A slideshow showing my progression and development

Progression

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This is a slideshow i have been producing that helps you follow the progression of my work throughout the course of this project. Sorry for the such low quality of 'print screen' shots.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

The target audience for my music magazine is females from the ages of 14-19. I decided to use this as my target audience because I believe there is a gap in the market for my magazine. There are already a few magazine that concentrate on the ‘rock’ genre but in my opinion, and from my research, they are only targeted towards males or both sexes, it would be good to have a single sexed rock music magazine.

A member of my target audience could come under the following categories of ‘uk tribes’

Emo’s:

http://www.uktribes.com/?p=tribe&id=9

Scene Kids:

http://www.uktribes.com/?p=tribe&id=10

Skaters:

http://www.uktribes.com/?p=tribe&id=11

Metalheads:

http://www.uktribes.com/?p=tribe&id=13

The people in these tribes would consider themselves different to the ‘norm’. Usually in the media these tribes are seen as being ‘negative’, but my magazine helps them express themselves without being afraid to stand out. They are very opinionated people that are usually considered rebellious.

My audience would usually wear bands t-shirts, but in other ways quite trendy clothes. Their favourite online shop would be ‘Drop Dead’ http://store.iheartdropdead.com/

Their favourite brand of shoes would be converse and they never go anywhere without their iPod full of rock music! The girls would usually have backcombed hair filled with hairspray and would usually wear a lot of eyeliner. The TV shows they would watch could be Family Guy or The Inbetweeners as they are very comical and are usually aimed at teenagers.

How did you attract/address your audience?

My magazine speaks in the language of my audience. I have added notes to my images that explain how. Someone would like to buy my magazine because it is full of life and fun. There is a space in the market for it because it is a ‘female’ rock magazine whereas Kerrang, Rock Sound and other ‘rock’ music magazines are either targeted at males or both sexes. It also has ‘girl-like’ aspects to it, for example the Fashion and Hair section. I think most female teenagers would like this magazine as the language used in it is wrote like a sister/best friend to the audience.

Looking back at your preliminary task (the college magazine task), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to full product?

As you can see from my Preliminary Task and my Main Task, I have developed my Photoshop skills a lot during the course of this project. My front covers vary a lot, for my Preliminary Task I didn’t experiment much with using crop tools on the image because it was such a basic photo it didn’t need any work done to it. Whereas for my Main Task it took a lot of work to get the main image perfect, I had to crop out each individual person and ‘clone tool’ their tops because the words on logo’s on them were distracting, I also had to re-add the background in. On my Preliminary Task, I believe I used too many fonts and it looked very messy because I didn’t have a set colour scheme, it doesn’t look very exciting either, it looks quite rushed. Whereas my Main Task has a structured layout, a set colour scheme and its looks exciting with big, bold fonts. I also added other images to my Main Task front cover to show the magazine will be exciting, it also has a lot of cover lines, whereas my Preliminary Task doesn’t have many cover lines and no other images. I also learnt a lot more about using ‘strokes’ to enhance words and objects, my Main Task looks bold and it stands out, whereas my Preliminary Task looks flat  and boring. The contents pages look totally different, my Preliminary Task looks basic, I couldn’t even call it a contents page, I have developed so many more skills on making a good contents page. I learnt about ‘Regulars’ and ‘Features’ by researching other contents pages, about adding photo’s so the reader thinks the magazine is worth reading, aligning everything properly to make it look professional and making everything look as exciting as possible for the reader.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

(Bullet For My Valentine has been shortened to BFMV)

I found this image of a rock style band called ‘Bullet For My Valentine’ and noted that it was similar to my photo of Here I Stand. Each band has four members and they are all positioned in the same kind of way, if you look at the ‘BFMV’ image and the ‘Here I Stand’ image, they are both standing in front or behind each other in the same way. The only difference in the positioning is that their hands are in the pockets on the Here I Stands image whereas in BFMV’s they’re not. Also the expressions on everyone’s faces are more or less the same as each other; they are always using a subjective shot with a plain expression on their faces to show they have an ‘I don’t care’ attitude, which comes across in most ‘rock stars’. What I also thought was clever is that both backgrounds a very similar apart from Here I Stand’s curves round at the edges. The shot types are clearly the same which is a medium long shot. The lighting is slightly different, BFMV’s lighting is quite dark whereas Here I Stand’s is using natural light, BFMV’s is darker because it has been edited that way in post production, probably Photoshop. Also their clothes are quite different, BFMV’s are very dark and gothic like whereas Here I Stands have abit of colour to it, which appeals to a younger, more female audience. I think their hairstyles are also quite similar, Tom from Here I Stand (second to the left) has his hair over his eyes abit, this is the same as the second from left guy in BFMV. Also Kyran from Here I Stand has longish hair, as does Matt from BFMV. Bullet For My Valentine are quite dark and mysterious in this photo, which could show their music and style is quite ‘Goth like’ whereas Here I Stand seem more lighter and more updated for the newer stereotypes that are coming around for example ‘Scene Kids’ and ‘Emos’.

Teenagers like to belong to sub-cultures and create identities for themselves which are different to the mainstream. My music magazine targets the sub-cultures of ’Scene Kids’, ‘Emo’s’, ‘Skaters’ and ‘Punks’. It both reflects my audience's interests and tastes and is a guide for my readers to follow. My magazine does have a pro-consumerist side to it, as a few of my models are wearing ‘Drop Dead’ t-shirts which usually target my sub-cultures, but it also has an anti-consumerist side that helps you to stand out and to not be afraid to wear what you want and to be your own person. Most teenagers are presented negatively in the media such as the tabloid newspapers, but magazines such as Kerrang help teenagers and their audience be accepted in what they want to do and listen to their audience's needs and show this in their magazine. This is exactly what I have tried to do in Explode.

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

The programs and technology I used to help me produce my magazine were-

Photoshop, Blogger and Flickr.

I used Photoshop to help me edit and put my magazine together to become what it is now, I had never used Photoshop until AS Media and I believe I have learnt a lot. For example I knew exactly what type of background to use to take my images so it’s easier to crop the person out. I learnt how to add borders in my own way. Also I developed my own techniques and tricks to use without any help as I started to progress and develop my own skills. For example my front cover, on the original photo they weren't that close together, but because of the 'easy to work with' background, it was managable to crop the boys out and re-add them closer together.

Advantages-

·         The layout is simple and you can find what you’re looking for because the categories are set out well.

·         If something went wrong or didn’t work out well you can undo it at any time using the ‘History’ tool.

·         It’s easy to crop people out of photos and add them into other photos with a professional look using the ‘magic wand’ tool and the ‘eraser’.

·         A lot of control over text layouts and arrangements.

·         Helps you improve your images using the ‘Image’ and ‘Filter’ options.

·         Its gives the overall finished project a professional look.

Disadvantages-

·         It can be quite difficult to get use to the variety of different options to use. Usually you would need someone who knows Photoshop well to guide you through the basics and then soon you can figure the rest out and find your own tricks.

·         The files also take up a lot of memory on your hard drive.

I used Blogger to publish all of my work, even my ‘Flickr’ items. The homepage is very well set out and you can add ‘new posts’ quick and easy.

Advantages-

·         It’s free and easy to use.

·         You can group sections of your work.

·         You can style them to be your own.

·         Publish all of your work.

·         It saves your work automatically.

Disadvantages-

·         Your blog could get deleted by ‘Blogger’/’Google’, so they aren’t really entirely in your control.

I used Flickr only to add tags/notes to analyse images such as magazine covers and contents pages.

Advantages-

·         There isn’t a storage limit so you can upload as many photos as you want.

·         It’s free.

·         Easy to use and manage.

Disadvantages-

·         Well personally I only really used it to add tags to my images and didn’t explore the site very much because I preferred blogger.

Original Photo's (need to add contents page ones)

I used this photo of Kyran for my front cover

I used this photo of the other three on my front cover.

used this on my dps.

i used this on my dps

this as a poster special on my front cover

this on my front cover as a poster special

Abi and Emily on my contents page

Abi and Emily on my contents page

Abi and Emily on my contents page

Abi and Emily on my contents page



I used Kyran (on the left) on my contents page