Dear Examiner
These past few months of working on this media project have been challenging but thoroughly enjoyable, they have helped show me how much careful thought and planning every aspect of media products consist of and I have learnt a lot of valuable information that I am thankful for and will take forward with me.
Many thanks, Davo.
Thursday 31 March 2016
Wednesday 23 March 2016
Coursework review Q7
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you think you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?
After completing my final magazine I looked back at my first preliminary task which was the school magazine cover, after reviewing the two I have seen how much I have progressed and learnt about the design and production of a magazine cover.
The main stand out thing is the backgrounds and how much more natural the photo looks in my final piece, this is mainly because I chose a backdrop that would suit my magazine where as in my preliminary task I had a background that did not suit the magazine and so I had to create one on photoshop, this in turn caused the magazine to look tacky, I am glad this was rectified in my final piece.
Secondly in my final piece I had a close up low shot of my artist on the cover where as in the preliminary I had only used a mid shot which shows my progression with experimenting shot types and framing the picture. A mid shot is the most common shot used as it is typically how photos are taken. The variety in shot adds a sense of power to the artist which is a general theme in the Grime genre.
Thirdly, I feel as though the fonts selected in my final piece worked well with each other whilst maintaining originality where as in my preliminary task the fonts look extremely generic and out of place.
Finally, the attention to detail was vastly improved as I added all the little extras to my final piece including the issue number and positioned everything correctly where as very little attention to detail was put into the first one which caused things such as the bad cut out of the photo to occur.
Tuesday 22 March 2016
Coursework review Q6
What have you learnt about technologies from constructing this product?
As well as the equipment shown in the photo I have used various programs on my Macbook to achieve my finished product these are as follows:
- Photoshop: Through using photoshop I created my magazine, I used a variety of tools but the main tools I used that were vital in the creation of my magazine were the resizing tool as it allowed me to change the size of things to a perfect height and width whilst also keeping the proportions the same. Secondly, I used the text tool a lot to create headings and mastheads that make up the majority of my magazine. Thirdly, I used the eraser tool which allowed me to have the masthead appear to be in between the artist and the background which was an effective technique.
- Microsoft Word: I used Microsoft word to create my article in a program that would help check my spelling and grammar whilst I write, by doing this on word instead of in photoshop I was able to write a much better article than if I had used other programs.
- Google Drive: Google drive was used to upload and store photos I took across my many photo shoots, it was good as it could be uploaded too and accessed from multiple platforms allowing me to work from multiple places.
- Dafont: I used dafont to get more interesting fonts that better suit my magazine than were available on the photoshop app, by doing this I improved the overall aesthetic look of my magazine.
As well as the equipment shown in the photo I have used various programs on my Macbook to achieve my finished product these are as follows:
- Photoshop: Through using photoshop I created my magazine, I used a variety of tools but the main tools I used that were vital in the creation of my magazine were the resizing tool as it allowed me to change the size of things to a perfect height and width whilst also keeping the proportions the same. Secondly, I used the text tool a lot to create headings and mastheads that make up the majority of my magazine. Thirdly, I used the eraser tool which allowed me to have the masthead appear to be in between the artist and the background which was an effective technique.
- Microsoft Word: I used Microsoft word to create my article in a program that would help check my spelling and grammar whilst I write, by doing this on word instead of in photoshop I was able to write a much better article than if I had used other programs.
- Google Drive: Google drive was used to upload and store photos I took across my many photo shoots, it was good as it could be uploaded too and accessed from multiple platforms allowing me to work from multiple places.
- Dafont: I used dafont to get more interesting fonts that better suit my magazine than were available on the photoshop app, by doing this I improved the overall aesthetic look of my magazine.
Coursework review Q4
Who would be the audience for your media product?
After conducting my audience research I have come to the conclusion that my audience would consist mostly of people aged 15-25, this is due to the recent creation of the genre meaning only a small age range shows interest in the style of music but this may benefit the magazine due to the fact that the magazine can target 100% of Grime fans. My audience would consist of a high majority of males due to them wishing to live the glorified lifestyle of many grime artists and often as they use music as a way to gain and express power over others, especially fellow Grime listeners. Despite this, due to Grime being a popular genre of music at parties there is also a significant enough female following to warrant including them as a potential audience for the magazine. When designing and creating my magazine I was careful to consider what I had learnt in my audience research, combining this with styles preferred by listeners of Grime in clothing and lifestyles I chose for a typically manly theme that may be described as 'hard edged'. This is done to appeal to the readers who may feel as though they have reputations to keep amongst friends or in their society and so live a lifestyle seen by the majority of society as 'aggressive', these types of people may only associate themselves with something if it furthers their reputation, hence why this type of styling is necessary and beneficial.
A typical reader may be interested in the following things:
- Football
- The North face, Nike, Adidas, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Stone Island, Burberry, Armani, Ralph Lauren
- Making money
- Partying
- Cars
These things are what typical Grime fans share an interest in, for the clothing brands especially the designer ones, they may not known to be associated with young people but fashion is a big statement in Grime music and flaunting expensive clothes comes with this.
After conducting my audience research I have come to the conclusion that my audience would consist mostly of people aged 15-25, this is due to the recent creation of the genre meaning only a small age range shows interest in the style of music but this may benefit the magazine due to the fact that the magazine can target 100% of Grime fans. My audience would consist of a high majority of males due to them wishing to live the glorified lifestyle of many grime artists and often as they use music as a way to gain and express power over others, especially fellow Grime listeners. Despite this, due to Grime being a popular genre of music at parties there is also a significant enough female following to warrant including them as a potential audience for the magazine. When designing and creating my magazine I was careful to consider what I had learnt in my audience research, combining this with styles preferred by listeners of Grime in clothing and lifestyles I chose for a typically manly theme that may be described as 'hard edged'. This is done to appeal to the readers who may feel as though they have reputations to keep amongst friends or in their society and so live a lifestyle seen by the majority of society as 'aggressive', these types of people may only associate themselves with something if it furthers their reputation, hence why this type of styling is necessary and beneficial.
A typical reader may be interested in the following things:
- Football
- The North face, Nike, Adidas, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Stone Island, Burberry, Armani, Ralph Lauren
- Making money
- Partying
- Cars
These things are what typical Grime fans share an interest in, for the clothing brands especially the designer ones, they may not known to be associated with young people but fashion is a big statement in Grime music and flaunting expensive clothes comes with this.
Monday 21 March 2016
Coursework review Q3
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
Publishing companies must first decide on what things they want to publish, for example they can publish books, newspapers or magazines, and then they can also select certain genres or types of these things such as music magazines, tabloid newspapers or fictional books. After this, editors must then select titles they wish to publish that fit with their publishing program and also are expected to succeed to a certain level, a timetable is set up for how often it will be published, deadlines for the writers and when the text is handed off to be published. The publisher will pay for all expenses for publishing the magazine upfront with no guarantee of a profit, meaning the publishers have to strongly consider what they will publish.
A publishing company that would suit us is 'Bauer Media Group', they are a german based publishing company but operate in the UK for music magazines such as 'Q', they manage a portfolio of over 600 magazines and so would be perfect for helping get the magazine off the ground and then also continuing to provide a good service if it becomes popular.
A distributor is someone who supplies goods to a retailer, in the case of magazine publishing they will be the ones who put your magazine in shops all over the country for people to buy. Frontline would be a good distributor for my magazine as they distribute to over 55,000 retailers and have experience in many different types of magazine including mojo music magazine. they are mainly based in the UK which is good as my genre of music magazine is only popular in the UK meaning we will capture all of our target audience.
There are multiple ways of raising the money to create the magazine, one of these ways is to ask musicians in the industry to promote the idea and get fans of the genre to donate on a kickstarter fund with a free first edition to all those who donate a certain amount, once the initial money is raised to create the magazine it will be self funded by money made from sales of the magazine. Another way to raise the money would also be to ask musicians within the genre to invest in the idea for a share in the company.
Institutionally my magazine is similar to 'XXL' and 'NME' and 'MOJO' so my magazine would be released in a similar way to these. They are published every two to three months with set amounts each time, only around a quarter of magazines published go to stores as the majority of prints go direct to subscribers of the magazine. This is because most readers of the magazine are consistent ones with a subscription. This would suit my magazine as readers would prefer to pay for each new issue to be delivered to their house rather than them have to go out and buy it.
My magazine would not be sold in all stores as their would only be a minority of the population interested in it, so instead my magazine would be sold at events where many grime fans are together at once, for example at live shows from artists or at festivals where a few Grime artists are playing. This way the maximum number of potential readers are targeted whilst minimising wasted prints that would be inevitable in mainstream stores.
Publishing companies must first decide on what things they want to publish, for example they can publish books, newspapers or magazines, and then they can also select certain genres or types of these things such as music magazines, tabloid newspapers or fictional books. After this, editors must then select titles they wish to publish that fit with their publishing program and also are expected to succeed to a certain level, a timetable is set up for how often it will be published, deadlines for the writers and when the text is handed off to be published. The publisher will pay for all expenses for publishing the magazine upfront with no guarantee of a profit, meaning the publishers have to strongly consider what they will publish.
A publishing company that would suit us is 'Bauer Media Group', they are a german based publishing company but operate in the UK for music magazines such as 'Q', they manage a portfolio of over 600 magazines and so would be perfect for helping get the magazine off the ground and then also continuing to provide a good service if it becomes popular.
A distributor is someone who supplies goods to a retailer, in the case of magazine publishing they will be the ones who put your magazine in shops all over the country for people to buy. Frontline would be a good distributor for my magazine as they distribute to over 55,000 retailers and have experience in many different types of magazine including mojo music magazine. they are mainly based in the UK which is good as my genre of music magazine is only popular in the UK meaning we will capture all of our target audience.
There are multiple ways of raising the money to create the magazine, one of these ways is to ask musicians in the industry to promote the idea and get fans of the genre to donate on a kickstarter fund with a free first edition to all those who donate a certain amount, once the initial money is raised to create the magazine it will be self funded by money made from sales of the magazine. Another way to raise the money would also be to ask musicians within the genre to invest in the idea for a share in the company.
Institutionally my magazine is similar to 'XXL' and 'NME' and 'MOJO' so my magazine would be released in a similar way to these. They are published every two to three months with set amounts each time, only around a quarter of magazines published go to stores as the majority of prints go direct to subscribers of the magazine. This is because most readers of the magazine are consistent ones with a subscription. This would suit my magazine as readers would prefer to pay for each new issue to be delivered to their house rather than them have to go out and buy it.
My magazine would not be sold in all stores as their would only be a minority of the population interested in it, so instead my magazine would be sold at events where many grime fans are together at once, for example at live shows from artists or at festivals where a few Grime artists are playing. This way the maximum number of potential readers are targeted whilst minimising wasted prints that would be inevitable in mainstream stores.
Coursework review Q2
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
My artist represents the social group of youths aged 15-25 with a typical party lifestyle as he fits into this category himself, this is seen by the type of clothing he wears.
My artist and a real producing artist: Stormzy, both have similarities and differences. They are similar in terms of ethnicity with both artists descending from Nigeria but having lived in England all their lives, while it is hard to see due to the black and white effect they are both wearing black outfits which is common for Grime artists, their clothes also look very laid back as though they are not trying too hard to look good. Both artists are quite tall and skinny with neutral facial expressions that show a lack of emotion but also give a focused look. The difference between these artists are that Stormzy has a beard, facial hair is very common with grime artists where as my artist has none which gives them a younger appearance, also Stormzy has a much darker skin tone than my artist.
Chavers is the social group on UK tribes that best fit the artist and those who listen to the music, they are described by the following on the website: Chavers are all about the big night out - drugs, booze, dancing and getting smashed with their mates. The UK tribes page also talks about their love of electronic dance music which is not true in this case but the description is still the closest representation of the artist.
Friday 18 March 2016
Coursework review Q1
In what ways does your media
product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
(i.e. of music magazines)
My masthead ‘Grime Culture’ challenges conventions, as it is a long magazine name as opposed to traditional magazine names where it is usually a few letters that may be abbreviations for something such as is the case with ‘NME’, ‘MOJO’, ‘XXL’ and ‘Q’ magazine. Therefore by having two long words my masthead spans the whole top of the page where as these other magazines are usually in the top left hand corner of the page. Also I used the font ‘Plane crash’ which was downloaded from an online font website, it developed conventions as it was generally a bold, block type font similar to those used in ‘MOJO’, ‘NME’ and ‘XXL’ but it also has a slightly eroded appearance which is an adaptation and further development of traditional masthead conventions.
Fonts used throughout my magazine include ‘Coconut express 01’, ‘Geneva CY’, ‘Jack Frost’ and ‘Plane crash’. I used ‘Plane crash’ for my masthead and the name of my artist on both the cover and double page spread, I also used it for the article title on my cover, I chose this font as it stood out as it was bold but also because the eroded look was unique and would help me avoid producing a generic looking magazine, therefore this font was used for large pieces of text that I wished to be most visible on my magazine. ‘Coconut express 01’ was also found on dafont.com and I used it as the main text for my magazine as it features as the font for the main bodies of text such as the information on the contents, the cover lines on the cover and for the article on my double page spread. I tried to keep the same font consistent for most the magazine to prevent the final piece looking messy. ‘Geneva CY’ was a less used font and was only used for the magazine issue and price, as it was easy to see for important information. ‘Jack frost’ was also only used once and was used for my contents, as this uses conventions in a lot of magazines where the contents title is a different font to the rest of the magazine. These use conventions for music magazines as it is traditional to have a limited number of fonts with each font serving a single purpose in the magazine, examples from my magazine and other magazines are shown below.
My masthead ‘Grime Culture’ challenges conventions, as it is a long magazine name as opposed to traditional magazine names where it is usually a few letters that may be abbreviations for something such as is the case with ‘NME’, ‘MOJO’, ‘XXL’ and ‘Q’ magazine. Therefore by having two long words my masthead spans the whole top of the page where as these other magazines are usually in the top left hand corner of the page. Also I used the font ‘Plane crash’ which was downloaded from an online font website, it developed conventions as it was generally a bold, block type font similar to those used in ‘MOJO’, ‘NME’ and ‘XXL’ but it also has a slightly eroded appearance which is an adaptation and further development of traditional masthead conventions.
Fonts used throughout my magazine include ‘Coconut express 01’, ‘Geneva CY’, ‘Jack Frost’ and ‘Plane crash’. I used ‘Plane crash’ for my masthead and the name of my artist on both the cover and double page spread, I also used it for the article title on my cover, I chose this font as it stood out as it was bold but also because the eroded look was unique and would help me avoid producing a generic looking magazine, therefore this font was used for large pieces of text that I wished to be most visible on my magazine. ‘Coconut express 01’ was also found on dafont.com and I used it as the main text for my magazine as it features as the font for the main bodies of text such as the information on the contents, the cover lines on the cover and for the article on my double page spread. I tried to keep the same font consistent for most the magazine to prevent the final piece looking messy. ‘Geneva CY’ was a less used font and was only used for the magazine issue and price, as it was easy to see for important information. ‘Jack frost’ was also only used once and was used for my contents, as this uses conventions in a lot of magazines where the contents title is a different font to the rest of the magazine. These use conventions for music magazines as it is traditional to have a limited number of fonts with each font serving a single purpose in the magazine, examples from my magazine and other magazines are shown below.
One outfit was used consistently in my magazine but it
was carefully chosen to best represent Grime artists and give a realistic feel.
The general theme was black clothing which uses conventions of Grime music and
grime artists, the clothes themselves were branded by North face and Nike who
are very popular with fans and anyone involved in grime music.
My artist was also of an African ethnicity which
is similar to a lot of grime artists, while this is not a necessity for Grime
artists to be of African ethnicity, the way most songs and verses are written
and performed suits the Nigerian accent which is why many successful Grime
artists share a Nigerian or close by African countries background therefore I
followed conventions by using someone with Nigerian descent. Finally I used
props by having some photos taken in certain locations such as a rundown skate
park in Lutterworth which gives a feeling of lower class backgrounds which are
shared by many artists through the rough nature of the surroundings in the
photo, this combined with the picture being taken at night also adds an element
of danger which follows conventions of this type of music genre and similar
ones such as Rap.
The camerawork and framing of the pictures I did
provided a range of different shots including, close ups, mid shots, two shots
and low shots. This uses and develops conventions for grime music as I
primarily used close ups which is seen with many hip hop or rap artists in
magazines but I have developed this by combining it with low shots to give a
greater sense of power for the artist. As is seen in on my cover page.
The genre of my magazine defies conventions, as
it is the first Grime specific music magazine, and even most big multi-genre
music magazines do not cover any grime music. The magazine shows repeatedly
what genre it is and proves it in a number of ways starting with the title:
Grime Culture. It is a basic name but gets straight to the point of what the
magazine will contain which is useful to the reader. The contents also suggests
it as all the articles make reference to Grime artists or related things to the
genre, also the title of the magazine can be found at the bottom of every page
and written frequently throughout the magazine.
Throughout my magazine my artist is represented
as a self-made successful person who faced a lot of challenges growing up in a
difficult neighbourhood which follows conventions of how most artists are seen
in Grime music as the majority grew up in rough areas and achieved success
without a music label to produce for them. This is shown in my magazine
primarily in the double page spread article, but despite this he is represented
also in a way that commands a lot of respect, which uses conventions of many
popular artists not just in the Grime genre but also in every music genre and
this is done by the information in the contents describing him as running the
grime scene.
The colour scheme I used was mainly monochrome with
different shades of red throughout my magazine, by having these hints of red I
was able to keep certain pictures in colour which I think contributed to the
overall success of my magazine by allowing me to be more flexible when
combining different elements. This uses and develops conventions by using the
monochrome colour scheme popular in many magazines and developing it to add
hints of colour spread throughout.
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