Evaluation

Evaluation
1)
In what why s does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products

My media project consisted of me creating a front cover, a contents page and a double page spread of a music magazine. This has been achieved by looking at the current codes and conventions that are used in similar magazines that are in production today and either using, challenging or developing those codes and conventions.

My front cover develops/challenges the convention of having a single central main image by still having one main image, but isn’t quite central as the emphasis is not entirely set on the person. The emphasis is also on the guitar that my model, Jamie, is holding up, this is to show that he has power. This image also challenges the codes and conventions in the fact that it is partially in black and white and partially in colour. This is there to attract the eyes of potential buyers and outline the fact that his power is music related.

My magazine complies with the codes and conventions in the placements of my masthead, price and barcode. These placements are common in nearly all magazines, whether they’re music related or not, and because of this I complied as if I didn’t the reader would be confused or think an article headline could be the title of the magazine. Therefore to make the magazine more reader friendly and appealing I used these conventions.

2)
How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I have chosen to represent the B to C2 grade social groups. I have shown those social groups in multiple ways such as the use of language or the people pictured. For example the image on the front cover is dressed in a way that they could be of any of my chosen social classes as the clothes aren’t formal, but they’re also not too informal that the model looks like he’s just climbed of bed. This means that the classes selected would either see him as someone to aspire to be like or an equal. This is also shown in my contents page as the top 2 images so people looking rather good, yet informal, while the bottom image shows a person not looking at their full, this is someone to be empathised with.

As for the text I haven’t really used any slang words but I have used abbreviations such as ‘didn’t’, this almost formal, informal writing applies to the middle classes of the NRS social grades (B, C1 and C2). I could have used some slag language but I feel this would alienate the B group out and some of the C1 as I myself don’t really like the use of slag words in writing and I’d put myself about C1/B.

3)
What kind of media institution might distribute your media product And why?

still needs to be done

4)
Who would be the audience for your media project?

My magazine is aimed at people (both genders, but leaning more towards males) aged about 16-24 who enjoy rock music.

I have appealed to these ages by using my front image’s clothing as it is fashionable and would make him relatable or admirable by my chosen age range. This is seen throughout my magazine, with the exception of the bottom picture of my contents page as that is related to a story of drug abuse and therefore would be unsuitable to have a lovely charming picture as this would send out the wrong message about drugs.

I said that my target market is more male than female because the front of the page has a ‘He-Man’ reference on it, even though I don’t doubt that there are many female fans of He-Man’, He-man is aimed more at males given the concept of the cartoon. This also applies to my age range as it is people between the ages of 16-24 that would have watched it when it was aired on television.

My fonts are predominantly masculine in the titles to attract my male readers. I used Blackleaf and All Over Again, and in the words ‘Children of War’ I have used 28 Days Later, this was to make it like a trademark of the band using it regardless of font already being used in that title, I didn’t use it in the article text because the reader would already know the subject of the double page. I used another masculine font for this as it’s an all male band and masculinity and strength is something which is very prominent in rock music.

To try and counter balance but not scare away the masculinity the font creates I used a colour scheme that consisted of blue, black and white. The blue is the ace up my sleeve top grab the female attention as blue is a very calming colour, but still associated with males, where the opposite is pink. The soothing effect that it creates should help the female readers not to be over powered by the larger amount of machismo that I have put in.

5)
How did you attract your audience?

The main way I attracted my audience is with the front cover as it is the first thing that my potential buyer is going to see. So due to this I have to have an attractive cover.

One of the key things on my cover to attract someone is my power word, ‘Power’. the word power is strong word and will instantly draw the audiences eye as if the word itself demands that level respect, and because of this I have challenged one of the codes and conventions I mentioned earlier by placing it instead of an image in the centre of the page. This leaves room for the eye to wonder about the page in any direction.

The image is the next most noticeable, eye grabbing thing on the page, partially because its layered under the word power and therefore connected to that word but also because the lightning is the only blue on the front cover and blue is quite a large percentage of the cover. In stark contrast to the mass of blue, Jamie is at the bottom of the page in the foreground, coloured in black and white to make the guitar he’s hold stand out more, as that is in colour. The reasoning for the guitar to be in colour is because the coloured guitar, along with the glow it has, shows his dominance or power over music and how powerful that itself is.

My masthead also attracts the reader as not only to the colours attract people but also because both ‘Rock’ and ‘Load’ are in white and have shadows they stand out from the page as if to say ‘look at me’.

an explanation is coming soon with a vengence!

an explanation is coming soon to a blog near you!

an explantion and backround image are coming soon! you can feel the suspense

inspiration

I have been inspired by 90's cartoon series' such as 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' and 'He-Man'. Because of this I have chosen to make a reference to the 'He-Man' cartoon by having my backround as a character (most likely male) holding up a guitar while it is struck by lightning. Due to the difficulty that I would incouter trying to get a photograph of this scene I am going to take the photo of my person, guitar and hill myself, but I may have to photoshop lightning in to the image, by using an image I get from the internet. I am also not going to use anything in the backround of this image, and instead will replace it with storm clouds. I will first, before taking the image, make sure that it is not under any copyright laws, royalty free or ask the owners permission.

Questionnaire

i created a questionnaire and then posted it on facebook for people to do

my first question was what gender are you? as you can see from the results there are more males than females. this could mean more men buy music magazines and that i shouls target them, or it could just me that more males did my questionnaire.

CoD double page spread

I myself am not a fan of the call of duty games, but I do like the way this double page spread has been laid out. As the main clump text has been placed on the left page the, it means the right page can be used for an image.

There are only two main colours used because of the background being that main focus, those colours are red and white. The white is used for all the text as if is a visible colour on the background and red is used just for the quote at the top of the magazine, to cause the magazine title to stand out more and for the ticks and crosses as on that part the white wouldn’t be as visible on that part of image.

The image its self is of a soldier fully encased in clothing showing no skin at all so as to remove the humanity from it, this along with the gun and the quote are there to show you that it is a war game and not all sunshine and daisies.

Batman double page spread

This double page spread consists of a large amount of text and a few images with their own captions and therefore don’t relate to the text. This particular story is quite focused heavily on what the writer describes.

The colours used on this page have been selected because they have a relevance to the topic. The black is a link to Batman the hero of the film which is being reviewed, and the green is a reference to the joker who is the villain of the film. By having a colour scheme that is connected to the topic it helps the reader to get completely absorbed by the article. Red is also used but this is more connected to the magazine itself.

The positioning and sizing of the pictures to be inline with the columns is used to create a tidier page as have half width columns would make it look scruffy. It also means that when a reader has finished reading a column that then follows to a image they will likely take a break from reading to look at the image.

other contents page

Unlike the other contents page I have analysed this one is quite sparse and minimalist as it consists of a white page with an image that takes up 1/3 of the page and the rest is well spaced out writing.

The four main colours used are white, black, red and gold. Gold has only been used once, but it was on the large masthead which makes the magazine appear more glamorous and expensive which I get the impression is something the target market would admire.

White has been used as a background, most likely to divert the readers attention to the text and image.

Black has been used as a contrast to white and because of this both the lady’s dress and the thin bar at the top of the page stand from the background.

Red has been used for the page numbers and important titles such as ‘premiere issue’, this is to show that they are more important that the other text.

The image is of a woman in at a guess (women’s fashion is not my strong point) 1950’s clothing, this instantly makes her different to what would be expected as her clothes are different to the current fashion. The fact that the photo is in black and white also helps the reader to see that she is from a different decade due to the fact that colour television and photographs are a fairly recent thing.

Contents page

One of the most noticeable things about this contents page is the word drummer in a large bold font and the large black and white image of someone playing the drums. These 2 things are grouped together not just because the man in the photo is playing the drums but also because the colours match each other with the writing being black and most of the photo being black or at least a dark grey.

Another of the more in your face items on the page are the date and word ‘Contents’ in the top left corner and the regulars section in the bottom left, this is because they are both in red boxes and red is a very eye catching colour. It is for that same reason that all the page numbers are either written in red or in small red boxes just for them in the corners of the pictures.

The pictures all link to a story which has been easily defined with the page numbers written in the corner of each image, and then a list of what each story is about this helps keep the page tidy and yet still full. This also gives the reader one place to look to find out what’s in the magazine and then using that they can see visual prompts.

The main colours are black, white and red, all of which stand out against one another and so can be used to focus the readers attention as red on white is more out standing than black on white, which is still effective.

playstation magazine front cover

The first thing you notice when you look at this front cover of Playstation magazine is the main story about the game ‘Uncharted 2’, easily identified by the words ’UNCHARTED 2’ spread across the width of page in white and in bold. The title of this game is in larger print than the title of the magazine and shows that its is there to be eye grabbing. The font is also very asserting on the page as it is a thick and easily read font therefore it draws the audiences eyes.

The second part of the main story‘s display is a picture of the main character from the Uncharted series, Nathan Drake, holding on to a rope with one hand and firing a gun at someone with the other somewhere in the mountains. This is a dramatic picture as he seems to be in a live death situation as, by the looks of it, being suspended over a long fall while someone else tries to climb up him, the weather also adds to the drama as the sky is full of dark clouds and is raining.

The picture also uses multiple layers as shown by the fact that Nathans head is in front of the masthead, and yet the rope his hand is gripping is behind it, it is also shown by his gun and legs. This is to show how he is leaning forward with and out stretched gun which in turn makes the reader feel as if this is happening in front of them.

The main three colours used are white, gold and red. These colours are used in every issue of this magazine because despite the back round at least one is likely to stand out, there are a few exceptions to the use of these colours but only when the background image contains a large amount of one of the three colours.

The white is used in text as it stands out against the darker areas of the image highlighting what is in the magazine.

The red is used to promote special stories within the magazine, this is because red is a very strong outstanding colour and when mixed with yellow because instantly noticeable even if its just in the corner of the readers eye, they will know its there and likely read what it says.

The gold is used to promote prizes that could be won or just good buys, this is because the colour gold is the same colour as the mineral gold which is a precious metal. They also depict stories with an air of something special about them, such as a world exclusive, this is to show that that story is more valuable than the others.

This is the contents page for school magazine, i have written certain things like the page number and story headline in different colours as a reference as to what colour they would be in the final product. i have stuck to 3 main colours (red, white and blue) for the same reason as on my frontpage. The images and text that goes with it are at angles as this fills the page more and therefore makes it seem like there is more there than there actually is.

progeression on photo shop

I use Photoshop to create my background by merging a picture of the school and a picture of Arron.

Next I added 3 new layers consisting of my school logo, the word magazine and a barcode.

The logo is the 3 letters in the top left corner SHS, which stand for Smithdon high school.

The word magazine is there to create a title for the magazine when it is read with the logo.

The barcode is positioned in the bottom right, despite this not being my image it is there to make the magazine real.

I then started adding headlines such as ‘skirts - yes or no?’, leaving an open unanswered question to give the impression that the magazine is talking to the reader. I have written it in a red circle so that it becomes more eye catching to the reader.

A few more things I’ve done are, I added another headline, but used some semiotics on this as I made the word ‘rotten’ green and over a splodge like shape.

I have used throughout my entire magazine three main colours so I don’t bombard the reader with colour to the point where they no longer want to read the magazine.

Iron Maiden vocalist flies higher

Bruce Dickinson, the vocalist from ‘Iron Maiden’ has had a recent promotion to a managerial position with Astraeus Airlines. The new head of marketing has clocked over 7000 hours piloting planes for the company when not on tour with the band and even flying the bands jet from gig A to gig B when he is. His new position requireshim to, and I quote from Bruce himself, '[My job is to] bring the Astraeus message and business proposition directly to what is a relatively tight and targeted audience of people and decision-makers in aviation', so to sum up he is more of an ambassador for the company than part of a management team.

This is my first attempt at creating a magazine cover on microsoft publisher and will be used as scafolding for my task to create a school magazine front cover.

I have alotted space too specific things such as my mast head or main story's headline, with some over lap taking place with things such as headlines (of which most would be empty space) over a picture so as to fill the page and attract the readers eye.

dispite needing to attrated the eye, i must also retain a sort of minimalist approach as if i bombard the reader with a mass of colour and pictures it will be too overwhelming and therefore not attractive.

as i metioned before i used microsoft publisher for this mock, but i shall use photo shop for my actual piece of work as it is a better program.

Media Review Take 2: Orcs-Bodyguard of Lightning

From a very early age I have loved fantasy stories and this was most likely inspired by J.R.R Tolkin, the author of the famous 'Lord of the Rings' books. Tolkin is famous for creating many of the things in fantasy that are basic commonly thought of in folk lore, such elves pointed ears, and futhered many existing tales with the fame of his stories. One of the many thing that was pressed in all his writtings of middle earth is that orcs are the bad guys, but I have recently read a book called 'Bodyguard of Lightning'the first of a series called 'Orcs', published by orion books, in which orcs are not the villians of the story, but instead they are the heroes.

This is a simple concept which the author, Stan Nicholls, portrays very effectivly and this is the grounds for is marketing, as it is something out of the norm and therefore atleast interesting enough to pick up of the shelf and look at, at which point the blurb pulls you in. The blurb its self is set from the point of an orc telling the reader how they perceive orcs with lines such as 'to you I am a monster', but it then follows with 'it is time you pay heed to the beast' leaving it open ended and making the reader interested.

Other than the obvious gimmic of the role reversal, one thing I have noticed from reading the book which wasn't even attempted to be marketed is that the backround of the story, removing the fantasy element such as monster and magic, is a very accurate depiction of the christian faiths initial introduction and then clashes with paganism. I think that this is an amazing ation to the plot that should have been markted as it opens the door for many more readers.

The audience of the book doesn't seem to be too specific as it's aimed at just about any body who likes a story with monsters and sword fights, to put it simply anyone who enjoys reading fantasy stories, although having read the first of the series I can say it not even close to the same caliber as Tolkin, but still a fairly good book. I don't think they should print that on the back of the book.

Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

For my first post i'm going to stick to a subject i know and review a video game, Uncharted: Drakes Fortune. Uncharted was released in late 2007 and was extremly well recieved by the public, and after playing it I can see why.

The gameplay is a very good balance of gunfights and logic problems, such as raising the water level in a room so that you can swim to the other side of a broken bridge or turning statues to face different direction to open a hidden passage way. The combat element is simple and yet effective, it is a 3rd person shooter, which means the camera is located above one of Drake's sholders when aiming and suspended in the air behind and above drake when just left normally.

The guns came in the standard types you'd expect from a modern day shooter (pistol, shotgun, assult rifle ect) and as you progress further through the game you will pick up higher tier versions of each weapon type which offer increased damage and ammo capacity, this is invaluble towards the end of the game as the enimies are relativly hard to kill.

My only complaint with the gameplay was that once i was behind cover, manoeuvring sometimes became difficult, for instance if I dived for cover behind a pillar and attempted to move to a different side of the pillar to avoid gunfire, then it was occasionally akward and got me shot.

The story of the game is basically a very compelling and involving treasurehunt, as the protagonist Nathan Drake, a descendant of Sir Francis Drake, chases after a treasure of such great worth that Francis Drake himself kept secret from the world for fear of thieves and the monarchy taken it from him. The game opens with Nathan Drake pulling a coffin from the bottom of the ocean, a coffin that he and a reporter who has financed the retrieval, Elaina, believe to be the coffin of Francis Drake when he was buried at sea. As the lid is removed by Nate with the help of a crobar it becomes apparent that there is nothing inside except a small box containing the journal of Sir Francis Drake,this is what begins the hunt for the treasure. The treasure itself is El Dorado, the famed city of gold. But the treasure is not that of a city, but instead a very large statue that was worshiped by the native mayans. As the story progresses the secrets of the treasure are revealed and why Drake must stop it getting into the wrong hands as both the spanish armada and the Nazis have possesed it and yet none of the people who were in contact with the idol lived very long afterwards.

Like with the gameplay I am going to complain about one thing and that is the length of the story, i felt that it was too short, but this in no way affects the quality of the story, it just means that you can try it on the next difficulty that little bit quicker than expected.

The final thing i will talk about is the graphics, which in my opinion are superb, specifically the water effects. Uncharted is exclusivly on Playstation 3 and therefore has the awesome power that the Ps3 supplies and so looks fantastic. Water is common in almost all environments of that game, as for a large part of the game your in a jungle. One of the problems with water in games is the problem of the waters edge looking to straight or the splashs looking too pixelated and Uncharted has none of these, at some points it looks so realistic that you need the toliet but you cant bear to leave as the story chains you to your seat and the controller to hands. But not only are the effects good for splashing about abit but also if Drake runs through some knee height water, once he leave the denim of his jeans is soaked up to his knees. Aside from water, the graphics are brilliant everywhere e.g. every characters shadow moves with them, even as the fall in a shower of their own well coloured and textured blood.

Overall Uncharted: Drake Fortune is a brilliant game and well worth buying as the two complaints i have made are insignificant compared to the amount of fun this game is, as the story takes twists and makes you question every detail right up to the point when its all explained, the gameplay makes you laugh as you throw people around like ragdolls with a shotgun and the graphics leave you in awe of just what your doing.