Nicole Jarman-Pearce Media: May 2011

Monday 16 May 2011

Sketch of School Magazine Front Cover Designs

Sunday 15 May 2011

Final Post of AS Level Media

Name - Nicole Jarman-Pearce
Candidate Number - 7306
Centre Number - 17131
School - John F Kennedy school
Chosen Brief - Print - Front Cover, Contents Page & Double Page Spread of Music Magazine

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

I think that the image I used in the preliminary task is better quality than the one i used in the main task. This is because the image on the left is clear and bright, whereas the image on the right is a bit darker and I think that it is less appealing. I think that I learned which angles worked best when taking a picture, which I think shows in the image on the right.

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

From using an online free photo-editing website named picnik, I learnt how to improve images I’d taken to make them more appealing. From using the camera in a more professional than casual way, I learnt which angles worked best and where to position the model in the photo.

How did you attract/address your audience?

My magazine front cover consists of a different colour scheme which doesn’t fit in with the conventions of a rock music magazine. I decided to use orange and yellow because they’re eye-catching and bright colours, and to make my magazine stand out from others, this is a unique selling point. I chose to use words such as ‘exclusive’ to catch the audience’s attention; this was to influence them to want to buy and read the magazine for the article as ‘exclusive’ suggests that you can’t get the information elsewhere. The prop that I chose to use was a guitar; this was to tell the audience that the magazine is a music magazine, and to hint the genre of it (rock, metal, punk etc) because guitars are a convention of the roc culture. Another way that I tried to attract the audience was to advertise a competition to see a popular and well-known band. This was also to widen the audience range, as people who don’t listen to rock music like bands such as Pendulum; this could influence people who aren’t into rock music to buy the magazine in the hope to win the competition, and they would hopefully read and be intrigued by the magazine and culture. The magazine would also feature conventions of a magazine that aren’t specifically for rock music magazine such as posters, tour guides, interviews etc.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

They would buy my magazine because it has details about gigs in the area and exclusive interviews with popular band members. There would also be posters of popular bands which High Voltage readers would like to collect.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

These images bare some similarity. Their posture is similar in the way that there head is facing and the way that they are holding their guitars. They're also wearing similar costumes (both are wearing shirts) although they are different styles. The picture on the left is more of a close-up shot, whereas the image I took is a mid-shot.

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

Magazine distribution is an important part of selling a magazine. Firstly you need to decide where you want the magazine to be sold and which distributer suits you and the magazine you want to launch best. If you choose the right distributer, your magazine could be sold in popular stores such as WHSmith, HMV, and supermarkets such as Tesco and Asda. The step after is presenting an example of your magazine to the distributers in a meeting. You need to have an ISBN number for the magazine, an example of your magazine, a media kit. My magazine would be distributed in a similar way to Kerrang! Which is distributed by a company named Seymour, another magazine which my magazine is similar to institutionally is Rock Sound.

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

The title of the music magazine (the top left image), I think keeps to the conventions of a music magazine because It is bold and stands out, however, I think the colour being so bright doesn’t keep to the convention of a rock music magazine title because ‘rocky’ colours generally tend to be quite dark, for example in Kerrang magazine, the title tends to be black and grey, the and yellow is a very bright colour which makes it unique.

The prop that I asked the model to use for the front cover picture (a guitar) makes it clear to the readers that the magazine is a music magazine because the model is holding an instrument. The type of instrument which the model is holding tells the readers that it is a rock music magazine; because guitars are instruments which (stereotypically) rock band members play.

I took inspiration for the layout from Kerrang and Q when I was creating the contents page for my music magazine. My contents page uses the same layout as Kerrang (the text being on the right side of the page, and the images being on the left), Q magazine uses a similar layout, but the text is on the left and the images are on the right-hand side on the page.

The model in the bottom right picture is the same as the one in the front cover. A convention of a model for a rock magazine front cover would be someone with piercings and tattoos. The fact that the model I chose doesn’t have any tattoos or piercings challenges the conventions of a rock magazine because even though he isn’t a stereotypical ‘rocker’, I think that you can still tell from the magazine front cover that it is a rock music magazine.

For the title, I used a font called stencil which is sharp and emphasises the name because it looks like a serious font. It is similar to magazines such as Kerrang because the font for the title is also sharp and stands out well. The font for the magazine Q is also sharp.

I chose to do an interview because they appear in magazines often. They also allow the reader to get to know the person being interviewed which creates a connection.

The costume that the model is wearing on the front cover suggests rock genre because he is wearing a red shirt, and shirts combined with an instrument such as a guitar (the prop that the model is holding) screams rock genre. The title of the magazine being high voltage links with sound, suggesting loud music.

Final Draft of Double Page Spread

Final Draft of Contents Page

Final Draft of Music Magazine

Photo Shoot Plan For Music Magazine

Image Required
Front cover: The image i require is half a body shot of a male.
Contents page: A few images of guitarists and again of the main male featured in the magazine.
Double page spread: a large image of the male featured in the magazine and a small one.
Model
A male with stereotypical rock music listener clothes such as a collared checkered shirt.
Props
Front cover: guitar
Double page spread: guitar and microphone
Double page spread: guitar and skateboard
Location
Front cover: White plain background
Contents page: white plain background
Double page spread: main image - white plain background
small image - outside
Equipment
Camera

Missionary Statement

Who is it for?
My magazine will be aimed at males and females from the age of 16+ who are interested in rock music.

What is it for?
As stated above, my magazine will be focused on rock music. I will design it in a way that will attract the target audience. It will inform them of local gigs and newcoming bands, and also other things that a stereotypical rock music listener will be interested in (posters, band members etc).

Unique Selling Point

I will design my music magazine using the conventions of a rock music magazine, but with a different colour scheme such as orange, which isnt used often in rock music magazines.

Target Audience Collage

Music Magazine Double Page Spread Analysis

Music Magazine Front Cover Analysis

Music Magazine Contents Page Analysis

Ultimate Mix-tape

Now that I have completed the preliminary task, I am going to begin the main task- to create a music magazine. In order to decide which genre of music I want to feature in my magazine, I decided to create an ultimate mix-tape in order to identify which genre of music I am mostly interested in.

Four Year Strong – Heroes get remembered, legends never die punk rock

Bryan Adams – summer of 69 classic rock

A Day To Remember – 2^nd sucks rock

Bullet for my valentine – ten years today heavy metal

Shania Twain- that don’t impress me much country

Aerosmith- dude looks like a lady classic rock

my chemical romance – Helena metal

Daniel bedingfield – I cant read you pop

Darren styles – skydiving bounce

scooter – lonely hardcore

Having carried the task, I have found that I am mostly interested in rock music.

Sterotypical listener of rock music

They would wear skinny jeans (sometimes of different colours such as red), they would own footwear such as vans and converse, wear band tops and collared shirts. In a triumph to be unique, they would have colourful and hairstyles.

Photoshoot Diary for School Magazine

Before we began producing the first draft of our school magazine, we were given a camera to take pictures of students within the school which we felt would be appropriate for a school magazine. The photos above are those which I felt were inapproprate and I didnt think that they fitted the criteria. The photo that I did find successful is the image that I used for the front cover of the school magazine that I designed, which you can see in the post below.