Evaluation.1 (1)

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AS MEDIA FOUNDATION PORTFOLIO Unit G321 Lauren Ferdinand, Amplified Magazine

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Transcript of Evaluation.1 (1)

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AS MEDIA FOUNDATION

PORTFOLIOUnit G321

Lauren Ferdinand, Amplified Magazine

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In what ways does your media

product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media

products?

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Background/Colours

The background of my magazine cover is white, this is very conventional of rock music magazines, many of these magazines choose one block background colour and then use 2 or 3 other accent colours. I complied with the convention because it is used so there aren’t too many colours that pull focus from the cover star(s). Another way in which I have followed conventions is by using a bold masthead. It is a simple font (name of font) and is the colourblack . Various existing music magazines such as Kerrang’s masthead (see below) is also black on a white background.

Kerrang! logo

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ModelsHowever, challenged conventions of this genre putting a band with 2 females and only one male on the front cover. Rock music, and therefore rock music magazines, is a male-dominated industry and rarely feature bands with more females then males. I decided to challenge the conventions in this aspect to make my magazine unique and different from the others on the market.But, the models are slightly younger than many in real bands. I decided to challenge this convention because it appeals more to my target audience as they can relate to those who are the same age as them.

Existing magazine‟s covers

My magazine cover

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Costume and propsThe costumes that I have used throughout my magazine are conventional. This is because the band used in my magazine are wearing jeans, trainers, eyeliner and t-shirts. These items could be found in professional music magazines as well as on people who enjoy this type of music.

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Written contentI followed the codes and conventions of music magazine articles. Although some magazines do publish simple question/answer articles, many others publish articles with quotes embedded in them. I decided to do this because from the magazines I analysed, as of late, this style of article has become more popular. The style of language used is a mix of formal and conversational. I chose this because it is a style that the target audience would find easy to read without getting bored.

Also, the mode of address used in the editors letter is very conversational, like every music magazine I analysed. So in that respect I followed the codes and conventions of the magazine genre.

“We make casual

chit-chat after I enter the room, the band and I bonded over music (Vampire Weekend to be precise), and I began to ask them about the year they‟ve had. Bassist Natalya Urie is quick to answer, „It‟s been amazing. We didn‟t expect any of it, it‟s crazy. I mean, we wrote these songs in my garage two summers ago and now we‟re playing on the Main Stage at Reading [and Leeds Festival].‟”

Extract from features article

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Choice of genreI showed my choice of genre through several aspects. The main one id the name of the magazine, Amplified. This relates to live music, and using amplifiers to make the music louder. Live music is a big part of rock music and its culture, so it was a fitting name for a magazine of this genre.

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

Looking back at my preliminary task, I can see various things that I have learnt while constructing my main task. The main thing I have learnt is

Photoshop, when I began this task I didn’t know how to use Photoshop at all, but after creating the magazine and watching tutorials online, I now know how to work with several aspects of the program and would be able to use them confidently if I needed to in the future.

Another thing I learned is about taking photos. I think without good lighting, your pictures look unprofessional. When I did my preliminary task, I didn’t really know this. But as I completed my final task I realised this and planned my photo shoot accordingly.

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Can you provide examples of

creative problem solving?

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Whilst on my photo shoot in Central London with my models, I encountered some problems regarding lighting. In my brainstorm, I stated that I would use high-key natural lighting, but when I took some of my pictures, it was too dark.

So to rectify this problem, I moved my models to a different location, where the lighting was more suited to my camera.

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What Have You Learnt About

Technologies From The Process of

Constructing This Product?

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When I began creating my magazine on desktop publishing program Photoshop, I didn’t know how to use it properly. I knew from research that most magazines cut out their bands from the original image and place them on a different background. So, to overcome not knowing how to use Photoshop to do this, I watched a Youtube video which tutors you on how to carry out the task. Before I researched, I created a front cover without using this skill, but once I learned how to do it I created another. And I feel because I did learn how to do this, my overall product benefited from this.

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How did you organise your human

resources?

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I organised the people involved in the magazine in various different ways. For example, with my choices for members of the band I made a list of names which included people who met certain criteria, this included: their look (did they look like they could appear in a rock magazine?), their age (were they of the age I wanted my band to be?), their musical taste (did they actually enjoy this genre of music?). I then put them in order of how much I thought they would fit in the magazine. After I collated all of this information, I looked at my production schedule and came to a decision on the date of the photo shoot.

My final 3 models (L-R): Christian, Becky and Natalya

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How did you manage locations for

photographs and any costumes

and props?

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After researching rock music and the general clothing worn by people in this genre, I made a mood board containing types of clothing I wanted my models to wear (complete mood board can be found in this post).We then all (my models and I) talked about clothing/make-up choices and came to a decision on their outfits.

I decided against using props such as guitars because I realised that most front covers did not have props like these. And I also thought that would take away from the band themselves, and would decrease focus on them.

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Reflection on design drafting and

the final outcome

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Front CoverMy magazine’s main colours are blue and white. These colours go very well together, I like the way that they are very complimentary of each other. However, the shade of blue I have chosen I feel is a little too bright. I think it would be beneficial for me to make the colour a bit softer to make it easier of the eyes for the readers and make them more likely to pick up the magazine and buy it.

The main image on the front cover is very good. I think the positioning of the ‘band members’ is very good, but I think that the lighting makes its professionalism decrease. The light is much brighter from the right hand side, it is not even. In magazines the light is much better, and much clearer. If I were to do this magazine again, I would perhaps use an SLR camera which would leave me with more professional images. I chose an image where the band’s faces could be seen easily. And I chose to use a white background as it isn’t too overwhelming to the eyes of the readers. I think that this decision has worked very well as it has given me much more freedom in the range of accent colours I can use for covers lines and the mast head.

On the front cover, I decided to only use two fonts, one for the main cover line and another for the other cover lines. I decided to do this because it makes it easier to distinguish the difference between the importance of the articles. Both of the fonts are clear and easy to read. But a downfall could be that the fonts are both quite normal, generic fonts and don’t lend themselves to telling the readers what genre of magazine it is. I perhaps should have used fonts with jagged edges or cracks in it to show the more edgy, rebellious nature of the genre of music.

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Contents pageMy contents page has various different colours for the fonts. I think this is good because it separates each section of the contents for the reader at a glance. In the letter from the editor, I like the difference in font and colour. I think the three colours I have chosen – blue, purple and red – go very well together and aren’t too bright as to take focus away from the band members at the bottom of the page.

The image in the background of the contents I think is very good and looks very professional. I think the way that I have used the empty space at the top of the picture as a place to put the text enhances this. The quote that is placed in the bottom half of the page, I think was a good addition to the page because it lets people get an insight into the article and the people that it’s about.

However, I think that if I were to take the background image again, I would have made sure I’d taken the photo at a slightly different angle. Where I took the picture from, you can see plants in the bottom left hand corner. Because there aren’t any plants on the other side, it doesn’t balance out and I think that it doesn’t look as professional.

Also, most magazines don’t feature the same band on the front cover and also on the contents, so if I were to redo this part of the magazine, I would retake the picture with a different group of people so it would fit the conventions of this genre.

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Features ArticleI believe that my features article is very good. I used two different texts for the headline of my article. By doing this, it shows a contrast; a soft font for the words ‘Secret’ and ‘Party’, and the word ‘Moustache’ has a cleaner cut font. I think this highlights the name of the band, making it stand out. By having the image of the moustache in the same colour as the word moustache in the headline, shows a sense of cohesion. Also, the red used in the headline is the same red used on the splash on the front cover; it makes the magazine seem like a complete unit.

The Polaroid on the right hand side of the first page overlaps onto the second page, I think that this shows

On the second page, there is a splash which shows how you can get in touch with the band. I think that this is a particularly good feature because the colour of the splash is red like the words in the headline on the other page. This balances the use of the red over the whole article.

On the right hand side of the page there is a strip of pictures of the band, it evens out the amount of words on the rest of the page. It makes the article look more like a professional article.

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What Kind of Media Institution

Might Distribute Your Media

Product and Why?

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IPC Media

IPC Media (formerly International Publishing Corporation), a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Inc. is consumer magazine and digital publisher in the United Kingdom, with a large portfolio selling over 350 million copies every year.

Notable magazine: NME

I have chosen this company to be the one to publish my magazine. IPC would be good company to publish my magazine as it already successfully publishes NME. Also, it has no direct competition for my magazine, as my magazine is aimed at an audience who listen to slightly heavier music than those who read NME.

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Bauer Media

The Bauer Media Group (Bauer Verlagsgruppe) is a large German publishing company based in Hambugh, which operates in 15 countries worldwide. Since the company was founded in 1875, it has been privately-owned and under management by the Bauer family. It was formerly called Heinreich Bauer Verlag KG, abbreviated to HBV and usually shortened to H. Bauer Worldwide circulation of Bauer Media Group‟s magazine titles amounts to 38 million magazines a week.

Notable magazines: Kerrang!, Mojo, Q

Despite Bauer Media’s success I wouldn’t use it to publish my magazine. This is because it already publishes Kerrang!, Mojo and Q Magazine, and these magazines would be competition. But on the other hand, because they have had success at marketing these similar products, it would mean that they could do the same for my product, potentially making it as successful as Kerrang, one of the highest-selling music magazines in the UK. Therefore I do not believe they’d want to launch a product which would be in direct competition with on of its most successful products.

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Time management

To successfully manage, before the beginning of the construction process I created a production schedule. This laid out what I needed to complete it order to meet my deadline of the end of December.

Each week I set myself task(s) to do that were reasonable and that I believe I could complete within a week.

e.g. Week 4: Research competition and magazine conventions

I think that my time management was good because it led to me completing everything well within the time limit. It also helped me to know what I was doing each week so I didn’t do too much or too little in any given week.

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How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted my audience my audience by making the readers feel as though the people in the magazine are just like them. The clothes that the models are wearing are very casual and something that the readers themselves could wear.

I have portrayed the band as being very similar to my target audience. This will make the audience more likely to connect with the people in the magazine and therefore buy the magazine.

Another way I attracted readers was by displaying a competition on the front cover. Download Festival is one of rock’s most coveted festivals and many people would love the chance to perform there.

Also, by listing the other bands that feature in the magazine, if people don’t know/don’t like the main band, they have several alternatives to read about.