Evaluation

CLANG Magazine

1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms of conventions of

real media products?

1. Title of My Magazine For the masthead of my magazine I used the font ‘Impact’, for the self-explanatory reason to make my masthead bold and stand out. I named my magazine ‘Clang’ due to the fact that it is catchy, unique, and fits with the genre of my magazine as, supposedly, Clang is the sound produced when a guitar gets smashed up. Istuck to the colours black and white, as it looks tidy and simplistic as bothcolours are associated with vintage rock. However my magazine’s masthead challenges the codes and conventions of many indie rock magazines, like NME and Q, as these magazines areeither initials or just a letter, whereas mine as a word could appear chunkyand untidy

2. Mise en Scene of my images

The mise en scene of my images fit in well with the genre of my magazine. Iused a variety of settings for my magazine ranging from simply a set ofgarages to a field during sun set. These simplistic settings came off quite welland looked fitting for a music magazine. Some of the images displayed mymodel to have a somewhat cocky attitude, displaying his carelessness,attributes commonly associated to young Indie Rock artists. Yet, some portrayhim as being contemplative and aspiring, not looking at the camera

3. Costumes and Props

The clothes I made my model wear are conventional of what you would expect from an indie rock magazine, from the way his hair was styled to the clothes he wore. He is seen to have followed the indie style religiously, vital if he was to be portrayed as a prominent indie rock musician.

4. People

I believe I have been unconventional in the sense of making my magazine being mainly revolved around a single artist. You would usually accustom a magazine of such a nature to use a band as their main article, usually between 3-5 members.However as my target audience is generally directed towards the late teen-early twenties market, and that my magazine is directed to those who have an interest in the indie rock genre, ihave no doubt that, as my main model is himself, in his late teens, and appears cool and up to date with the fashion of this particular genre, not only in his clothing but also general language and attitude, that it shouldn’t affect the sales due to this.

5. Title, Font and Style

I tried to further challenge the conventions of many music magazines,by aiming to construct as simplistic cover as possible in regard to text,from personal opinion music magazines with too much text (see below),look untidy. The font I used for my main cover lines, I feel, was perfect in creating a more clinical, appealing, modern music magazine cover. I realized that I would have to pay great attention to detail toachieve the finish I wanted, one example which may seem insignificant yet so effectivewas my decision to use a plus sign, as opposed to the word plus. This made my magazine appear far more authentic. By trying to make as simplistic as possible cover, I think it had paid off well and achieved a veryProfessional finish to my cover. An example of a magazine cover, I

considered, to be cluttered and untidy.

6. Written Content

The written content of my music magazine is what is to be expected from that of an indie rockmagazine. My contents page is organized with phrase you would expect to find in any indie rockcontents page; ‘New Music’ and ‘Upcoming Gigs’ ext.

However it isn’t a drone of swear words and strong promises from bands which aresometimes accustomed to such genres, in my two page-spread for example, the editor of mymagazine introduces the band eloquently. I tried to challenge the usual conventions of musicmagazines by not making the bulk of my two page spread a Q & A, instead the editor of themagazine writes an article about the hype surrounding the artist from various gigs to radiopresenters. I further tried to keep the text in my magazine cover rather simplistic and articulate,as magazine with excessive text, in my opinion, aren’t appealing.

7. Music Genre and how your Magazine suggests it

The genre of my music magazine cover is predominantly indie rock. This is clear throughout mymagazine through the clothes I made my model wear, the language used and through the posesand expressions I made him give off. The bands listed on the front cover and Contents page is offthe same genre. The title of my magazine cover is ‘CLANG’, the sound given off when a guitar issmashed to pieces, an exercise practiced by many rock musicians. Therefore it is quite clear thatmy magazine firmly suggests its genre.

8. Layout The layout of my magazine is conventional; this is also maintained in my two page spread.followed the conventions of many other music magazines and used a bold heading, the reasonfor this was to make the heading clear, and also displaying what the article is about. The mainphoto also follows conventions by being the largest on the page, again my model, the same oneon the cover, has an indie style, paramount to in keeping with the music genre of the magazine. Itoo used the conventional use of bold quotations, columns, smaller diagrams and captions,helping to produce a professional finish. My magazine cover and contents page are alsoconventional in that they obey the rule of thirds.9. Contents Page

My Contents page follows the same colour scheme as my front cover, maintaining continuity.Conventionally among many music magazines it became apparent to me that many musicmagazines decided to place the location of their subscription offers on the contents page,strategically on the first page. Taking head of this common convention I added that to mycontents page also, offering a website and phone number to any interested readers. My layout ofcontents page is similar to many other media projects on the market to date. It has a Band Index,general news from the industry, New Band news, Reviews of albums and tracks, reviews of thebiggest live gigs of the week, special features and a section where the readers can get involved,writing letters to the head office of the magazine.

I challenged the conventions of some indie genre magazines by decided to only use one mainimage in my contents page, bearing in mind that too many photos look clumsy and take up roomto manoeuvre. This main image concerned one of the main stories in the magazine, the release of‘Mr Bang Ons’ album. Therefore, I placed it onto the middle of the page.

How does your media product represent different social groups?

I have chosen to compare this image of John Lennon with the picture of my model, Louis Botcher, to explain how my magazine represents a particular social group.

The general styles of both men are very similar, longishun-kept dark hair. They also have the same facialexpressions, despite Lennon lighting up, they both are seenwith a serious contemplative expression, with littleenthusiasm. Both images of the musicians look as thoughthey have a lacklustre attitude, Lennon as mentioned beforeis smoking, and my model isn’t even staring at the lens. Both of my images are in black and white which give off a vintage vibe.

However there are some differences in both images, John Lennon is wearing a suit, whereas my model is more casual. Despite this I think that this image of my model is representative of all social groups, due to the fact that it is similar to the style of presence of one of the greatest alternative rock musicians of all time, John Lennon.

Further NotesThe model on my front cover and two page article isrepresenting an indie style. As mentioned before, he is wearingtight fitted preppy clothing, has a swept across fringe and anear ring. His serious contemplative expression shows hispassionate take towards music, a pretentious attitude sharedamong many alternative rock musicians such as Morrissey andThom Yorke.

The names of the bands listed on my front cover are conventional of indie bands; names ending in ‘club’ such as TwoDoor Cinema Club and Bombay Bicycle Club, or beginning with ‘the’, such as The Drums or The Twang.

Thom Yorke

The Twang

3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The average news agents and offlicense may sell my magazine, largercompanies like W.H.Smith, which havea larger selection of magazines, fromMen’s Health to general gossipmagazines, may sell my magazine. MyMagazine would also be sold in musicshops such as HMV or Virgin Records.

My magazine can also be found on itswebsite, clang.com, or other bigmagazine websites such as the magazineshop.com andmagculture.com. Also the website offlarger companies mentioned abovesuch as hmv.com or whsmith.co.uk

4. Who would be your audience for the media product?

The typical reader for my magazine would be either male or female, late teens to earlytwenties, who was interested in indie/alternative music. Here is an example of one ofthose people;

This is James, he will be found constantly listening to music on his iPod, at Music Festivals or gigs, researching new music and exciting up and coming artists. He is 18 years old and has a passionate hatred towards chart music such as the likes of Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez ext. However despite his passionate love for indie rock music he is still quite open to anything. He is very conscience of what he wears, however he wouldn’t admit. He is found usually sporting slim fitting items, skinny jeans and worn out shoes.

How did you attract/address your audience?

The prise is very reasonable

The title is short, catchy and relevant

My magazine is predominantly in black and white which goes against conventions, thus this will make it stand out from the crowd, ironically.

The modern, simplistic, eloquent layout of my magazine looks appealing to the eye.

The main image is very striking andcontemplative, it will immediately catch the eye of any potential buyers.

Cover Lines off alternative bands, will attract the attention of my target audience.

The Main Cover Story is brief, yet powerful

The layout of the Contents Page is spread out in an organized fashion, so readers can access their favourite articles with ease.

The image on the Contents Page relates to it’s target audience. The model relates to them through his fashion, age and attitude conveyed in the image.

The Content’s Page uses language which excites the readers, such as; ‘the moment you’ve been waiting for.’

The Band Index displays all of the readers favourite Indie Bands in alphabetical order, with some artists belonging to other genres.

Again, the photo branches out to it’s readers, because they can relate to the style, age and persona of the musician. He gives off a cool vibe, which the readers aspire to.

The editors note creates hype before the oncoming interview, which further engrosses the reader.

There is a mention of the musicians new LP coming out, which excites and involves the reader further.

The colour scheme is the same throughout the magazine, which follows a key convention, and doesn’t through the reader off.

Arrogant/ambitious quotes are highlighted, to make a more interested read for the reader.

The face off musician ‘Mark Harrison’ is distorted to give off a striking image, which entices the reader.

6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this project

I found the use of blogger was extremely helpfulin the evaluation stages of my music magazine. Itis far more reliable and efficient as opposed totaking notes on loose paper or scattered files,which can be easily lost, whether through acomputer crashing or simply loosing your notes.

I found the use of Photoshop was extremely helpfulin the construction of my music magazine cover.With is wide range in fonts I was able to pick out theperfect one which obeyed the conventions of a music magazine, to produce a professional looking finish. Paying great attention to detail, I could pick out from a large range of font colours, and could place my masthead/cover lines with absolute precision.

Internet explorer was also very useful. It opened an avenueof endless knowledge about the music magazine industry.It really gave me an insight into what techniques producethe greatest music magazines.

I used Facebook as a means of gaining audience feedback, by posting it on my wall and receiving comments from others as to how to improve it.

This is the PC I used to construct my music magazine cover and where I did the bulk of my blogging from

This is the memory stick I used to transfer data from my laptop to my school’s PC

This is the camera I used to take all of my photos from

I used Adobe In Design to construct my Music Magazine Contents Page and Two Page Spread

Positive Aspects of Using New Technologies

I found Blogger to be extremely useful as I was experienced in Blogging from my AS task last year. It allowed me to, as mentioned above, securely save my progress and without fear of losing it, as it was posted online. It allowed me to easily process my work and stay organized, instead of scrambling around for loose bits of paper. Another massive benefit for using Blogger was its accessibility, my teacher and friends could view my blog at any time, literally seconds after I posted something new, and give constructive criticism more quickly and efficiently. The sheer exposure of Blogger, allowed more people to see my work, at any time they wanted, rather than just handing something into my teacher on a piece of paper never to be seen by anyone but him.

Negative aspects of using new technologies

However, I found some negative aspects of using new media technologies. Not everyone, including myself, was equipped software such as Photoshop and In Design at home. Considering that most coursework was completed out of lesson time, it made it increasingly difficult to rely on lunch breaks and time after school to complete Coursework. A disadvantage of using Blogger also was its reliance on internet; I had trouble with my rooter at home for a period of time and was unable to access blogger, which was a stumbling block.

Conclusion

Despite these drawbacks I found that the advantages for using new media technologies far outweighed the positives. Technology is becoming more and more popular whether we like it or not, therefore we should learn to accept this and utilize these new technologies. Most of us, if not all, will be using these new kinds of technologies in our future years, so by learning how to use them effectively during school or college, will put us in good stead for the future.

Equipment I Used to Film

Panasonic SDR-S50

PC’s I used to edit

Tripod

Equipment I used to edit

Adobe In Design

Adobe Photoshop

7. Looking back at your Preliminary Task (School Prospectus), What do you think you have learnt

in the progression from it to full product?

Since creating my school prospectus my knowledge of using Adobe Photoshop Has increased tremendously. I know how to effectively crop Photos, to get the best out of them, and use the eye dropper tool to maintain the same colour scheme throughout. My awareness of the importance to get a clear picture, achieved by using a tripod, shows the difference in quality of the picture I used in my preliminary task to the ones used in my magazine. I rigidly obeyed the rule of thirds, to further aspire to achieve quality pictures, a rule I hadn’t heard off while undergoing my preliminary task. I could instantly change the appearance ofbackgrounds by using the Brush Tool and was able to pin point interesting fonts to best compliment my musicmagazine cover and give it a professional look, a skill which was gradually nurtured throughout the course. Myability to realise the importance of colour scheme was evidently lacking in my Preliminary Task, howeverconsiderably improved in my other coursework. I have also managed to manipulate and change things aroundeasier by my increased understanding of using layers.

To Conclude my awareness of using Adobe Photoshop and my awareness of achieving better quality pictures hasincreased tremendously

Progression –•Clearer Pictures•Rule of Thirds•Colour Scheme•Better use of fonts, and layout to obey common codes and conventions.