foundation media final coursework evaluation

8/7/2019 Foundation Media Final Coursework Evaluation

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Final Coursework Evaluation

Alexander Allin

Candidate Number: 5005



Questions To Address



` In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media

productions?` How does your media product represent particular social

groups?

` What kind of media institution might distribute your mediaproduct and why?

` Who would be the audience for your media product?

` How did you attract/address your audience?

` What have you learnt about technologies from the processof constructing this product?

` Looking back at the preliminary task, what do you feel youhave learnt from the progression from it to the full product?



Project Brief + Introduction



` or our coursework we were askedto design and create the front cover,contents page and one double pagespread article for an imaginarymusic magazine of our own design.

` We also then had to select a targetaudience for the magazine andcarry out all of the research andplanning necessary to design amagazine which would be the mostsuccessful and appealing to this

particular group of people were it tobe published and marketed.



` or the research and development side of thecoursework we were introduced to using the bloggingwebsite WordPress.com. This allowed us to easilyaccess our coursework from anywhere with theinternet and the blog was a very easy way to manageand arrange the coursework. It also gave us more of an aspect of customisation to how the coursework waspresented as each persons blog could be completelyunique to them and each could have completelydifferent features.



` or my music magazine I decided to create a magazine that did not limit itself toonly one genre and included bands and design elements from a number of genres, although I did however choose one key genre which the magazinesdesign and layout was centralised around, and this also allowed me to narrowdown the research and planning element and to only select existing magazinesto analyse which were if the same of a similar genre.

` The Genre which I chose for my magazine in the end wasmetal and it¶s many different sub-genres as this is a genrewhich I am personally interested in and this made theproduction more enjoyable. It also meant I had moreexperience and understanding of the forms and conventionsused within this genre to attract audiences, and I couldincorporate these into my magazine.



Use / Develop / Challenge



Image

-Dark image with mostly black background and high contrast

showing shadows represents the dark concepts oftenassociated with the metal genre.-The vest top is representative of clothing often worn byfollowers and performers of metal and other similar genres.-The microphone in the vocalists hand shows clearly that thisis a music magazine from a distance and the way in which heis holding it corresponds with screaming which also connotesthe metal genre.-The expression on his face and the body language alsoconnote the genre as they represent the energy and passion

often displayed at metal gigs or shows.

Type Font

-The main font which I have used throughout for the mostof the title and text on the front cover is a custom fontcalled ́ YouAreLoved´ which I downloaded from the fontwebsite ³daFont´. It has a broken and damaged look to itwhich connotes the metal genre and it¶s harsh loud sound.

-All of the text used is also in capitals which againrepresents the loud volume which metal music is playedat.-The use of exclamation marks at the end of each of thetitles also emphasises this representation of the music asloud and also the importance of the titles and makes themstand out to the audience.



Masthead

-The title of my magazine was originally going to be

³Breakdown!´ which was a reference to the musicaltechnique used in a lot of metal music. I decided however tochange this to something more unique and more original andso I settled on the name ³Breakthrough!´.-The title is also a reference to the aspect of the magazine inwhich I feature up-and-coming new bands who are about to³break through´ in the metal music industry.-Instead of using a pre-installed font or even downloadingone I decided here to design my own. This also gave me achance to use skills from a wider variety of different programs

as I used Adobe Illustrator CS4 to do the outline. I also useda distorted metallic texture which connotes the genre of themagazine.

Cover Story

-The word ³exclusive´ at the top of the heading tells theaudience that this is the only place to read the particular

story and gives them reason to buy over competitors.-The bright yellow text stands out on the primarily darkcover and also contrasts with the dark blue used as theother main colour on the cover and the two are exactopposites to give the best contrast.

-This particular title is also bigger than the rest of thestories on the front and draws attention from a greater distance.



Brand Identity

-I mentioned previously the reasoning behind using the title

³Breakthrough!´ and the metallic texture whichIhave usedon this font as this connotes the metal genre of the

magazine.-The header of the magazine also clearly links to this with theword ³Metal´ in bold capitals and in yellow against the blackstrip of the header.-All of the images chosen have also been carefully selectedand all of the instruments, clothing and postures are allrepresentative of the metal genre.-The bold contrasting colours and block capitals used in all of

the text are also defining features of the magazine whichwould be expected to be consistent throughout future issuesfor familiarity.

Column Inch

-After the magazine title and the main article any other important and unique stories from within the magazine are

added to the cover along the left hand side in an areaknow as the column inch.

-I have decided to include three more such stories on mycover as this does not leave too much dead space or cause the cover to look crowded either.-I have put the titles of these in blue so that they stand outand as I have used yellow for the main article and thiscolour is an exact opposite.-The main body of the text for these has been placed inwhite text on a black background to give them high

contrast no matter where on the background they were

placed.



Layout

-I have arranged the page numbers and text into two equalcolumns spread over both sides of the page.-This differs from most of the music magazines which I looked at during my research as they tended to have this in

either one column down one side of condensed into morecolumns at the top or the bottom, however I think that thisworked more effectively with the amount of text I used andthe design.-I have included the title showing that this is the contentspage in the top corner and with both a coloured shadow andin black text on white so that it stands out.-I have also included the magazine title again to further reinforce the brand identity.

-Both of these as well as the page numbers are displayed inthe same damaged font as used on the front cover and this

furthers the sense of unity throughout the magazine and theconnotation of the genre throughout.

Images

-I decided to use one large image covering almost half of the page despite the previous designs I had looked at and

my original sketches as this dark, high contrast imageprovided a good central starting point for arranging therest of my images and text and blended well with thesimple ³black-to-white´ gradient which was used as well.-A series of smaller images have then been used to fill in

the space.-The majority of the images I have used are in black andwhite as I think that this is representative of the dark andheavy feel of the metal genre.



Text-I have arranged the text into two equal columns so that thereis enough to provide in-depth information on the subject butnot too much to discourage the audience from reading it.-I have used the same damaged font again as in the cover and contents to further reinforce the sense of unity and the

way in which it connotes the metal genre.-I have also used a new unique font for the article heading(³Metal Macabre´) which the audience will associate with the

uniqueness of the band and it is again a font which I feelconnotes the genre with it¶s sharp, bold edges and points andcomplex design.

Layout

-I have chosen to use two columns over to one side of thepage instead of splitting it and having one either side or one large and two half columns so that the text flowsbetter when reading the article.-I have used the same format for the page number withthe magazine title in the bottom corners as for thecontents to give a sense of unity throughout themagazine.-The text columns in total take up around one third of thespace on the page with the rest allowing me to include a

lot of images to support the text. This does however appear to be more as the columns are spaced out andhave one of the images underneath them.



Colour Scheme-I have chosen to use the same colour scheme throughoutthe entire of my magazine production so that the variouspages fit together and it can be clearly seen that they are of the same magazine.-I have however used the blue and yellow combination here a

lot less than on the cover and have used a lot more red, and I think that this, similarly to the title, gives this article a senseof uniqueness which the audience will relate to the band.

-I have also used very faint shades of the blue and yellow tohighlight portions of the article text such as the quotes andthe interview section.

Images

-Instead of using equal images spread across the article I chose to use one larger image as the central point of focus on the page, and this image has been left in blackand white and bleeds into black background to give theimpression that it covers the entire page.-The black and white of the image also adds to theatmosphere of the photograph.-The image being larger is also representative of thesubjects position in the band as it is of the lead vocalist, or ³frontman´.

-The band does however have to lead vocalists and soout of the three smaller images the other vocalist is in thecentral position.



Social Groups and Stereotypes



The lead singer of the band portrayed

in the picture, Dean, is often

associated with his lively, energy filled

on-stage performances and his

emotional lyrics. I have chosen to use

this photograph for the cover as I think

that the way in which he is holding the

microphone and his facial expression

are both representative of the emotion

which he is putting into his screaming,

and also the way in which he is

clutching at his stomach whilst singing

also represents an ³inner pain´ which

is being shown through the

performance. I have also blurred out

the background of the image

significantly to show how he is the

most important figure in this image.



Chosen Media Institutions



` If my magazine were to be published I believe that it would most likely be by an institutionsuch as Bauer Media Group.

` Bauer Media currently own and distribute products for over 300 magazines, as well asbeing involved in television and radio production. Some examples of products distributedby Bauer Media are ³Kerrang!´ and ³Q´ magazines, both of which are internationallypopular and are read by thousands of readers every day, and all of The Bauer Media¶smagazines circulate a total of up to 38 million issues each week.

` I believe that my music magazine is in the same league asthese existing companies and having my magazine relatedto these popular publications through the Bauer MediaGroup would have very good connotations and would beextremely useful in helping my magazine to gain recognition.The links that Bauer Media also have with television andradio would also be invaluable in helping with the distributionof my magazine to new audiences, something which hasbeen proved beyond doubt by ³Kerrang!´ alone who alsohave an internationally famous Music television channel aswell as a radio station and online radio, which together create the kind of popularity which I would strive to createaround my own ³Breakthrough!´ magazine.



Who are they and how has thisaffected production?



Primary Audience` I have designed my magazine to appeal to mainly to teenagers from

the ages of around 16 up to people in their twenties. This is becausethe style of Metal and especially it¶s sub-genres which I am focusing onhave only really become at all mainstream and internationally popular in the last 10-15 years or so. The magazine is also targeted mainly atmales simply because the genre is far more popular with younger males than any other group of people, although this does not restrictthe people who may find this magazine of interest and it has beendesigned to be just as open to female audiences. I have also set theprice of my magazine at somewhere around the £2.oo mark and so thetarget audience will also be the people whom the magazine is the mostfinancially affordable to.



I believe that I have attracted the members of my target audience in amanner of different ways.

` Firstly the metal genre has become increasingly more popular over recent years and so simply be creating a metal magazine I haveaddressed the needs of an ever growing audience.

` I have also included a range of both solely British bands and alsointernational recognised bands allowing me to appeal to a greater audience.

` By including my feature in which I list new up-and-coming bands I cater for the needs of members of my audience who like to discover littleknown bands ³before they¶re famous´ and who do not like feeling likethey are following the crowd by being a fan of an internationally famous

band.` I have closely followed the format of some extremely popular

magazines, especially ³Kerrang!´.

` I have focused on both old and new metal bands to appeal to a wider age range.



I have addressed my audience through a number of features.

Primary Audience

` A price that is low enough as to be affordable by all members of mytarget audience, and at the same time high enough to denote that thisis a high quality publication.

` Additional extras that other magazine may not have such as the uniquefree gifts included with each issue and the competitions giving readersthe opportunity to win limited edition merchandise.

Secondary Audience` I have also included the page number of a subscription to the magazine

and so my secondary audience would be those who received themagazine in this way.



Good value, affordableprice tag.

Clearly states the genre rightthe top of the magazine in a

bright, contrasting colour.

A quick list of some world famousand well known bands of the genre

to attract devoted fans of thesebands.

Large bold title in a uniquecustom font with metallictexture connotes the genreas well as giving the

magazine it¶s own sense of identity.

Contains information on

both live and studiorecordings to suit allreaders tastes.

Unique free gifts to entice

the target audience tochoose this magazineover other similar

publications.

Specialist advice for existing band members

helps appeal to an even wider audience.

Words such as ³exclusive´ and³first´ tell the audience that thisis the only magazine which will

tell them this information.

The word ³win´ is repeatedthree times to emphasise the

fact that this is another uniquereason to buy the magazine

Large cover image which isrepresentative of musicians of

the genre.



³Contents´ title at the top of

the page with colour andhigh contrast black on whiteto clearly show the purpose

of the page.

Magazine title is again shown at thetop to reinforce the sense of brand

identity.

Large background imageinstantly draws the readersattention to the main articleto which it is linked.

Unique tagline ³This week inmetal!´ further adds to the

sense brand identity andclearly connotes the genre.

Simple gradient fill for

remainder of thebackground does not drawattention away from text or

images and also blends well

with the main, large image.

Page numbers are dividedinto sections to allow readersto find specific articles withease.

Red page numbers highlightcover stories which isespecially useful for new

readers of the magazinewho wish to just look at the

specific articles whichbrought them to opening upthe magazine.

It is clear which article each of the images is linkedto which allows readers to head straight to these if

they find the images more interesting that the

descriptions.



Large main image actsas a central point for thepage which everything

else is centred around.New, unique font used for the article header makes it unique and stand out from the rest

of the magazine.

Dark, black andwhite imageconnotes the dark,heavy feel of metal

music.

ombination of yellow and blue used is thesame as the magazine cover and creates a

sense of unity between the two pages.

The remainingthree images areeach in a differentshape and style of

colouring to make

each one uniqueto the bandmember itportrays.

The ³reviews´section header is in

the same font as themajority of the texton the front cover and the contents

title.

The page number

and magazine title inthe bottom corners is

in the exact samestyle as the contents

page



Magazine Cover

` ³I really like the banners at the top and the bottom of the page, they really help to frame the photo well.´

` ³The yellow colour used for the main title text and in the top and bottom left corner stands out very well and this could havebeen used more.´

` ³The blue colour used for the font however is not so effective, especially in the bottom article as it is barely readable.´

Contents Page

` ³The page numbers really stand out from the page and this is the first thing you see, which is really what you want from acontents page´

` ³The central image is very effective and I like the way it¶s been used as the background for the page, blending in with thebackground.´

` ³The image is very good, although it is a shame that only two out of the four people are actually looking at the camera.´

` ³The way that small images are linked to the relevant articles is very helpful for finding them quicker without having to readthrough all the text. ´

Double Page Spread

` ³The photographs used are very good here, even better than the front cover and contents page which is good as they cover a larger area, and I really like how the large image is very central and covers a large area providing a good central point for the pages.´

` ³Dividing the page into two halves with the images on one side and the text on the other is very clear and helpful for findinginformation.´

` ³I do not like the new font at the top of the page, despite being different, and unique to the band it does not fit in with the restof the page at all, should probably have kept with the same font as the front cover and other titles.´

` ³The continued blue and yellow is good and adding the third primary colour, red, in here is very effective.



How have my skills progressed?



` The first bit of technology which we were required to use in theactual production of our coursework production pieces was adigital camera to take the actual photos which would later useand manipulate to create the main focal points of all of our

production pieces, making this possibly also the most importantpiece of equipment used.

` One of the other A-level subjects I am currently studying isPhotography and I have taken a keen interest in this for quite a

few years now, and as a resultI

was already at a considerableadvantage when starting this project in terms of takingphotographs.

` The camera which I currently own and used for taking all of the photos for this project is a Canon EOS 550D DSLRand takes images at a resolution of 18 megapixels which is of a very high quality and far more than the minimumrequirement for this project.

` As a result my technical knowledge in the use of the actual camera itself has not really changed much at all as I was already familiar with my own camera. One very important thing which I have learnt however in relation tophotography is about organising and performing photoshoots with models, and in this case actual bands especially,

can be far more difficult in itself than any of the actual processes involved in creating the images. Luckily as I wasalready in contact with band members and had all the knowledge to go out and take photographs I had more timefor planning shoots and when they did not go ahead or to plan (which unfortunately was much more frequent thanplanned...) I was able to plan further shoots and in the end I did end up with a series of photographs to use, all shotto a very high, near-professional standard.



` The main piece of editing software which we used in the

construction of our production pieces was an image editing

program called Adobe Photoshop.

` I was again already at quite a significant advantage when we started the

project in this respect as I had already been teaching myself in the use of this

program for the past couple of years andI

also had a lot of experience from my AS level photography the previous year.

` This did mean that whilst everyone else was just beginning to learn the basics I

was able to start on the production straight away and I finished the preliminary

task very early on and to a reasonably high standard.

` Since then my skills in using Photoshop have again improved even further and

I enjoyed being able to use the program for a much wider variety of processes,

as I did in fact use the one program for the production of my entire magazine

cover and contents page, as well as for editing the image which I later used in

my double page spread.



4. When using Ps I always like to keep allof my work asorganised as

possible, with eachdifferent part of thecomplete image onit¶s own layer. Thisparticular piece had

around seventylayers in total, far more than I had ever previously worked

with onP

hotographyor personal projects,and so thisexperience hasreiterated theimportance of

organisational skillswhen working onsuch a large scaleproject.

1. As we were onlytaught the function of

the most basic tools inPs (lasso, selection,

marquee, crop etc.) myprevious knowledgeallowed me to easily

and professionally use

more advanced toolssuch as the

dodge/burn, clonestamp and healing

brush right from theoffset with no technical

difficulties.

2. When using the computersavailable to us at school we were

unable to install and use custom fontsand so having the same version of

Photoshop installed on my ownlaptop was invaluable in the creation

of my production pieces, as the fontswere a central point of all of my work.

3. I used an extremely wide variety of editingtechniques in my production which were not taughtto us, for example the use of masking, custombrushes, filters and ready stored actions, all of which helped to greatly speed up a series of complex procedures and this allowing me to spend

far more time on the other less familiar aspects of the production.

1.

2.

3.

4.



` For the magazine cover and the contents page I was able touse Photoshop to not only edit the images but also constructand edit the entire of the rest of the piece, however for thedouble page spread article we were asked to use a different program, and one whichI had absolutely no prior knowledge of, Adobe InDesign.

` Right from the beginning I did not get on with this particular program and I think thatmay be down to me being so used to doing a similar thing in Photoshop, a program I had been using for far longer, and as a result I was unable to get used to even thebasic controls at first and kept trying to produce everything in the exact same way asI would have done in Photoshop. I was still able to edit all of my images however inPs and so in the end I did decide to try and limit the amount of work done using thisprogram so that I would still be able to create a piece that was to as good a standardas the front cover and contents page.

` In conclusion I have most definitely improved the most in my use of this programcompared to the rest although I still think that given the choice I would have preferredto use Photoshop for all of the coursework simply because I would have found it

easier and would have been able to spend more time on fine tuning and details.



` One additional program which I used wasanother piece of software by Adobe Systemscalled Adobe Illustrator which is used for creating vector baseddrawings. This was not one of the programs which we wereinstructed to use for the production of our coursework and I decided

to use it asIalready had the necessary knowledge and experiencerequired to use it.

` As I was again already quite able to use this program for the specificpurpose which I did for this project, I also did not really gain much interms of technical skill, however then one main thing which I havegained from this is the ability to speed up the particular process, as I was required to work much faster than usual due to the fact that thiswas not something for which the required time was originallyfactored into the time we were given.



` As I mentioned before we were required to use a ³blogging´website called Wordpress for the research and planning side of the coursework and also for uploading images showing all of thevarious stages of the production.

` Before this I had never had any experience with any blogging websites of any kind and sothis entire process has been a learning experience for me.

` The preliminary task of creating the student magazine was also very useful in regards tothis side of the coursework as it not only helped us to prepare for creating the actual

magazine cover etc. but also gave us some much needed time to grow accustomed tousing the blog on a regular basis.

` Overall I think that my experience in using this website has increased more than with anyof the other programs or equipment used during this project, even if only because of thefact that I had no previous experience at all. I have learnt to keep my work up-to-date withregular updates to the blog and also to make sure that I do all of my work in the correctorder so that everything flows together better and is uploaded to the blog in the correctlinear fashion.

` Using this blog as opposed to a more traditional method such as a simple portfolio or coursework folder has also provided a great advantage because of the fact that it isaccessible from any computer I may be working on and which has an internet connection,which prevents the risk of any forgotten or lost work. Finally it also means that I was able toinclude videos or other such influences which I would not have been able to use at allotherwise.

http://alallin.wordpress.com/



This Screenshot shows some of the ³behind-the-scenes´ workings of my Wordpressblog. Here you can see the clear well structured and organised layout of the sites user control panel or ³dashboard´ as it¶s known. It also shows an example of some of theHTML code used by the site to insert images and format text, and while some of the

basics are easy enough to learn, everything can be fully automated and done using thesites more friendly ³visual´ interface. It also shows how it is possible to edit the actualdate a post was created on, a feature which can be extremely helpful in organising

posts and inserting things you maybe forgot or decided to include at a later date.

Another very usefulfeature of the

Wordpress blog is theability to categorise

each post into aseries of customcategories and sub-categories, which canthen in turn be usedby readers to filter outinformation whenreading the blog. I

decided to divide my

posts into ³MusicMagazine´, ³StudentMagazine´ and³Research andPlanning´, with sub-categories within theefor each of themagazine cover,contents and double

page spread.

From this page you canalso access the

customisation optionsfor the blog through the³appearance´ tab in theleft hand column. Thisallows you to choose

from among hundredsof layouts and also

choose which tabs andadditional features youwant to include on your

blog, making it aspersonalised as

possible.



` Another website which I have used extensively over the course of this project is the widely famous socialnetworking site ³Facebook´. I think that out of the key websites which I have used during this project this is actually the only one which I haveany previous experience with and this was of course very usefulconsidering the way in which I used the site in relation to my project.

` I used this website mainly as an easy way to receive audiencefeedback in a relatively short space of time and without having toactually go out and ask lot and lots of people in turn. Doing this alsomade the process of gathering my results to be able to analyse them alot easier, as with a questionnaire I found that a lot of time was spentcollating the results and manually typing them up to be able to usethem on the blog or into tables to create graphs. However by using anonline social networking website such as Facebook I was able to simply

copy and paste the information into a Microsoft Word or Exceldocument in a matter of minutes.



` One final additional website which we used duringthe process of creating the music magazine was awebsite called µScribd¶. The site can be described asa web based document-sharing site and the website is actually officiallylinked with Wordpress in some way, allowing you to upload documents to apersonal Scribd account and then insert them directly into a post on theblog for viewing.

` It is possible to upload any kind of document to Scribd for sharing, fromMicrosoft Word (or other word processing software) documents toPower Point Presentations and Graphs. As we are however of coursealready able to insert and format text directly using the blog itself there wasnot need to use Scribd for this and I have only found the site necessary for slideshows (in fact you might even be reading this right now throughScribd!), and also for uploading a blank copy of the questionnaire used for my audience feedback.

` Again, similarly to Wordpress this was a website which I had no previousexperience with at all and so every single time I have used this right fromcreating an account and uploading my first document, has been a learningexperience and my knowledge and usage of the site has inevitablyincreased.



What have I leant in the end?



` Overall I am very pleased with how the finalcoursework production pieces have turned out and I have learnt a lot over the course of the 7 monthsthat I have been working on it.

` If I were to do this again I would however try to usePhotoshop for all of the coursework pieces as whileI have improved greatly in my use of InDesign I stillthink I could have done better or at very least got

the work done a lot quicker by using a program withwhich I am more familiar.



Thank you for your time.

foundation media final coursework evaluation

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