Monday 2 April 2012
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge form and conventions of real media products?
When initially planning my magazine, I had to consider the forms and conventions typical to the magazine that I was aiming towards my target audience. My magazine is based on mainstream pop and rock music; therefore I decided to research magazines such as Kerrang, NME and Clash.
I included all the main features of a typical magazine front cover. The first thing I did when creating my front cover was designing my masthead. The masthead is an important element of the Front Cover – it has to be eye catching and must grab the reader’s attention. I achieved this by making it the majority of the width of the page. This ensured that it stood out to the audience. I also emphasised the importance of it by adding a ‘glow’ effect to the lettering. I used blue as the only colour on my masthead, as it is the primary colour of my colour scheme.
Another feature of the front cover is the sell lines. The sell lines are important as they aim to ‘sell’ the magazine to the audience. I used blue and white for my font colours, as they are part of my colour scheme. The font I used was different to the masthead and other text on the page, as it helped make them stand out from other elements.
The main image is one of the most important elements of the front cover. It is usually the largest element on the page and if it isn’t effective, it will have a massive impact on whether or not your target audience buy your magazine. My main image covers over three quarters of the page; the image is a medium close-up shot of my model, with his guitar. I used this image as I found the lighting very effective, as it suited the mood that I wanted to create. The guitar also represented the indie rock/pop genre audience that I am aiming my magazine towards.
The contents page is designed to inform the reader of what appears inside the magazine. I re-created several ideas used in most music magazines. I have sectioned each category into different boxes to make it clearer and easier to read. There is also a subscription box at the bottom of the page, which gives the reader the option to subscribe to the magazine, in which they get delivered a copy of the magazine every week. An extra incentive to subscribe is that they receive a discount on the price. Another element on the contents page is the social networking feature, including methods such as Facebook and YouTube. This makes people aware of the different forms of media that my magazine is available. The main image is an image of my model at a piano. The lighting used in the shot creates a silhouette effect.
My double page spread is contains the article with a main image of my model Photoshopped onto a girder to recreate a famous image, and two smaller images. Most double page spreads make the text fit around the main image. I have incorporated this into my own double page spread. The text wraps around the model and darker parts of the image so that it doesn't clash.
What kind of institution might distribute your magazine and why?
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For my magazine, I chose a well-known distributor called Warners Group Publications plc. They are a distributing company that publishes over 30 magazines. I chose this institution as I believe that it would be a good company to publish my music magazine. This is because they have experience in publishing magazines within the music and media industry, however not in the same genre as my magazine. Thus, using the combined knowledge and lower competition, it should successfully publish and distribute my magazine to larger retailers.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The target audience that I have chosen for my magazine is teenagers and young adults. The reason for my choice is because music is important at this point in people’s lives, and will therefore attract the most readers of my chosen genre. The use of social media will also encourage readers of this age range to buy it, as social interaction is predominantly carried out by teenagers and young adults.
The majority of readers will be male, as the magazine has an authoritative masculinity about it based on the font styles and layout. I have catered for the target audience I am marketing my magazine for. I have achieved this by making the magazine an affordable price for teenagers, as well as containing feature articles and reviews of artists that appeal to this audience.
What have you learned about technologies from the process of construction of your product?
I used several programs during the process of creating my product. These programs include; Adobe Photoshop, Bridge and Macromedia Fireworks. Photoshop is the main software that I used in order to create my product. Through this software I have learnt to use many skills, such as removing backgrounds from images and using effects tools such as drop shadows.
I used another piece of software called Adobe Bridge. I used this in order to create a contact sheet.
Whilst creating my magazine, I encountered problems involving backwards compatibility. As I have Photoshop CS5 at home, whereas CS3 is used at school, I was initially unable to open files that I worked on at home on the computers at school. However, after extensive research, I found a way to open these files in an older version.
Another useful technology that I used was the blog, where I am able to store all my work in an organised format.
A really useful website to convert and publish my work was Scribd. This is because it allows you to embed your PowerPoint presentation or word document directly on to the blog without editing it or changing the quality.
One website that I commonly used was Prezi. It is an online alternative to Microsoft PowerPoint. An advantage of this method is that you can add interesting animations, edit with peers, and embed your presentations. After you embed the document, you are also able to edit it further. When you edit the document, it is altered on the embedded post.
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