1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
When designing my music magazine I looked at a different variety of professional music magazines and chose which one would best suit the ideas I had for my own magazine. I decided to choose the popular magazine that is NME a well known and established publishing ‘Indie rock’ magazine. As this was my style model I used the conventions of this towards my own media product such as NME tended to use bold and obvious colours for their front covers and use one competitive colour which is the bold red. So I decided to follow these conventions through my magazine, I also used the a bold colour of red and I used the same colour through out my magazine and I believe I have used it effectively. The title I used for my magazine was ‘Stone Love’ as it was a unique name and represents the ‘Indie’ atmosphere well. I felt this title was creative and interlinks with my style model and the genre of music I was trying to recreate in my magazine. In my style model it has a strap line above the title so I included that within my media product as this follows conventions of the magazine I used. With my own magazine I structured one convention differently and this was the free CD inside, I placed this in to give the media product a more realistic effect, NME have done this before in a few magazines and I tried to follow this well although may have been a bit bland it gave the reader clear information and followed conventions well.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
When designing my music magazine I looked at a different variety of professional music magazines and chose which one would best suit the ideas I had for my own magazine. I decided to choose the popular magazine that is NME a well known and established publishing ‘Indie rock’ magazine. As this was my style model I used the conventions of this towards my own media product such as NME tended to use bold and obvious colours for their front covers and use one competitive colour which is the bold red. So I decided to follow these conventions through my magazine, I also used the a bold colour of red and I used the same colour through out my magazine and I believe I have used it effectively. The title I used for my magazine was ‘Stone Love’ as it was a unique name and represents the ‘Indie’ atmosphere well. I felt this title was creative and interlinks with my style model and the genre of music I was trying to recreate in my magazine. In my style model it has a strap line above the title so I included that within my media product as this follows conventions of the magazine I used. With my own magazine I structured one convention differently and this was the free CD inside, I placed this in to give the media product a more realistic effect, NME have done this before in a few magazines and I tried to follow this well although may have been a bit bland it gave the reader clear information and followed conventions well.
2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My media product represents a particular social group that is teenagers to young adults that are interested in indie. I think my media product represents this type of social group as it is a popular style of music and always involves new and creative bands, I think this attracts young people more males aged 15 beyond, but definitely unisex. I feel my magazine does not appeal to any ethnic minority in particular I did not do this in a bias way I feel that my magazine could be read by anyone but my main target was to get the attention of teenagers interested in alternative music. My media product doesn’t target sexuality it is a unbiased magazine and may only attract more males as my audience research showed that more males enjoy this type of music and would were more likely to buy this type of media product. My magazine is directed towards the class of young working adults and students from high schools 6th forms colleges and universities as it is quite rude and talks of situations that would not interest younger people. The language used in my media product is informal in a chatty as it is a interview from a band, but it is structured properly and easy for the reader to understand. For example here is a section of my double page spread when I interviewed
3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The type of institutions I would choose to publish my magazine would be very similar my style model to the well known magazine NME, I believe IPC media would take a keen interest in my magazine as it does follow the same pattern as NME but I feel my media product does have more edge and involves the reader more with actual bands and gives the reader what they want to hear, such as interviews with the bands where readers get to hear from the band. To get the maximum coverage for my magazine I feel that the internet would be the best option for me as there are lots of chances these days to advertise on the internet such as through facebook, myspace and twitter these would really boost a reputation for Stone Love and get the magazine out there, I also think that these are the kind of websites that my target audience would be mostly on and would catch their attention. Also marketing my media product at gigs, giving fans free samples of what my magazine is about, this is also good because most of potential consumers would be at gigs. Creating a website for Stone Love would really help my marketing as there would be a definite place where fans could subscribe for my magazine and post new ideas for up and coming issues. Finally I think that the TV or possibly radio would benefit me as well getting celebrity endorsement such as big name Bands to talk about or even market my magazine, if I did use TV to advertise my product, I would uses channels such as MTV but specifically MTV 2. The distribution of my magazine would definitely be internationally because I feel this type of music is appreciated in most parts of the world but would be well based in England as we would be focusing on English bands; the distribution will be more so for America and the United Kingdom as the music is at a pinnacle in these two countries and is a very popular theme with young adults and there is no language barrier with these countries.
4. Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for my media product would be more directed towards young working adults and students from high school students to university students who take an interest with the indie music and the whole gigs and festivals scene in general. I would be looking particular and this kind of audience as from my audience research it showed that these were the ages that were most interested in this type of music and this type of music magazine.
5. How did you attract/address your audience?
I feel I have catered towards my audiences needs in my magazine by the images I chosen and have taken this is because they are related to the type of music by including colours that matched that of NME magazine, as to get the same feel of an existing music magazine. Within the photographs that I took I used instruments that matched this type of genre, which was a guitar, also the type of clothes that I choose for my models to wear show things that represent the genre and type of people who my media product is directed towards, this will attract them and possibly give style tips. The stories I chose for my front are similar to my style model NME I felt that this was critical as it would attract the same audience towards my magazine, also I included recent affairs such as up and coming festivals and gigs, also interviews with certain the main band which the lead singer poses for on the front cover. The elements of my contents page which I feel the audience would best like and why would be the colour scheme I used such as a plain white background with red writing and within the black text boxes I used white writing. This page does not try to grab the readers attention it instead is very clear and allows the reader to access the page needed easily as possible. My language which is used in the double page spread article is very laid back and informal as it is just an interview with a band, it users more informal language that the younger generation would clearly understand and this would be how they speak. I did this because when I looked at my style model the language used was very chatty and made the reader feel involved with the article. The message I feel my magazine is sending out is that my media product is unique and the most up to date with the indie music and new bands scene also the audience who buy it want to be projected as true indie music fans that are involved with the new and up and coming scene in the music world. Finally with buying this magazine it gives across fashion tips, these are what is new and what is looking good from the big name manufacturers.
6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
I have learnt that framing a shot is important to get the right angle with the picture to give is more edge and look more professional, also the background for the picture is vital such as including elements that will make the picture unique and appropriate for my magazine. The shot distances used for the pictures are critical as if they are to far away they do not compliment the picture as much and don’t let the reader see the full picture and vice versa for to close up, but where as if they are at a right distance the picture can make the whole front cover contents or double page spread look professionally done. I learnt when taking a picture to have the flash on for certain types of pictures within certain areas these included outside or in a dark place this is with artificial light and worked well for my magazine, on the other hand when outside taking pictures which I did I used natural light and this did work well but I only could use this method for when the lighting was right. Photoshop was very helpful for when making my media product, I enhanced my pictures by cutting out unneeded objects in the background or the full background all together also I used the clone stamp tool to blend in colours with the skin tone of the model I used. The tool I found very helpful was the magnetic lasso which cuts out the object I wanted to and this really made my end product look professional. By creating a blog I found it a lot easier to manage my work and keep it in order also the advantages of this are that my teachers can look at what I have done and how I am keeping up with the work load also I can organise my work and talk about certain areas which I want to this goes with pictures as well. I learnt a lot form the school prelim task more so about time management and keeping up with the work also I learnt how to frame a shot well and make it look professional and go with the genre of the magazine. Finally I believe the prelim task gave me incentive to achieve better in my magazine and improve my media product in general.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
With my preliminary task that was to make a school magazine, I did this task to the best of my ability at the time. This task helped me prepare for my Music media product. Although it did prepare me for them you can see that it is not very well done, compared to my final product. I have learnt a lot since my preliminary task, I learnt how to use photoshop fully and how to create a professional looking media product. I learnt that I need to organize my time better, If I had done this I could have created a more satisfactory media product.
7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
With my preliminary task that was to make a school magazine, I did this task to the best of my ability at the time. This task helped me prepare for my Music media product. Although it did prepare me for them you can see that it is not very well done, compared to my final product. I have learnt a lot since my preliminary task, I learnt how to use photoshop fully and how to create a professional looking media product. I learnt that I need to organize my time better, If I had done this I could have created a more satisfactory media product.
