06/09 - How to Video!

Our home work task for our first lesson was to search youtube and find a video which interested us which we thought was a good example of a "How to..." video, here is my chosen video. This video also involves a major passion of mine dance:

6th september

In todays double lesson we began by talking about what the course for this year would contain and discussed both the coursework and exam aspects. The first hour was then consumed with decision making for our first task which was going to be shooting a how to video. We chose our groups and then got to work with creating ideas. After a while my partner and i decided upon making a "HOW TO... not drown when you cant swim". The rest of the lesson was then taken up by creating story boards of our ideas and sharing them with the class.

The second hour of the double lesson involved moving to another classroom with TV facilities in which we then watched two short documentaries each of about 10 minutes and discussed the similarities and differences of the videos.

The first of the two clips was "the urban savannah" directed by matthew cook, vincent luna. Which was created in UK 2004.

We then assessed the features which were clearly in the video and how the clip aimed to Inform, entertain and educate. The clip involved analysing the lives of two different social groups as the documentary puts it the townies and the skaters.

The features we noticed were commonly used within documentaries were:

1)Explanatory Narrators/Commentators

2)Experts (academics)

3)Observational view (fly on the wall)

4)Dramatic events

The aspects of the video which aimed to INFORM were the voice over or commentator who narrated throughout the clip. and through the way the narrator used formal language and included specialist terms such as "the dominant male".

The aspects of the video which aimed to ENTERTAIN were the way in which the director aimed to used a comedic approach and attack the humour of the audience in the way he represented the teenagers as animals.

Finally the video aimed to EDUCATE by the use of specialist experts to explain aspects of the video.

The second of the two videos were "i love my nails" a short video directed by Katherine Freeman created in UK 2004.

This clip did contain the use of more informal language and often had periods of silence due to lack of commentary. The filming was still an observational view even though unlike most documentaries the filming was more close up and personal as the clips involved question and answer sessions with those who were involved. The clip did no contain a sense of a dramatic event except for the revealing of the ladies nails when they'd finally finished being decorated in a sense the "tada!" moment. The clip wasn't necessary educational however was rather bizarre.

Task 1 ; School tour

Our first task of preparing for our final project within the A2 course was to create and shoot a guided tour of our school, st marks west essex catholic school. Our brief was pretty much that, it was then our choice to decide upon camera angles and other such matters as who would be our target audience and which we thought were the focal areas of the school which would need to ensure were projected to this audience. My group for this task was made of my self and 3 other girls, we decided to approach the audience of current year 11 students who were perspectively next years sixth form. The video was aimed to give these students and their parents an insight into what st marks sixth form could offer them.

The first aspect of our films which we learnt about and had to asses was how steady we was with the camera. Our teacher spent a while with us explaining how something as simple as a shaky shot could make a good film awful. We each took it in terms to attempt to take a free hand shot and to assess who had the steadiest hands to use when a tripod was not an option. Not only would an unsteady shot make the video seem of a lower standard but it would also cause us to lose marks on our overall video due to this being an aspect of which we would be gaining marks, simply on if we could hold a steady shot.

The second aspect we had to take into consideration was whether we framed the shot appropriately this involved making sure that all those in the shot who were meant to be within the shot were visible and the video didn't cut any on out. As we used a tripod this part of our skill level was pretty much taken care of for us however there was instances with audio where we chose to frame a long shot from afar and then we lost what was being said. This is therefore something we should look to improve upon within our final piece.

As just mentioned we also had to vary the distances in which we took our shots from. My group and i did experiment with this aspect of our filming but as mentioned it did cause issues at times with audio and therefore in future circumstances we would have to look to how we could suitably vary out shot distances but at the same time still be able to make out any use of audio. Our group varied out distances by changing the camera angles and by using features of our camera such as zoom. how ever we could look in future to vary the height of our shots as well as the distance as the tripod caused many of our shots to seem pretty much from the same height and of eye level. By varying the height we could give our prospective students another perspective of the school.

A2 MEDIA!!

How does NME attract its audience?

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slide 14 - Conclusion.

Overall i am extremely pleased with the outcome of my final product as although i did exsprience technical difficulties along the way the final product was fit for its purpose by using, developing and challenging different types of conventions, whilest mainly focusing on those which attract its target audience. The overall outcome was of a high standard and looked very professional with ensurance of all aspects of real media products.

The Publishing company which will distibute my magazine is Bauer.

And the target audience for my media product is females aged 14-17 of a working/middle class back ground. I shall attract this target audience though the images and exsclusives which my weekly magazine shall offer.

In doing this task i have adapted my own knowledge and practicle skills within blogger, photoshop and even within the use of my own camera. The unit has helped me to gain insight and knowledge into the magazine industry and those who hold great power over it. The biggest of these being my chosen publisher bauer. I began this course with what i thought was overall knowledge of photoshop however i have proved my self wrong and my final product taught me that there were still exstensive depths which i had not explored.

If i was to reproduce my product or to redo the entire course i would look to manage my time more effectivly by making use of free lessons more effectivly too ensure that through trial and error my overall piece was perfect. I did have issues with technolody and photoshop not agreeing with the running of my system at home and this led to me falling behind with work. However i did manage to recover the situation and with all events taken into account i am pleased with the work i produced of course in future id like to divert this perticular glitch with technolodgy. Most of my time was spent on perfecting my front cover, which then led to neglect upon my contents and double page spread.

slide 13 - Feedback of my media product?

In class our teacher printed up our finished products and places them each on their own table. Every member of the class was then handed a sheet of paper which contained 10 questions. The idea of the excercise was that we went around table to table accessing the work of our peers. The purpose of the task allowed us to gain an insight to what others thought of our work and what aspects they beleived werent as good as others. It also allowed us to asses others work and compare it to our own in order to gain ideas and inspiration for future tasks at A2 level.

The questions which we had to answer were as follows:
1) Target Audience of the finished media product?
2)Genre of the finished media product?
3)Is their a clear Housestyle, and is this continuous?
4)Do 3 pages fill exspectations?
5)Do articles forfill exspectations?
6)Images used suitable?
7)Overall impact of DPS?
8)Is the finished product suitable to fit its intended genre?
9)Any errors?
10)Any improvement which could be made?

Feedback:

Candidate #1;

1)I think the target audience is Teens.

2)Rock or maybe Indie.

3)Yes, blue black white.

4)Yes

5)Yes

6)Yes

7)Good, some errors.

8)Yes

9)Few spelling mistakes, minor errors

10)Proof read work

Candiate #2;

1)Youngsters/Teens

2)Rock?

3)Yes, brick wall is good.

4)Yes

5)Yes

6)Yes

7)Yes pretty good some errors.

8)Yes

9)Hmm, frontcover "kayley kills" contents "kelsey kills"

10) Proof read work to avoid above.

Candiate #3

1)Young adults 14-16

2)Unsure.

3)Yes good housestyle and yes its constant.

4)Yes

5)Yes

6)Yes

7)Pretty good, well done!

8)Think so unsure on genre though.

9)All seems okay maybe a few small errors.

10)Check for small errors and the text on the DPS the title reading VAMP gets lost in the background.

slide 11 - What have i learnt between the completion of preliminary task to the full product?

This slide aims to show the comparison of my final media products front cover to that of the front cover which i created in my original preliminary task. As you can see i analysed the tasks differently my using a box method which colour codes aspects together therefore making it easier to compare elements against one another.

Yellow Box #1-

This highlights the title of each magazine, back when i made my preliminary task i didn't look at creating a catchy name or spend as much time thinking about what i could call my magazine. But 1st thought of just naming the magazine "Marks News" a simple to the point but obvious title which combined a segment of the schools name with the purpose of the magazine to provide news. But this seemed too boring therefore i got a bit confused and thought that in a church you sat in Mews and therefore i called my preliminary task "Marks Mews" thinking id made a very clever play on words only to find out later that in churches people actually sit in "Pews" and not "Mews". The idea for the title of my magazine came when i sat listening to my ipod trying to work out a suitable name and nothing seemed to come to mind which seemed right to attract my target audience and to suit my genre nothing was catchy enough. Then a song came on strangely whilst walking round Tesco which kept repeating the word "RADAR" it bugged me at the time but it kinda stuck so later i put the idea of RADAR and my other selection to a friend and she said that RADAR for some reason just seemed to work. This is therefore the reason for the name RADAR! The font used for both title is quite similar par the fact one has more edited feature than the other. When creating my preliminary task i was simply using a trial and error method when creating the text to go on my front cover. However when i created my final piece id already spent time messing around with the text features and therefore had a wider knowledge of their uses. This is the reason for the text in my final piece looking more professional that that of my original preliminary task. Many aspects of the first task were based around heat magazine and this is where the colour scheme for "marks mews" comes from. Where as when creating "RADAR" i decided that id create the magazine as more of an individual. I knew how to use the text features and therefore i would combine ideas of NME and come up with my own magazine title logo. I decided i wanted to keep to the black idea however an all black title which read "RADAR" was not appealing therefore i changed my approach and added a shine to the text which just gave it that edge, i liked this whole new effect this gave to the entire image and it basically stuck and since that point i didn't change the title. Within this box we can also see the inclusion of the date and website URL for the magazine, i really liked this placement within my preliminary task and therefore adapted the placement just so slighting and the format and font to fit in with my title of my final product which unlike my preliminary product which covered left to right was only placed on the left of the page.

Red Box #2-

The red box highlights the main headline article on the frontcover which in both cases is in a simular font and of a simular placement the only difference is that of the colours of the text. This had not be a purposful action but one which simply occured. However VAMP! is placed above the information which explain the article rather than in the middle as with "Science Success".

Pink Box #3-

The pink box highlight the smaller articles which are contained within the front page, as you an see "Marks Mews" only contained one smaller article which was simply two images with a title overlayed on top whereas, "RADAR!" had two along with an exslusives bar at the top which shall be explained later. "RADAR!" 's smaller articles are typed on top of the same splat shapes as i used in several aspects of the whole 3 pages.

Blue Box #4-

The Blue Box highlights the images which acompany the main story as you can see tha layout style for these images is very simular apart form as mentioned that with my prliminary task the images surround the text but in my final product the text is above the images.

Other Aspects:

Other aspects which make my final media product different from that of my media product in my prelimary task is that, when i did my preliminary task i did not incude a barcode where as in my final task i did and the placement of the issue number is different as in the preliminary it surrounds the title and in the final it accompanies the bar code. Another difference is that the preliminary task had no image which you can clearly point out as being the main image and therefore the focal story of the magazine. In my final media product its clear that the main image is the image of VAMP which consumes the majority of the page and is alot larger than the other images.

Overall there are many aspects which are different and some which were never considered when making my preliminary task however theres clearly some ideas which were adapted and manipulated and in doing so have made the overall finished task better.

Link to my preliminary task ; http://tashar-twilight.blogspot.com/2010/02/10-january-10.html

slide 12 - What have i learnt between the completion of preliminary task to the full product?

As with the previous slide this slide aims to show a comparison between my previous media product contents page which i made in my preliminary task and that of my final media product. As you can see i have show comparisons using the same format as before, coloured text boxes.

Although my contents for my final media product is suitable to my intended audience it doesn't look as professional and structured as that of my preliminary task.

Purple Box #1-

The purple box notifies the similarities in that both contents pages include a clear title which labels them as the content page however, my previous contents page made in my preliminary task, has extra aspects i didn't think to include when creating my final, such as the date and the logo of the magazine. Altogether taking away the professionalism of the contents image, if i was to redo this task i would look at incorporating the date and magazine logo into my contents page.

Yellow Box #2-

The Yellow box highlights the images used within my media products contents page. As you can see my first preliminary task only includes one image apart form the screen capture of the front page which shows evidence of whats on the cover, this image has clearly been barely manipulated nor edited. Whereas the images used in my final product have clear use of editing techniques and features to edit the images in order to make them look more professional rather than looking dull and plain. The image in the top corner shows evidence of the background eraser tool.

Red Box #3-

The Red Box highlights the page numbers and actual contents aspect of both document, as you can see both follow a similar pattern with titles which aid the reader in what their looking for.

Other Aspects:

In this case their are aspects in my original which aren't in my final product this would be aspects such as the page number, the on the front cover section, the contact details section and the small article.

Overall as with the front cover too much of my layout and presentation was based around that of heat magazine and therefore my preliminary task became a bit of a mimic of heat.

Link to my Preliminary Task;http://tashar-twilight.blogspot.com/2010/02/10-january-10.html

slide 10 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

This Slide will aim to analyse and assess the developments which i made with photo shop and how it came together to manipulate, enhance and transform my images and to construct my documents.

Photo shop is an image editing software which is created by Adobe, the software which was used in school was photo shop elements 3.0 educational version and at home i used my own photo shop elements 8.0 which of course was a far more advanced software in comparison to that of the school software.

To the right of the slide you can see a title which read "Document Developments". Below this is my front cover of my media product and that of my preliminary task showing just how much my products have improved however, this will be analysed in more detail within the next slide.

http://tashar-twilight.blogspot.com/2010/04/slide-11-what-have-i-learnt-between.html

To the left of the slide is evidence of before and after shots of images which i took myself and then manipulated and transformed using the effects and transitions available to me within the photo shop software.

The image which was used as my main image shows a clear difference in the darkening or certain aspects such as the shadows and highlight of the brick wall and how extensive features were used in order to add detail an contrast to minor components such as the face and the body of the artist. All in all making the effect of the image more appealing and making the model in the image the focal point rather than being lost amongst the brick wall.

As you can see with many of my other images used within my work i had to rotate the images on order to make them the correct way round. This was the case with two of my images. I then as with the main image edited the details by using the special selection tool to select small aspects to highlight the detail and all in order take the focus away from the background.

As noted a lot of my images were manipulated through the special selection tool and through the increasing and decreasing of shadows and highlights.

Overall the course has helped to further my knowledge of photo shop extensively after previously thinking i knew all i needed to know about photo shop i realised there were aspects i had no clue of and there is likely to still be aspects which i don't understand of that i don't know off. A tool which i discovered though doing this coursework was how to use the healing tool correctly, how to lasso object and erase backgrounds but also how to use the special selection tool.

slide 09 - What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

This slide will look to tackle and assess the developments which i made through the art of blogging my work and the use of www.blogger.com

The work to the left of the slide shows work which was carried out towards the beginning of the task, where we began by blogging about research an analysis of existing media product the capture of NME being an example of this and below this is a screen capture showing an extracts of my preliminary tasks introduction to the task. As you can see my blogs had always been pretty detailed and lengthy with insurance that all details were entered into the post. However all the posts contained within the slide are from when we started our preliminary task onwards where as my blog contains post from back on 18th January when we did out first compulsary post on a photo shop tutorial. This post shows more of how my technical skills with photo shop have developed due to showing just how much effort and length difference there is in comparison to the short paragraphs i was posting in January to the huge reports and analysis which have been posted more recently. The evidence of recent analysis shows screen capture of images however there was text accompanying this image it is simply not shown within the post. When i first started the unit i was rather overwhelmed my the amount of bloging which would be required to complete the course, i analysed blogs of previous candidates and couldnt understand how they could ever right so much on such topics. Thinking the tasks were impossible i became nervous about the rest of the course exspecting my life to become overtaken by this new rythm of blogging however once we had settled into the subject i realised this was not the case. Blogging was quite simple and once you sat down and thought about it well the word just kept comming and therefore the fingers kepts typing. All in all my blogs became longer and longer each time with more effort and more detail. All backed by a huge sense of motivation to do well, be the best and get the praise. In no time at all i'd learnt how to add links, edit fonts, manipulate and change html codes, upload photos and videos plus many other aspects.

Here is a link to my first ever post back on january the 18th 2010 - http://http://tashar-twilight.blogspot.com/2010/01/18-january-10.html

However this was not my first post off my own back i decided to make my first post on january 14th simply explaining the basics of the course and what the course would entail.- http://http://tashar-twilight.blogspot.com/2010/01/set-up-blog.html

I continued to blog my work after everylesson and in some cases in my free time id carry out my own research or id find somthing i wished to record and therefore would post it onto my blog so to not lose track of the idea. Blogging soon became second nature with each of my blogs in the beginning being named by the date which it was posted or the lesson date alone with + homework for those blogs which included the lessons disscussions plus extra work which we'd been asked to complete for homework.

slide 08 - How does your magazine attract your audience?

In the previous slide i discussed what aspects in general and of the front cover would attract my target audience however this slide is intending to explain what aspects of the contents and double page spread are designed specifically for my target audience.

The contents page:

The contents page of my magazine will look to attract its audience through publishing segregated headlines each giving the reader guidance in navigating their way around the page. With separate headlines given to Exclusive Interviews and that of average other interviews. The people interviewed within the magazine will be people who the readers want to know about and the exclusives being those which they have extentive interest in.

The contents page will also include a headline of Listen up which will include the pages numbers for those pages which give the readers and idea of what every ones listening too and therefore motivating those groupies too continue their ways and look to follow the crowd.

Finally the contents page will include a section titled LIVE!!! which informs the readers of upcoming festivals and gigs and of past gigs and festivals and their success and the emotions and passion of those who attended.

The Double Page Spread:

The double page spread shall attract its audience though the specially chosen images and through the language which is used within its articles. Of which the language will generally be informal and chatty. Therefore giving the reader a sense of being in the know and in with the talk.

As with the front cover many aspects which were noted were needed to attract the audience will be the same such as the fonts and text used and the images will be for the same reasons as they were used within the front cover. Of course the content of the double page spread article and who the article is about is another factor which plays a vital part in attracting the target audience. The introduction must be short to the point and informative to draw the reader into the article and make them want to read on. The quote which is chosen to be the main quote should be entertaining and either catch the humour of the audience or make them think i agree with that statement which ever it is, it should be one of the two. As otherwise the target audience is likely to ignore the article and believe their money was wasted as the article was of no interest to them or on flicking though the magazine in the shop would decide against the purchase due to the article being not to match their humour or opinions.

slide 07 - How does your magazine attract your audience?(front page)

My front cover attracts this target audience by as stated on the slide id bold heading which stand out clearly from the page, its colour scheme and house style which was specifically chosen to match the personality's and general colours which would be expected to be found amongst this target audience. The images would be specially chosen and edited in order to project and image which these apiarists would clearly want to fit into. But in their own sense as not to change them selves totally to fit the trend. The exclusive interviews would be another strong factor in how they would grip the attention of the audience by informing them of the contents of their favourite bands. The artists included would be those who came from average working class middle class background therefore giving the female audience a sense of i could have that lifestyle and that the artists and bands included have experience of their lifestyles and therefore they can relate to each other. As mentioned the target audience wouldn't be into fake tan and excessive makeup and therefore the image must not include girls who look caked in these product therefore the images must include artists with minimal if no makeup and the only editing effects would be a slight aspect of airbrushing, but keeping the skins close to its natural shade as possible and in some circumstances editing the image to make the skin paler than its natural shade. As mentioned the content and bands would have to be those which the readers felt they could relate to him some sense whether this be they lived the same lifestyle, had the same interests and in some cases presented themselves in the same manner and style. The fonts must be specific to the target audience and no include text which doesn't represent the specific audience intended and therefore must not be too bubbly which could therefore be referred to as being a pop magazine or too graphitti like so to make the magazine seem hip-hop or r'n'b. The clothing of the models must me similar and any competitions or advertisements should be ones aimed to get the attention of this target audience. Each time taking their desires and interests into consideration. The language should also my colloquial and therefore informal and chatty.
In other words there are many aspects some which seem rather tiny which tie together in creating the overall projected image of my media product to my target audience and attract them to choose my magazine.

slide 06 - What is your magazines target audience?

On this slide i have stated some characteristics which i would expect to find within my target Audience. The slide clearly states that the readers will be aged 14-17 and have a larger percentage of female readers who were most likely working/middle class. They would hold a big claim to Individualism and believe their out to be their own person and therefore hold a lot of self confidence of otherwise aspire to be more like these confident enthusiasts. The target audience shall hold a strong passion for music and most likely play or have an interest in learning to play thee guitar or some other form of musical instument which would genrally be found within that of a rockband. The readers would be average girls, who lived everyday lifestyles but aspired to be like that of their idols and therefore in some forms could be catagorised as groupies, doing anything to be in with the band or down with the trend. They'd be females with confidence and angst and therefore could in some senses be catagorised as hardcore. Their main interests would be in music, socialising, the rebellion, rock, guitar, fashion to name but a few charateristics. The fashion which they would be known to style them selves in would be focused upon either the classic coverse, skinny and a band tee or otherwise more upon the styles of TOPSHOP, UrbanOutfitters and H&M. All in all they would be fashionist and which ever trend they choosed to clothe themselves in would be a constant factor which they would no change to fit in with a crowd and wouldnt have an issue with standing out. Classicly the girls would not see a need for exstensive makeup in the form of foundation, blusher and lipstick but may possible wear abit of eyeliner. Overall their strong girls with ambitions and in some senses set in their ways and loyal to their passions.

slide 05 - What Kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Within the media industry their are many publishing, companies however i have chosen to analyse two of the more commonly known publishers; these being Bauer Media and IPC Media. The two companies have many magazines on their books however i have researched into their books and on the slide you can see the logos of each of the companies at the top of the slide. With bauer on the left and IPC on the right. Underneath bauer is the logos of kerrang and Q magazine both two well known magazine which i have analysed, reviewed and look to for inspiration when creating my media product. Beneath IPC i only have the one magazine as i could not find much of evidence of other music magazines which this company distributed. The one magazine is NME, this is the magazine which I had largely used as inspiration and to gain in site, ideas which i could use of adapt into my own product.
As mentioned regularly and shown through my comparisons my magazines image is largely comparative to that of NME and therefore is it wise for my magazine to be distributed by IPC the company which already produces NME of will this cause a conflict in a sense that IPC will not see need for my media product alongside that of the already available NME which already has its loyal customers who help to uphold its reputation and improve its contents. Of course being published by IPC would have its advantages in that it only has one other music magazine on its books and due to my magazine then being its second it would have time and money and focus which it could put into promoting my magazine however IPC only distributed their products within in the UK whereas Bauer work on a much larger scale distributing magazines within the UK, Europe and America. The fact Bauer already has a selection of music magazines on its books can be both an advantage and a disadvantage for my magazine it all depends on the perspective you choose to take. You can say that due to the publisher having many magazine it obviously has a good reputation for promoting magazine effectively and all the names which i have stated are those which are well known though out the industry. However you can take the perspective that Bauer wont have enough time to put into promoting my magazine as their time is already preoccupied with that of the other magazines already on their books. However Bauer is a large multi-national business and therefore when they distribute the magazine on a large scale therefore meaning the magazine would be available to a larger audience and therefore sales should be greater. Due to being larger the magazine is more likely to have larger amounts of finance available to put into the promotion of the magazine. Bauer clearly hold more experience and none of the magazines on their books are focused upon the same target audience and genre combination as my own and therefore they are more likely to accept my magazine onto their books it is for the combination of reasons which i have stated that i have chosen Bauer to be the publishing company for my media product.

Here are the links to both Bauer Media and IPC Media's Website.
Bauer- http://http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/
IPC-http://www.ipcmedia.com/
From these links you can gain exstensive knowledge of the work of both companies and of the magazines which are on their books.

slide 04-In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products (DPS)

This slide aims to show a comparison between the double page spread of my media product and that of an existing real media product. As you can see in the slide i have analysed aspects of my product which showed clear similarities and took note mentally of those which represented differences.

Similarities:
Both media products contained an introduction before the main articles which gave the audience a clear view of who the article was about and an idea of the contents of the article my media product clearly inform the reader that the article is about vamp and informs them of an informal chatty fact which is simply inputted to lighten the mood. Which is similar to that which the comparative media product chose to use before entering into the main article.
Another similarity between the two is that both contain a main image which takes up a top to bottom chunk of the page. My magazine chooses to place this image clearly to the right of the page where as the other is clearly to the left and takes up a lot more of the page than my own.
Both use a main quote which is extracted from the overall interview and printed in a larger font, this again lightens the mood and is usually intended as a form of entertainment to attract the audience to the article.
The last simularity is that the main text of the article is biased to the opposing side of the page to that of the image with my magazine focusing its text towards the left and the opposing real product choosing the right.

Differences/Lacking:
The real media product does not show evdience of a clear title which infoms the reader of what the article is about the only idea can be gathered from the image and the fact that the article includes a quote made in the interview which states "i dont see there ever being another oasis to be honest"
Another diffeence is that the real media product has a more simplistic approach with lack of a background behind the text but instead using coloured stips to highlight small aspects of the text. Whereas my product has the continued housestyle of the brickwall background with the black splats as text boxes.
Most of the differences are small aspects such as different placements rather than huge differences but their still aspects which make each magazine its own.
Again you can clearly see that the real magazine chooses to take their images in a photostudio whereas with my media product i origionally decided i wanted to make my image as raw and rough as possible by keeping the photoshoots to outside settings minus that of the one image contained at the bottom right of my contents page.

slide 03 - In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products (contents)

This slide shows the comparison of my media products contents page to that of an existing real media product. The compared contents is that of NME magazine published 6 September 2004.

In the slide we can see i have highlight aspect of similarities and some of differences within the two products, most of the highlights focus on that of the similarities rather than the differences. However i do aim to highlight these differences none the less.

Similarities:

Both my media product and that of the real media product (NME) have a bold title which clearly stands out from the page among the other aspects which the document contains. The difference is in the wording of this product with NME choosing to go with "this week" as their main heading for their contents page whereas my media product uses a simplistic headline of "contents". The positioning for these headlines is pretty similar with the exception of my media product me biased towards top left alignment and NME's biased towards top right alignment.

Both media product include 2 main images which are clearly separate from the rest of the articles, however the placement of these two articles are very different in comparison. NME chooses to sit the image side by side towards the top right of the page but my media product chooses to situate its images more towards the corners with one image taking its place top right and the other bottom left.

Both media products contain a contents which is presented with titles which segregate each sector to its own separate title. Making it easier for the audience to navigate their way through the magazine. These titles are clearly separate from the contents pages numbers and headlines which are printed to portray each article or event information.

Both magazines use shapes behind the text as a method of distinguishing the text more clearly amongst the background and as a method of making the overall appearance more appealing than of text on a busy back ground or on plain background.

Differences/ Lacking:

However the magazines also have elements which are different. The elements are those which one contains and the other does not. An example of which would be the fact that my product chooses to continue with the brick wall theme and use this as its back ground for it contents page where as NME does not have a back ground too their contents page and instead chooses to go with a more minimalistic plain white background.

Another difference is that i chose to focus solely on telling the readers the contents which they could find within the magazine therefore motivating the readers to leave the contents page behind and venture into the world of the articles. NME has a different approach by choosing to include a small article within its contents page. another aspect is the inclusion of small advertisements which are placed specifically in certain areas these are either advertising gigs/events or competitions.

NME choose to include their logo in their document however i did not see this necessary so instead chose to show that my work is a continuance by clearly showing a constant house style throughout the pages.

Some of the advertisements such as those to subscribe for the magazine cause the reader to lose site of what the page is about their attention is not drawn to the page numbers for different articles or interviews but to the advertisement at the bottom of the page trying to convince the reader to purchase a subscription.

Slide 02 - In what ways does my media product use, develop or challenge forms and convetions or real media products?

Here is how the front cover of my finished media product compares to that of the professionals.

Magazine Title: Both the product of the professional and my finished product have the title in the same placement area, at the top left of the page. Both texts have a clear bold outline which highlights the text and makes it clearer to the audience, however the colours used to outline the text of NME's logo in comparison to that of my media product are very different. NME's logo colours contrast in order to make the text clear and to make the text standout where as in my media product i chose to outline the text in the same colour as I'd used for the actual text as this represents the darker hardcore nature of my magazine. The title of NME is also pretty matt where as my titles text shows a ripple effect which makes the text look almost as if its shining and had a metallic nature about it. Altogether making the magazines overall image look more grungy and dark but also allowing for a clear definition between the text and the outline.

Main Image: Both my media product and that of the the professionals feature a main image which cover the entire page of the magazine, and therefore becomes the focal point which attracts the audience. However NME clearly choose to use photo studios for taking their images wheres i decided to take a more rawral approach with my images and take the majority of them in an outside setting. This image was edited using Adobe Photoshop in order to give the image a more professional finish. Due to using a non digestic lighting source of my flashgun my image became rather bright and many features were lost however by adapting the images with photo shop and suing the editing tools to control and enhance and decrease the shadows and lighting of the image many details which had been lost or were hard to make out became clearer and more enhanced. For my main image i also used photo shop to heal the pictures which removed any unwanted flaws not just in the model but also within mis-en-scene. Photoshop elements 8.0 offered me an advanced feature which selected certain elements of the overall image and then selected a feature which would be applied to this area. The first of which i used was the details feature which highlighted the featured of the models face and clothing and showed a great effect in making the image look more like that of an image which would be found in a magazine. The advanced feature was also used to make the background of the image more dark and grungy by darkening the brick wall. Overall my image began by looking like the image on the left but my final image looked like the image on the right. It was this image which i included within my magazine.

Main Headlines: My media products main headline is situated towards the bottom right of the page but reflects the topic of the main image, the title is a similar placement to that of NME being just slightly off center. However to keep the house style of my magazine the headline text of my magazine features an outline and the font is the same as that of which the title was created using. Like with NME my media product includes a small caption beneath the main headline which annotates and captured what the main story is about. The colours used within my media products main headline allow it to clearly stand out against the back ground and on the overall page although still keeping the title in theme with the rest of the magazine. the magazine will spend the most amount of money on paying for their main story, which has to be covering an artist which the majority of the target readers would be interested in but at the same time would possibly attract other readers who may not fall into the target catagory.

Other Stories: Both products include information on inside fillers such as titles and a small quote from the person which is being interviewed in the article in question. The quote on both is no more than a few words which make up a small phrase which pretty much sums up what the article. However the placement is different as in the professionals media product these are situated along the right side whereas in my media product they are along the left. These stories are usually on smaller bands which the readers would still be interest in and would have an interest to gain knowledge on but are not the main focal band for this weeks issue. they are in text boxes in my magazine to make them stand out whereas NME chooses to let them stand alone. simply using outline boxes which make the words look almost as if they've been highlighted rather than put into a text box.

Top banner: Both my media product and that of the professionals includes a top banner which stretched across the top of the page, the banner measures about 2 cm's thick and includes information on artists which are included within the magazine, The banner is clearly defined amongst the rest of the cover. As it stands out in a contrasting colour to the main image and to that of the colours used for the date and url address which surround the main title.

Bar code: the placement of the bar code is another similarity between my magazine and NME both having the bar code located at the bottom of the screen however my bar code is to the bottom and runs horizontally where as NME's bar code runs vertically.

Both magazine include a URL address for the magazine and a date however the placement is very different, I chose to make both of these a dominant factor on my cover whereas NME choose to locate theirs at the bottom of the page within the confines of the same box which houses their bar code. This is also where you can fin the magazines issue number within both my media product and the professional product.

This is a link to a previous post which shows evidence of analysis of NME: http://tashar-twilight.blogspot.com/2010/02/11-january-10.html

Slide 01 - Introduction

Here is my finished media products; front cover, contents and double page spread. All three were created using Adobe Photoshop elements and all photos were taken by my self using my own digital SLR. Our overall coursework has taken approximately 3 months, from starting our preliminary tasks back in January to finally writing our evaluation at present in April. Over the course of these three months we began by undertaking several tasks which aided with furthering our knowledge of Adobe Photoshop and familiarising our selves with blogger.

Clash Presentation!

Slide 1: The magazine which i have chosen to analyse is Clash Magazine. On the slide you can several of the magazines front covers from the 20th to the 47th issue.

Slide 2: About Clash Magazine, the magazines editor is Simon Harper and the Deputy is Matthew Bennett. The magazine was launched back in 2004 and is currently a multi award winning magazine. You can find the magazine being distributed though stored such as WHSmiths, Virgin, Borders and other newsagents worldwide. the magazine has a circulation of 40,000 and is published on a monthly basis.

Slide 3: Clash Magazine has won awards for Best Magazine Design Scottish Magazine Awards 2007, Magazine of the Year- PPA Scotland Magazine Awards 2008, Consumer magazine of the year-Scottish Magazine Awards 2007, Music magazine of the year-Record of the day awards 2005 and Consumer magazine of the year -PPA Scotland magazine awards 2008.

Slide 4: On the screen you can see Clash's original magazine which was published in 2004. The front cover includes a logo, image of a famous band which in this case is Franz Ferdinand, the main story is or Franz Ferdinand and also information on other feature artists and articles.

Slide 5: In comparison too...

Slide 6: Today's issue which looks more professional than the original however still includes the same original features such as the image of now Courtney Love and this being the main headline, the logo and features artists and articles on the front cover.

Slide 7: The Audience Profile for Clash would most typically be those who share a common interest in the music genre which Clash offers. They would typically regularly attend gigs and festicals and have an eye for the fashion and trend culture which the genre entails. The target audience would most likely be 15-24 and have an average salary of £18,000-£24,000. The readers would also be Male and have a city life.

Slide 8: There are many other aspects of Clash apart form jsut the amgazine these are included within this slide. Clash amgazine, Clash Music, Clash Events and www.clashmusic.com

MAGAZINE!!

Here are my final 3 pages; including my Double page spread, Front Cover and Contents Page.
The name of my magazine is Radar!

Planning my music magazine!

The genre of my magazine is going to focus upon alternative indie rock. I will show this by the way my models dresses, the stories which i shall include and the colours and font styles which grace the pages. The magazine will be released on weekly basis, being released to public sale every tuesday. By releasing my magazine as a weekly magazine the magazine will not have to be as packed and as large as a monthly magazine. There will be less stories and less content but not less quality. My audience shall focus upon teenagers of the 14-18 age range. The readers will be most likely females who search for their teen crushes voice. But also with inclusion of female artists who they can aspire to be like. With inclusion of image of the lads of the music genre to meet their tastes. The girls will be working/middle class girls who have an interest in music and the genre in question. The title of my magazine will be RADAR! My magazine holds a heavy influence of kerrang and NME. The bands featured would be that simular to the bands of paramore, you me at six and other bands of this simular rock, alternative genre.


Mock ups for my magazine

front cover:

contents page:

double page spread:

Uses and Gratifications-Applying Theory!

The magazine which i am currently analying is "Total Guitar" Monthly Magazine.



After a brief glimpse at the front cover, i would guess this magazine to be of the rock genre. The contents would include information and articles about the latest rock music and rock lifestyle news. The front cover also gives the idea that the magazine would have a heavy basis around guitars, and the playing of them. Included within the magazine would be guitar tutorials of how to play several pieces included in which would be Led Zeppelin -Stairway to heaven. Within the contents would also be other information about guitars and competitions to win guitars and other prizes.



After assessing the front cover my next task was to flick through the magazine and analyse whether the contents of Total Guitar matched that of what i originally estimated. Flicking through proved that the contents did match my predictions were correct. The magazine main focal genre was upon rock music and within the contents there was evidence of guitar tabs/sheet music/tutorials and competitions.



From the front cover we can see its pretty obvious that the main article of the magazine is about the band "Lostprophets". The main image was smothers the front page is an image of the band themselves. There spread within the magazine covers 5 pages. The chosen band are perfect in fitting with the audience profile which is suggested for the magazine. Rock Music fans and infuistasts would instantly understand who the band are, they're well known and hold a high status within the rock music world. This will therefore attract people into purchasing the magazine in order to read the article. Also included within the magazine is a 4 page spread upon the topic of John Mayer, this artist does not fit the stereotypical rock stereotype however this would attract music infusisats to the purchase the magazine in order to read the article about John Mayer. And possibly after purchasing the magazine they would realise they have a love and an interest for what the magazine has to offer. They would then look at purchasing the magazine on a regular basis. A main reguar feature within the magazine is that of the feature albums spread, the spread includes information upon new releases, album success. The spread gives information upon ratings. This allows the reader to have an idea of what albums are worth purchasing and which arnt by others opinion. The above features are all those which are included on the front cover of the magazine.



The article which personally caught my interest and which seemed to be the main article fo the issue was the article covering the lost prophets. as mentioned previous their image smothers the front page and the article itself covers 5 pages of the magazine. The articles language is infomal and contains alot of curse language. Again this fits with the rock and roll sterotypical lifestyle.

11 january '10

Analysis of NME and Kerrang magazine.io

Before we began to analyse our magazine we began by thinking about genre of music. We were given a list of music genres which we had to discuss words and associations which wed apply to each. The 5 genres which we worked with were; Rock, Dance, R'n'b, Indie and Pop. This was simply a started task and took about 10 minutes to complete. Below is my sheet;























NME!;

The first magazine which we analysed was NME, we looked at the cover, the audience profile and the contents of the magazine.
I noted that the main image took up the whole page although the focal point of the image was more right biased. The image for the front cover is a medium close up, and the man in the image, is a shabby looking, pale figure. We can see alot of editing has gone into the image, in particular of his eyes. We can see these have been heavily enhanced. Due to the texture of his skin it appears he is either wearing foundation or the image has been airbrushed. The text used on the front cover is focused more to the left of the page with the colour scheme generally being black, red and white. This is also reflected in the style choice of the male in the image. We noted that there are 2 font styles used within the front cover. However both of these styles are bold and readable. The assumptions which we gain from the front cover is that the man in the image is from the courteeners, which is assumed to be an indie/rock band. This is implied by this being the main and only image and this text has been made to stand out from the rest of the text which is included withing the page. The front cover includes page references to within the magazine. There are also several cover lines on the front page which suggest towards the contents of the magazine. The magazine held the quote of "Don't have to explain myself to you/I don't give two f***s about your review". This suggests that the magazine are saying, that their opinions are their opinions, its their choice to the opinions and choices which they voice, therefore they should not have to bias or base their opinions due to the opinions of others. The colour scheme of the magazine is very typical to that of the colours which we associate to rock. The idea of white and black. With the use of red as a powerful contrast. The audience profle which i believe this magazine try to target is adolescents and young adults. Stereotypically the genre in question rock is associated with Males therefore this is more their target market, however with the inclusion of Hardcore Females, as they would be likely to have an interest in this style of magazine. We'd expect the Males to be most likely student aged 17-22, in some cases to be attending either music school or pursuing a career within the music industry, they'd most definitely hold a passion for music. And the so called stereotypical rock star lifestyle. he contents of the magazine reflects this target market, with the use of unsigned and in some cases less known bands, the language also entails a focus on an older audience due to the context and formation of the text. In some cases it appears as if the writer which wrote the article is speaking in riddles. The layout also suggest the audience with large eye catching images against a large quantity of small font text, which covers in some cases more than one page. The magazine includes information about forthcoming gigs and auditions for those which hold an interest in music. Readers are also encouraged to add their own opinions to the next issue, with the use of the write in page, where readers can voice their own personal opinions. And as the quote previous was mentioned no judgement will be made against them. The Layout seems to show a general layout of a two page spread with an image taking full page and then small text covering the opposite page.

KERRANG!;

This is the second music magazine which we analysed; Kerrang!As with the previous music magazine we assessed the cover, the audience profile and the contents of the magazine. Unlike the first this magazine had more than one front page image. The main image of the front page, showed two males one fair headed and one with darker hair. The fairer headed male had one eye closed and seems to be pointing at the camera, whereas the other male simply seems to be pulling a face. This is as mentioned not the only image on the page in left bottom corner there's an image of a male holding a dog with an overlayed image of a woman wearing glasses theses image are supported by the text which surrounds them. The text explains the cover line story. The other image is in the top right corner, the image is a two shot medium close up. The text on the front page is generally bold and edgy. This style of font seems consistent throughout the magazine. The colour sheme is focused upon the colours of striking pale blue, black and white. However due to the issue involving and being the valentines day issue there is also aspects of bright pink included within the front cover as an association with the colours which are associated with romance, love and valentines day. Continuing to focus on the front cover we can note that the images and text give the assumption of the magazine being; edgy, hardcore and those which read the magazine would hold common interest with those included within its pages. The magazine seems to be the type which would include meet and greets and involve advertisements for such events. The general language of the overall magazine is casual and informal. The audience seems to be focused on young adolescents aged 14-19 of most likely working class. The magazine is busy and colourful in order to try to attract the intended audience. Those which read the magazine would most likely have a similar passion for music as those who would be expected to read NME, however in some ways Kerrang would be expected to have more female readers than that of NME. Though the readers would most likely be too young to already have a career path and would still be in full time education. The audience is suggested as with NME due to its colours and its images of the entire magazine. Overall the image to text ratio of Kerrang is more balanced in comparison to that of NME.