1. 1. OCR Media Studies AS Level Unit G321: Foundation Portfolio in Media Evaluation Name: Miguel Pita Joao Candidate Number: Center Name: St. Pauls Catholic College Center Number: Set Brief - Print Music Magazine Production Evaluation
2. 2. 1. In what ways does your Media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions or real media products? The magazine, across the 4-pages repeats Steve Neale codes and conventions from VIBE magazine as my inspiration and as style models I replicated the codes and convention's from. Theses include having a Bright stand out heading that grabs the audiences attention, and also keeping the colour scheme the same thought my magazine which is Red and a Creamy Grey, simple but effective and similar fonts thought my magazine so It looks professional and sleek. In my front cover I made sure I had the main features/ conventions such as a Bar code Date/price My selling point( my contest to win Ed Sheeran tickets and my heading of sound army because it stands out with the colour and the type of font. Cover lines Masthead Strapline For my contents page I added boarders around my text and also bordered my picture of me for the editorial to make it look more professional, I also kept the colour scheme and added page numbers, my web address-social networking sites for the magazine ( Facebook and Twitter). I also added a main picture of the three people I will be interviewing on the double page spread, and I incorporated the heading so It looks more effective. My double page spread changed a lot, I had to change my three separate pictures and make a new one with all three people in it together so it looks better and I left the three separate picture with the introduction to each artist. I also had to make changes on the layout of my double page spread like take out the bordering of the interviews to make it looks sleek and well finished and also change the font to match my front cover and contents page. I also added the word exclusive to my double page spread at the top next the the title sound army so it looks ore professional and tell the audience that its a one of a kind and that you need to buy it because its exclusive and special.
3. 3. 2. How does your media product represent particular social groups? The denotation of representation is to act or speak on behalf of someone, but in this context it means whether or not I have material in magazine that is appealing to all types of social groups e.g. Chavs, Goths, Emos, Nerds, Hipster etc. If my magazine does appeal to all of these social groups, it would be an economical success since the larger the target audience the greater the amount of consumers who would buy the magazine. However for my own magazine I think it would only suit a few social groups such as Chavs and Scene kids since it mainly only has Pop music features which is quite popular as I found out from the questionnaire, so would mainly be appealing to these groups. But the social group I was going for is a mixture of people that enjoy rap (Chris brown), Hip-hop (Taylor swift) and acoustic music ( Ed Sheeran) so it appeals to a variety of social groups, and I think this is effective because its not just for one type of person so anyone could buy it and enjoy reading it which is effective because therefore I would sell more copies. Although since rock came in close second with the questionnaire, my magazine will feature a rock theme font for my title of a spiky font which shows the rocky side of it but is still about pop, rap and acoustic and that relates to why I picked the title sound army because its an army of different artist and music types coming together to make sound. Also my competition of winning a ticket to Ed sheeran will help my social group to like my magazine more and in a way force them to buy it because Ed sheeran is very popular these days. Also since Pop, rap and is seen as quite passive music genre that has lyrics commonly to do with Love, problems and life, it is often pleasurable to listen to, without needing much thought or having much artistic depth, it means that socio- economic groups such as C, D and E would be attracted to my Magazine. This is because they have jobs that require a lot of manual work, that can be repetitive so my magazine could act as a diversion (Katz) from their normal day life so they could focus on something other then their own lives. In addition the majority of Group D would be students and teenagers who may buy my magazine because as said, before these scene kids will often look for Pop music, because it is very modern and will help them become social climbers (Maslow) in the metaphorical ladder that is popularity. In addition it gives the readers a Window in to the World (Wendy Helsby) to what stars(Richard Dyer) such as, Lauren may feel like since the magazine offers many interviews that allow the reader to perhaps personally identify with them, is the star (Dyer) is like them e.g. ;Lauren may be seen as the pretty girl with the make-up, shoes, etc. and this could be something that the Scene readers may like to replicate because she would become the perfect role model, who is in the spotlight.
4. 4. 3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why? Bauer Media is a multi-platform UK-based media Group consisting of many companies collected around two main divisions Magazines and Radio - widely recognized and rewarded as being industry innovators. Our business is built on influential media brands with millions of personal relationships with engaged readers and listeners. Our strategy is to connect audiences with excellent content through our broad multi-touch point brand platforms, wherever and whenever and however they want. Our wide portfolio of influential brands gives us advantages over pure play magazine or radio competitors. http://www.bauermedia.co.uk/about Bauer Media is a division of the Bauer Media Group, Europes largest privately owned publishing Group. The Group is a worldwide media empire offering over 300 magazines in 15 countries, as well as online, TV and radio stations. Bauer Media joined the Bauer Media Group in January 2008 following acquisition of Emap plcs consumer and specialist magazines, radio, TV, online and digital businesses. Collectively, the Group employs some 6,400 people. Bauer Media is a multi-platform UK-based media Group consisting of many companies collected around two main divisions Magazines and Radio - widely recognised and rewarded as being industry innovators. Their business is built on influential media brands with millions of personal relationships with engaged readers and listeners. Our strategy is to connect audiences with excellent content through our broad multi-touch point brand platforms, wherever and whenever and however they want. Our wide portfolio of influential brands gives us advantages over pure play magazine or radio competitors. From the research that was completed pre-production, I would envisage that Bauer Media group may publish Tune In because they are excellent in creating personal relationships (Katz) with their readers and I really believe that my magazine does this well especially with my editorial. Also my magazine has a lot of synergy and cross-media convergence which will allow the readers to access the content in many different ways since I have social networking sites in association with my magazine, and this is made very obvious on al my 4 pages. In addition there is also a website for Tune In. The similarities of my magazine to Kerrang(such as the way in which the promotions are displayed) also signifies (De Saussure) that Bauer may think about distributing my magazine because with similar codes and conventions that sell Kerrang displayed for a different music sub-genre may be something of interest to the publishing group.
5. 5. 4. Who would be the audience for your magazine? According to Hartleys seven subjectivities, the target audience for my magazine would be for the age range of 14 to 25 especially for Men because I have included Chris Brown, Ed Sheeran and Taylor swift so more men will be interested in this magazine then women because there is only Taylor swift (Hartley). According to Katz Uses & Gratifications theory females would find it much easier to create personal relationships with them, however it may still appeal to the male (Hartley) gender as the images of the females could act as an attractant as females are often objectified for the pleasure of the male audience (Male Gaze- Laura Mulvey). According to Maslows hierarchy of needs, social climbers would make up a large amount of the readership since they would try and seek as much information as possible so they were informed and educated(Katz) on everything that was new. Also the working proletariat class (Karl Marx) would really be targeted since they would be able to afford the magazine as well as appreciate the diversion (Katz) it offers from day to day life. In conclusion I think I will stick to Men around the age of 14 to 25 because it applies to my magazine and language content more effectively with men at that age.
6. 6. 5. How did you attract/address your audience In order to attract the intended target audience I decided to have quite a lot of Unique Selling Points that are easy to see, because from my results (From questionnaire) I found out that USPs and promotions are a huge appeal to the audience and is often the reason they will pick a magazine up. I also used specific language to attract consumers. like on my double page spread I used exclusive and on my front cover I used win free for the Ed Sheeran tickets and this type of language makes the consumers more interested in my magazine and makes my magazine more attractive. The inclusion of codes & conventions such as having an editorial in the contents page helped to appeal to the target audience because, with the direct address in the letter, with second person pronouns such as you and the inclusive wes make the readers feel a part of something and they may develop a personal relationship with the magazine and feel involved and special in a way. Like you could win the tickets!.
7. 7. 6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product. The software used to construct the media product entitled Sound Army was Adobe Photoshop CS4. I didnt have much experience on Photoshop because I've never really used it in school so I did struggle at the start a lot and I needed guidance and support from the students and my teacher who helped me out a lot with using Photoshop , editing the pictures, making sure I did it properly and that it looked nice. I also used the software because it has many tools to make my work as good as possible like the crop tool, the sharpen tool used to make pictures look better and increase the image quality, also on my main image I changed the lighting which is possible on Photoshop so that was very effective because it gave the image light and more depth and detail it also made it stand out more on the magazine. To choose my font I used http://cooltext.com/ and I looked fro a while and picked the right font that I thought would work, keeping in mind the age, target and my magazine content when picking one and I think I choose the right on because it gives off a powerful and harsh feel to it with a suttle background colour contrasting on the colour red of my heading really makes it stand out and attract my target audience. In conclusion, I have learnt to effectively alter images so that they are conventional as well as learning the art of making the text fit around the images while at the same time being clear.
8. 8. 7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you think you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product. I think that I have learnt many things during this process of completing my final task of my preliminary task, like I Photoshop I like I have improved my skills dramatically which is shown in the editing of my photos and the way my magazine is presented. I think I used my time well towards the end of the project by staying back after college and completing my feed back in lessons and not being distracted an di feel that Ive put a lot of effort in this magazine simply because this is the first time Ive taken Media and I'm very proud of the work Ive done, maybe with some more training in Photoshop I could of made my magazine look more professional. I think my creativity has improved a lot with the way Ive presented my work in a manner of stylish and sleek with the bordering and the way the colours contrast too. There is evidence of my progression that I feel happy with how I met the demand of the production process, for example meeting the deadlines set up for each part of the magazine as well as attending to corrections and feedback that the teacher gave me. In conclusion I think that I have improved in my skills in Photoshop and produced a good magazine for my ability of work and knowledge.
9. 9. Photography Planning
10. 10. Photography Planning
11. 11. School magazine front cover
12. 12. School magazine contents page
13. 13. Analyzing my Front Cover Main sized picture to attract customers Colour scheme is represented Story lines Social media
14. 14. Analyzing my Contents Page Editorial picture Neatly presented Master head Colour scheme
15. 15. Analyzing my Double Page spread Interview Neatly presented Main image Effect font that grabs attention with the colour Colour scheme is carried onto this page
16. 16. Audience Audio Feedback - Forth interview Second Interview Front cover Contents page Double page spread Third interview First Interview Or visit my Sound cloud account- https://soundcloud.co m/you/tracks