Feature Article

Contents Page

Front Cover

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

In the progression from my preliminary task to my finished media product I have learnt a lot about photography, layout, fonts, modes of address, audience etc. 

In comparison from the beginning of the course with my preliminary product I have learnt how to assign pictures correctly to get the best effect and gain the attention of my audience. In my preliminary task I asserted the picture to the right of the front cover of my college magazine with cover lines down one side. I have improved my skills in my media product by centralizing my model on my front cover and putting cover lines around her. 

For my pictures, I have also learnt how to edit them in Photoshop to black and white to fit white my music magazine's theme of gothic rock and appeal more to my audience of the gothic sub-culture.

I also used different styles on Photoshop to make my text stand out against the picture background. I added a white glow behind my text so that it could be read clearly.

With the text I also learnt how to compress it closer together so it made it look more natural and fitted better on the page whereas on the preliminary task the errors where the text overlaps with the shape it's behind is very obvious.

I learnt how to use text boxes to write in so text would be in the structure I want and would not overlap with anything else on the page.

On Photoshop I also learnt how to add a drop shadow to images. This way I improved my contents page from the preliminary task I had done previously. I was able to add a copy of the front of the magazine in the corner of my contents page and with the drop shadow it could stand out against the other images on the page.

With my finished media product I had a wider range of age and gender for my target audience to work from. As I previously made a college magazine it was easy for me to understand my target audience and what would appeal to them, being of the same age. With my finished media product brought a new challenge for me and I found it very interesting to learn about the gothic-sub culture and how they are seen within their communities and outside. In my finished product I used a range of informal and formal language to appeal to my audience. I learnt how to make a magazine look more professional by researching products already made within the media.

 

 

Question 6: What have you learnt about technology from the process of constructing this product?

The main technology product I used to create my media product is Photoshop CS6. I hadn't used this technology before the preliminary task we carried out in lesson at the beginning of the course. I felt very uncomfortable with this technology at first and still do not feel overly confident with it, however I feel as though my skills have dramatically improved from how they were originally. I used this technology only at college as it was not available for me at home so it has made it quite difficult for me to get work done on time or in advance. The Photoshop kit itself is very expensive although a tutorial can be downloaded, it doesn't last long.

From Photoshop I learnt how to change the colours of my text and shapes I used. I learnt how to use different styles to edit pictures and now to save those styles to repeatedly use them in my media product to show my house style and consistent theme throughout.

In Photoshop I learnt how to compress text closer together so it fit correctly onto a page. I also learnt how to edit the text by changing the colours and experimenting with fonts.

Other technology I used was Blogger. This was important for me to use as it was how I uploaded my evaluation, research and planning throughout the course. I had been used to using to social networking site Tumblr to blog about my interests but Blogger was completely different from that and very new for me. I found it very efficient and easy to use from the beginning. Another advantage is that it is completely free to use. The disadvantage is that the website is difficult to load on certain internet browsers such as explorer, so it is sometimes frustrating to upload coursework. It also meant that a lot of my work created in Photoshop had to be formatted to JPEG images to be uploaded successfully. As well as this, when using other websites to upload work on to move to my Blogger, I found it quite difficult to embed the correct codes and get them working.

Prezi is another form of technology I used to upload Question 1 of my evaluation on. I found it very confusing at first however I soon got used to it. I found Prezi to be a very fun and interesting way to present work on in comparison to simply uploading it onto Blogger as a word document. It was also completely free which gave it more of an advantage over other technology.

To take pictures for my media product I used my home camera which is a Nikon S5300 camera. Being my own camera, it was very straightforward to use and the pictures I produced were of a good quality. The disadvantage is that pictures need to be transferred onto a laptop or computer to be edited for my media product.

Question 5: How did you attract/address your audience?

The model I have used on the front cover of my media product is designed to attract mainly the female audience. I used a female on my front cover so my audience can be inspired by her, also her fashion stands out greatly which would attract my target audience of the gothic sub-culture who are interested in fashion and make up as well as gothic rock, which my magazine revolves around. Using a female on the front cover would also attract some male audience. My model is looking out to the distance and being very photogenic in the front cover for my music magazine, so my target audience would also be attracted to her professionalism. I decided to edit the front cover of my magazine so the image is in black and white as I considered colours to be less of an interest for Goths. On the front cover, the landscape can be seen and the location of the photo-shoot becomes clear with the display of gravestones in the background. This would attract my audience as the stereotypical Goth would be interested in such scenery.

The main point of my magazine is to outline the genre of gothic rock and gain my audiences interest as they would like this music most. The front cover also advertises free items within the magazine and competitions that can be won. This will attract my audience as they will want the prizes and freebies. As well as this, the cover lines highlight a variety of different artists that my target audience will be interested in along with information about fashion. Some of my cover lines on my music magazine use second person pronouns such as "Top 10 songs that will rock YOUR world this week" which would interest my target audience and lead to them wanting the magazine.

As a result from my audience question, I used only a few colours on my front cover such as red, pink, grey and black. I decided that colours would not interest my target audience as much but thought it would be good to highlight titles and make certain words on my front cover stand out by using a different colour. I decided that using light and dark colours fitted well with the gothic theme of my magazine so decided on using these simple colours which were also the most popular with my target audience. For my fonts I decided to use elegant and readable fonts such as Perpetua Titling MT Bold for the masthead. I used mainly informal language to attract my target audience to the front cover, as they would be young people of the age range 14-mid 30's.

Question 4: Who would be the audience for your product?

 

 

The Goths

Age: 14-25

Class: Middle/Working class

Gender: Mainly females
 

The specific target audience for my media product would Goths. Goths are people who wear heavy, dark make-up, pale their skin, wear dark clothes and wear bulky metal jewelry as influenced by the genre of music they listen to. They would listen to Gothic Rock bands such as The Cure, Evanescence, HIM and The Sisters of Mercy. As well as these artists, I think my target audience would be interested in popular groups such as The Beatles and Queen as well as modern artists like Green Day and My Chemical Romance. It's likely that my target audience would enjoy foreign music and explore different kinds of genres.

Goths are usually people who are original and rebel against society, it's most likely for my target audience to be out casted for the way they are and feel more comfortable with others similar as themselves.

Fashion-wise, my target audience would wear dark but extravagant clothes. The common Goth would be interested in big boots, laces, rips and corsets. Goths usually plaster their faces with a lot of extreme dark and bold make-up. I would expect my target audience to shop in smaller shops such as Dead Good and Drop Dead clothing. There's a chance they would visit antique stores to find accessories of unique kind and make items themselves.

 

I believe some of the interests of my target audience of Goths are listening to music, writing, reading and holding meetings with friends, such as tea parties to bond over their interests together. My target audience would probably watch Japanese anime, being less interested in soaps and regular TV dramas and more content with horror movies.