Monday 16 March 2015

AS evaluation questions Draft





In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products? When designing my magazine I incorporated elements of Clash magazine and Fader magazine. The front cover is clearly influenced by Clash magazine with the font and layout of the text all influenced by the covers I have studied. When deciding on the graphological layout of my magazine I did not stick with the classic Z, H or E layout as I felt that the influences from the magazines I had chosen would allow me to develop my own unique style to my magazine. The costumes used were deliberately chosen to represent the style of music magazine I had chosen (HipHop) which meant incorporating dark streetwear clothing and the standard serious stance/pose for the pictures. I had no influence on the hair styling however felt the contrast of 'T Raws' long style of hair was a good difference to the short cut of 'Kamikaze' which insinuates to the reader of the varying styles of artists surrounding Hip Hop nowadays. For my contents page i took inspiration from Fader magazine as I didn't like the layout aesthetically of CLASH magazine as I thought it was too basic and plain, I used 3 photos with the main attention of the reader being drawn towards the central photo of the artist 'T Raw'. For my double paged spread I used inspiration from CLASH with the design layout and experimented with two smaller photos as a posed to the standard photo covering the entire page. 
For the Camera work and framing of my images I have specifically chosen a mid shot for my front cover. When researching Clash magazine it seemed like the best looking choice and a mid shot is well suited to my magazine. Another thing is that on 3 out of 4 of my photos, the model is making eye contact with the reader which is a very powerful tool when attracting your target market. For my double page spread photos I have purposely made the models alternatively look away and staring straight into the camera as it creates an 'I don't care' look which suits the Hip Hop scene.

How does your media product represent particular social groups? 
My media product was deliberately designed for the Hip Hop genre so to attract my intended audience. I attempted to use grey, black and white throughout as this is the colour scheme of CLASH magazine, moreover the serious nature of my model 'T Raw' links well with the serous nature of such a serious natured magazine. I believe that the outfit and the general way that he acts would link with artists such as Yung Lean/Spooky Black which in comparison makes him look appropriate as a white rapper. I deliberately chose the clothing of 'The North Face', 'Palace' and 'A Bathing Ape' jackets/hoodies for my artists as that again link correctly with the Hip Hop genre. Finally I have mainly aimed my magazine at Males between 20-30 as I believe the choice of male models and the music being shown would be more appropriate for this gender and age group. According to UK tribes research that I conducted into the target audience of my magazine, the main audience for my magazines would be 'Skaters' and 'Get paid crew' which again reinforces the outfit in which my artist 'T Raw' was dressed in. 

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The media institution in which i chose was Bauer media, which is a division of the Bauer Media Group (Europe's largest privately owned publishing group). Bauer Media is a UK-based media Group consisting of many companies collected around two main areas - Magazines and Radio - widely recognised and rewarded as being industry innovators. The reason for my decision to choose Bauer was that if they were to publish it they would be advertising it to a worldwide audience as they already are an established company with millions of readers internationally. Although Bauer publishes magazines such as 'Q' and 'Kerrang' I feel that there is a space in the market for a Hip Hop magazine from this publisher and believe the size of the company would lead to success due to contacts, readers etc.
Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for my media product would be males between 20-30 who enjoy listening to Hip Hop/rap and spend their spare time going to Hip Hop concerts and buying similar streetwear clothing to that of my models. I also felt that my magazine would appeal to those interested in the slightly more underground aspect of Hip Hop with artists such as Bishop Nehru and Rejjie Snow featuring who are up and coming artists with growing reputations. I took into account the 20-30 age bracket I was using as my target market when coming up with the £4.99 price tag as I felt that this age group would be better financially equipped to purchase a magazine such as this, in comparison i felt that a younger target market may struggle to afford the magazine when others such as 'Vibe' can be bought individually for around £2. I felt this gave my magazine a more 'upmarket' look to it which would link back to those interested in the underground music scene as the mainstream teenagers would not be able to afford it. My artist 'T Raw' aesthetically was influenced by artists such as Yung Lean and Spooky Black however the music released by him was more from the classic Hip Hop genre rather than alternative rap genre of the previous artists mentioned. I felt that an artist of this calibre had a gap in the market to succeed as he would appeal to my target audience with not just his music but also clothing. 
How did you attract/address your audience?
I believe that my front cover played a large part in attracting my audience as although I went for relatively low key colours I felt that the 'Levels' masthead was eye catching to the reader. The font I used was 'Bebas Neue' which I felt again was bold enough to catch the eye of the reader. This was supported by the clothing in which I styled my model in which included streetwear brands which my target audience would appreciate which Included 'The North Face', 'Nike' and 'A Bathing Ape' which I felt gave my magazine a unique selling point and may encourage the reader to purchase the magazine to study the style of the artist. Moreover another feature was the listing of artists to feature in the magazine as I felt that large names In the Hip Hop industry such as 'Wu-Tang Clan' and 'MF Doom' had a huge selling point as any avid fans of this genre would more than likely be familiar with these artist work. When choosing my models I felt that the two I selected styles/appearences best represented the kind of music I was trying to convey with my Artist 'T Raw' and 'Kamikaze'.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
For the photography aspect of my magazine I used a Nikon D3200 camera, this allowed me to take photos of a higher quality than the use of a standard Iphone camera or other handheld phone. I felt that the higher standard of photo gave my magazine a much more professional look to it and therefore supported the higher price. I also used artificial lighting to remove any shadows that may distort or make the picture less clear. The computers I used were mainly the IMac's in college however I also used the Intel core 13 system and edge 10 monitor. Another piece of technology I relied on massively was Photoshop, this allowed my to crop, enlarge and change the colour of photos to create my final piece. Furthermore I used sites such as Scripd,Slideshare and Infrogram to present my work in a more interesting format than the standard word document or blog post, this is useful as it gave me skills to present work in a more engaging way to the audience.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
When looking back over my media coursework and comparing my final product to my preliminary, I feel that I’ve improved significantly. I believe this is due to various skills and concepts that I’ve learnt about magazine creation over the coursework process. One of these concepts being the concept of genre and target audience. Over the duration of the process I've become increasingly aware of how important it is to have a set genre and target audience when creating a media product. Having a target audience and genre aided me in the creation of my magazine because it helped me understand how I should design my magazine. Looking back, I also learnt about the importance of what editing software to use when designing magazines as although for my preliminary magazine I used Photoshop, I learned through trial and error how to use the software to a higher standard which was illustrated in my final piece.