Finished Products

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

Question 3: What kind of media institutions might distribute your media product and why?

Mediaproduct1

View more presentations from Alex7658.

Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

Flat Plans

This is a flat plan of my contents page and firstly, I think that I have included too many images, two should be enough instead of six. It has the same black background as the front cover, and the same colour text (white and yellow/orange). The contents have been put into a “This Week” section to keep them separate from the main image, but I think I will change this and put them into more specific sections, such as news, reviews and features. The main image is of one of the characters that will be included on my front cover, I have drawn them without and instrument but when I come to taking photos I may include an instrument as a prop. The facial expressions of the character are still undecided, I have drawn them smiling in the meantime.

 This is a flat plan of my front cover. I chose to use only one image, but containing two people. I chose to have them separate with one person standing closer to the camera and the other standing further away to suggest their priority within the band. I think it will look good to have my characters dressed in casual clothes, e.g. jeans, jacket and t-shirts, preferably with a band on as many bands in my chosen genre tend to dress casually even when playing live on stage and they wear t-shirts with either their own band or another band on. The backdrop will be black to match the magazines colour scheme and also, with the use of lighting, to make colours stand out. I have used colours such as black, white and yellow/orange, but are not visible in the scanned image. The masthead, which unfortunately didn't scan properly, uses white text on a black background to make it easily readable and visible from a crowd of magazines, and also to reflect that the magazine is primarily targeted at males. I have used sell lines such as “First Feature” and “Exclusive” as they contain buzzwrods which make the magazine more appealing. Also, the masthead and main sell line are written in block capitals to make them more noticeable and gives them a higher importance, and there are more sell lines on the left-hand side and bottom of the magazine front cover stating that there are exclusive band features inside and a list of other bands at the bottom making the reader want to buy the magazine. The main sell line “Broken Idols, first feature pg 3+4, Shadows E.P.” is jagged and handwritten, giving it a rough and edgy appeal. In the bottom right-hand corner is a barcode, date and price.

This is a flat plan of my double page spread. There is a main image of my chosen artist against a black backdrop (this is not shown in the image). Again, I think i will change the pose of my artist to them playing an instrument whilst looking down, I hope this will make my artist seem to be revolving around music; all their attention is focused on playing their instrument. The image will take up all of the right side page and will be photographed in a mid-shot (just below the waist and upwards). The title "How the HELL did it get to this!?" is hand drawn, again giving it a rough and edgy look. I think that when I make my magazine I will make the font bold and have certain words coloured red (the words HELL and Broken Idols) as the colour red represents something bad (HELL) and also love and passion, i.e. in music (Broken Idols). I will also add an introductory paragraph in between the title and main article (set in 2 columns) against a red box to make it stand out and match the colour scheme.

Textual Analysis

Draft cover/contents page + Double page spread

 This is my current progress with my contents page and double page spread, from which I will develop further. I apologise as I am also catching up with work from other lessons.

Monitoring post 20/02/2012

By Monday 5th March I should have a rough cut of my products

By Monday 19th March my products should be completed

From Monday 19th - Friday 30th March I will be working on my 7 evaluation questions.

Then my completed portfolio should be submitted for formal marking on Monday 16th April. I should use the Easter break to make any minor amendments to my work.

In order to meet the deadlines set I will take photographs of my chosen artists for my music magazine, decide what font style and size i will use throughout the magazine.

I will also add Pre-lim, develop my discussion of target audience, add textual analysis and all planning documents.

Article Research

"Tell Santa I've been Good!"

Introduction "You Me At Six frontman Josh Franceschi has reacted with shock and sadness over recent research which has shown that boys that share his first name are the least well-behaved in the run-up to Christmas Day." This article uses 2nd person, and also includes quotes to personalise the article. The opening sentence is rather vague which encourages the reader to read on and it is only about the band. The article expresses opinions from Josh Franceschi (YM@6 frontman) and also quotes on the release of the new album, so the article is half about the new album and world tour, and the other half is about his outrage against research into children who share his name are the most misbehaved towards Christmas.

"Muse? Give me King Adora every time"

Introduction "Of all the press releases that have filled my Inbox this week, one stands out as the least expected." This introduction says very little about what the article is about. It gives more information about the journalist rather than the band he is going to be writing about. The style of writing is very opinionated through the use of references and wording.

"The Muppets"
The Introduction to the article gives a summary of what it is about, "Thirty-five years since first gracing our screens, Kermit, Miss Piggy and the gang are back. It's time to raise the curtain and discuss, um, Radiohead's carbon emissions and dating Lady Gaga..."
This summary is worded as if being spoken, or narrated which gives it a more formal appeal.

The rest of the article uses humor to keep the reader interested, and also entertained which will keep them reading.

Image Analysis and Composition

The character on the right hand side is shown as the more dominant figure because of his higher eye line (in the top third)  and closer positioning to the camera than the rest of the band members.

All of the members are wearing the same or very similar clothing (a leather jacket and sunglasses) which suggests they are in the same band and they all conform to the same genre; metal.

The body language suggests that they are all very self confident. They are all stood upright with heads slightly raised, facing away from the camera.

This is a medium shot with the main character positioned centrally to show that he is the main focus of the shot.

His eye line is in the top third but lack of eye contact suggests maybe a shy personality, which is expressed through music as he is looking down to his guitar.

The guitar also relates to the genre of music and shows that he is a musician.

This is a long shot to show all of the characters in the shot. There is no central character as the main focus, but the body language and stance of one of the characters suggests that he is the main focus (band frontman).

The eye line of all the characters in the shot are high in the top third, suggesting power and dominance.

Research into institutions that distribute similar products

Research into institutions that distribute similar products

View more presentations from Alex7658.

Target Audience

The target audience for Kerrang! is:
Kerrang! is actually really young with a median age of 22. Having a younger profile is a big advantage as traditionally this age group is elusive (and expensive) to reach. As well as music releases this makes Kerrang! perfect for film and games, and also mobile technology and government messages.
Kerrang! readers are the heaviest music consumers purchasing over 6 albums per month on average (53% more than the national average) and 8 times more likely to spend over £200 a year on albums. The readers are also 5.5 times more likely to attend a rock gig.

I intend to aim my music magazine at a broadly similar audience to Kerrang, around the age of 14-27, with the majority being males.

This would effect my magazine content because magazines of this genre tend to stick to a specific house style which appeals to its target audiences. To appeal to a more masculine audience, the magazine would have to have a dark colour scheme and feature more male artists or all male bands.

Initial Ideas.

I have decided to do a music magazine based on Rock and Heavy Metal music. I plan to research similar magazines such as NME and Kerrang. This will allow me to gain some ideas about similar house styles that magazines of this genre use. I will also compare how different genres use layouts and imagery to reach a different target audience.

Brief

PRINT

Preliminary exercise: using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally candidates must produce a DTP mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate their grasp of the program.

Main task: the front page, contents and double page spread of a new music magazine.
All images and text used must be original, produced by the candidate, minimum of FOUR images per candidate.

Print Prelim

Inspirational Texts.

I chose this magazine cover because straight away it comes accross as eye-catching because of the bold red text and the main image is shot in medium close-up.
The Masthead is partially obscured by the main image but enough of the word is already visible so you know what the obscured letters are.
Whilst there is no background, i think that the use of plain white makes the text and the black and white image stand out instead of blending in with the background.
There is also a Skyline which says what other bands are featured in the magazine.
There is some dead space on the magazine cover which makes it look well laid out instead of cluttered.
The colours on the front cover all stick to the colour scheme of Red, Black and white.
There are 2 small columns of sell lines: one in the top right-hand corner and one in the bottom left-hand corner.

I chose this contents page because there are several Graphics that stand out to the reader, such as "£2 OFF!". This immediately makes the reader take notice and will be more eager to read on.
Also, each bit of content is numbered from 1 to 10 and is laid out vertically.
Everything also sticks to the colour scheme of Red, White, Black, Pink and Yellow.
There isn't much dead space on this contents page which probably means that the magazine is packed full of information.

I chose this College magazine cover because it is very eye-catching with the use of random colours and textures. The masthead is positioned more centrally than usual, but the skyline remains at the top.
This front cover will particularly stand out to college students because it is very representitive of a college students working life: bits of paper scattered all over.
The sell lines aren't in the usual place at the side of the magazine, instead they are in small green sections at the bottom and the top left-hand side. These stand out immediately because they contrast with the rest of the colours on the page.

Print Prelim

Using DTP and an image manipulation program, produce the front page of a new school/college magazine, featuring a photograph of a student in medium close-up plus some appropriately laid-out text and a masthead. Additionally you must produce a mock-up of the layout of the contents page to demonstrate your grasp of DTP.