A/S Media Coursework

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

For my music magazine I looked at different hip hop/ R&B music magazine such as Vibe, True magazine and XXL and like all magazines they had the typical conventions of having the masthead behind the person face because they model is the most important feature on the front cover. The head line has a direct connection with the model on the front cover whether it being the rapper/ singer name or the anchorage between the model and the poll quote. There was a lot of connotation is used between the model and the skyline for example VIBE magazine had Kanye West as their main feature and the skyline connect as they are similar type of rapper artists. Doing all my cause studies I have notice some are conventional and non-conventional when it comes to colour scheme and the how the person is dressed for example on the VIBE cover when Kanye West was used colours such as hot pink and baby blue was used which seems very unconventional as Kanye West in known as an east coast rapper which means he’s tough. Despite the colour scheme it worked due to the colour of the background and his wore a tough face and had facial so his manly features still remained as well as his title. His facial expression fits in with the poll quote ‘I AM RAP’ which makes his statement seem true and also shows how serious his statement is. When I looked at the Lifestyle magazine for my college magazine case study I noticed how the young man was dressed he didn’t look a student that would study tough subjects. He was wearing a black jacket, plain white tee, silver cross chain and a pair of jeans. This typical outfit of how you would expect a young student to dress like. He looks very happy and relaxed and the fact that he was holding books it shows that he was a student and helps to establish the genre of the magazine. He is holding humanity subject books which shows that he intelligent in which you would expect him to be dressed formally, by him being dressed like this removes the fact that he dressed like he should be on the front cover of a music magazine.

On the other hand the when I looked at True music magazine which was very conventional. I looked at the issue when west coast rapper Tyga was the main feature this magazine was very conventional because of the way he was dressed in a vest, wearing excessive amounts of gold chains, wearing a snapback and glasses. It straight away gave an impression of what sort of magazine TRUE music magazine was. When creating my house-style I looked at all the features on the front covers that I did my case studies on and tried to apply to my own work at first I thought of what type of artist I would have on the front cover and from there it helped me to choose the colour scheme. I decided I wanted to have a female as the front cover of my magazine because when looking at VIBE’s magazine media kit I noticed that majority of the readers where males and it was the same for other magazines and I wanted my magazine to have the same amount of readers. So I decided to use a bold colour such as red to stand out on the page and I think red, white and black work well together as a colour scheme. In my original house-style I decided I wanted to have a have a black background but I changed it to white because I thought it would work better and it did. I also wanted to have to have black text so I had to change the colour of the front cover. Even though my magazine was a hip hop/ R&B magazine I didn’t want it to look ‘ghetto’ so I didn’t use graffiti type font for my masthead or teasers. Like VIBE everything on the page has a simple layout I have teasers on both sides of the page. I have the website link; subscribe icon and barcode all together because many professional magazines consisted of this layout. The cover line was big and placed near the models face to indicate it’s about her. It was written in red like some other teasers and skyline on the page but the difference was that written big that cover-lines should be. The model was wearing a bright orange beanie and a red skirt which worked well with the colour scheme and fitted well on the page. I decided to use a close up shot because I really liked the way she was posed it gave everything that I was trying to portrait which was edge, sexy and strong.

When looking at content pages I looked at VIBE magazine and True magazine, both magazines were different vibe magazine Vibe magazine was more simple the colour on the context page fitted in well with the front cover the colour grey continued through within the magazine this shows that it was contacted. In vibe magazine there was a large letter ‘V’ on the page stood for Vibe magazine. The main feature Kanye was on and at the side the rest of the features is there. The indicates that that the page of the contents page is the features of the magazine. For the features on TRUE magazine was slightly different instead having the main feature they have a female on it wearing hardly any clothes and is very attractive this fits in with the conventions of hip hop because she looks like a video vixen, someone you would expect to be associated with Hip hop. This also shows that this magazine is mostly for the male audience. The other DPS on the context page had Tyga on the left side and on the right side it consists of the regular features. True magazine second DPS contents pages doesn’t look very professional but is very clear due to the layout but having the line to separate the texts and columns.

I had original designed one house-style for one context page but then I changed it to two because just having one wouldn’t work for me. I had too features and I didn’t have space for my regulars and my editors note. Like VIBE magazine I tried to continue the colour scheme within my work. On the left side on the DPS contents page I used a chosen image of the artist, on the page I put the features and ‘HB’ on the top left representing the name of the magazine ‘hyperbeast’ I wrote a poll quote and the page number she’ll be on. On the right side I wrote the editor’s note and the regulars I also include pictures from my location shoot. To do my contents pages on InDesgin which was ok to use.

2) How does your media product represent particular social groups?

When creating my magazine I looked at VIBE magazine’s media kit and looked at the audience and majority of the audience were 18-24 year olds of a African-American ethnicity. Not only that but they were mostly a male audience so this magazine this mostly targeted at males. I think VIBE mostly has Black people as audience because the artist is most likely to be of the same race which means the person could show more interest. Vibe magazine is mostly read by people who work and are in education that’s why the price is so high because their readers can offer it.

For my magazine the target audience was for people who are interest in R&B and Hip hop music and into fashion as well. I tried to show that in my pitch and through the way the artist on the front cover was dressed and the pictures I included on the contents page. I wanted this magazine to be for people of 16-24 years of age I wanted it to apply to a younger audience because a younger audience is can also be very educated in the hip hop and R&B music. My magazine is for both male and female and I wanted to show that by having images of both sex. Many of these types of magazines have a wider male audience so by having a female who doesn’t look like a type female rapper who looks like a vixen on the front could apply more too both genders.

When it came to ethnicity I wanted it to be for all different ethnicity and not focus on one but due the choice of people in my magazine and using words like ‘Trill’ and ‘dope’ in my work would move my magazine towards it being for black people mainly like many other urban magazine even though I was trying to move away from that. But it is very difficult to move away from it all because of the stereotypes and the facts behind it and the fact it’s mostly African American artist who do music like this but that’s the same with other genre of music for example you wouldn’t expect a Black person to be into rock and indie music you would a Caucasian person to be more into that.

I wanted this magazine to be for people of a mid lexis, so young people who are educated and that can offer magazines such as this. I used some low lexis because I wanted to seem like I am interacting more with the readers in the editor’s note. This magazine is not meant to be formal it’s meant to be fun and exciting, same as with the DPS article as it was meant to be a Q&A it was spontaneous and conversation so you wouldn’t expect high lexis words especially as a rapper. Even though that’s very stereotypical but I wanted to make it clear what type of artist Tonia Dolla$ is. The way she was dressed shows who the target audience were. Simply by just looking at the hat on her head or perhaps even at the way she would pose it was strong and tough.

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

Miller publishing &Wicks group Miller publishing and wick group would be two of the institutions that would publish my music magazine. I think this because they already have published magazines like mine such as VIBE magazine and have published good magazines in the United States which means they have a good market share. I want my magazine to be international so this could be good for my magazine. I could bring something new to the table because my magazine would include different genres of hip- hop music as well as grime so I would still include elements of the UK. Some UK artist don’t really make big in the UK Hyperbeast magazine could change that and show that they are just as good so over all so this magazine would be good marketing for them as well as it being beneficial for me.

Another publication that could possibly be IPC publications it is a consumer of normal magazines as well as digital publishers within the UK. They have a large portfolio and sell over 350million copies each year. They publish popular newspapers such as ‘The Sun’ and ‘The Daily mail’ those magazines are a success in the industry so I think they would be a very good publication for my magazine. I want my magazine to have a hard copy and also do an electrical one which links with the organisation as well as it being an international magazine. They have published magazine for both male and female readers so they have know what would be acceptable to be in both audiences and where it best to sell my magazine.

(Question 4 and 5 were done as videos)

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

During the process of making my front cover, contents page and DPS I have use two different types of technologies. I used photoshop and InDesign design. For the front cover I used photoshop, I was already used photoshop before and I already knew how to do something’s such as cutting the image layer, moving the layer and how to insert things. Like many magazines the front cover or advertising images within the magazine are all airbrushed so I decided airbrush mine. I used step by step photoshop tutorials (http://photoshoptutorials.ws/photoshop-tutorials/photo-retouching/airbrushing-natural-smooth-skin/).

What I also learnt was how to put the masthead behind the image layer, it was really difficult to put the masthead behind the image because it kept disappearing so what I did was is locked the image layer and then clicked on the masthead layer and rubbed out the letters on the artists forehead which gave the illusion that the masthead was behind the artists face. Also to create the masthead I used dafonts so see what font styles I wanted to use I did pick on but instead of copying and pasting it on the background. I just picked a font (arial) from the selection on photoshop and stretched it which made it look like the font on dafont. I learnt where how to place the skylines and poll quotes.

For the contents page and DPS I used InDesign, InDesign is used by professional magazines to make contents pages and DPS’ I have never used InDesign so I learnt a lot of different things. For the contents page as I was I did a double page spread I used a ruler to separate the page in half, I used columns to write my text and added box to where I wanted my images I used my house-style for the layout even though it wasn’t a exactly the same.

On the left hand side I inserted an image as that took up the whole side of that page and then wrote the text on it I didn’t have to change around the layers. I also added the letter ‘HB’ which stands for the magazines name.

I used two different layers for that and moved the letters so they were touching. My colour-scheme was still intact as I the HB was written in black and red and the ‘features’ were written in white. On the right hand side the page was black and I had red and white text with some images too. What I learnt was how to insert images and text and how to convert it into a JPEG . I also learnt how important the rulers were because they helped to keep everything even. The page numbers were their own layers too. The same things that I did for my contents page is what I did for my DPS.

I used time toast to put all the dates of deadlines for each assignment, it was help full because it was a time line and as we used the internet a lot for media it was a quick way to know certain things and you were able to write notes as well. On blogger I learnt how to upload images and how to put videos from youtube on to my blogger which was interesting. For the shoots I used two different types of SLR I used a Fujifilm finepix S4000 for my location shoot and for my studio shoot I used a Canon 600 D. when doing my location shoot I learnt that if I used a tripod I was able to take better pictures of the where I shooting. When shooting for the main image of my contents page the tripod was of great use when I was trying to get a better angle of the graffiti in the background. And when I took the picture diagonally then cropped the image, it made the wall in the background look longer than it actually is.

When doing the main shoot I used the Canon camera I learnt how the to connect the camera with the soft-boxes, I learnt the purpose and the use of reflects and I learnt if the light is too strong or the model is standing too close to the backdrop they could fade into the background. I learnt how light can bounce off or bounce back and giving different effects like a shadow, a fade or just a simple glow.

I have also learnt about different media interacting websites such as twitter and facebook play a big part when it comes to magazines. It is a way to reach out to all the people and it also shows who they try to interact with their target audience.

7) 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 my preliminary task evaluation, I had set myself some tasks like for the front cover I set myself the task of actually learning how to put the masthead behind the models face. And to also make sure that the model is giving direct eye contact to the camera so it seems like they’re giving the audience direct eye contact. I learnt the importance of making sure everything is in line with everything as for my college magazine not everything was in line the writing wasn’t bold enough. The page looked really empty and my final piece is much better. I become much more familiar to where to place the teasers and things like barcodes, websites links, etc.

For the contents page learnt that I didn’t have to have just one contents page, I wrote mini subtitles for my final piece and I added more information. And I learnt how to making everything even. I wrote on my evaluation I wanted to learn how the change the layers and the colour of the page. I remember I found it difficult to change the background colour but as I become more familiar with Indesign I learnt how to do and changed the background colour of the background. What else I learnt is the use of imagery and how to make your 3 colour scheme consisted within your work. I also learnt from this task to my main task is by looking a different magazines and doing research helps you to develop ideas and the more you look at other work the better yours will be.

A/S Media Coursework

Sunday, 13 January 2013

Media Evaluation: Q7

Media Evaluation: Q6

Media Evaluation Q5

Media Evaluation: Q4

Thursday, 10 January 2013

Media Evaluation Q: 1,2,3

Wednesday, 9 January 2013

Evaluation (Scripted)

Friday, 14 December 2012

Audience feedback: summaries (evaluation)