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.