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.
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