Question 1
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Due to my research into the Indie genre, the audience for my media product would focus obviously on the Indie social groups but more specifically at the younger generations, possibly ranging from approximately 16-26.
I feel a current similar product would be NME magazine as it on average target 25 year olds, is largely associated with rock, indie and alternative music, and is seen by the target audience who are passionate about music, similar to my ideal target audience, as an authority and educator of music, which I would like my audience to eventually perceive the 'MOON' magazine as also. However the NME magazine has a significantly higher male audience than female which is not the intention for my magazine as I would like it to be unisex attraction.
The ideal target audience would broadly associated within the middle class, young Bohemians who reside in gentrifying neighbourhoods category; also known as 'hipsters', however I would prefer a range of social classed and indie styled buyers than particularly the interest of 'hipsters'. Below is the main characteristics of my indie type of target audience:Due to my research into the Indie genre, the audience for my media product would focus obviously on the Indie social groups but more specifically at the younger generations, possibly ranging from approximately 16-26.
I feel a current similar product would be NME magazine as it on average target 25 year olds, is largely associated with rock, indie and alternative music, and is seen by the target audience who are passionate about music, similar to my ideal target audience, as an authority and educator of music, which I would like my audience to eventually perceive the 'MOON' magazine as also. However the NME magazine has a significantly higher male audience than female which is not the intention for my magazine as I would like it to be unisex attraction.
Question 2
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My front cover of my magazine represents the indie music social group. Therefore the need to dress my models in a particular way, use specific props and thoroughly think about the choice of background was vital to meet the representation of my target audience; I think the choice of model gender is also important. The colours of my models are insignificant as the image is black and white but the outfits worn are of value to the genre.
Denim is a popular indie material, as well as leather and many Indie social groups are encouraged to buy from stores considered to be related to the indie style; for example, Levi's, Urban Outfitters and Lazy Oaf.
Also, both models wear baggy woolly jumpers which are also a repeated outfit worn by the Indie public. The use of masks, specifically animals, represents the idea of hidden identity and a mysterious sense which many stereotyped Indie groups are perceived to have; they stereo-typically come across unfriendly and isolated.
The background is a part of a deciduous forest which represents the Indie social group by the link between the chilled feel of the music produced and the calming sensation of nature.
The style of font used for the main cover line is quite scruffy and rough which represents the careless and tough identities of the stereotypical indie groups.
In comparison:
In comparison:
My main image of the band 'Mammals' represents the ideal reader with the use of Mise en scene. Their position connotes a passion for music as the male model forces the importance of the radio upon the reader and their costume reflects the typical style of the indie society as well as the use of masks connoting a mysterious characteristic. The backdrop in a woodland area opposes the stereotypical urban setting representing the ideal for my magazine to spread not only to the majority in city-like areas but also the minority elsewhere.
Alexa Chung is a respected interest of the female indie society. I intend on demonstrating how she filters her appearance and performance depending on her audience as she represents as an ideal role model for the indie social group my magazine is aimed at:
The way Alexa Chung uses social media such as Instagram, Twitter and Facebook is as if she is an ordinary, infamous young woman enjoying the wild life of socialising.
However, Alexa Chung isn't an average 31 year old due to her career in TV presenting, modelling and contributing editor at British Vogue. Her modelling especially portrays a different Chung to the one posted on the internet.
In all the photographs in my magazine, I tried to make the models aspirational for the readers in the sense of their appearance with the grunge like, unique clothing, their activities, for example, concerts and shopping, and the location variation from the beach to the woodland to a photo-shoot studio. The models in my magazine match the age group I would like my ideal reader to be within, those of the youthful generation, to make the magazine more appealing.
Question 3
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
I think that I have managed to try and keep the style and conventions of my magazine consistent to the traditional style and conventions of other Indie genre magazines, focusing mainly on comparing the layout and structure of the real 'Indie' magazine to my own. Indie magazine's are a piece of art rather than just a selling page. Below is an analysis of the conventions of NME magazine front cover, contents and double page spread:
On the other hand, I have used the idea of block colours used on other Indie magazines by using a grayscale filter on the majority of the main image and allowed colour to the most important feature of the image; that being the retro radio to highlight the fact it is a music magazine.
However, rather than setting my masthead as the largest text, I have made the main cover line stand out the most to challenge the conventions of the stereotypical front cover.
On the other hand, I have used the idea of block colours used on other Indie magazines by using a grayscale filter on the majority of the main image and allowed colour to the most important feature of the image; that being the retro radio to highlight the fact it is a music magazine.
The use of unusual and old-fashioned props are common in other indie magazines, so in this sense I have developed the forms of Indie photography and structure in relation to the front cover.
I have also used the idea of block colours on the colouring of the main cover line, other cover lines and masthead.
I have also used the idea of block colours on the colouring of the main cover line, other cover lines and masthead.
The fact I used grayscale for the majority of the magazine front cover also challenges the conventions of real indie media products because, for example, the actual 'Indie' magazine usually consists of numerous bright and bold lighting in the images. Although this contrasts with the 'Indie' magazine, the use black and white and grayscale filters on images match the genre of other indie products and images.
On most Indie magazines, there is only one image; that being of the main cover story, so I similarly used the same technique and only inserted one main image on the front cover. The number of people in the frame varies but usually not many artists are involved so I minimally used two models.
Although the masthead usually overlaps the main image, I challenged this form of layout and instead put it to the side of the main features of the front cover but as one of the largest attributes as well as the most colourful and outstanding.
Also, on Indie magazines, there doesn't seem to be many cover lines displayed on the front cover so I used this technique and only inserted one cover line along with the main cover line.
On my contents page, I developed the conventions of a typical indie magazine contents page by using a similar block like, linear layout to keep the simplistic style. However I used more images than writing to emphasise the scrapbook look I tried to achieve as well as making the Contents Page look more interesting and easy for the audience to choose what they would like to read.
I also made the main article of the magazine a large central image like other indie magazines to highlight the importance of the feature; I added a border around the main image to emphasise further it's importance.
I challenged the conventions of a indie magazine by changing the colour of the main cover lines to white rather than enlarging the text.
Also, instead of the title of the magazine being used to act just as the header I added a pun using the title of the magazine being 'What is on the moon?'. This gives a humorous impression and sense of cleverness rather than a mysterious, informative aspect.
On my double page spread, I challenged the conventions of a traditional indie magazine spread by not having just one image as the main image but several paired together in different shaped triangle frame however I used the form of a real magazine double page spread by spreading the images over the 2 pages and not just the one but developed this layout by the majority of images being on the second page.
I challenged the typical conventions as well by not having a drop capital at the start of the main body text but instead using the stand first purely as the introduction to the article as well as a clear starting point due to the boldness and size enlargement and the positioning being under the article headline.
I developed the pull quote convention by changing the colour of the font rather than the size of the text. I instead used an external quote to act as a pull quote by adding one in the lower right of the second page and changing the font, size and colour in contrast to the main body text.
Also I challenged the use of a caption on a photo and instead used the masthead to name the artist in the images to emphasise the importance and help the audience remember the artist more than if I had mentioned her in a caption.
Initially I considered displaying my 2 page spread in the traditional way, guaranteeing the information to be viewed in columns as not to be interrupted by the stapled line down the middle of a page spread as well as having a typical high main image ratio to other images and the main image only appearing on one page. However I changed this idea and used this format as evidence of a flyer that would be used to intrigue a wider audience due to the snippet of the music magazine as well as continuing to follow the marketing and distribution techniques of the Indie genre.
I'd like my double page spread to be a pull out article page rather than just a turn over, simple 2 page spread to show the importance of the article because had it been published in an actual magazine it would stand out from the rest of the content as the page wouldn't look as flat as the other pages due to the folds. This form of page also allows photographs to be larger and clearer as the crease where a normal magazine is stapled down the middle wouldn't be there to distort the images or text.
On my contents page, I developed the conventions of a typical indie magazine contents page by using a similar block like, linear layout to keep the simplistic style. However I used more images than writing to emphasise the scrapbook look I tried to achieve as well as making the Contents Page look more interesting and easy for the audience to choose what they would like to read.
I also made the main article of the magazine a large central image like other indie magazines to highlight the importance of the feature; I added a border around the main image to emphasise further it's importance.
I challenged the conventions of a indie magazine by changing the colour of the main cover lines to white rather than enlarging the text.
Also, instead of the title of the magazine being used to act just as the header I added a pun using the title of the magazine being 'What is on the moon?'. This gives a humorous impression and sense of cleverness rather than a mysterious, informative aspect.
On my double page spread, I challenged the conventions of a traditional indie magazine spread by not having just one image as the main image but several paired together in different shaped triangle frame however I used the form of a real magazine double page spread by spreading the images over the 2 pages and not just the one but developed this layout by the majority of images being on the second page.
I challenged the typical conventions as well by not having a drop capital at the start of the main body text but instead using the stand first purely as the introduction to the article as well as a clear starting point due to the boldness and size enlargement and the positioning being under the article headline.
Initially I considered displaying my 2 page spread in the traditional way, guaranteeing the information to be viewed in columns as not to be interrupted by the stapled line down the middle of a page spread as well as having a typical high main image ratio to other images and the main image only appearing on one page. However I changed this idea and used this format as evidence of a flyer that would be used to intrigue a wider audience due to the snippet of the music magazine as well as continuing to follow the marketing and distribution techniques of the Indie genre.
I'd like my double page spread to be a pull out article page rather than just a turn over, simple 2 page spread to show the importance of the article because had it been published in an actual magazine it would stand out from the rest of the content as the page wouldn't look as flat as the other pages due to the folds. This form of page also allows photographs to be larger and clearer as the crease where a normal magazine is stapled down the middle wouldn't be there to distort the images or text.
Question 4
How did you attract/address your audience?
I think that the aesthetics of my magazine, majorly helps attract my audience. It has a very strong colour theme, the features compliment one another due to position and shape and the layout of the magazine highlights the valued details.
The distinctiveness of the brightly coloured texts and masthead identifying the most important features of the magazine and would significantly draw the audiences' attention as well as the large central main image that uses animal masks and having been set in a forest location, would attract readers more so due to the quirkiness and contrast from the urban regions, stereotypically wear indie social groups are spotted.
I have also attracted my audience by the minimal cover lines on the front cover as not to reveal too much information so they would want to find out what's inside but also as it follows the conventions of a typical indie music magazine as the primary focus is consistently the main image and cover line which is easy to spot and read. The selling line at the top of the magazine is what will make the audience want to buy it; 'Top Festival Bands Uncovered'. This cover story will allow the reader to find out the, to be, highlights of the festival season and discover the most popular and upcoming artists for indie music.
I think that the aesthetics of my magazine, majorly helps attract my audience. It has a very strong colour theme, the features compliment one another due to position and shape and the layout of the magazine highlights the valued details.
The distinctiveness of the brightly coloured texts and masthead identifying the most important features of the magazine and would significantly draw the audiences' attention as well as the large central main image that uses animal masks and having been set in a forest location, would attract readers more so due to the quirkiness and contrast from the urban regions, stereotypically wear indie social groups are spotted.
I have also attracted my audience by the minimal cover lines on the front cover as not to reveal too much information so they would want to find out what's inside but also as it follows the conventions of a typical indie music magazine as the primary focus is consistently the main image and cover line which is easy to spot and read. The selling line at the top of the magazine is what will make the audience want to buy it; 'Top Festival Bands Uncovered'. This cover story will allow the reader to find out the, to be, highlights of the festival season and discover the most popular and upcoming artists for indie music.
The masthead gave the magazine the continuity of a colour scheme but being the brightest, makes the title of the magazine memorable as well as intriguing due to the vagueness in relation to music and founded point; it's called 'Moon'.
Gender
My magazine targets a mixed gender audience highlighted by the fact the cover stars are male and female. They also suit the stereotypical perception of the indie image due to their expensive looking but everyday style of clothing (except the use of animal masks).
Age
The target audience for my magazine is between 16-26, a youthful age group, and represented by the cover stars also who are between that age group. Their sense of mysteriousness by the masks not only give them that characteristic but also hides their age to direct the magazine at an unspecific age so it's attractive to a larger, (in numbers) audience.
Genre
The genre is indie portrayed by the clothing suiting the typical style, the layout of the front cover being a piece of art, rather than a busy advertisement page, and the fonts used as well as the filter and colours reflect the quirkiness indie social groups are perceived to characterize.
Colour
The red and blue colour scheme on the masthead, main cover line and selling line stands out on the grayscale background main image due to the contrast in brightness. The luminous bright red and blue, especially on the masthead moon, reflects the exciting, light filled night life indie social groups stereo typically experience due to being typically located in urban areas as well as the relation to their interest in partying.
Contents attraction and address:
Double Page Spread attraction and address:
Question 5
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
I believe that my media product could be distributed by independent companies as well as possibly quite mainstream companies and businesses due to the increasing interest in Indie music. Currently, Bauer and Time Inc. UK are the main magazine distribution companies and I think, if my magazine was as successful as NME and Uncut, Time Inc. UK would be the most likely distributor of my magazine due to the magazines they already produce are similar to the one I have aimed to create.
For example, NME magazine features a lot of iconography associated with indie and the scene that surrounds it such as amps/stereos, concerts and poster decoration. The magazine features a lot of upper-case text in a distressed font and a common red and black colour scheme.
In comparison to my magazine, 'MOON', I have also tried to include similar iconography especially music based, being a music magazine, such as the radio used and the concert photography. I have also used a lot of upper-case text, especially on the cover lines, and red is one of my main colour themes as well as blue.
For good publicity and more extensive advertisement, I'd expect such distribution companies to fund merchandise and app production and video adverts; the overall outcome would boost their share of income as well as the magazine's own economy and image:
Independent companies are likely to distribute my music magazine because Indie is an abbreviation for 'independent' so my media product would be ideal for their business, if applied to music. This would boost the independent companies reputation due to the increase in popularity of the Indie genre; partially due to the development of social networks such as Tumblr. I would like for my magazine to be published fortnightly as I intend for it to be a mainstream magazine but not so often as if it were weekly, that my audience could get bored of buying and reading it; a fortnight gives them the anticipation and excitement for the release of the next magazine but not so long that they forget about it.
The Badge:
Question 6
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
My confidence in using and understanding technology of all kinds has improved dramatically due to the number of different equipment and programs we have had to use in order to produce our magazine. My learning is mainly focused on photography, the shooting and editing, but formatting and transferring knowledge of typical conventions of a magazine genre onto my own work in order to produce a high quality media product has also been noticeable personal achievement of mine.
Before I constructed this product, I was familiar with using a professional camera and taking macro style photos. However, using the camera for the photo-shoots for my magazine was a much harder task as I had to use the knowledge of angles and use of props to follow the indie styled images.
Here are a few shots from the photo-shoots that weren't so successful due to the angle's I took them from and the poor importance of lighting.
I also wasn't as knowledgeable about the difference changing the camera setting makes as well as the improved quality of photos by using the smaller view screen rather than the digital preview.
I had never used Photoshop, for leisure or professionally, before I began AS Media. I am very confident in using this program after several hours of using the software to edit, position and create my front cover.
I am able to do numerous edits to my images including transparency, detailed physical changes to human faces and features using the pen tool and filter tools and the ability to manipulate images whether it be colouring, positioning or shadowing.
I was also able to draw lines and add symbols to the end of them on the double page spread for decoration:
Question 7
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
My confidence in using and understanding technology of all kinds has improved dramatically due to the number of different equipment and programs we have had to use in order to produce our magazine. My learning is mainly focused on photography, the shooting and editing, but formatting and transferring knowledge of typical conventions of a magazine genre onto my own work in order to produce a high quality media product has also been noticeable personal achievement of mine.
Before I constructed this product, I was familiar with using a professional camera and taking macro style photos. However, using the camera for the photo-shoots for my magazine was a much harder task as I had to use the knowledge of angles and use of props to follow the indie styled images.
Here are a few shots from the photo-shoots that weren't so successful due to the angle's I took them from and the poor importance of lighting.
I also wasn't as knowledgeable about the difference changing the camera setting makes as well as the improved quality of photos by using the smaller view screen rather than the digital preview.
I had never used Photoshop, for leisure or professionally, before I began AS Media. I am very confident in using this program after several hours of using the software to edit, position and create my front cover.
I am able to do numerous edits to my images including transparency, detailed physical changes to human faces and features using the pen tool and filter tools and the ability to manipulate images whether it be colouring, positioning or shadowing.
Transparency
Changes to human features by pen and filter
Blacken eyes
Colouring images
Change of font colour
For my Contents Page and Double Page Spread I used an industry based publishing software called Scribus which is much more difficult to use than Photoshop but it's far more advanced and efficient in the creating of magazine pages especially for the layout.
I've learnt how to shape the image frames I'd like, how to change the opacity in a different way to Photoshop, make use of limited options on the image effects, change the settings on the text frames and reorder images and features on the page.
I managed to create a triangle shape and then covert it to an image frame to display the double page spread images of my artist 'Haze' how I would like:
I adjusted the Bombay Bicycle Club photos on the Contents Page to slightly fade for the Bombay Bicycle Club logo name to be more visible and minimise the powerfulness of the bright light in the image:
I changed all the writing in the text frames to the 'Letter Gothic Std' font and adjusted the size and colour depending on what information was portrayed:
I also had to reorder the triangle images on the Double Page Spread to overlap in the way I chose to reveal the sections of the different photos I wanted:
The moons across the top of the page and the masthead text across it, 'what's on the moon?', had to be reordered for the writing to be visible and the moons to be positioned as I would like:
I've learnt how to shape the image frames I'd like, how to change the opacity in a different way to Photoshop, make use of limited options on the image effects, change the settings on the text frames and reorder images and features on the page.
I managed to create a triangle shape and then covert it to an image frame to display the double page spread images of my artist 'Haze' how I would like:
I adjusted the Bombay Bicycle Club photos on the Contents Page to slightly fade for the Bombay Bicycle Club logo name to be more visible and minimise the powerfulness of the bright light in the image:
I changed all the writing in the text frames to the 'Letter Gothic Std' font and adjusted the size and colour depending on what information was portrayed:
I also had to reorder the triangle images on the Double Page Spread to overlap in the way I chose to reveal the sections of the different photos I wanted:
The moons across the top of the page and the masthead text across it, 'what's on the moon?', had to be reordered for the writing to be visible and the moons to be positioned as I would like:
Question 7
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
I feel like I understand the conventions of magazines better than before due to the more advanced research and analysis of particular genres of magazines, whether it be for school or music. It is clearer to me how magazines are laid out in ways to suit their audience and style as well as what is put in/on the front cover to more directly attract buyers.
I believe my preliminary media product was a lot less professional compared to my main media product. I think this is mainly due to the improved understanding of Photoshop as I am more aware of the programs' abilities which has made it easier to use; in the preliminary task I stuck to using the basic tools as I wasn't confident with the unknown tools. I was also able to edit the photos in my main magazine front cover far better than in the preliminary task due to the better usage of Photoshop tools.
I also think that my photo-shoots for main task went much better than the ones in my preliminary task. The reason for this is because I planned what shot types I was going to use and analysed the possible impressions I would like my magazine to give to the audience through the different camera angles and and types of shots, as well as the importance of props, models, costume and positioning.
In my main task, the colour scheme was much more noticeable and stricter in comparison to my preliminary magazine which had more of a variation of colours; this added to the non-professionalism of the school magazine. I believe I have used the colours in main task to help relate more to a target audience whereas in my preliminary task, the colours were less direct and attractive to a specific audience.
For the contents page of my magazine I think I have understood the conventions of this part of the magazine far better for the main task than for the preliminary task and established the importance of colour schemes, layout and other important formats.
In my Holy Trinity Academy Contents Page I visibly stuck to using the simple Scribus tools being the shape and text tool and using the basic options on the Properties such as the colour, size and font. I also didn't change the opacity of the lines of the features on the contents page to see the true preview of my contents page.
However for my Music Magazine Contents Page, I clearly became more familiar with the Scribus software and widened the range of tools used and advanced the use of the basic tools. There is clear use of the image frame, more obvious alterations to text format, changing transparency and advanced background experimentations.
I believe I have demonstrated a more obvious theme in relation to the genre of a magazine.
I think a lot more thought and care went into my main task double page spread than my preliminary task double page spread and, again, there is a clear development of more advanced use of formatting tools and quality of photo.
I think I have learnt more about the conventions of a double page spread in relation to the genre of the magazine and valued the importance of professionalism, the importance of colour and the importance of font, text size and the varying positioning of specific features on and across the 2 pages.
I think I have developed my knowledge of the Scribus software having used a number of different tools visually such as the line drawing and symbols, the conversion of shapes to image frames and the range in transparency and colour shade.
No comments:
Post a Comment