I feel that this project has gone really well. I think that my time keeping has been good and has kept me well on track for a good mark.
My research in the begginning helped alot for me to understand the conventions of my genre of music. Without this research i would have not have completed the task to as high a level as i have. I followed the conventions of the drum and bass and dubstep genre precisely modeling my magazine front cover on the way ATM magazine had modelled theres. This is clear from my front cover.
The similarities within my front cover and ATM magazine can be seen when put next to eachother like so.
During this project i took into account that the conventions of the magazine are quite simple and not flashy. (click on conventions to see this in visual form)This is what i applied to my front cover and throughout.
When constructing my contents page i looked through magazines of the same genre to see how they looked. They were also quite simple and i chose the black background through out too keep the same colour scheme. The pictures that are included on my contents page i photographed myself on nights out and i included the logos on the pictures to add a professional touch. I think that the banner going across the bottom of the page breaks up the page a bit and draws in the attention of the reader. All of the writing on the contents page relates to the genre of music and everything fits in well.
My media product uses the conventions of real media products by being very minimalistic and sticking to the same fonts and colour schemes. I havent challenged any of the conventions i stuck to them to ensure that my media product was realistic. The only convention that i could say i have challenged would be that i used one person on the front cover instead of two, but if i did use two people i would have used the stance shown in the refference above from ATM magazine.
My magazine has is designed for people who love to go out to events around bristol and love drum and bass and dubstep music. Everything written in the magazine is written to appeal to the target audience of 16-25 year olds and has represented my target audience as edgy and very informal.
A small local publisher would distribute my magazine along with a group of individuals that would support the printing ect. The reason why a small local publisher would distribute my product would be because dubstep and drum and bass are very Underground types of music that are not main stream yet. These sorts of magazines dont make alot of money because they are quite unknown of and still expanding as a genre.
The audience for my magazine would be 16-24 year olds who are intrested in drum and bass and dubstep. Everyone dresses quite differently who listens to drum and bass, but i looked at ATM magazine and the models on the cover were wearing plain t-shirts and poloshirts so i dressed my model in a plain t-shirt and jeans to follow the conventions of the genre.
I attracted my audience by using a famous well renowned drum and bass act, and i wrote this on the anchorage text on the front cover. This was to draw in the attention of the audience because when they see 'chase and status' that automatically creates appeal to reader and would push them to read on. I also attracted my audience by including big names within the drum and bass and dubstep industry underneath the anchorage text so that they would also adress the reader. I also used very informal language to address the audience so that the target audience was not put off by formal language that they cannot relate to. (To view how this was done, please click the link) I think that because i used informal language it makes the reader feel like the magazine was designed for them imparticular and they feel targeted in a good way.
Technology has influenced my project throughout. I have learnt about blogger.com and that it is an efficient way to publish my work so that it is easily accessable to others and my teacher. Also it makes it easier for me to view powerpoints from my teacher and i can also access my blog from anywhere and can add to my project whenever. I have used the SLR camera's during my project which have helped my understanding of photography alot better even though i am currently doing photography AS it has helped me to gain a better understanding. My understanding of photoshop has exceeded my expectations as i wasn't very good at all when i began the project, but throughout i have kept learning new skills to add to my understanding of different technologies. (click new skills to see what i have learnt)
Some of the things that i have learnt how to do are:
- How to adjust the brightness of photographs
- How to change the colours of images so that they fit into my magazine better
- How to crop and enlarge images correctly to add better effect to the magazine
- How to put a mask onto images so that it is easier to cut people out of backgrounds, this enables me to create a very neat image
Looking back at the preliminary task, i have progressed alot. (To view the change from preliminary task to final project click the green link)My preliminary task has no real structure, it is just words on page because i didnt know the conventions of that genre of magazine. Also my photoshop skills were not half as good as they are now, so all the writing is different fonts and colours and nothing matches. Also the main picture on the front is tiny and needs to be alot bigger. I have learnt how to use photoshop, what conventions represent the drum and bass and dubstep genre and also that all fonts need to be the same throughout the magazine, and they need to represent the target audience. I have gained a true understanding of the target audience and what they want from their music magazine. I think that my magazine appeals to the target audience really well.
