EVALUATION question 1

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



I tried to develop a conventional media product that used aspects of usual magazine conventions, e.g on the cover, i have included a mast head, barcode, advertisement-for my interviews and my two page spread feature as the object to draw attention of the customer. i think the image i used works well with the words (quote) i used to acompany it, with the frase, "with attitude like mine, cooperation goes out the window" and the blurred image of my subject swinging the guitar as if ignoring the camera.

  My contents page, in my opinion, fits the normal conventions of any magazine, lconventionset alone a music magazine. its simplicity, i think is its down fall, due to the fact that this is the area i struggled on the most.

  i think that my two page spread, worked more towards the normal conventions of a music magazine, the writing, small but readable, the image dominating most of the page. it has a direct quote from the text, which i think should have been used for my cover if i had written my text before actual production.

 in my opinion, my product is quite standard in terms of  conventions, some parts are missing, after i overlooked the pieces, but they essential represent common music magazines.

Finishing products

Cover

Contents page

two page spread

PHOTO SHOOT :)

I had alot of fun with a few of my friends in capturing these images, even if it was a very over cast day, and we didnt have much to work with besides the school grounds and a broken guitar, but i tried to use them to my advantage.

My Equipment

In the development of my Cover, two page spread and contents page, I will use a range of equipment.

Cameras, to take the images on my project. this is the closest model to the cameras used in school, the images can both be sharply focused and intensly blurred depending on the way the camera is used.

  the memory sticks i have at my disposal are the SanDisk 8GB and a wrist watch memorystick with 4GB. Each can be used for fast file swapping between computers.

the mac computer is my primary computer, used in the schools media room, where have become atleast a little familiar with the photoshop programme. But through my use of macs, i feel that i am more comfortable using regular computers, such as my Dell Inspiron laptop that has become a perminant addition to my rucksack, and the usual computers used in the other computer rooms in the school.

photoshop is the main computer programme that i must use to create my product. Whilst practicing i have found that opening a powerpoint to produce my word art makes me feel more confident with how my product develops, helping me create the look that i want with the software that i am familiar with.

Front cover

Taking in mind the analysis i did of magazine front covers, i designed the basic outline of my own cover:

in this plan, i have clearly labled where my components are going to be placed. The main idea is that i use an image of my scarf  as if it has been draped over the magazine and poleroid shots have been scattered over it. it is a simple idea, but i think it posesses the carefree style that can relate to my target audience.

Masthead Planning

Masthead
   this began as a doodle in the back of my note book, something that i had been playing with as a graffiti doodle when i was bored, but as i developed the style and colours etc, it began to look more professional and individual.

As the letters developed and i made my own style, the word Gigz became my magazine name, which expressed what the magazine was completely about, like kerrang to its own readers does, the title named after the alleged sound that a guitar makes.

I scanned the resulting image of the title onto the mac computer, after bordering it with black pen to make the words stand out and edited the image on photoshop to enhance the image, adding red and black. 

I used photo shop to darken the background of the title, and the thick edges of the text. I 'hollowed' the white gaps to give the title a stamp like look, like the title has been embossed onto the page over the cover image. I had fun developing my title because it gave me more of a better understanding of photoshop, and made me more familiar with the programme.

my target audience

MY TARGET AUDIENCE

I have decided that my target audience will be the kind of people who do things just for the fun of it. I have always been intrigued by the fun side of teenages that are care free and individual, because they dont care about what other people say. My typical reader would be one of those individuals with fantastic styled hair that has probably been coloured every component of the rainbow, has their own brand of ideas on how the world should be, and have a complete mixture of taste in music. Taking my cousin as an example.------>

 In a recent conversation, she allowed me to use her image as an example for my audience.  In case of extreme individuals,  my cousin is mild compared to some of her friends. Her dress sense is quite masculine , hence the plaid shirt. She has multiple facial piercings which are not very clear on the image, such as her nose stud and lip piercing, and supports a stretched ear, as a statement of rebellion than anything else.

My cousin is the typical example of the 'Mosher' style of teenages(even if a little toned down in comparrison to others), into all kinds of music, ranging from Screamo and heavy metal bands, but is also a fan of Dubstep and various pop icons such as Nicki Manaje. She said, in a recent email-

'Well I am a really big fan of a day to remember. And slipknot. I tend not to look to people for a style icon and I just wear what I find looks good and unique. I vary from heavy rock to alternative singy bands and s**t so yeah ...'

Against this comment, many of her peers tend to follow brands rather than individuals, a popular one being Drop Dead.  I think, even in this short statement, she highlights her not very intrested attitude on much subjects in a cool/not cool kind of way.