Wednesday 29 March 2017

Draft Evaluation 2


EVALUATION ACTIVITY 2: How does your media product represent particular social groups?

After looking at the UK tribe’s website, the social group and tribe that my audience would be apart of would be the ‘DIYers’ and the ‘Scenesters.’ They would be a part of the ‘DIYers’ as members of the tribe are creative, enjoy indie rock/pop music and music as a whole as they usually go to music festivals and concerts. This social group is represented within my magazine as the cover lines on the cover of the magazine say ‘Win gig tickets’, ‘Newest album reviews’ ‘Top 10 festival countdown for 2017’ and ‘Newest gig reviews’ all correlate to the ‘DIYers’ love of music festivals and gigs so this represents them as a social group within the audience for my magazine.

My audience would also be a part of the ‘Scenesters’ tribe and social group as ‘Scenesters’ are very artistic and have a love and appreciation for creative design which means they would appreciate the artistic elements to the layout of ‘AURA.’ So the design aesthetics of ‘AURA’ represents ‘Scenesters’ as a social group and members of the audience. ‘Scenesters’ also have a very creative and artistic eye when it comes to their choice of clothing so the styling and clothing of ‘Blair Spencer’ represents the social group of ‘Scenesters’ as she was styled in artistic abstract clothing and also styled with a colourful holographic body art sequins on her face and neck.   This represents the ‘Scenesters’ social group as they would have a liking towards the imaginative and original design of the body sequins and the patterned clothing as well as the patterned background images of my magazine which correlates to into their characteristic of having an artistic sense of mind.

Another social group that ‘AURA’ represents is the ‘indie’ social group, this is because my audience would be males and females ages 16-25 within those tribes that are also part of the ‘indie’ social group. The ‘indie’ social group consists of usually young adults both genders who stereotypically dress in the ‘indie’ style of clothing and listen to indie rock/pop. The ‘indie’ social group is made up of people who aspire to be different and the opposite of mainstream in terms of fashion and music tastes so they like to think of themselves as edgy and creative because they go against social and societal norms. I know this because myself and my friends fit into this social group so I know how to represent the ‘indie’ social group in my magazine which I have successfully achieved. A way that I have accomplished representing this group in my magazine is by the clothing and outfits that are worn in my magazine as they fit the style of ‘indie’ clothing so this represents the social group. The outfits the musicians are wearing in the images thought out my magazine are stereotypically very relatable to what people in the ‘indie’ social group wear so, this represents the group as it is presenting their style of clothing and identifying that the social group emphases and relies on as their identity as a social group on. By having ‘AURA’ as an indie rock/pop magazine this is also representing the ‘indie’ social group as the group listens to and has a love for this genera of music.

Thursday 23 March 2017

Draft Evaluation 3

EVALUATION ACTIVITY 3: What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Condé Nast would be the distributer of my magazine 'AURA' as they have published other magazines in the category my magazine would fit into. Condé Nast is an American mass media company founded in 1909 by Condé Montrose Nast it is based at One World Trade Centre and owned by Advance Publications. The company has more than 164 million customers across its 20 brands and ownerships. They have published magazines like Vogue, GQ, VanityFair and many other high end fashion magazines. These magazines are very well known and successful worldwide which has made Condé Nast a global mass media company. This means it would have a lot of money to publish my magazine and send it out to be marketed in stores and sold globally just like the other magazines it publishes. Because the company was founded in 1909, it would have already made so many synergy partnerships with other companies to distribute the magazines it publishes, so my magazine would have a extremely high chance of being on the shelves in main-stream everyday stores and newsstands which gives it a higher chance of being sold. Even though the magazines Condé Nast distribute are not music based, my indie rock/pop music magazine would fit into the publishing company as the existing magazines and my magazine both have artistic elements and focus on design aesthetics as well as its main feature (e.g. music or fashion.) Condé Nast is known for publishing magazines that are creative and ‘different’ and heavily inspired by art in terms of design just like my magazine is. I wanted 'AURA' to have an artistic approach for presenting an indie rock/pop music which I have achieved so this means it fits into the category of having Condé Nast as 'AURA's distributer.

Wednesday 22 March 2017

Draft Evaluation 4



EVALUATION ACTIVITY 4:Who would be the audience for your media product?



My target audience would be males and females in the age range 16-25 who have adopted the ‘indie’ style within their music taste as well as their clothing and lifestyle choice. They would listen to indie rock/pop as that is what music magazine ‘AURA’. This age range would be familiar with the publishing company Conde Nast which would publish ‘AURA’ as the company already publishes other well-known and popular magazines that cater towards that age range. This means the audience would trust that ‘AURA’ would be a good magazine as they would already trust Conde Nast due to its high profile and world-wide recognition as a publishing company so they would trust its judgement into producing ‘AURA’.  

Stereotypically people who listen to indie rock/pop wear and are fond of the ‘indie’ style of clothing so my audience would fit this stereotype. They would want to express their creativity by their fashion and they would always want to look different but trendy at the same time. Their favourite items of clothing or design feature for both males and females would be ripped jeans, leather jackets, Doc Martins, studded embellishments, dark colours, band merchandise and anything with creative and different patterns and textures. Their favourite shops would be Topshop/Topman, Urban Outfitters, Blue Banana, Voodoo, and many other highstreets shops but they would buy the most ‘edgiest’ clothing in those shops and also buy band merchandise from their favourite indie rock/pop bands. From the online UK Tribe website, they would fit into tribes of ‘DIYers’ as they are creative and a love for Indie rock/pop music and they would also fit into the ‘Scenesters’ tribe too as ‘Scenesters’ love to be edgy and they have a love for being different and they would appreciate the design elements of ‘AURA’ as they apprise artistic textures and colours just like in the clothing they wear. They also want to be different from the mainstream crowd and indie rock/pop isn’t mainstream at all so they would have a fondness of that genera of music as well as ‘DIYers’. This means my audience would be a mixture of these the two tribes.

My target audience would also be mixed ethnicities as well as different genders as ‘Indie’ males and females can commonly be a mix of all kinds of different ethnicities. This means that on every monthly issue there will be a mixture of male and female musicians and bands as well as a mixture of musicians with different ethnicities. This keeps the different genders and ethnicities within the ‘indie’ social group relating to the magazine and feel included within its style and featuring musicians and bands in the magazine which will increase the sales of ‘AURA’.

Monday 20 March 2017

Draft Evaluation 5


EVALUATION ACTIVITY 5: How did you attract/address your audience?
Name of magazine
The title of 'AURA' is very unique and memorable compared to other music magazines, it is different to magazine titles that are obviously about music such as 'Sounds' and 'Melody Maker' as it is more creative and different like the magazine titles 'Clash' and 'Mojo' which are less obvious music magazine titles but the audience can still tell it is a magazine representing the music genera. I gave 'AURA' its name as an Aura is a distinctive atmosphere or mood that is generated from a person, thing or music so the audience knows my magazine would be about music but it is still intriguing  what style of music it features so this would attract attention as the audience would then read the cover to subconsciously know what style of music magazine 'AURA' is.

Artist and Band Names
The artist and band names that feature in 'AURA' are on the cover of it which tells the audience what style of music 'AURA' is about. The artist band names I chose are well known or some up-and-coming in the indie rock/pop genera with clearly states to the audience that my magazine is presenting indie pop/rock. This attracts the audience as they might know some of the names of the artist s and bands so they might want to find out why they are being featured in the magazine which will encourage them to buy it.

Persuasive taglines
The persuasive taglines on the magazine attracts the audience’s attention and convinces them to buy the magazine as they are all music related which fits the genera of the magazine being an indie rock/pop magazine so the audience would want to find out more about what is featured in the ‘AURA’ if like indie rock/pop music which then leads them into buying the magazine. I also added a single ‘bubble’ around specific cover line which is effective and impactful as it highlights the persuasive text even more and draws in the audience’s attention more to the magazine and encourage them to buy the magazine.

Direct mode of address for images
The cover image on my magazine has direct mode of address which means the musician on the cover is looking directly at the audience in the eye no matter what position or angle the audience is looking at the magazine cover from. This is done by the musician looking straight into the eyes of the camera when the photo was being taken. This is effective as the image straight away grabs the audience’s attention as it looks like the musician on the cover is looking directly at them personally which then makes the audience look at the cover of the magazine as a whole and gives them more of a chance of noticing the magazine on the magazine stand which increases the chance of them buying the magazine.

Colour Schemes
I array of colours and textured images that I used throughout my magazine are very effective as they are very vibrant and bold which creates an impact on the audience as it shows that the design and layout of ‘AURA’ is very creative and art-inspired which I want ‘AURA’ to connote as it makes the magazine stand out and different from other indie rock/pop magazines already on the market.
The colour scheme on the cover page is very broad but effective as I used vibrant pastel colours for the textured background image and then a bright wide spectrum of colours for the cover image of the musician which creates a nice contrast against the pastel background. The colours on the background image all fade into each other well and the colours on the cover image are very bold and contrasting, the entire combination of all the colours together are successful as it connotes a creative and artistic aesthetic to ‘AURA’ which adds another element to my magazine so it doesn’t look boring or unmemorable as it presents indie rock/pop music to the audience as it stands out against other music magazines on the market.
The colour scheme on my contents page makes me think of space as the colours and textures of the background image have purples, blues, greens and pinks with white speckles in it, the colours all fade into each other these colours and textured of the background image evokes an artistic point of view to the design aesthetic what expresses a psychedelic and imaginative impression on the audience. I also included black and white images on the contents page as well as black text and the classic black and white monochrome colours connotes a modern and clean design to the overall aesthetics of the page. The black and white shades contrast against the colourful background image and they also contrast against each other from to being the very lightest shade and the very darkest shade, which makes the pallet a gender-neutral which is successful as I want the audience of ‘AURA’ to be both genders so this attracts males and females to my magazine which increases numbers of sales of ‘AURA’ if they would like to read about indie rock/pop music.


Friday 17 March 2017

Draft Evaluation 6


EVALUATION ACTIVITY 6: What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?






Made with Power-Point

Draft Evaluation 7


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

Mise-en-scene
From my preliminary task, I learnt to become more creative with producing my final magazine in terms with the mise-en-scene that I used. When taking the images for my preliminary task I took them outside around the school as the style for the preliminary magazine was a school magazine so the images suited the style of the magazine. However, this meant I would need to be more creative with my images for the main task as I would need to portray a music magazine which background ideas for images are less obvious. I decided to take an artistic approach to my magazine by playing around with different colours, patterns and textures within the images to create a stylised and art influenced design to ‘AURA.’ I achieved this by taking some images externally for my final magazine double page spread by using the woods near my house as a backdrop and I carefully thought about using the natural sunlight and the different visual textures of the leaves and trees to my advantage which successfully added a design aesthetic to the images. This appealed to my audience as my audience would also appreciate design elements and enjoy the visual textures of the leaves and bark from the tress and the contrast it creates against the musician in the photo. I also took images using the studio so I could achieve a very bright and clear image and then edited a background onto it or used a black-and-white effect on the image like the images I used on my contents page which created a contrast within the image with the black and the white which added a different design aesthetic to the image. The styling has also improved from the preliminary magazine to my final one as I didn’t think about styling my model for my preliminary magazine but for ‘AURA’ I had to think carefully about the styling as my genera for the music is indie rock/pop which correlates to the ‘indie’ style of clothing and stereotypically people who listen to indie rock/pop wear and are fond of the ‘indie’ style of clothing and way of dress. This meant the artists in the magazine very importantly must have looked like they dress in the ‘indie’ style of clothing to look like indie pop/rock musicians, which I think I achieved in the outfit choices I picked for the images. 

Camerawork
The process of making my preliminary magazine taught me to focus more on the camera angles and shot distances when taking my images for my final magazine and to be more creative and adventurous with them as I wasn’t very bold in terms of shot types and angles with taking the images for the preliminary. This has improved my photography skills and editing images as I played around more with the different styles of shots and angles when I was taking the images for ‘AURA’ and learnt what photos would look the best and suit the magazine the best over other photos which and to edit the images by changing the lighting and colour schemes of the images ultimately makes my magazine look interesting and at a more professional standard. I learnt how a photo can impact the audience more by having diverse and bold photos that I used for my final magazine which will improve the sales ‘AURA’ as more audience members would be attracted and drawn to the magazine. I did this by taking a greater variety of shot types and angles which includes, median shot, medium close up, long shot, very long shot, big close-up with a tilted angle, two-shot and a median side-angle long shot. I also drastically increased the amount of the photos I took from when I took the photos for my preliminary to then taking the images for my final magazine task with different outfit choices to make sure I had more of a verity to pick for my final magazine. This was successful as I had more of a chance to find the images that would complement the style of ‘AURA’ the best.


Text arrangement

My preliminary task taught me to lay my text for my final magazine in a more professional and minimalistic way as for my preliminary magazine I wanted the cover to look more colourful as the background Image lacked a verity of colours so I put the tag lines in ‘clouds’ with a colourful outline to add pops of colour to the cover which it needed to look less boring and plain. However, for ‘AURA’ I wanted the text layout look more modern and simplistic as I know I was going to have colourful ‘busy’ backgrounds to the pages that I didn’t want the text layout to appear busy too as it would just clash with the background be too straining and confusing the eye. Simplistic text arrangement on my final magazine looks more professional and modern which I want ‘AURA’ to be, I achieved this by choosing a simple but modern font for my text and by having the cover lines, text on my contents page and the articles on my double page spread in columns. I also included a single ‘bubble’ on my final cover which includes a cover line in it which is effective and impactful on the audience as it highlights the persuasive text so it catches their attention to read the text which could result into the audience becoming convinced to buy the magazine. I also had a text bock around the anchorage text under ‘Blair Spencer’ which also highlights to the audience why she is being featured on the cover of the magazine and draws in their attention to the persuasive text of the anchorage text which would make them have a higher chance of buying the magazine due to having the want to find out more about her feature in the magazine. I thought the text arrangement for my preliminary magazine contests page was quite basic and boring so this motivated me to present the text for the contents page of ‘AURA’ in a more creative way. So, I came up with a design of a grid layout for when I would place the images for the contents page which I then incorporated the text for the page between the images. This was successful as it gives the text arrangement an interesting and fresh modernistic approach to presenting music in the form of a magazine with I want ‘AURA’ to have as its style throughout the magazine. The columns on the double page spread are very impactful as they are very neat and bold which creates a nice contrast against the textured background and images, this doesn’t make the page look disordered and untidy as it makes the page look more professional and contemporary but also artistic at the same time which was my desired goal for the page and for the style of the layout of ‘AURA’ as a whole.