Thursday, 10 April 2014

Q7: Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?


For my preliminary task at the beginning of the course I had to create a college magazine, which was in preparation for designing and producing my final media product. From this task I gather greater knowledge about the software's, gaining key skills that would help me and experience working with programmes such as Photoshop for when It can to producing my music magazine. This was extremely useful as it meant we were more able to expand on what types of things that we previously used within this preliminary task and then improve our final product to make it look more professional. When working on the preliminary task I stuck to using only Photoshop and PowerPoint and didn’t explore a range of other software's. From then looking at my preliminary I have realised that in order my product to stand out and come across professionally I need to use  variety of different software's such as Dafont and Prezi and Go Animate which then improved my front cover massively.

 
 
What I have learnt from mostly is the importance of conventional magazine features. Without these included it make the product look less professional – as we can see from my preliminary task. The next few steps looks to what convention I didn’t include and the ones that I now have stuck to…
 
 


I have evaluate and annotated my preliminary task pointing out the mistakes and unconventional features, showing that I have now learnt new skills. I have developed my knowledge with the software as well since the start of year, and on what the conventions are that need to be included in order to produce a realistic magazine.


Q6: What have you learnt about technologies from the proces of constructing this product?

Q5: How did you attract/address your audience?







The front cover is the first thing that is seen by the audience, and as I want both to address a male audience as well as just a female audience I have to make sure there were features that attracted then to my product.


The Main Features with my magazine that will attract the my audience are things such as;


·        The colour scheme


·        The competition (plug)


·        The main artist on the front cover

·        Other artists featured on the front cover and contents page

·        Storylines and columns shown through the contents page
 


audiences by laurb123 on GoAnimate
audiences by laurb123 on GoAnimate
 
 

The colour scheme will attract my specific audience age group as people who are interested in mature pop/R&B will not want to purchase a magazine full of a variety of bright, eye-catching, primary colours. The image of my model dominating the front cover also brings a mature feel to my product as the pop magazine aimed at a younger teen audience are conventionally covered with a variety of images and large brightly coloured fonts. With my product going against this convention it attracts my ideal targeted audience.




 


The model on the front cover attracts both genders, as said in the animation, as the males will want to see an attractive model. This is why I put her in this specific outfit as it bring more sex appeal compared to if she was covered up. The female audience will be more attracted to this by the model as they will either be a fan or see her as a role model that they want to be like. The outfit and hairstyle is very up to date and fashionable which will make them want to see the fashion within the magazine.  






 

 

The competition and plug will again attract both genders and the aim age group as they will be into the charts and latest music and therefore will be interested in one of the best products for listening to music; Beatz.
 
 


This plug will particularly address the male audience as they are seen as a product more for boys/men to wear with their everyday outfits.



Even though I want to attract and address both male and female aged 16 – mind 20’s,  I know from the research and questionnaires that female would be more interest in reading this type of magazine – that is why I have included certain feature to address them in particular.

This section on the contents page address only the female audience to attract them into reading the magazine, giving them a section dedicated to mostly feminine subjects. The ‘Girls Power’ section promotes female domination and strong independent girls – which is a reoccurring theme within my product. It makes the audience feel like they are more important and the main ones reading the magazine. The fashion section will attract girls/women are they are interested in the latest fashion news and the season’s current styles. They will want to dress nice and be up to date with what the star are wearing. The mention of ‘high street products’ relates more to my audience as they will still be of a younger age and buying these product from the high street. ‘Sexiest Male Artist’ addresses female to attract them into reading the magazine, looking at the males and find out who achieved sexiest. Furthermore, the ‘Ask Us’ section with different artist answering the readers’ questions attracts teens as this makes them feel like they are interacting more with the artist and get a feeling that their voice is hear by their favourite artists.  

 
Other artists feature on the contents page will be attracting the audience in as it shows there is a variety of articles and other artists that are in the magazine. The people who purchase the product may not just be interested in the main artist but those they see on the contents page. 
I have included my own original images on the contents page to show that there are other artist included. The girls band I have got on the page attract the males as they would want to see them and look at the shots of them, but also the female will be fans and see them as role models. The artists ‘Rizzle kicks’ (who I went to see at Sheffield) are also included and will attract girls as they will be attracted to them and be fans whilst also attracting the male audience with their type of music. The original image of my model getting her hair and make-up done shows a sense of glamour attracting my target audience and females.



 

 




Q4: Who would be the audience for your media product?



 My targeted audience for my media product was teenagers from the age of 15/16 to mid-20’s. The magazine I produced has been designed to appeal to an older teen audience even though it has element of pop as I wanted to have more of a mature feel to it, which is brought in from the R&B side of things.  The music in this particular genre is also aimed at people of this aged group, which is another reason for this decision. A lot of the actual artists that are current at the moment are within the age group of the target audience so they will be producing music that they can relate too. From researching and from questionnaires I have found that it is suitable for both male and female gender groups due to the neutral colour scheme of black, white, red, grey and peach. However I would say it attracts more of a female audience due to the contents being more gossip based. 


I researched the demographics before I started designing and producing my product to get an idea of what my targeted audience likes and are looking for when buying a magazine...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Pt96GT9xtg

This allowed me to understand the what people of this particular age group are interested in and what they would be looking for in a magazine.

I also produced another questioner after i have the finished product... 

1)     What age are you?
2)    What is your sex?
      3) What genre do you think my magazine represents?
      4)    What audience do you think that it is aimed at?
      5)    Do you think that is follows the usual conventions of a real media product?
      6)   Would you read this type of magazine?
      7)    If you could change something what would it be? 






Q3: What type of media institute might distribute your product and why?

Q2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?


During the process of designing my magazine I clearly knew what I wanted my product to look like and what audience it would be aimed at. I wanted to target an older and more mature audience of pop and R&B, so I researched a variety of artist that would feature in my magazine and which I should take influence from. Through researching, which you can see at the beginning of my blog, I have found that artist now are bringing a more mature feel to the pop industry and are taking more risk with their music, their video and in their publicity stuns. They are now producing music to appeal to an older social groups aged 16+. Through my research I have been mainly influenced by the likes of Miley Cyrus, who have grown into a more matured artist and have changed their image to suit an older audience.





So when it came to shooting pictures for my magazine, designing the layout and writing the article for the DPS I tried to recreate this type of artist who represent this type of genre of music. I have based my model on past magazines featuring the major artist that have been responsible for making the pop industry more mature. The model I have used and their outfit I have been influence by Miley Cyrus – with her front cover shoot. The front cover was influence by Lady GaGa’s front cover – who has changed reformed pop bringing an older and more mature feel to the genre. As my past post show I was also influenced by Rhianna as she aims herself towards an older audience. All these artist portray themselves to be more risqué  pop artists.

The feature sections represents a particular social group I am trying to address. The readers with the social group that like more mature story lines about the older and more mature artists.
 




 



Q1: In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Thursday, 16 January 2014

Feed Back and Planning to Complete

16th JAN - must complete -  by the 14th FEB

  • Front cover 
  • Contents page 
  • double page spread 
14th FEB - must complete -  by the 11th APRIL
  • Evaluation 
11th April
evaluation and any updates to your products  

15th May 
final grade sent to examination board

23rd May
AS Exam 

Feedback 
planning= 12/20          Construction= 43/60          overall= 55/80= Proficient

Areas to improve

  1. placement - organise the layout of the headlines and the feature story lines that are on the front cover. 
  2. visual emphasis - add other images and lay them out in a better format.  
  3. writing to accompany screenshots - aim to complete this is one session or at home, write what I have done to editing and the effect it has made towards my final piece. 

How to improve-what to do - 

  1. explain print screens
  2. add images to props 
  3. put other draft on and 
  4. put youtube videos on properly 
  5. add more planning 
  6. plan a draft of