Overall I think that the media exam went better than I expected it to be. I was anticipating the music industry exam question to be more difficult and think I could have prepared more for that in terms of learning more examples. I was pleased with the analysis question though and think I revised the terms well such as edits and was relieved that we got the topic of 'gender' to focus on.
In terms of the coursework I really enjoyed the task of creating a magazine cover and although I felt that the task of completing the blog was rushed at the end I was happy with my production piece and with the programs I have used (photoshop). My skills of using this computer program improved dramatically during this task as I had never used the program before so had to learn it from scratch. I can therefore use it in the future which I will find hugely beneficial for subjects like art and editing the photos :).
Monday, 21 June 2010
Thursday, 22 April 2010
Evaluation QUESTION 7
HOW DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE IMPROVED FROM YOUR PRE LIM TASK?
Overall, looking back at my pre lim task and my final construction pieces for that (see folder) I feel that I have improved most on my knowledge of computer programs and how to use them effectively for this coursework. On the pre lim task I used the program Microsoft Word Document because I felt most familiar with it. However I felt that once I had downloaded Adobe Photoshop, I had so many more options available to me in relation to what I could do such as editing photos etc.
I also feel I have improved on my knowledge of codes and conventions for media and how they are used in the magazine industry. This was helped by doing more analysis pages of magazines and doing them in more depth. It also helped that I did it with friend colleagues in some cases as this gave me more ideas that I wouldn't have thought of myself.
Another way that I think I have improved is my photo taking skills. For the pre liminary task I didn't really know how to take photos at the right angle and I definately didn't know how to choose a good location for my photos. I wasn't really that content with my photos for the pre lim task and I couldn't really edit them really well either but for the proper production task, I learnt more about editing the contrast and saturation of photos in order to make certain things stand out and draw the attention more of the target audience. I was also more happy about my location choices for the production piece and felt that they gave me more effective photos in the end ( see my folder for these photos).
Overall, looking back at my pre lim task and my final construction pieces for that (see folder) I feel that I have improved most on my knowledge of computer programs and how to use them effectively for this coursework. On the pre lim task I used the program Microsoft Word Document because I felt most familiar with it. However I felt that once I had downloaded Adobe Photoshop, I had so many more options available to me in relation to what I could do such as editing photos etc.
I also feel I have improved on my knowledge of codes and conventions for media and how they are used in the magazine industry. This was helped by doing more analysis pages of magazines and doing them in more depth. It also helped that I did it with friend colleagues in some cases as this gave me more ideas that I wouldn't have thought of myself.
Another way that I think I have improved is my photo taking skills. For the pre liminary task I didn't really know how to take photos at the right angle and I definately didn't know how to choose a good location for my photos. I wasn't really that content with my photos for the pre lim task and I couldn't really edit them really well either but for the proper production task, I learnt more about editing the contrast and saturation of photos in order to make certain things stand out and draw the attention more of the target audience. I was also more happy about my location choices for the production piece and felt that they gave me more effective photos in the end ( see my folder for these photos).
Sunday, 18 April 2010
Evaluation QUESTION 6
WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?
Whilst creating this product I feel that I have learnt immense amounts of information about computer programs such as Adobe Photoshop. I had no idea how to use it when I first started this project! At first I decided to create my magazine on Microsoft Word seeing as I am very familiar with this program as I use it for most of my work. However, I soon found whilst trying to design my draft that there are many limitations to using this program such as you can't edit photos very well on it and that things overall aren't very easy to move around and position etc. Therefore, I got a friend to download the version of Adobe Photoshop for me as I thought it would really benefit me.
After that I had several days of trying out photoshop and getting used to it, finding out what all of the little icons mean, how to brush over spots, how to change fonts by giving them inner and outer glows, manipualting images etc.
Above you can clearly see the difference between designing a magazine on word and a magazine on photoshop, althoug the one on word on the left is my preliminary task for my school magazine, but I think it reflects well how much I have moved on with my skills and how much more photoshop offers you.
For my final pieces I went and used an Apple Mac as it's quicker than my laptop and I had a deadline to make. I then learnt all the short cuts that magazine designers use in the proper industry such as apple+shift to select things, apple+c to copy an image, apple + v to paste an image or feature and apple +t to transform the image and to rotate it a certain way. This made working a lot quicker. However, the only thing I do wish is that I learnt all this earlier so that I didn't always feel that I was under pressure and pushed for time! This would have made it a lot less stressful but I'm glad that I got access to photoshop at all because otherwise I don't think I would have been as happy with my final outcomes.
Learning all of these new skills for photoshop has also helped me in the future as well because I also take Art at As level so photoshop would be perfect for editing photos :).
Photoshop also helped massively where I was trying to get the right font for my title and text for the front page because I had been looking on websites to download some fonts but had found none that I like. On photoshop though I learnt how to edit just plain fonts to make them look better.You can see more about this and how I edited the title in my folder.
I also learnt about pixelating images and making them fit perfectly on the page so that it didn't stretch the pixels. This was some of the main feedback I got on all my pieces about how the images seemed pixelated. This was because I had set the dimensions for the photoshop page too big compared to the photo dimensions I was trying to put on there. This was something I never knew about before so this will probably come in handy in the future to know. However, this did mean that I had to completely re-do the contents page because the images were just too pixelated. This was time consuming but it was worth it I think :)
Evaluation QUESTION 5
HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR AUDIENCE?
I attracted my target audience with the front cover by using graphic features that are bold and would grab their attention. It also helped that I used black a lot on the front page as this contributed towards the bold,graphic and confident atmoshpere given out. I also think that the overall feel of the front cover reflects the personality of my target audience, in it wanting to be bold,attention seeking and confident. For the colour I also used different shades of red on the front cover which I knew was likely to attract the target audience because in my questionnaire the data that came back said that this was one of their favourite colours.
I also tried to keep the text on the front page to a minimum with the image being the main focus seeing as the questionnaire results showed that my population sample for my target audience preferred to have a magazine with more images and less text.
With the DPS I made sure to maintain this graphic feel and I think the photo strip on the side is a good feature as it draws in the eye to the page. I also made the 'exclusive' text one of the first thing the reader would see when they saw the page because I found that this feature excites my target audience when they read it and it makes it more likely that they will read on. I also kept the colours varying between reds, oranges and pinks which appeals to the female gender and also is known to be one of their favourite colours.
For the Contents page, I again kept the brand identity flowing and used the same shades of colours in order to make it appeal still to my female audience. I again included the 'exclusive' text in a big, stamp kind of font which will capture the reader's attention and then make them want to turn to that page. If I had designed it differently however, I would have perhaps included more shots of males in my pages, as girls are obviously interested in this expecially at the age of 16-21. If it had been less difficult to find a male model then I would have definately done this.
I attracted my target audience with the front cover by using graphic features that are bold and would grab their attention. It also helped that I used black a lot on the front page as this contributed towards the bold,graphic and confident atmoshpere given out. I also think that the overall feel of the front cover reflects the personality of my target audience, in it wanting to be bold,attention seeking and confident. For the colour I also used different shades of red on the front cover which I knew was likely to attract the target audience because in my questionnaire the data that came back said that this was one of their favourite colours.
I also tried to keep the text on the front page to a minimum with the image being the main focus seeing as the questionnaire results showed that my population sample for my target audience preferred to have a magazine with more images and less text.
With the DPS I made sure to maintain this graphic feel and I think the photo strip on the side is a good feature as it draws in the eye to the page. I also made the 'exclusive' text one of the first thing the reader would see when they saw the page because I found that this feature excites my target audience when they read it and it makes it more likely that they will read on. I also kept the colours varying between reds, oranges and pinks which appeals to the female gender and also is known to be one of their favourite colours.
For the Contents page, I again kept the brand identity flowing and used the same shades of colours in order to make it appeal still to my female audience. I again included the 'exclusive' text in a big, stamp kind of font which will capture the reader's attention and then make them want to turn to that page. If I had designed it differently however, I would have perhaps included more shots of males in my pages, as girls are obviously interested in this expecially at the age of 16-21. If it had been less difficult to find a male model then I would have definately done this.
Evaluation QUESTION 4
WHO WOULD BE THE TARGET AUDIENCE FOR MY MEDIA PRODUCT?
The target audience for my magazine are people within the age range of 16-21 years old, they could be male or female seeing as I designed it so that I didn't use really bold shades of pink and incorporated a lot of black so that boys wouldn't feel ashamed to buy it either. However, it's contents is mainly aimed towards female interests.
They are interested mainly in gossip and the lives of the music artist as they are at that point where they are not completely sure what they might be doing with their future career so could be looking for inspiration of how people made it 'to the top'. The target audience I aimed my magazine at are also interested in the latest technology available such as Ipods, Iphones and the internet, spending a large majority of their times on social networks in the internet such as FaceBook, Youtube, Twitter.
They are in the top level of middle class in society and will most likely have jobs to support themselves at the age of 16-21 so therefore would be using phones such as Blackberries, Iphones and other quite fashionable phones.
From my questionnaire I know that the majority of them are interested in getting ways of downloading and listening to music as ways to spend their free time, with shopping and gym as the next two favourite hobbies. These are both ways of listening to music and advertising my music magazine as adverts are put out on speakers whilst in shopping malls for magazines and music is played out. Whilst in the gym they also do this whilst the people are working out. The next hobby was TV as well so I could also advertise my magazine to them in that way as well.
Evaluation QUESTION 3
WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION WOULD PROMOTE YOUR PRODUCT AND WHY?
For my magazine, I think the music industry would be most interested in promoting the product as major labels like SONY have huge publishing businesses all over the world and distribution ones too. If my magazine appealed to them enough and a particular genre of music they focused on, they might be interested in promoting my product to my audience in return for some of the profits made. These music lables could also get my magazines distributed out to shops like HMV that people my age and in my target audience age range buy lots of products from already today.
They would also be able to help me in terms of advertising and would get it so that my magazine was advertised on online download sites such as Itunes. I know that my target audience would most likely then know about my music magazine because in my questionnaire results it showed that a large chunk of my population sample used an Ipod to listen to their music, which shows that they must have access to Itunes. The pie chart above shows this.
For my magazine to actually be published in shops like supermarkets etc I would have to get incontact with a newspaper industry, or if I was seen in one of the advertisements on Itunes or something by an already existing magazine company they may get in contact and offer to publish my magazines. This would of course give them a percentage of the profits but if they thought that the magazine appealed to a target audience large enough to bring in profits and if they thought it would be successful then they would get involved.
Magazine companies like DJmagLTD are is it's own organisation so I might be able to do this as well. Or as I said above, big music companies like Axel Springer Verlag AG in Berlin have lots of different magazines linked to them so I could do something like this. This company isn't active in Britain but that could possibly change in the future.
Evaluation QUESTION 2
HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT A SPECIFIC SOCIAL GROUP?
My Media Music magazine targets and represents specific social groups in several ways. Above is a print screen of my summary of this created in Word Document stating how price, name, contents and colour in my magazine represent a particular social group.
My magazine overall represents the social group of teenagers who have an interest in music but don't want to pay too much for it as the majority would be at school and would be needing to save their money. This is why I decided on the price of it being £1.20, seeing as my questionnaire results showed me that a large percentage of the 20 people I asked voted for the price range of £1.01-£.150. Also, already existing magazines out there on the market are priced between £.1.50 and £4.00 so by doing this I would be making my magazine look more appealing to its audience by being cheaper than others. Also, with the price of £1.20, if any other people outside the age group of 16- 21 liked the magazine such as younger people, the price wouldn't put them off. This way my magazine is appealing to a larger net of social groups.
The name of the magazine also appeals to a large social group as it is shortened from it's original name of 'British Music Magazine' to BMM. Already existing magazines such as NME have done this as well and this makes the magazine appeal more to the younger audience if the title is abbreviated as it has more impact. However, the name of it being British Music Magazine also gives it a very patriarchal sense to it, which would obviously appeal to a very large net of social groups.
The contents of my music magazine also appeals to large social groups but specifically, the younger teenage one of age range of 16- 21, as I have ensured that the main story line was first stated as 'exclusive'. I know from personal experience that this text immediately draws someone of my age in. The quote that I pulled out from the text to put on the front cover as well is quite out of context and would make the reader my age make assumptions about what's going on, so would then read on for more of the gossip. Gossip is also something that people my age are keen on in music magazines, as I also found out in my questionnaire.
In my questionnaire I also found that overall from my sample of participants, females read music magazines more than males do. Therefore I designed my magazine to represent the female gender more, using colours that my questionnaire results showed they liked etc. In this way my magazine appeals to the female gender more. However, I made sure not to make the front cover too stereotypically 'girly' by not using very bold pinks etc so that boys wouldn't be immediately repelled by it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)