Thursday, 24 March 2011
Question 2: How Does Your Media Product Represent Particular Social Groups?
My model represents the indie genre in my magazine. I looked into who would be an iconic figure in this genre of music and deemed Florence Welch (from Florence & The Machine) as the perfect character to compare with my artist.
Appearance, Costume, Attitude:
Although Laura is using an offensive hand gesture, which is a generic convention of this type of magazine and genre, there is nothing extreme or outstandingly odd about my artist.
I think that my magazine represents the indie genre between the ages 15-25 and reflects the social group of a younger audience of both sexes of middle class and more than likely of a creative/artistic nature. The majority of my target audience will probably be white, as this is the social group that is attracted to this sort of magazine. I use other images on my contents page of artists in front of Graffiti walls and street art - this reflects the growing art and fits in with the social group of my target audience. Graffiti is becoming a more widely respected art and is being increasingly used in magazines such as NME, Kerrang! etc. These magazines target a similar audience as Output and so represent the social group I am targeting.
Laura has very similar hair to Florence as both of their hair has the ruffled look and is of a similar colour and length. Similar hair styles and similar fashions will show that Laura belongs to the same genre as Florence. Although there are no set trends in order to fit into a genre, there is a certain look you have to try and achieve, so Laura's hair length and colour will show similarities between the two artists.
Both artists are wearing long tops that cut off just below the waist.
Both artists show attitude in their poses. Laura shows attitude through her use of offensive hand gestures and Florence shows attitude through a shouting-effect pose. Both poses draw attention to that image but in very different ways. Laura's attitude intrigues you to the rebellious side of her, suggesting that she could be an interesting character to read about, whereas Florence's attitude of shouting gives a more artistic approach or perhaps an insight as to what she may be like performing on stage.
Both artist's pictures are taken in a photography studio and so have no real background. The lighting in Laura's image is darker than that of Florence, however, in my magazine, the picture is brighter and has had some of the colours brought out to make the photo look more professional.
Overall, i think that these elements of the photos represent a typical indie artist. However, in Laura's photo there is a slight hint of a rock chick showing through, but that is a twist that makes her unique in the indie genre.
Question 4: Who Would Be The Audience For Your Media Product?
Name: Faye Chamberlain
Gender: Female
Age: 24
Occupation: Merchandiser at Next Plc.
Background: Faye stayed at school untill she was nearly 17. Faye did not enjoy school, however, stayed on a college to persue her interest in Media , Psychology, Art and Textiles however, did not enjoy this and became an apprentice for a Japanese fashion export company and then later joined Next Plc. and has recently been promoted to a merchandiser. This involves her choosing each season which clothes do or do not go onto the shelves in Next's shops throughout the UK. Faye is very keen on fashion and shows originality in every movement she makes.
Ambitions: Faye has always wanted to be a professional photographer or own an afternoon tea shop on the beach of Newquay.
Musical Preferences: Indie/Alternative/Blues/Rock/60s/70s/The Beatles
Likes/Enjoys: Music Festivals/ Travelling in her campervan/ Taking photos/ Going out with friends and family/ Listening to music
Dislikes: Boring people & toilets at festivals
Idols: Blondie, Mick Jagger, The Beatles, Katy Perry
OR
Name: Harry Tibbles
Gender: Male
Age: 16
Occupation: Student
Background: Harry studies Media, Psychology, Business Studies & ICT at AS level. Harry is a keen editor of pictures and enjoys listening to music. Harry buys music magazines (usually NME) on a weekly basis and has a passion for new and upcoming bands. Harry has chosen his subjects wisely so that he is able to go into advertisement as a full time job, as that is where his passion lies, along with music. If Harry forgets his iPod, you know something is wrong.
Ambitions: Become a professional advertiser; own a record label
Music Preferences: Dubstep, Indie, Alternative, Rock, Electronic, Charts, Up and coming bands
Likes/Enjoys: Going to the cinema; using his laptop; using photoshop to create different graphics and edit pictures; listening to music; looking for the latest music/trends; fashion; going to gigs/parties/festivals; being with friends.
Dislikes: Unreasonable people; slow computers; cheaters and Mondays
Idols: Magnetic man and Krissi Murrison
Here, I addressed my audience directly and asked them what they liked or did not like about the magazine. You can see that my target audience are attracted to my magazine as they all say they like it. I asked them for constructive criticisms, but as you can see, the majority of the comments are positive.
I have addressed my audience through the creation of my magazine as the bands I have used and the image I have used throughout the magazine. I can tell that these sort of things attract my target audience because the images and bands etc. are similar to that of NME, and NME has a similar target audience to Output. My magazine is appropriate to my audience through the conventions it uses. My magazine would attract more people if I raised people's awareness of it through marketing - I could use viral marketing through the internet or possibly cross media convergence through the use of television adverts. This would all attract my audience and make them more likely to buy the Output magazine.
Question 6:What Have You Learnt About Technologies From The Process Of Constructing This Product
This is The Sony Vaio that I used to research, create and evaluate my magazine. I did all of my work on this laptop.
I also used a 1GB memory stick to hold back up copies of my magazines and to store images that are relevant to my magazine.
During my photo shoot, I used my Canon EOS 1000D
Also, during my photo shoot, I played music to my model's in order to make them feel more comfortable and relaxed whilst i took pictures of them - as it can be quite a pressurising thing.
I bought and learnt to use Photoshop Elements 9.0 for my final magazine, however, for my preliminary task, I learnt to use Photoshop Elements 6.0
Also, I created a blogger account to post all of my research and evaluation activities for my magazine.
I also used Microsoft Word to display my test shots and research.
In addition to this, I also used Scribd to post word documents that I had created on my laptop onto the blog and also to display my test shots.
I used Microsoft Powerpoint to give my evaluation and research an aesthetic edge to it.
I used Slideshare to display the Powerpoints I had created onto my blog.
When converting screen grabs into JPEG files, I used paint.
To display some of my presentations, I used some online software that I had never used before - Prezi.
I used an online video creating software called Animoto, i had never used this software before, either.
To do most of my online research, I used Google
For some of my inspiration, I used Youtube
Finally, I contacted the models of my magazine through Facebook
I used movie maker to create a video of my target audience's feedback.
In conclusion, I have learnt to use and developed my use of new technologies throughout this project. I had never used Photoshop before the preliminary exercise, however, I am now confident in using this software. Also, I had never used Scribd, Slideshare, Prezi, Animoto, Movie Maker or Blogger before this project but now I can use them with confidence.
I have learnt that technologies decrease the amount of time taken to complete an activity and make my project look far more aesthetic and professional than if I had not of used them however, the most important thing I have learnt throughout the process of my AS magazine project is how to make all of the software work together and embed them onto other websites. Before, I would have figured out how to used these website individually and perhaps used them for their sole purpose, however, now, I am fully able to sync the software together and create a blog that looks nice, makes sense, looks professional and is still interesting.
On the whole, I think that new technologies have enhanced the research for my project and made it easier to put together. I would say that these technologies have more advantages than disadvantages. The advantages are: the ability to display work at your own convenience. And the disadvantages are: junk e-Mails bombarding my inbox, however, i can just block them.
Question 7: Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task, What Do You Feel You Have Learnt In The Progression From It To The Full Product
When I first started media, I did not have a clue how to use most of the programmes that I used in order to complete my magazine. My use of knowledge of Photoshop has increased considerably along with my use of most of the technologies I have used.
However, the most improved element from my preliminary magazine to my final magazine was my knowledge and use of magazine conventions. For example:
On my preliminary front cover, I used a mid-shot, like I did in my final magazine, however, on my final magazine, zoomed in more on the artist and made them larger in comparison to th page as i realised a key convention of magazines was to make the model the main element of the magazine. Also, after my research, I realised that a convention you must obide is to have the masthead covering the top third of the magazine and to have the model's head in the top third of the magazine - this is essential as when the magazine is on the shelf, the reader will only be able to see this much of the magazine; as you can see, these conventions are non-existent on my preliminary magazine.
On my preliminary task, I used seven colours: black, green, orange, purple, white, blue and yellow. However, on my final magazine, i only used three colours, as i realised that a convention of magazines is to only use three colours - this makes the magazine simple, professionally made and makes the magazine look, on the whole, a lot more aesthetic. On my preliminary, I used the colour black as a background; I changed this on my final magazine as black is not a conventional colour as a background on magazines - it is a hard colour to work with and does not look very professional.
On the contents page, again, I used too many colours to fit into the convention of three colours, as I used five: black, green, orange, purple, white. Although I did continue using these colours throughout the magazine from the front cover, the black background makes the page look unprofessional and hard to read. Whereas on my final magazine contents page, I continued the three colours: white, purple and black through to my contents page. I also used a white background and instead of using half of the with large writing, I compacted the contents into the left vertical third so that there was room to intrigue my target market group with images that may be of interest to them. The contents page on my final magazine compared to my preliminary is far more aesthetic and there are more images, showing a variety of camera shots such as long shots, mid-close up shots and cut-in shots.
Finally, the general mise en scene with all of my final magazine pages are better planned to suit conventions and the layout seems to be easier to read and looks far more professional. On the whole, the magazine is far more likely to sell as the final draft than the first one to my target audience too.
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