My magazine is intended to appeal to the teenage rock music fan demographic. The magazine is informal, which is demonstrated in the serif font "Birth of a Hero", which is a messy, graffiti-like font, which reflects many people's opinions on the rock music genre. The images also demonstrate this by being informal and entertaining. The title "Title" supports this. It reflects the laziness and immaturity of the rock genre fans, by gving it a basic simple name. It also has one letter as a different colour to the rest of the title, which demonstrates and establishes the colour scheme.
The colour scheme (black, white, blue) is established immediately and lack of any other colour is used on this page. White and black contrast and blue is easily readable on both and catches the reader's attention. The images also use this colour scheme, which I feel makes the magazine stand out more. The respective use of white and blue when revealing the articles adds consistency.
Only the band names are mentioned, which may attract the reader's curiosity and intrigue. They may also be fans of the band and would like to read it for that reason.
Main image is combination of 5 images. These are made to resemble the band name "Like Clockwork" in that the outer images are all loojking around in a clockwise direction. I felt I didn't show enough knowledge and understanding and as a result placed all the outer images in taped down polaroid frames, and turned the centre image into a sticker. This furthers the informality and gives the coler a collage-like feel. It also relates to the demographic in that these are very simple, informal photos that would regularly be taken on a day out. The image doesn’t interfere with additional text and is easily established as the main article.
Secondary article is named to draw in readers who may not be interested in the main article. They may want to know who is considered a top guitarist and whether one of their favourites made it.
The lesser information is brought to the bottom of the page where still viewable and in the eyeline of the reader, whilst not taking attention from the main article.
Thursday, 25 February 2010
Contents page - Final
The individually coloured letter resembles the cover, which creates a theme for the magazine. The additional colours in the images make them stand out, but not enough to drive attention away from the contents themselves. That they are angled images make them seem more like naturalistic photographs that have been placed down. The non-alignment also implies informality. This also resembles other magazines. They have also been taped down, which resembles the front page, creating another theme. The lack of text also makes the reader interested in who they are and what they're doing. This is also used on other magazines and is almost the opposite of the front page, where only the band name was given.
The sans serif font “Calibri” is used to give information about articles, and allows the primary font to stand out on the page. This technique is used in numerous other magazines. Informal language used which furthers the informal demographic, an example is "Who are ya?" as well as the exclamation marks, which empahsise the importance of the articles. Larger fonts demonstrate the article titles, where the smaller font elaborates slightly. This may make the reader want to read on should they want to. The font aligned to the right as opposed to the left “rebels” against the typical conventions in whch the text is typically placed on the left. This reflects people’s opinions on the rebellious lifestyle of rock fans and also furthers the informality of the magazine.
The sans serif font “Calibri” is used to give information about articles, and allows the primary font to stand out on the page. This technique is used in numerous other magazines. Informal language used which furthers the informal demographic, an example is "Who are ya?" as well as the exclamation marks, which empahsise the importance of the articles. Larger fonts demonstrate the article titles, where the smaller font elaborates slightly. This may make the reader want to read on should they want to. The font aligned to the right as opposed to the left “rebels” against the typical conventions in whch the text is typically placed on the left. This reflects people’s opinions on the rebellious lifestyle of rock fans and also furthers the informality of the magazine.
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Evaluation Question 1
In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real life media products?
The eight elements selected above demonstrate how I have used, developed and challenged forms of real media products in many ways.
Title
The title of the magazine “Title” demonstrates that I have challenged the titles of real media products in that the name of the magazine is not important – content is. Granted, numerous people will buy a magazine simply because of its title, but with such a bland, non-intuitive title, readers are made to look at the features and articles as opposed to the name.
Mise-en-Scene
Mise-en-scene of the images relates to the conventional media images by using one specific background for all images. They are all clearly taken in the same place, as is the case with typical media products in studios.
Costumes and props use the same, and similar, conventions to typical magazines. Mainly we see what we need to and nothing more. In the example images given, all we see is a person on a laptop. We don’t need to see any more as everything relevant is in the shot. Another example is the blonde male with the headphones, which only features his face and the headphones implying that is what the article is being based on. It de-clutters the image and lets the reader know exactly what will be contained within the article.
People used follow the conventions by picking people with the appearance, or a renowned name, of rock musicians or fans. The image of the purple haired girl is a decent example of this – She has a lip piercing, dyed purple hair, sitting on the floor, squinting and demonstrating a commonly known rock symbol. All of which capture the rock “image” in some way. The piercing symbolises the “pain and anguish” of rock music, the purple hair and sitting on the floor imply “rebellion”, the squinting reflects the “alcohol, drugs, up-all-night-having-fun” appearance and the rock symbol demonstrating the love and passion of rock music.
Font
The title font and style have a graffiti-rough sketch like quality to them, which reflects the rock genre and the thought that the genre is angry and rough. It is still easily readable despite having small areas of colour missing (most noticeable in the I) and scattered (most noticeable in the H).
The written content decides to make the audience think what they feel, and no have their opinion swayed by what the magazine thinks. A proven statistic demonstrates that the majority of teens listen to rock music, and that the majority of these teens will typically decide against a lot of what they are told. To counteract this, the magazine gives very little of its own opinion and forces the reader to come up with their own conclusion based on what they read. I have also used the typical form of making the interviewed say more than the interviewer, since it’s the celebrity (or celebrities0 they are interested in.
The music genre is rock music, which is clear in the dark colours, the “angry and rough” font, and the names of the bands mentioned, who are well-known rock musicians. An article name on the front page also says “100 greatest rock guitarists”, which indefinitely demonstrates that the magazine focuses on the rock music genre. The main image also supports the “immaturity” of the genre using humorous (and possibly creepy) facial expressions.
Layout
The layout of the magazine both challenges and uses typical conventions of media products. Examples of challenging include the barcode being placed in the top right as opposed to the conventional bottom left, the combination of images as the main image, instead of one large image, black and white images which do not stand out at all (which as a result would stand out). It follows the conventional rock magazine conventions by tantalising the reader with quizzes, competitions and posters as well as very blunt information about articles – the magazine only offers the band’s name and makes the reader read on.
The contents page offers the article names and some slight insight into the articles without giving too much away. In the example given “Who are ya?” the audience are told of the article, but not who is in it. This resembles conventions used in various other magazines. The images without text also follow these conventions.
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
Evaluation Question 2
How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Demographic
The demographic for my magazine is mainly aimed towards the teen males, because there are statistically more male rock fans than female, and the majority of rock fans are between 13 and 19. As a result I have placed a teen band on the cover so that the audience feel more relatable. The social status is those in education, as well as C1C2DE. They are most likely to be rock music fans and as a result the magazine is aimed more towards them.
Psychographic
In terms of psychographics, mainstreamers and aspirers are primarily targeted since the featured bands are mainstream rock bands, and since the audience mainly consists of teens, they may also want to be like the bands.
My magazine will attempt to somewhat convert the rock stereotype, since the majority are negatively represented. Since these subcultures are part of the target audience, they are positively represented.
The magazine has a pro-consumerist stance. Advertisements will be used, but not so much that it becomes the majority of the magazine.
Demographic
The demographic for my magazine is mainly aimed towards the teen males, because there are statistically more male rock fans than female, and the majority of rock fans are between 13 and 19. As a result I have placed a teen band on the cover so that the audience feel more relatable. The social status is those in education, as well as C1C2DE. They are most likely to be rock music fans and as a result the magazine is aimed more towards them.
Psychographic
In terms of psychographics, mainstreamers and aspirers are primarily targeted since the featured bands are mainstream rock bands, and since the audience mainly consists of teens, they may also want to be like the bands.
My magazine will attempt to somewhat convert the rock stereotype, since the majority are negatively represented. Since these subcultures are part of the target audience, they are positively represented.
The magazine has a pro-consumerist stance. Advertisements will be used, but not so much that it becomes the majority of the magazine.
Evaluation Question 3
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
The media institution I would like to distribute my magazine is Seymour. It is one of the top distributors in the world and partner with companies such as Futurenet and Dennis.
They have experience in distributing consumer magazines in the same league as mine, including Kerrang! -one of the three biggest rock magazine distributors in the world. As a result, my magazine could prepare cross promotions with Kerrang! and other titles.
My magazine would be distributed in the mainstream market in shops such as WH Smith and Asda, as well as music distribution stores such as HMV. This is because the majority of my target audience are likely to shop in these places
-WH Smith because the teenage market are in education, and as a result would most likely purchase school or college equipment there.
-Asda and Tesco because the parents of my target audience are likely to shop there, thus purchasing the magazine for their son/daughter.
-HMV because a music store seems like a logical place to distribute music magazines. My target audience may also shop there.
Evaluation Question 4
Who would be the audience for your media product?
Since my chosen genre is such a wide genre, it is almost impossible to pinpoint exactly how a typical reader may look, so I have given a couple of examples:
The first is a rock fan who would be more interested in the more aggressive genre of rock, such as heavy metal and screamo. He demonstrates a typical rebellion image with long dyed hair and a lip peircing.He appears to be somewhat niche, since he does not dress or appear to be of the "mainstream" demographic.
He would be more intrigued towards the heavier bands mentioned, such as Rise against and Radiohead since he seems to follow their conventional style.
The second is a less "extreme" rock fan. He bears an appearance which is between the previous example and the general mainstream style. He would listen to the lighter rock such as hard rock and indie rock.He would feel more inclined to read about the bands such as airbourne and Placebo.
They may both be interested in the articles mentioned in the contents pages and want to know more about them, such as upcoming gigs and other mentioned bands. The cover page stands out as a rock music one based on its layout, font and style. They may also be intrigued by the promises on the cover "prizes, competitions, posters".
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)