AS MEDIA STUDIES EVALUATION VICTORIA-LOUISE SWEET

• In what ways does your media product use forms and conventions of real media products?I copied the conventional facial expressions and body language from

NME and Total guitar for both my main image and small copyright free image. Thus portraying tone of the music; serious. I also copied the use of a green screen and SLR camera which all magazines do. I once again copied the mise-en-scene because I used the iconic colour of black to connote the rock genre through the costumes. This is because I wanted to create synergy. the conventional medium key lighting was used throughout the product. For the poster I used the location of a forest like one of Total Guitars feature page’s small image.

I copied the conventionally bright eye catching colours though out the magazine. This created a house style for the brand to be maintained through all issues of the product.

I copied the serif font used for the masthead (pug), teasers, plugs publishers logo (pug), font, barcode numbers and puffs as both Kerrang! and NME used this as well. Additionally I copied the rustic Kerrang! font to ensure my product fitted into the punk genre as well due to the idea that I aimed for my product to be a hybrid. Hence i needed to make sue I combined my research all together. Thus I used Tosca zero for the title and Cocogoose both in capital letters to once again copy conventions. Lastly the small print in the barcode and the price are both Myraid Pro.

I also copied the layout because the main feature is always on the front page and repeated on the contents but takes up 3 double page spread in the magazine so I could not use this band for my single double page spread.

I followed the most conventions of Language on the front cover for example the masthead. I used repetition of the band

• In what ways does your media product develop forms and conventions of real media products?I developed the convention of the graphics from Kerrang!’s circles to

splatters of paint to create synergy between the merchandise I was promoting and the magazine. Therefore psychologically when people think of the magazine they will think of Conquer the Decade and vice versa. The graphics make this stronger for example Franz Ferdinand free CD had arrows on it just like NME’s front cover. Thus a convention of magazines is essentially to create synergy which I feel I achieved throughout my magazine.Images - mise-en-scene; costumes, props, make-up, body language and facial expressions

I combined a lot of the layout for example “Conquer the Decade” and “Has Broken records” is from Kerrang! just like the centred masthead. The bar at the top and the ripped page behind the free CD at the bottom is from Total Guitar. Lastly the Franz Ferdinand band in NME are all standing in roughly the same positions as Conquer the Decade. This is due to the mid-shot camera angle that I also used. The Teasers and pugs are also from NME. The barcode, price and publishers logo (pug) layout is from NME’s conventions.

I combined the three magazines to create my title of my magazine because my project is a hybrid so I used elements of the rock genre from total guitar to create the “A” because it stands for Absolutely which is a synonym for Total, then I designed the B which stands for Booming because it is onomatopoeia like the Pop-Punk magazine Kerrang! and then the M stands for music like the Indie-pop product NME stands for New Musical Express. Moreover I developed the conventional puff as I used a synonym for Plus; “What’s More”. I adapted the teasers and plugs to fit the features and news reports in my magazine. Furthermore, I developed the language of publishers logo (pug) from Total guitar’s Future to the synonym Ultimate.

• In what ways does your media product challenge forms and conventions of real media products?I challenged the hand gestures from NME’s and

Kerrang!’s magazine because I wanted to be creative. I emphasised this creativity by excluding props such as guitars (Avenged Sevenfold) and megaphones (Sleeping with sirens) and make-up e.g. eye liner (Avenged Sevenfold and My Chemical Romance) from Total Guitar and Kerrang! to enable my audience to relate to the recording artists more easily.

I challenged the conventions for the colours red yellow and purple which for some unknown reason were rather prevalent in my research. I also changed the shape of the logo, hence I chose to be original used the colours orange and blue while still maintaining the traditional black and white so that audiences know what type of media it is. I also challenged the (pug) publishers logo’s colour is purple unlike Total guitars Future PLC is red and made its shape a smoothed edged square instead of Future’s oblong.

I challenged the conventional san serif font; “Conquer the Decade” and “Has Broken records this year” because I once again wanted to create synergy for the pug; merchandise. This does this because the same fonts are used in the Digipak and “has broken records this year” links to historical theme which the band carry.

• In what ways does your media product use forms and conventions of real media products?

I used the idea from NME of repeating the CD cover from the front cover to the contents page. On the CD cover the costumes are the same as the front cover to use synergy they just have masks to make people intrigued by their anonymity, hence their identities are unveiled only in this magazine engaging the more. I also utilised the convention of NMEs glasses from the front page in Breath Carolina’s image which is aligned to the centre at the bottom of the page. I used further conventions for the idea of inserting print screens into my project like NME’s contents page. Plus I conventionally used the medium key lighting in most of the images. In the at the top aligned to the left I copied the use of the prop; a microphone from Kerrang! to Paramore’s image. I continued to copy the iconic serious body language and facial expressions and colour of black red and white clothing in most of my Images. I also copied the make up such as red lipstick, eye-liner and eyeshadow in Beth Cole’s image which is aligned to the left and Paramore’s female protagonist also had make-up even though she is an animation. Therefore this is a stereotypical representation of gender because all the males have no make-up where as the females do. Thus audiences can relate to the music artists more easily.

I used the conventional colour of black font and white background.

I used the rough layout of three columns from NME’s contents page. I also used the convention of a single page instead of double page which Total guitar does to challenge conventions as the extra page displays the page numbers of tutorials for learning guitar pieces. As a result of my limited knowledge about music I decided to stick to journalism.

I copied the use of san serif font again while writing the plugs puffs and teasers. I also used bold bony for my teasers and regular font for the puffs and connectives. The page numbers in the boxes are bigger than the captions of photos in the boxes. I also copied the convention of have different fonts for page numbers compared to captions like Kerrang! to make sure the punk part of my hybrid was covered.

I used the conventional language of byliners e.g. “issue 1703 20/10/14”. I found in my research that teasers were either quotes or band names and then the plugs encouraged the audience to read on but they would have to buy it before they could promoting the product further. I continued to use puffs which almost glamourised my magazine for example “revealed” which was copied from Kerrang!’s front cover. I used the conventional language of reminding readers to subscribe on a certain page promoting future issues of my magazine. What’s more I used the same connectives e.g. “Plus” and page numbers such as 3.

• In what ways does your media product develop forms and conventions of real media products?I adapted the idea of having Kerrang!’s My Chemical Romance’s animation by using a different band; Paramore as I obtained a copyright free animation from the internet. I also developed another image prop from Total guitar, 6 leaflets with images of dove’s on them. Thus I designed the leaflets with a raven because it symbolises death instead of purity and peace and put them on a wooden background with a drop shadow to give a 3D effect (I did this with the main image on the front cover because I used a green screen). I also developed the mise-en-scene from NME as as there was a solo artist sitting on a vintage chair not only does my product have a solo artist standing next to a gothic chair (Beth Cole) there is band sitting in a vintage room. In Badflower’s image there are added props such as a lamp, a table and mirrors to keep creativity. Colour I developed the colour to make sure my house style and brand was consistent through my product.

I developed the layout as I wanted to make sure the contents page had three columns like Total Guitar and Kerrang! Thus I moved the bottom row around a bit and put the not so important pages list on the left instead of on the centre left and put the subscribe reminder on the right to create synergy and make this page symmetrical hence aesthetically pleasing.

What’s more I made sure the date was close to a holiday such as Halloween like Kerrang! was Christmas to create a theme. Therefore my captions language was adapted for example “I got socks… again” was developed to “Trick or treat”. I further developed the captions from “nice hear bro” referring to the band Green Day to “sick glasses, dude!” referring to the Breath Carolina band.

• In what ways does your media product challenge forms and conventions of real media products?I challenged the facial expressions and body

language in Breath Carolina’s print screen (happy) and Paramore’s image because they the female protagonist was happy and the male antagonists were shocked. I did this to make the magazine more cheerful and original. I also challenged the low key lighting in Breath Carolina’s image due to the fact it is a print screen of a music video I could not change this. I subverted the conventional use of instruments because I wanted to be more creative. I challenged the make-up from Total Guitar and Kerrang again because I wanted my audience to be able to relate to my product again.

I challenged the red colour used in all my researched magazine contents pages because I wanted to follow my house style.

I challenged the use of serif font for the Contents’ title because I wanted to make sure my house style was sustained as it is the same font used in the title on the front cover.

• In what ways does your media product use forms and conventions of real media products?Main Image - I copied the mise-en-scene; props, of railings from Total Guitars contents page. Body language, facial expressions were both conventionally serious once again conveying emotion about love lyrics in all images except the print screens of the promo. Once again I used the conventional make-up for the female protagonist in all images. Moreover, I utilised the medium lighting which was frequent in my researched images. Image 2 - I also copied the use of the location of a street from Kerrang!’s contents page. I conventionally used the same mise-en-scene; costumes in this image as the first one like Total Guitar’s feature Deep Vally Highs. I utilised the conventional lack of props, in the feature pages researched. A conventional image in music magazines is a screen shot in the top one I continue to use black and white costumes to convey the indie rock genre especially as there is an image of a heart on his T-shirt which symbolises love which is what the music video captured is about. The leather jacket is iconic to the rock genre especially with the studs as shown in Total guitars front cover and then repeated in the contents page. Therefore the repetition of this costume has been utilised. The background has been copied from all the research for the last image because all of the magazines use a green screen like I did.

I unintentionally copied the colour orange but intentionally copied the white background and black font again because this is iconic for magazines.

I used bold San Serif font for the title called Tosca zero again because I wanted to maintain the brand. The pull quote and introduction are both cocogoose but the pull quote is conventionally in capitals whereas the introduction is in lower case. Hence these conventions have been copied in order for audiences to feel familiar with the medium. I also copied the conventional bold font questions and regular serif font used for the body of text from Total Guitars Deep Vally Highs feature page. Thus I developed this slightly because I could not work out the exact fonts used, so I used Myriad Pro which I also used in the small print on the front page for the price of the magazine which hence uses synergy.

I conventionally used three columns for the layout and put the main image on the right page and more text on the left.

• In what ways does your media product develop forms and conventions of real media products?

Main Image - I once again adapted the mise-en-scene; costumes to make sure they were black but indie styled. Image 2 - I developed the mise-en-scenes location and props because I used an empty street instead of crowded one. Thus I combined the rather blank and spacious indie NME feature page called Big Time Charli with Kerrang!’s picture of green day on a busy street in the contents.. Last image - mise-en-scene; costumes, props, make-up, body language and facial expressions lighting

I developed the colour by adding blue making it more original and following the house style to make the brand stronger.

I adapted the font from lower case to upper case for the heading to make it stand out more.

I developed the language of the introduction to fit my story for example from “tiny pub gigs to Festivals all over the world it has been landmark 12 months for Deep Vally…” Therefore I explained Ask Martin my band has become famous from just their first single. I did this while creating synergy because I stated the the band had climbed to their success which relates to the stairs in the main image. Thus the informal conversational language has been developed. This comical language is further prevalent in the the captions for example in Kerrang!; “Korn are back (mainly) in black!” which I developed for the image of the male protagonist leaning on the female protagonist “Just chillin’” language such as magazines name next to the page number, page numbering and a pull quote were adapted as well.

• In what ways does your media product challenge forms and conventions of real media products?Main Image - I continued to subvert the mise-en-scene as only the female protagonist wore make up in all images whereas the male did not. This is because in the Korn feature page the male protagonists are wearing eyeliner. props, make-up, body language and facial expressions lighting. In Screen shot 2 The prop of a lyrics board has been challenged because this is not usually used for the official promo but a consumer made product.

I challenged the layout because the pull quotes are supposed to be in between columns lile NME’s feature Big Time Charli and small images are supposed to go around the columns like Kerrang!’s Korn. However I swapped this to convey my creativity.

l challenged the language in 2 ways in in order to portray my originality. 1 there is no context box, and 2 it is in a question and answer formate but normally it is like a story with dialogue quotations.

I addressed my audience in a number of ways firstly I made sure that the product had free merchandise such posters and CDs. I did this because I feel this is a main feature readers look for in a magazine; value for money. I also did a survey at both the beginning and end of the construction to enable me to understand the audiences needs and evaluate whether I met them.

96 people took my survey which means that there may be a slight bias in my results. This bias may be reinforced by the inequality between male and female. This is because there are 14% more males at 57% that took the survey than females at 43%. Therefore my feedback could be subjected to mainly mens views. This may positively affect my results because and optimistic stereotype of the male gender is represented due to the repetition of men in the images. This is because the more something is repeated the more it is emphasised and conveyed as important and dominant.

Like most surveys I have done I posted it on social networking sites such so I was expecting more people of a young age to fill it in. Therefore I also had a trip to high street such as Uxbridge or Gerrads Cross with an iPad so that I could be more selective in who filled in my survey. Hence I predicted that I would obtain more younger responses form the social networking sites I focused on obtaining older peoples opinions. However what must have happened is my family asked their friends to fill it in as well. By using both of these techniques it could make my primary research is probably the result of the majority of the people who filled my survey in were between the ages of 31-40. However I am not surprised that lowest amount of people that filled in my survey are 71+. In order to make this less biased I should have asked my gran to ask her friends to fill in some of the surveys because they go to a computer class once a week.

43%57%

females males

what is your gender?

11-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 51-60 61-70 71+ Other0

7.5

15

22.5

30

37.5 Series1

what is your age range?

• How did you attract/address your audience?

It is good and expected that the majority of people who took my survey are full time at 40% because they are more likely to have the money to buy my product compared to the retired who live off their pensions and students who live off their parents wages and their savings. Nevertheless, some students do have part time jobs or could get my magazine as a present for. However, considering the age brackets I have I would have thought there would be more part timers than students. Thus this could mean there are more mature students who's age is more targeted at my magazine.

Moreover, I predicted that there were going to be more British people taking my survey than any other ethnicity because I distributed it in England. However, I did not think that there would be that many Asians but statistics show that immigrants tend to move to cities to find work and considering I live at the end of the Piccadilly line it shouldn’t be surprising that this many people of this origin live near me. For some reason I thought more American (5%) and Australians (6%) would live here.

38%

16%

28%

6%5%

8%

British European Asian Australian AmericanOther

What is your ethnicity?

27%

40%

19%

14%

student full time part time retired

What is your occupation status?

• How did you attract/address your audience?

Unfortunately not a great deal of people read magazines anymore. Especially as technology continues to develop and print is dying to depletion. This is why nearly half of the people that did my survey never actually read magazines which was one of the main problems when I did the first survey at the beginning of the project. Thinking about it now it would have probably been better to get the school magazine club to fill in a bunch of the surveys because they make issues regularly called The Blue Planet, blue referring to the schools uniform and logo. Nevertheless 18% said they occasionally or sometimes read magazines and 30% said they read magazines often or loads. However, I probably did not phrase the question correctly because it does not necessarily mean 48% of the people who took my survey would buy the magazine as some could read them in the waiting room at the dentist or hair dressers. Moreover, I did not specify just music magazines so they could read fashion, arts and crafts, or car magazines which will not help me find out more about my target market.

I was definitely surprised at how low the popularity of punk has decreased since my last survey. However, pop, rock and indie are still favoured over the other genres. Furthermore, I am glad that I changed my product from a genre to a hybrid because it will now target 72 people out of the 105 who I surveyed. This 67% of my target market which is a great result.

What is your favourite music genre?

rap hip-hop

R&B rock pop punk Indie Coun-try

Jazz Other

0

7.5

15

22.5

30

Series1

21%

12%15%9%

43%

Often sometimes occassionally

loads never

How often do you read magazines? • How did you attract/address your audience?

I am very happy with this result because the majority of the people were correct it is a Indie pop-rock-punk hybrid which is great. I think the main thing that gave the genre away was the fact that in the introduction of the feature page I stated that the band Ask Martin was the upcoming indie rock-pop sensation the punk was a bit of a give away. Nevertheless, it worked and audiences will think well if I like Kerrang! or if I like NME I’ll probably like this magazine because it is the same genre and follows similar bands and trends. This is called selective perception when people decide they like something because they like something similar. Therefore it is easier for producers or publishers to make money by using the borders and boundaries of genre according to the uses and gratification theory.

Exactly 50% of the people surveyed said they buy it from a News agents. This surprised me because I thought print was dying out. However, if you look at the age range it makes sense because I think older people prefer the more traditional way of reading a magazine due to the experience of turning pages and the smell of the glossy paper. I was additionally shocked with how much super markets are taking over the retail industry as this comes before the online version again. Nonetheless, the digital version comes in at 3rd place beating subscription and kiosks.

rap hip-hop R&B

Indie pop-punk-rock

Country Jazz and hip-hop

Rock R&B Rap

Other 0 12.5 25 37.5 50

Series1

What hybrid (collection of genres) do you think my product is?

50%

1%22%

15%

10%3%

News agents  Other: Supermarkets Online digitally subscription kiosk 

Where do you buy magazines?

• How did you attract/address your audience?

I am fairly pleased with my results because nearly 1/2 of the people who took the survey were fully engaged with my product which means they are more likely to buy it. I should have added another question; asking whether they would buy it because even though they are happy with my design they may not want to pay £3.95 for it even though it has merchandise like my research such as a free pull-out poster and CD. I also think if I were to print it then I would use a cheaper thin glossy paper like Kerrang! to increase profit instead of thick matt paper that NME used because NME was once a newspaper which is why it uses this paper. I wouldn’t use the thick expensive glossy paper the Total Guitar used because their magazine was £4.95 so even thoughts better quality and did have more pages than the other magazines due to guitar tutorials, some of the money has to go into the construction of the magazine.

On the other hand I am ecstatic with this response because a staggering 98% of the audience states the brand was consistent throughout the product. This means I used synergy well and promoted both other bands and my magazine simultaneously.

Do you think the brand was consistent throughout the three pages?

yes

no

0 25 50 75 100 125

Series1

9%17%

29%

46%

1 2 3 4 5

In a scale from 1-5 how would you rate my product?

• How did you attract/address your audience?

What do you think went well throughout my magazine?

The colour scheme and fonts were clear to reveal a good brand and house style. Not only that but conventions have been followed, challenged and combined well.

What do you think I could have improved across the three pages?

The spelling and grammar are a bit iffy at times. Also to use synergy to the max it would have been better if you had a photo of your feature in the contents page. On the front cover the main image of the band is a bit weird I mean the boys seem a bit too close for comfort; Jonny and Oscar are both looking Luis like they are staring into space. It might have been better if you had lots of different colours and fonts to make it more interesting and engaging.

How did you attract/address your audience

Best and most common answers!

• How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My product represents British ethnicity because the images only contains people of this origin. This is due to the fact my target audience was mainly British so it is easier for them to relate to my product. What’s more it is a convention of Rock, Indie, Pop and Punk genred music artists to have this ethnicity. However I also represented typical Americans because Paramore, Breath Carolina and BadFlower are of this ethnicity. This is typical because America is an iconic place for music to be produced. I also represented stereotypical age from 18-40 in my product because these people are prevalent in my product especially in the contents BadFlowers non-copyright image. This is stereotypical because adults are renowned for being wiser and more experienced than under 18s who are thought of as rebellious. Furthermore I think I have represented the regional identity of London because even though I took most of the images in Buckinghamshire I live in the suburbs of London. Therefore, when I did my surveys most of the people that replied probably live in the same area as me because I have only been going to Chalfonts for 2 years and have lived in Hillingdon for my whole life. Moreover I unintentionally represented stereotypical gender because males are a lot more prevalent throughout my magazine than females. However I tried to make sure I had more females than other mediums to try to reach a broader audience for example Kerrang! had 3 women in the whole magazine compared to more than 20 males whereas my product has 3 women compared to 14 in just 4 pages. Hence it may be argued that the media industry is male orientated.

• What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?I will use the publisher who’s logo is on my front cover Ultimate Media to produce my music press through a range of distribution channels. These include WH Smiths, supermarkets and newsagents because these are the 3 channels which were prevalent in the results from my survey. Also this is where audiences would expect to find a variety of new and old magazines. However, I will still produce a digital version through a website and an app to target younger audiences who’s view was quite limited because not many customers aged 11-20 did the survey as explained previously. Thus if peoples views change about technology my product will be ready for the future.

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

While constructing my product I used developed my skills for using a green screen, SLR camera photoshop and MAC. This is because this is only the 2nd time I have ever used a Green Screen and SLR camera so I had to remind myself about the green screen with a YouTube video. This told me to open the page and the photo turn both into layers by right clicking on the backgrounds go to select colour range and then select the green screen area after making sure the photo is above the page. Next I adjusted the fuzziness and click OK. After that I clicked on the mask icon in the bottom right corner and went to image and finally invert and the green screen in the photo should disappear. I then rubbed out the dark green shadows around the images and double clicked on the layer to create a drop shadow to give an almost three dimensional effect. While using Photoshop I also went to view and new guide and obtained margins by adjust the percentage by -3% in order to make sure the columns were in line with each other. I cleared the margins by going to view and clear guides after it was all in line.

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

I think I improved from my preliminary tasks because it is more obvious what genre my magazine is compared to the album advert. This is because I copied more of the conventions for the music press as I was more familiar with the genre which is due to the notion that the album advert was pop-punk.

Additionally I developed my photoshops skills because I did not know how to adjust the drop shadow or guides which is why the preliminary task looks 2D and not completely aligned to the centre.