MAIN TASK
PRELIMINARY TASK
Wednesday, 13 May 2015
Final Work
In this post I present my final pieces of work for both the main task and the preliminary task.
MAIN TASK
MAIN TASK
Wednesday, 29 April 2015
Evaluation 7
Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel
you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?
Evaluation 6
What have you learnt about technologies from the
process of constructing this product?
During the process of constructing of my media product I have come across many stages and technologies which I already had a good knowledge about, however I have found some stages completely new. This has increased my knowledge, as well as my practical skills about media product production.First of all, during my production process I have used a Nikon D5100 with a 18-105mm lens to take the pictures. This is my own DSLR camera which I use for both my own private use as well as for my AS Photography project in school. Beforehand, I had a good knowledge about taking pictures (can be seen in my blog as I have prepared a powerpoint to teach other classmates about photography) therefore I knew how to operate the shutter speed, ISO and the aperture effectively. The things which I had to experiment in this project were the shots and the lighting. This time I had to pay more attention to the camera shots in order to portray the right code and convention. In terms of the I have been provided with a full light kit in the Media room with a professional backdrop. This allowed me to fully manipulate the lighting intensity as well as its direction, making sure I gain the best quality image. The facilities such as a very good DSLR camera, professional lighting kit and a studio backdrop have allowed me to experiment and come up with a very successful shots which have then been used in my media product.
Secondly, during the production of my media product I had to use editing software in order to manipulate the images and create necessary graphical content for my magazine such as the masthead. To do so, I have mainly focused on three softwares; Photoshop and Ipiccy or Pixlr. Photoshop is a image manipulation software which provided me with all of the necessary tools to create graphical content ( as seen throughout my blog ), wheres Ipiccy & Pixlr are a online based editing softwares which I have widely used to tweak my images. Photoshop, Ipiccy and Pixlr have been widely used by me in my AS Photography course therefore the use of these for me was relatively easy, however I had the chance to experiment with them as I have applied various effects or tweaked imperfections which I do not perform in AS Photography.
Another software which I have widely used during the construction process of my magazine is named InDesign. This software has allowed me to structure the pages using various functions such as rulers or allowed me to implement the graphical content which I have created in Photoshop. Because of Photoshop and InDesign being Adobe softwares, they easily allow the content to flow from one software to another. This has really helped me out during the construction process of my magazine as I was allowed to transfer the content between the softwares without any errors, making my construction error-less and less time consuming.
In order to present my work I have used software such as Powerpoint which I have widely used before in my life, however I have additionally been introduced to new methods of presenting work through softwares such as Prezi or Blogger. Prezi has allowed me to create a very neat and professional presentation whereas Blogger has allowed me to post and show my journey throughout the school year of producing the UrbanFlow magazine. It was very tricky for me to get along with all of the functions of these softwares, however with time passing by I have gotten used to using it and now find it very easy to use Prezi or Blogger. I benefit from this as I have gained new presentation skills.
Another technology which I have used in order to successfully construct my magazine is Surveymonkey. This online based has allowed me to easily create a survey in a template format which I then have sent out to my chosen audience. By it being a online based survey I have gained a very quick response via email from the audience. Surveymonkey has automatically then counted the votes and conveyed the results in graphical format, making it very clear for me to understand and present on my blog.
Issues of technologies used:
While using the technologies which I have listed above I have come across many issues which I then had to solve. I found that I have overcome the issues fairly easily as I have used various online tutorials or asked for help from people which have a better knowledge of the software. One example of an issue which I have come across was the lack of needed fonts in InDesign. I have overcome this issue with the use of Photoshop as it allowed me to create the needed graphical content. Another issue which has really affected my time management and my organisation was the use of InDesign. As of this software being a licensed software, I only had access to it in school which radically shortened the time I had for the construction of my front cover, contents page and the DPS.
Pros & Cons of technologies used:
Throughout my whole project I have used Blogger which is a really good example of a cloud software. By the use of a cloud software I was allowed to work on my coursework from various locations as I only needed a internet connection. This really has helped me to complete my coursework on time and meet the deadlines as I was allowed to work on my coursework from home. Another advantage of using Blogger as a cloud software was that I was allowed to save my work on the internet and not keeping it with me at all times. By this I have reduced the probability of loosing my work as it was always available for me on the internet. This way I did not have to worry about loosing my USB stick. On the other hand, the use of cloud software such as Blogger has exposed my work to other members of the public using the internet, therefore my work could be at risk from plagiarism. Additonally, by the use of a cloud software, my coursework relies one the servers of the service provider. When the service provider which in this instance is Google has a problem with its servers, my coursework will not be accessible or at worst erased.
Tuesday, 28 April 2015
Evaluation 4
Who would be the audience for your media product?
At the very beginning of the making stage of my music magazine I have focused on Pop/Dance music magazines and began my research on those topics. The research consisted of areas such as analysing magazines, creating brand-eyes, and stating the shops, jobs, interests etc. my magazine audience could have. I have found this stage very useful during my research as by this I have gained a very detailed knowledge about Pop/Dance music magazines which I have then used later on in the making process. Then come the time for my questionnaire to be designed and given out to my target audience, and this is where I was shown what the audience really wants. Instead of having a Pop/Dance music magazine the audience have chosen that their most favorite genre of music is indeed Hip Hop and Pop. This meant that all of the research which I have done beforehand was not going to help me as much as I thought it would with the making of my final magazine. This meant that now I had to go into more research and amend my target audience profile into a more Hip Hop related character and base my magazine on this.
Who would the audience of my magazine be then? Well as I have mentioned above the magazine is to be consisting of both Hip Hop related content as well as Pop but with a larger focus on Hip Hop, meaning that the audience definitely has to have a high Hip Hop music interest. The audience additionally do not mind a typical Pop song which comes up on the radio. My audience would be considered as more of a mainstream audience, however they could also be counted into the aspires category as because of their high interest in Hip Hop music, they would probably aspire to become a Hip Hop artist themselves. This could link to the Ideal I theory by Jacques Lacan as the audience can see the Hip Hop/Pop artists in the magazine as their idols and would want to be successful in life as they are. They could mimic the music artists by wearing similar clothing, following the same diet or even take on board the way they talk.The audience for my magazine is relatively young therefore I would consider them to be easily influenced by the content as they are at the age where they experiment with their personalities and find the correct path in life, meaning that they could easily take on the areas represented by the magazine.As a result of this I would consider the majority of my audience to be in he aspire category. As I am interested in Hip Hop music and suit the target audience of the magazine, I could base the audience profile on my own liking in terms of the clothing. If I was to see a male individual on the street reading a Urbanflow magazine I would imagine him wearing Nike trainers, straight jeans, a Hip Hop related jumper with big logos and probably a hat. However if the reader was a female she would probably be wearing bright trainers, skinny jeans, a hoodie jumper with her hair tied back. By this I would assume that the male audience would like to purchase goods in shops such as footlocker, JD or Topman, whereas the female audience would aim to purchase goods from shops such as Topshop or H&M. This is a more of a stereotypical point of view as it is not how all of the people who read UrbanFlow would look like. In my opinion the audience for UrbanFlow would be a mix of both males and females, however for the particular issue of UrbanFlow which I have created I believe the audience would be more considerably male. This is because on the front cover I have placed a female model, grabbing more of the male audiences attention. This could link to the 'Male Gaze' theory by Laura Mulvey as men look at the front cover from a heterosexual mans point of view and are attracted to the female model.On the other hand the representation of the female in my magazine can be considered as a counter stereotype as the women is not objectified, however she is empowered by the facial expression and posture. This could be a very positive influence for my female audience as it could inspire them, show that it is alright for females to follow this genre and convey the point that Hip Hop is not dominated by men. Last of all, linking back to my questionnaire research I have found out that the audience of my magazine is to be mainly 16-19 year olds however people at the age of 20-23 would also suit the magazine. This point can be backed up by the price which I have set for the magazine (£3.50). Individuals over the age of 16 can earn money therefore the price of £3.50 is not relatively high in comparison to XXL magazine which costs around £3 ($3.95), so that the audience can afford to purchase the magazine and enjoy the content.
The above images represent both the male and the female audience which UrbanFlow can have. I have taken these images from a clothing brand website as I consider them being a really good representation of what my audience may look like.
Concluding, I believe that my audience analysis has been very effective and that I have mentioned points which are clearly backed up, however I believe that there is no right answer to the audience question as it depends on the individuals clothing style and lifestyle. The right audience for the UrbanFlow magazine would be the audience which will enjoy reading the magazine with a high interest for music.
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