used before but this time around I learnt new things and became more confident doing the other stuff I could do before. The two main programmes I used were Photoshop and Microsoft Publisher. In publisher I managed to be able to make two A4 pages into one A3 page to make my double page spread. Also in my double page spread I had to make a picture go across the middle of both pages. At first I cut the picture in half and put each half on each page, but when I joined them together they did not match up so I had to make the two A4 pages together and then put the picture on top. And in Photoshop I got better at editing pictures (main one on the double page spread) as this was too dark as the original image so I lightened the whole photograph by going to the settings in image and using the black and white filter. But as that didn’t work the way I wanted it to, I went onto more settings and used a greyscale which was then more affective. I used Photoshop to put together the layout of the pages and insert the writing and pictures but only really used Microsoft Publisher to produce the double page spread which consisted of an interview and not just a couple of words like on the other pages. This meant it was a better idea to use Microsoft Publisher as it was designed for this purpose and was also the best way to join the two pages for the double page spread together.
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Looking back at the preliminary task I did, I feel I have to represent target audiences in a better way and use more conventions from looking at real media products. It was good to do the preliminary task as it helped understand how a magazine is put together for people who had never done anything like this before, like me. I have also learnt how to lay things out on the different pages as each page has similar things, like the colours and fonts. I also learnt more about the different types of shots that looked better on each page and how to align the writing around pictures. In addition to that I had to be careful that I didn’t over use one colour and that if I put writing over a different coloured background, it was still clear enough to read and furthermore that the writing was large enough to read.
Thursday, 18 December 2008
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