A2 Media

People:

Gangster: Jerome Blake
Gangster Mate: Me
Nerd: Connor McCormack
Nerd friend: Daniel Jumeau
Teacher: Mikey Daly

Extras:
Billy
Chris
Mahdi

We decided to pick these to be our characters for various of different reasons, first being who being available when we needed them, but also who we felt would fit into the role the best and make the film the best it can be. So firstly we had a typical stereotype black young teen which is Jerome, we had me who was his mate which I had all the resources to play the part(Hoodies) and Connor had the resources as well to play the part like nerdy glasses,suit and also his ability to play the part.


Equipment/resources used:

• Phone
• Computers
• Room
• People
• Suit
• Glasses
• Hoody
• Trainers

Welcome to A2 Media

This year my preliminary task I had a task to create a video to represent youth in England. We was set in to groups by our teacher, where I was partnered with Connor. Me and Connor had a large amount of ideas we thought that would work well but finally we decided to do a stereotype of a gangster hard boy teen and a nerdy teen, who then brake into a fight, which then get threaten to get kicked out of school, shows two different sides of emotions, one shows no emotion that he could get kicked out of school however the other shows real emotion. We wanted to make this as real life as possible and we hope we achieve this.

We already started filming the fight on Monday, we felt it went well as we already planned what we was doing, However we couldn't film again because of the resources and the people we needed was available so me and Connor hope to start filming again on Friday 29th June.

Our ideas then was created onto a storyboard which we will follow when filming, this was done because it helped use just to film straight away and made our lives easier. I then created a script to shows what would the characters would say so also made our lives easier.

Scans of out planning will follow in my next blog post.

My Evaluation

Below is a link to see my magazine 'Beats' Presentation, where it shows what I did,How I did it and shows my process during the Task to my final Product!

http://www.slideshare.net/Danpalacefan/beats-presentation

The BIG 8

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

My music magazine uses real media forms and conventions by following all the typical conventions like masthead with the image overlapping the masthead as well with the image being placed in the middle of the cover, as well as the barcode being used for an example, the reason why I decided to follow these certain code and conventions because I think that every magazine needs to include these things. All of the codes and conventions that I followed are:

·         Masthead

·         Issue Number                                                                                          

·         Ear piece

·         Date of edition

·         Banner

·         Subheading

·         Outward gaze image

·         Barcode

·         Price

·         Celebrity Endorsement

·         Front cover on contents

·         Editor’s note

However the codes and conventions that I developed was the use of Celebrity endorsement, the reason why this was developed was because I didn’t use this as the main feature for the selling point as I wouldn’t the image that I did use to represent my theme of my magazine so it reaches out to my target audience better. The other codes and conventions that I developed was the layout of the contents page, where I decided to use subheadings to show what topic in the magazine comes under.

2. How does your media product represent particular social group?

My media product represent a particular social group by putting a unknown upcoming black singer in the latest fashion clothing as my main selling point for my magazine, I did this because I wanted my magazine to be aimed at social group where young people who want to become an upcoming singer/rapper and someone who they can look up to as a role model. As a result I used a singer (Jerome) who talks about how it got this far, what he did and who inspired him to do so, I also used celebrity endorsement in Professor Green where he had an hard time before he become famous, so using a black and white males who’s been through a similar situation before becoming big in the music industry.

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

The institution that I think may want to distribute my media product is intermedia partners. The reason why I think this would be good for my magazine is because they distribute magazine ‘VIBE’ and Vibe magazine is similar to my magazine gender, I think that they would get my magazine big and well-known as they already proven this by producing VIBE. I also think that they would be interested in distributing my magazine because I wanted to basically make a UK version of ‘Vibe’ so it will be sold more in the UK.

4) Who would be the audience for your media product?

My target audience is young black/ white males age between 14-21 who interested in RnB/rap music who maybe don’t come from the best of backgrounds and maybe want a career in the music industry and see how the stars of today has come to where they are today. So I want lower class black or white young people who maybe have a religious background.

5) How did you attract/address your audience?

I reached the target audience by using an upcoming young black artist(Jerome) as the main theme of the magazine I also used a white young singer in Pro-Green, the reason for this is because his came from a hard background before music with him getting stabbed, so I think he represented my magazine gender well. I also called my magazine 'Beats’ this was used to link to younger generation with the new headphone dr.beats

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

I think that I have learnt a lot because considering that I never used In-Design before I started this task, I think I have learned a lot and it’s helped me to get better because I learned what I had to do and what tools do what. So I feel I got a better idea what to do and the basics on In-Design I now know. But also it helped me to make the magazine as I did have previous experience working on Photoshop unlike In-design, so that helped me to do the cropping of the images in Photoshop.

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

I think the things that I have learnt since the preliminary task was how I could change the image needed in Photoshop and effectively move it on to In-design without making unprofessional and out of place. I also learned how you can put your writing in columns this helps with making the magazine more organised and professional. Also I learned what didn’t go well the first time round like the colour schemes or the placement of certain codes and conventions so overall I think I have learned a lot from my preliminary task on In-Design.

8) Submit your product and records

All work will be submitting on Friday 23^rd March 2012!!

Final Front Cover,Contents Page and Double Page Spread

Front Cover:

My front cover has changed quite a lot over the course of the task, as a result of all the feedback I got from my fellow class mates and teachers. My last minute changes that I made to my front cover before my presentation to the class was really small changes that my feedback was given to me like the text font of the masthead. Personally think that this was the most stressful part to make during the task because you had to get this right before moving on to the contents and double page spread.

What went well when making front cover?

The things that I think I did well on my front cover was the colour scheme that I used, the reason why I think that went well was because it matched my music genre and my research. The other areas that I thought I did well on was the way I improved my front cover over the course of the task as the result of the feedback I received.

What went badly over the course of making my magazine?

The things that I felt went badly over the task was the images that I took for my front cover at the start I felt that the first image I had didn’t work and the quality of the image wasn’t good enough, so I got a new image which worked better. The colour of the background also went bad for me because I wasn’t sure what colour went best, as I started off with a plain white then was told it was too boring and plain so then went on to black, but then the feedback given was that it wasn’t common enough for a music magazine. So I done further research from vibe magazine and come up with a background gradient of black and white.

Contents Page:

Likewise with my front cover, my contents page has been improved and changed over the course of the task. I changed the contents page as the feedback I got from students and teachers. I also had to change it to match up to the front cover because that was being changed all the time. The changes that I made to the contents were big because I felt the previous versions of the contents page wasn’t professional enough to be put into a music magazine.

What went well when making Contents page?

The things that went well during the making of my contents page was how I listened and took in the advice that was given to me, so I felt because I done this and looked more into research it helped me developed the contents page from my first draft to my final piece. Another things that I thought went well the colour scheme matched the front cover and the images I used followed what I used on the front cover.

Double Page Spread:
My double page spread was quite a challenge for me because they were a lot of things I done wrong when I first start making the double page spread like for an example all my text were not in columns. With this I got a lot of feedback from my teacher on this because they were a lot of things that could be improved, so I got help from other people and research further into Double page spread from professional magazine.

What went well when making my Double Page Spread?
The things that went well when I was making my Double Page Spread was how I looked at the typical codes and conventions that used on Double Page Spread's however I developed them into my own type and made it look different, I think that went well because even though it's like a typical double page spread its different from other magazine's double page spread's.

Update: Contents Page

The contents page I wanted to try and link it to the codes and conventions and my research but I wanted to make it more original and slightly different.

I got advice where to look from my fellow class mate Jerome to look at the magazine Clash where they use sub headings for each category for each topic.

I also followed the code and conventions by using an image of the front cover on the contents page. I also used the main topic of ‘Jay-Starzy’ to inform the audience that his the main topic so it may encourage them to read on. I decided to also use a image of a celebrity who is also a key a feature in the magazine. I also used a editor edition which again follows the code and conventions

New Improved Front Cover

Why did I make the changes?

The reason why I decided to make the changes is because I thought that the image used on the previous version of my front cover didnt work with the layout but also the quality of the image wasnt as good as the image I am using now.

I also made changes to the other small image I used for Pro Green with a box around it, this was because I thought that the image looked missing so to fit within the layout there should be a box around the image.

This Week In media:Discussion

After my feedback and discussion in my Media class I decided to make slight changes to my front cover, contents page and double page spread.

The changes I’m going to make:

·         The layout of Front cover

·         Add front cover image to contents page

·         The image used on front cover

·         The layout of text on double page spread

LATEST UPDATE ON MUSIC MAGAZINE

My updated version of my music magazine front cover. The changes that I made was the gradient for the background. The reason for this was because I felt my previous background colour black wasn't really a colour that is normally used for a background for a music magazine. The other key areas that I decided to change was the outline stroke around the text, with a bolder black outline. My opinion on this is that it is better than what it was, I think it looks more like an magazine now than what it did. My feedback that I got from my teachers and class mates was that it's improved greatly over the course of the task and the recent change to the background makes the magazine look better,professional and makes it stand out. The use of celebrity endorsement of Pro Green makes the audience want to buy it as there a well known singer in my music industry, also it informs people that there will be a key feature of him inside the magazine so this might want people to go and buy the magazine. I tried and keep all the colours the same with the main colour being Red,Black and white.

The contents page was changed as a result of changes made to the front cover as I feel that the contents page should be matching the front cover so the audience can tell that they both come from the same magazine. So the the changes made was the background colour from black to a gradient of black and white. I decided thats the only thing I really needed to change because everything matches the colour scheme and plus  I thought that everything looked good on the contents page but the background which was recently changed.

This Week in Media:Closing on to the deadline

Updated Double Page Spread

Double Page Spread First Stage

 What is this?
This is my first stage of making my double page spread. I still think that I need to make improvements to it but I hope I can get feedback for this so I can make improvements that is needed before I present to the class on Wednesday.

What's going well so far?
The things that I think is going well so far is the use of 3 images that I took, I think this works well with the whole point of double page spread for an example with an image on jerome sitting on his stairs at home to say its an home interview. The other things that I think went well is the colours used as it connects to the theme of front and contents page, and lastly the fonts used works as well.

What's need to be improved?
I think I need to improve is the actual layout of the double page spread. The way I used the images and the way the texted is laid out.
The other things I think I could improve is the text font to make it more stand out and just generally make it look better.
My feedback told me that the background colour should be changed along with Front Cover and Contents page, I will try different backgrounds as a result and see what fits best to the magazine.

Stages:

• This is one of my first stages making my music magazine front cover. At first I had a plain white background. With a lot of spare space so I didnt felt it was working as its was firstly too plain and too boring and not very eye cathing. So the feedback I got was that to first feel up the space, change the colour/theme of the background and lastly make the images head smaller.
• The reason for this background is that the research that I carried out from the 'VIBE' magazine was that they normally go for a plain background around the main image.

Updated Version:

 

• Above, is my updated version of my music magazine front cover, after the feedback I was given and my own opinion on what should be improved I have updated it to this.
• The changes that was made was the colour of the background, from a light blue/white colour to a black background, the reason for this is because it makes all the writing/image on the front cover stand out and eye catching as well matches my colour theme.
• The other changes that I made from my other version of my magazsine cover is the way the text is used, I rotated and slighted the writing, the reason for this is because I was trying to make it more eye-catching and also based on my research most magazine have it in this style.

The front Cover Annotation

Above is my front cover being annotated, showing the key features that I have used on my front cover and the reason why I have used it and where the ideas came from. And also what most magazine have to have for an example Barcode and celebrity endorsement.

Front and Contents Page

This is my updated front cover for my magazine. I was using my feedback from my teachers and my fellow classmates to slightly make improvements. I thought that the previous magazine background was too plain and wasnt effective enough so I asked my teachers and some of my classmates to see what colours would go best without making big changes to the writing and the image or the masthead. So after trying different sorts of colours I decided for the time being to go with the colour black because its firstly different to any other magazine colour background so I think it would make it stand out from any other music magazines in a store. After feedback was given on the image which was that the person's head was too big, I got given help to make the head much smaller which I did and now I feel it works better and looks better than it did. I also change the colour of the writing as a result of the change of colour to the background. The last change I made the white glow around the masthead to make it stand out even more

As a result of the changes made to my front cover I had to change the contents page as well. The changes that I made to the contents page was the colour of the backgroud, like with the front cover the background was too plain so I changed the background colour to black so likewise the front cover, I did this because I wanted to stilll link the two. I also changed the the word 'Contents' to the same style as the masthead on the front cover. So after the changes that I mader to both I think it's looking better than what it did but I still think I could still makes even more changes to make it better so I hope next time I have Media Studies I can get more feedback.

First Stage: Contents Page

This is my contents page for my music magazine. The colours that I used are the same colour scheme for my front cover, as I wanted to link the two pages together so people will know its from the same magazine. I decided to use the same person as I did for the front cover, I did this because I wanted to tell the audience that the this issue is mainly based on this singer(Jerome) and says the key feature is him. I also used smaller images around the main image, the images are celebrities but one which is the image I took. The celebrities used are link to my type of music genre so the audience will know its all linked together. I will trying to make the contents page slightly different to the research that I carried out, so I decided to use four images as sort of film strip to make the contents page less boring and different. I also made an own section on the main feature of the magazine, this was going into more detail from what the front cover was telling you about the main feature.

What do I think went well?

I think the things that went well was the colours that I used, the reason being that It links to my front cover well, I know this because from my previous tasks where I had to make a magazine, the feedback that I was given was that I linked the front cover and contenets page well, so I transfered what I did from that task to this task so that helped me to make this better. I also personally like the layout of the magazine because its basic but yet affective to what I want it to show.

First Stage Music Magazine:Front Cover

This is my first try on making my music magazine, as you can see by my research I tried to link it but also trying to make my own version of other music magazines. The things that I used that was similar to the research is the masthead, where the gradient of black and red was used. Also the image of the person's head overlapping the masthead.

Things I need to Improve:

The things I think I need to improve is the images head where I think it too big, so my aim is to either make the person head smaller and edit the image, or I could use another image that I picked. My other aim is to make the quality of the magazine better, I hope to do this by keeping using In-Design and try to improve my skills which then I hope to make my magazine better.

Things That I think gone well:

The things that I think I have done well on is the mastehead and how it is displayed on the magazine, I also think the use of celebrity indorsment with the use of Pro Green has helped my magazine and also links it to what other proffesional music magazine uses.

What I hope to add and improve:

The things I hope to improve on in the lead up to the deadline is the image itself with the size of the person's head, I hope to get assisted by Mr Wallace for that. I also hope to make the background better, the reason for this is that I think the current background colour white is too plain for my music magazine, As a result of this I hope to explore all different options and hope to get advice from my fellow class mates and my teacher.

Masthead Ideas

Here is all the different type of mastheads ideas for my music magazine. I used all different type of colours,fonts,sizes and background colour, the reason for this was to try and get a better idea of what sort of mastehead I wanted and also what background I wanted. After doing all this different type of fonts and also with my research I done on similar music magazine, I decided to use a plain white background behind the text.

Final Masthead:

I decided to go with this masthead because I liked the gradient on the lettering as I think it still stands out and looks good. I think the colours red and black goes well with my type of music and layout of magazine, same with the style of the writing. I also decided to go with this because it's very similar to the research that I carried out. I look on the 'VIBE' layout and one magazine had the same mastehead.

This Week in Media

Monday 30th January 2012

This lesson we was working with Mr Wallace trying to discover what our target audience was and what our music genre was. We done this because it will help us to start designing our front cover layout but most importantly for this lesson what type of font our title will be.

I also was looking at what colours would be the best fit to each other and also the colours that would fit best to the kind of music magazine that I was doing.

Wednesday 1st February 2012

In this lesson, I was looking at any areas in my media work that I need to improve on or even update on for an example my blog and start hand drawing my front cover for my magazine. I also hope to in this lesson helped my fellow class mate Mikey Daly do his photo's for his music magazine.

My Goals for this Lesson:
My goals for this lesson was to update my work as much as I could,so I'm organised so I could just focus on making my magazine. My other goal was to help Mikey with his photo's for his magazine but was unable to do this as we both lost track of time doing our work, however we will start taking photo's in friday's media lesson

Media Studies Timeline

7^th January 2012: Done research for my music magazine and start to make a PowerPoint to present to my class

18^th January 2012: I presented to my class what I will be making my music magazine on and what research I did.

20^th January 2012: Put my presentation on my blog

25^th January 2012: Start to get organised with my work and start planning for my magazine

27^th January 2012: Start to take at least 5 photos for my music magazine (Jerome)

30^th January 2012: improve my skills on In-Design

1^st February 2012: Practice make of my music magazine

Resources:

·        Model(Jerome)

·        Music Headphones(dr beats)

·        Camera

·        Music studio

·        CD’s?

Camera Shooting:

I will be using my model (Jerome) with his head phones on his head posing seriously (my research shows my genre magazine uses this) I will make him pose like his just done an important interview.

Front Cover:

The colours that I will be using will most likely be red and black but with a plain white background to make the image and the text stands out. I will have the image in the middle of the page so it stands out with the masthead behind the images head. I will have the key features text slightly bigger than the rest of the text like mini sub headings.

Planning Timeline

• Using the coursework brief (Student Drive: Media: As: Portfolio) design a time line for your production.  Working back from the deadline (using a calendar) work out your production schedule.
• Equipment:  What resources do you need to complete this brief?
• Shooting:  Who is your model?  Where will you shoot?  When?  Costume? props? Lights?
• Frontcover:  What will it look like?  Fonts, colours, text, images?  Sketch and a#scan your design ideas
• Content / Double page (as above)

Christmas Work:Magazine 1

2.  This magazine above is a well know music magazine. However this is a Christmas special as it says "Massive Christmas double issue" so this appeals to the audience who buy it every week because it’s a Christmas special so they think it going to be more music features inside.
Furthermore on this edition they got a well know music icon in Simon Cowell, they done this because it’s a special edition to the magazine and also because people who don't read 'NME' they will still get drawn in because they will know who Simon Cowell is so they might buy that magazine. As well it will make them want to read on to the contents page to see if there's more about Simon Cowell as his the main focus on the front of the magazine.
Furthermore on this edition they got a well know music icon in Simon Cowell, they done this because it’s a special edition to the magazine and also because people who don't read 'NME' they will still get drawn in because they will know who Simon Cowell is so they might buy that magazine. As well it will make them want to read on to the contents page to see if there's more about Simon Cowell as his the main focus on the front of the magazine.
3.  NME uses a Christmas theme in the background with the snow over the heading 'NME' and Christmas ball balls with the special inside editions that will be inside, this shows this is a one off Christmas magazine and they won’t use the same theme for every edition. The background colour of grey gets the reader to focus on this picture and helps the title, subheadings and the image stand out more to the reader. To extend the colours used are Christmas colour for an example red and white, the white is representing the snowy theme. The main image used of Simon Cowell is representing the whole music industry, so the audience may want to buy it as they will have feature of their sort of music, so it's not aimed at just one type of music. Lastly the word 'Grinch' is used as it's a well-known Christmas film, so the image of Simon Cowell posing seriously so he reflects his image as an harsh, scary and bossy person similar to Grinch, i also feel with the word 'Grinch' being used it shows that Simon Cowell is rare to be speaking out on a magazine like this similar to the Grinch being quiet character.
4. The research that I done so far is all about this magazine as I read the magazine and then went on to reading the other editions, it is different to this one as it don't use the image in the same way and the background is completely different, also the text box's used are different to this one.