Post production feedback

Q7. Looking back at the preliminary task what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to a full product?

 

I have learnt many valuable skills since my preliminary task. While creating my preliminary task, I had very little knowledge in what a magazine should have what not to have. For example, I have learnt the conventions of a music magazine, by doing this; I knew what to have and how to use certain things in a music magazine. Looking back at my college magazine, I did have basic conventions such as fonts, cover lines and a barcode, but the use and style of these was not affective at all, the fonts and the colours was used was random and was not professional also the background the college magazine was very irregular and not attractive.

One of the main reasons that there is a big difference from my music magazine and my college magazine is because of the knowledge I had in Photoshop. While creating my college magazine, I only had general knowledge, on how to use a Photoshop e.g. adding an image or text, but now I know how to use numerous amounts of different tools, such as adding a stroke or making an image the appropriate size without stretching the image. All these valuable skills have come into benefit because if you compare my music magazine to my college magazine, people will think it was created from 2 different people.

Also, in my preliminary task, I only created a front cover and a contents page, whereas in my main product, I have a double page spread with the contents page and the front cover. In doing so, I now know how to create a piece on an A3 paper on Photoshop. This is another skill that I have gained.

One of the main problems I had while creating my preliminary task, was that I had no target audience, the audience was a mass audience, which includes everyone, this made it difficult, as you would be required to research on every aspect and every type of audiences, by doing so, it was difficult to make my magazine, unique and focus on one type of genre or style. Whereas in my main project, I had a niece audience, this is having a specific audience, by doing this, it makes researching a lot easier, as you only have to focus on one type of audience. This also made it easier to attach it to my music magazine as I can now only focus on my target audience and add the type of style that they enjoy. In doing so, this has made my music magazine look more attractive.

Also since, my preliminary task, I have learnt how to use a cannon E05 400D professionally, in my preliminary task; you can see that the quality of my images were not good compared to my music magazine. You can see the differences in the music magazine, as it has more accurate shots, also by learning how to use a professional camera; it gives a general knowledge on how to take the photo, e.g. taking a photo in front of a suitable background.

Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

The process of creating my magazine also benefited me as I learnt how to use various products. One of the first things I learnt how to use was a camera called Cannon E0S 400D.  I used this camera to take all my images, this cameral was also used to take images for my college magazine but I felt I learnt more while proceeding with my main task. All my pictures were taken in various different locations (outside) although the county of the location was the same but in different geographical areas. I decided to do this as by doing this you can find the right picture, but if you decided to stick to one location, you may never know if the background of the picture is the most suitable for you. To get my picture on its full quality, I had to keep an eye on the time and weather when I decided to take my images; I had to make sure the time and weather was of sunny and bright as this would have a great affect for the image and the audience. One of the main issues of taking my pictures was keeping the camera steady while taking them; as I had no tripod, me and the model had to very still while taking the pictures. Also as we were in an outside location, citizens kept walking past, so this also wasted some valuable time and was very difficult to take pictures.

Another valuable skill that I have learnt in the process of creating this magazine was how to use Photoshop in an advanced way.  Before I started on this task I had very little knowledge on how to use Photoshop however my skills have improved. I used the Photoshop CS3 as it was the only Photoshop software available in school, also I was not in hold of my own Photoshop at home, and this was another issue I had, as I had limited time and was unable to work on my piece at home.  Due to this I had to spend my free periods in the learning recourse centre to work on my magazine. However Photoshop CS3 was reasonably easy to use and easy to get the hang of.

One of the affects that I learnt how to use is using a stroke. If you look at my college magazine, there is no stroke used, which had some negative effects on the magazine. Some of the writing was not clear as it would blend into the background. But since I have learnt how to use it, it has become very useful and is used, in almost all fonts in my magazine.  Using a stroke can be very affective in the audience’s eye, as it can make a cover line very eye catching and affective. As you can see in the following print screen, the font used is with a stroke and the stoke blends into the same colour as the model’s trousers, but when the word comes away from the trousers, the stroke is more noticeable.

Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?

 

By using my audience research as my guideline, I feel as if I have succeeded in attracting the particular audience I am looking for. There are many ways in which I feel are key factors in why I attracted my audience: the main factor would be the front cover, the front cover is what determines if your magazine will be successful or not as the front cover is what the audience will look at to decide if they like this magazine.  One of the way I feel that my front cover has attracted the audience is by using a model of the same age group as my target audience.  This way the audience can relate themselves to the artist and will attract them as well. Also the way in which the model is posing is in an attractive and eye catching way as his eyes are focused right into the camera. Although the clothing of the model is not stereotypically same as most rap or hip hop artists, the model is wearing a genuine look which stands out as it is a very modern look for this particular age group, as yet again the audience can relate to him because of this. The model is wearing no jewellery, which makes a very unique character as it can give good influences on such audiences. There is also no sign of clothing branding; this makes the artist looks very original and unique, which will also attract the audience.



Another way in which I feel that I have followed up to the standards in which my target audience want is by the continuity of the scene in the magazine. As my magazine is in the genre of rap and hip hop, I have included such that are to do with rap and hip hop. As stated before, I have other names artists named in the magazine to attract the attention of audiences as they are well known artists, but these artists are of the same genre; by using this technique, this allows the audiences to relate to my artist to other well known artists of the same genre in which they are interested in. For example I used the like of Eminem who is a very popular artist around the world, also of the same genre, I stated “Eminem- Performance of his new album. This will attract the audience as well, as most rap fans are a fan of Eminem.

I only used san serif fonts throughout my magazine. I felt using san serif fonts were appropriate for the genre of music I was doing. San serif are genuinely very easy to read and also very affective in the reader’s eye. The font used throughout all the pages, was downloaded from a website called dafont.com called neobulletin. By using a font from a professional website, it gives the font a very unique look; also I feel this font is quite attractive and easy to read. However the font for the masthead is a font from the Photoshop fonts called Rosewood. I decided to use this font as it will be very recognisable to the audience, they will be familiar to the font and this will attract them. Also I felt the style of this font suited the title called “Emerald”, this font was also san serif.

Another way that I felt I have attracted my audience is by the colour scheme of the magazine. I decided on my colour scheme after my audience research, even though the majority of my audience research voted the colours of red and white; I only decided to use one of those colours, throughout the magazine, the colours mainly used are: white, green and yellow. I felt these colours were very eye catching, also each colour separated certain parts; the green was particularly used for the masthead, the yellow was used to show the important outlines i.e. the main cover lines, and the white was used the stories and descriptions. The colours of the cloths my model is wearing would also have a major fact on my audience. The colours of his clothing are unisex and also his not dressed like typical teenage boys but more like a fashion type. This would attract both the male and female audience. Also the language used is not slang but more of Standard English, by using this all my target audiences would be able to understand properly, which is from teens to middle aged people.  I felt this is the most appropriate way to address my audience.

On my contents page everything is very organised and easy to read. Each part is separated into its own part. This was the audience would no struggle to search for the exact specific story they are looking for.

Q4.Who would be the audience for your media product?

My audience research is aimed at the age group of between 17 and 35 who are British but mainly a young audience. As stated in a previous question and on my audience research. Choosing a rap style music magazine would very beneficial in a country like Britain, this because of Britain’s well known lifestyle of street; crime and drugs. All these activities are related to musical genre of rap and by targeting the audience from the UK will attract more audiences than most other geographical areas.

My magazine is most likely to attract the audience of more of a young group; this is because of many different reasons: fashion sense and the genre of the music will attract a young audience. Not only that, but the cover lines used in both the front page and contents page relates to the younger audiences. It also attracts the older audience, because a lot people in their middle age are still attracted to this genre of music but also some of the cover lines which are to do with artist around their own age e.g. ‘Beyonce’ who is mentioned in the front page.

My music magazine does not have a specific target audience in terms of ethnic group. The most obvious ethnic group audience for a rap magazine would be young, male black audiences. But in the modern days, all sort of race’s listen to this type of genre. Could be white, Asian or Latin. Also the model of the magazine is Asian, and this will also attract a range of Asian audiences.

Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

In the prospect of getting my music magazine published by a well known publishing company; by my own research, I decided that vibe media would be the most suitable to publish and distribute my music magazine. There are many reasons why I feel that vibe media would be willing to publish and distribute my magazine. The reasons being: Vibe media is a well known publishing company nationally and also internationally for their work on fashion and modelling. Firstly by publishing my magazine will be no different to their usual work. My magazine is very similar to the concept of most Vibe music magazines. The loyal customers of vibe media would be interested in my music magazine because not only it has a similar look to the usual entertainment they purchase, but also it has some differences which will give a little impact on the sales, as selling magazines with similar work but also some contrast will definitely catch the eye of the customers. For example in my magazine the main artist is Asian, which will challenge their conventions and be something new.  Also Vibe magazine tend to appeal their magazines to the audience of middle aged people; whereas my magazine will also attract the youth audience.

Another reason why Vibe media should publish my magazine is because it will help the company in a financial way. This due to them promoting on a more range of audiences, they will be ‘practically’ attracting the audience of all ages with their own work added to my magazine. This will increase their profit by an extraordinary amount, as there is no direct competition for vibe magazine as they publish various different products. This will also increase their population. So overall just by the addition of a range of audiences due to my magazine, it will not only give them a finical benefit but will also increase popularity.  This will lead to an increase in the businesses advertisement and sponsorship, as mentioned before, this will increase their profit.

The companies that I would probably distribute my magazines to are: HMV and WH Smith. The reason being, HMV is one of the most well known store in the UK, they sell a various of different items including, games, movies and magazines, this shows that they will have a variety of different customers in their store, so by distributing my magazine in their store could attract the eyes of some unplanned audiences, this will be beneficial for both HMV and my magazine. WH Smith would be a very good store to distribute in, as again WH Smith is one the most popular retailing stores in the UK. They sell accessories, equipment and magazines etc. So by them selling equipments, this obviously shows that the mass majority of their customers are college and university students. This is the age group that my magazine is vying to attract, so by them selling the equipment and magazines, this will yet again be beneficial to both WH Smith and my magazine.

Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My target audience is targeted at a teenage and young adult audience. Both male and female but preferably male audience who are interested in the musical genre of rap and hip hop. I expressed this by the main image I used in my musical magazine, the image I used and the model can represent many different type of genres.

The choice of clothing that my model is wearing challenges the conventions of most rap and hip hop music magazines. Most rap magazines will have a model in front either wearing a black hoody or woolly hat with a lot of chains and other jewellery. The navy blue jacket that my model is wearing with his hood on can support the conventions as, this is a very modern jacket that a lot male audiences wear in the age of 17- 21. But he is also wearing a casual brown jeans and Nike trainers with no jewellery on him. This will attract the male audiences because of his appearance. The cloths of the model is also very stylish, this will also attract further audiences that the magazine did not intend to capture. By comparing this magazine to for example the ‘vibe drake magazine’ there quite a few differences rather than similarities in the way the artist expresses himself.

One convention that my magazine does follow is the way the model is posing, it is very calm; relaxed and eye gazing. But one convention it can challenge is the background, as I stated previously most rap magazines have pictures with the model in front of a plain background but mine is in front of a bright location. The setting of the magazine is a very well known location in London ‘West End’, which is a very poplar place with tourist attractions and many stores and shopping centres. By using a well known location, this will also attract the audience as they are familiar with the place, they will think the artist will have a similar lifestyle to them.