Monday 14 April 2014

Production Diary 9

Please click below to listen to my Soundcloud post explaining what tasks I have completed today.

https://soundcloud.com/laylaek/production-diary-9

Saturday 5 April 2014

Thursday 20 March 2014

Q1. In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

When designing my magazine, I needed something to look up to for ideas. I thought that if I followed the style of one magazine along with its basic conventions, then I would be successful. I used NME magazine as I thought that it's a very professional and a popular magazine in the indie/rock genre. I also think that the house style works extremely successfully and fits in with the target audience.

My cover image of my magazine fits within the usual photographs that NME magazine uses. A close up image of the artist giving direct eye contact to the audience. This attracts the audience as it appeals to all different social types and draws them into purchasing the magazine as it grabs all of their attention. NME successfully uses this technique therefore I felt it was necessary to use as it is a magazine convention.

I have used the same colour scheme of red, black and white. The masthead however, is very different as I chose not to use a logo and just stuck with the simple word stretched across the main image; I chose not to go for the Black, red and white title as it's famously associated with NME magazine and I wanted to create my own feature that stood out and was easily associated with the magazine. I can use this masthead on any cover with any photo and it would still look realistic and professional. Black tends to compliment most colours so having it permanently in the house style makes the magazine very consistent and well-known. I decided to use a edgy font that isn't regularly used on front covers, I have capitalised my masthead to make it jump out from the page and catch the audience eyes. The typeface looks extremely scruffy however it fits in with my target audience.

The thing i liked most about the NME contents page was the band index. I have chosen to stick to my colour scheme and use a chunky, bold font with my title 'GRANITE contents' on the top right hand side of the double page. This stands out amongst the rest of the cover as
the black and red stand out on top of the white background. I like the fact that bands and artists are featured in not only my contents but some of them are also listened in the NME contents because it allows the audience to know which artists are going to be in the magazine that month, and immediately attracts fans instantly instead of them having to
guess or flick thought the whole magazine to find out.

I also featured the page number and artists name in two different colours, to make the artists names stand out the most. By having this feature it was a quick way to make my magazine appear different and effective as it's not a consistent feature in NME however I would continue to use it. Because i think it's a unique part that makes GRANITE.

It was important that I included the main artists head-line in big, bold writing which was placed at the bottom of the page underneath Charlotte in big black capitalised font.
 I decided to make this sell line the biggest on the front cover; my whole article inside my magazine is base on Charlotte and her life.

I think the magazine would look very bare and boring without the main headline appearing larger than the rest of text; it wouldn't look complete. Similar to NME, I featured the artists name in larger text of a different colour to draw immediate attention to it. Her name is also featured in a different font to the rest of the text to grab more attention.


The contents page included all of the conventions of a magazine such as the regulars, features and on the cover. I included plenty of images in my contents page to make it look more interesting as most contents pages look quite plain and actually turn the reader against looking at them. I chose to include an subscription box as I wanted to break up the text on the contents page so things popped out to the readers and it wasn't all just one big heap of writing. I included a social networking area on the bottom right hand side of the page as I want the magazine to interact with it's readers very regularly, which fits in well with their interests and the personal relationships of the uses and gratifications theory

The main
article features many conventions of a magazine such as the big, bold pull out quotes, full bleed images, small single photos to one hand size of the page that where to do with Camden round house, Charlotte and some live gigs images. All images that are related to my article and strongly appeal to my target audience. From making some final adjustments I was able to make my magazine look more realistic and professional and most importantly appeal to the audience more. I chose images in this article that stood out well and represented the type of language that was included inside it; for example taboo language this fits in perfectly to the image of where Charlotte is standing leaning on the trolley pulling a aggressive face. This conveys that Charlotte is very careless and rebellious. I used 3 columns for the articles layout as it makes the magazine easier to read whilst giving it a professional look. I also used pull out quotes which grabs readers eyes even before they read the article. Using these conventions simply and easily allowed my magazine to look more successful and professional.
Generally speaking, by basing my magazine on an existing magazine (NME) and using its main codes and conventions, I think it has helped me to make my magazine look professional and realistic.

Q2. How does your media product represent particular socialgroups?

My media product represents my particular social group by the use of costume, props and the type of language used in the magazine. My magazine is aimed at the social class, grade A, B and sometimes C1.

I've decided A and B will be main grade of social class for my magazine
which is a very wide audience, however it means that it attracts mostly high/middle-class people who are interested in going to festivals and gigs and enjoy buying magazines monthly and don't mind spending extra money on subscription. I have tried to attract this social class by the use of my model and her costume, make-up and location of my photoshoot what is Camden and Shoreditch.
My model Charlotte Young, is a female in her late teens. She is posing as a popular rock artist for my magazine GRANITE. She has short purple hair that is styled messy and grunge like. For the images Charlotte is wearing, a tartan leather black and red coat, underneath dark red dungarees with black tights and big chunky Doc Martens with a over sized diamond neck less. Her make-up is very simple and plain with just some heavy eye-liner. I decided this outfit choice was appropriate for my target audience as in the indie/rock genre popular magazines such as: NME and Q haven't sexualised women. Becuase the audience are mainly int rested in the talent of the artists music then their looks. I decided to dress my model in the colours of black and red because they fit in with my house style throughout my magazine and are also the main colours of the indie/rock genre. The simple plain faced make-up indicates to my audience that what you see is what you get with Charlotte Young throughout the article in the magazine. Tartan and leather are worn a lot by the Indie/rock community because they're a very popular and fashionable fabrics that are worn by a lot of famous artists in that genre. Clothing is very important when trying to appeal to a certain social groups as they are all interested in similar clothing and styles.

For facial expressions, Charlotte mainly looked quite stern and aggressive giving direct eye contact to the audience in my front cover image I decided this was a good photograph to has a front cover because it will draw the audience in and capture their full attention to my magazine. Charlotte also gave silly faces opening up her mouth in shock and pointing at the painting of herself on the wall too to play on the energetic and exciting side of the magazine. I felt that smiling wasn't a very successful pose as it makes the artist appear to be sweet and innocent which would make my magazine look like it is aimed at a younger audience of the pop genre. however this would be more suitable for a magazine such as Top Of The Pops.
I decided not to use many props in my photoshoot my main prop was a giant metal shopping trolley i decided to use this because it portrayed my main artist Charlotte as a rebellious care free young adult. Who liked having fun. The trolley being heavy metal also fits in with some of the artists I will be featuring inside my magazine. I also used a guitar that is displayed in a small images on my contents page. I decided to use this as it fits in with the Indie genre of the magazine - this prop is musically related which will highlight the initial point of the magazine.

The language featured in my magazine is both quite formal and conversational, at some times some of the things mentioned are quite serious and emotional topics. I decided to use a lot of taboo language because it was appropiate for my target audience and was also popular in other magazines of my genre such as: Q and NME all use this similar lexis and it reflects the honesty and authenticity of the magazine. It makes the reader feel excited and a part of the magazine it could represent how the particular social group tend to speak and their overall vocabulary in a day to day basis.

The way my model Charlotte has posed its very important and it's one of the main things the audience first see. I would like the magazine to appeal to both males and females so there has to be images that suit both genders. I needed to choose a model that wouldn't mind pulling ridiculous faces but also keeping a stern and simple face. I wanted to portray Charlotte as someone who would be role model to my female audience but also attractive and talented to the males.
I have used a house style for my magazine within the colours of red,black,white and some purple. This was to keep it all together and have an professional look. I mainly used red, black and white's informs my audience to the genre of my magazine which again, appeals to my particular social groups. I want my magazine to be intresting whilst also quite simplistic and a little bit serious, adding bright whites and gory blacks with a vibrant red really implies what I am going for.