REBEL

evaluation

IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCTUSE DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND CONVENTIONSOF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?

For my magazine I have used the idea of creating an art style magazine from Ray Gun magazine. However, I have developed the idea of a more individual style by incorporating the more typical conventions of magazines of the colour palette, use of thirds to create a more recognisable and understandable layout. I have created a specifically punk music genre magazine which is not very common because punk is quite a niche genre therefore my magazine would not appeal to the masses like mixed genre music magazines like Q and NME do. I mixed the styles and conventions used in Ray Gun and more well known music magazines like NME to create a mix of art style but keep the recognisable conventions of mainstream magazines so that I attract my target audience. I created the street art style by editing the photographs and replicating the painted stencil style of street art. To add to the art effect of the cover I wanted to create a layered, ripped collage to suggest a warn away billboard. I replicated Miss-Tic’s style of street art by using a strong black and white defined photo against a collage of ripped images. To link in another aspect of punk genre I used a roughly painted worn image of the Union flag. I also included images of a worn down brick wall to link to street art and the idea that punk comes from rough urban areas. I used a bold font for the masthead that represented the style of the magazines as it patchy which again links to street art.

The title REBEL links strongly with the music genre and it also links to the street art influence. As well as the masthead I used several other fonts throughout my magazine in a typical mainstream magazine there might not be somemany different fonts on the cover but I wanted to link it to graffiti and how lots of tags with different handwriting and styles are painted onto walls. I used the typical convention of red, black and white because it is recognisable and stands out well but also because the contrasting colour fits with the punk genre. I used appropriate costumes and props, ripped clothing, leather jackets and blazers with safety pins, and the guitar to portray punk style and attitude.I also portrayed the punk attitude through the poses and stance of the models. I had the models look nonchalantly directly into the camera to connect to the audience and in the long shots of the artists on the contents page I had the models look away from the camera as though they were uninterested. I wanted to use a picture of an artist swearing however I thought it might put people off it was used on the cover so I decided to use it in the article. In the article I used a colloquial tone to engage the reader and make them feel more involved in the interview by using a colloquial tone for the interviewer as well as the band. I wanted the interview to seem natural and reflect the punk attitude so I included swear words which made it sound more realistic.

I kept the contents page layout simple and less busy as the cover because like typical magazine layouts the contents needs to be easy to read and broken down into sections to make it interesting to reader and easy to find certain sections. I kept the street art and punk style on the content page by using military style fonts and creating the black bands which I wanted to link to police tape. Also the photographs, poses and colour scheme help show the genre on the contents page.

HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT

PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?

Similar expression – both look almost bored and making direct eye contact with the camera therefore the audience as well

Both have messy hair styles which is shows they are not interested in looking like “perfect” mainstream stars

It is not clear from this picture but Joan Jett has tattoos

Both have a feminine edge to their punky styles by showing flesh and wearing tight clothing

Joan Jett is associated with a past era of punk and Katie represents an upcoming artist

Joan’s clothing is more sexualised than Katie’s because she is wearing tight leather and revealing more skin

Katie’s pose seems more comfortable because Joan is standing awkwardly however Joan’s stance suggests she’s in control

Katie engages the audience more because the shot is closer and she is looking straight up at the audience Joan is almost

looking down at the audience whereas Katie is looking up

However, the direct eye contact makes the audience feel like they are in control

They both represent a non-conformist style of music artist because they are not trying to follow popular fashion trends and are going against the perfect pop star image with messy hair and dark make-up. This would appeal to the audience who do not like the idea of mainstream artist who all look similar and don’t have their own style or show individuality.

Publishing is the process of preparing, creating and issuing newspapers, books, magazines and other media text for the general public to access. For my magazine, I would want an independent publishing company like Development Hell Ltd to be my publisher because although it is very small publishing company I think my magazine style fits their type of publishing. They only publish two other magazines – The Word and Mixmag which are specific genres of music aimed at a certain audience which is what my magazine is. The Word magazine also has an art style like my magazine so it might open up the audience for my magazine from current customers of The Word. Development Hell Ltd is based in London which good for my magazine because it is aimed at a British audience. However, I think with the artists featured and style there would be some interest internationally because there are bigger bands included who would be more widely known. Development Hell Ltd’s other magazines are not mainstream so are not distributed to every shop and news agent however there would be certain branches of retailers who would be issued a few copies of every issue where the target audience will return to because they know the retailers sell the magazine.

WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT

DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT & WHY?

WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR

YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT?

Katie Riley is an A-Level student who is very interested in music specifically classic British rock. Her Dad introduced her to lots of different types of music from his era from mod to punk and everything in between. He has a large record collection which Katie has grown up with and her interest in

that era of music and the punk attitude of individuality and not compromising style for mainstream acceptance has grown. She is a very individual when it comes to fashion and likes to mix different styles of British culture. Her country pursuit interest comes through with designer clothes from Jack Wills which she mixes with a more laid back style. Although she does like designer labels she does not follow the crowd and doesn’t look to modern mainstream celebrities to inspire her. My magazine would appeal to her because of the style of the artists she might look to the type of artists I use in my magazine for inspiration on her own style. As well as fashion, Katie is very interested in art, more specifically street and urban art as well as more traditional forms of art. She likes the expressiveness of art, my magazine with its strong links to street art and individual style would appeal to her.

My target audience for my music magazine is older teenagers and young adults but it might also appeal to middle age who were the “original” punk fans. Some middle age punk fans might have an interest more modern up to date punk bands and they would like the recognition of the original punk rock bands. My magazine is aimed at males and females because it features both male and female artist and the colour scheme is nonspecific to either gender. My target audience would be interested in art and more individual styles of media, they will like the anti-mainstream style of the magazine.

How did you attract / address yo

ur audience?

I attracted/ addressed my audience by using an unusual style of magazine mixing street art a recognisably anti-establishment form of art with punk music which is also anti-establishment. The mix of individual style and typical conventions will appeal to people who want a different style and specific music genre magazine and also other people who may enjoy other types of music besides punk but like the artistic style of the magazine. I attracted my audience by keeping typical conventions involved because if I went against all conventions and made a completely different style of magazine like Ray Gun it might make the market smaller because its too different. I wanted to include a variety of punk music within my magazine so I mentioned more pop-punk style Green Day, acoustic style Frank Turner and Big Audio Dynamite who are associated with the past punk generation through Mick Jones (The Clash). The range of punk artists and information about upcoming and returning artist would attract my target audience of young adults and those of the past punk generation who are still interested in staying in touch with past and present punk artists. I included male and female models to show my audience that it is aimed at males and females. I was going to use an all-male band as my artist which is recognisable in the punk music genre however I wanted to attract more female audience members so I decided to portray a all-female punk band to shows that girls can pull off punk too. This was my unique selling point for my first issue – an upcoming all-girl punk band which is not very common so this would attract an audience to find out more. For the photo edits I tried to replicate Banksy’s stencil style which is well known and would stand out on the shelf and draw my audience’s attention.

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT TECHNOLOGIE

S

FROM THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING THIS

FUJIFILM Finepix HS10

Toshiba laptop with Window Vista

Seagate External Hard-drive

I learnt to use the different settings on my camera depending on what lighting I wanted. I also learnt how to focus it so that I could focus on a certain feature.

I did nearly all of the work for the project on this laptop.

I used this to transport working PSD files to and from school. I also saved all the images on this.

HP Officejet Scanner and Printer

Canon Inkjet printer

I printed the drafts and final draft on off on this printer.

I used this to scan magazines for analysis and to scan my annotated drafts.

I used Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 to create my magazine and mock-ups.

I used the effects in Photoshop to edit the photographs.

I learnt to use layers of photographs to create a background.

I used the effects to edit fonts to make them bolder or engraved.

I uploaded on to YouTube the video of my pitch questions. This was the first time I had uploaded my own video on to YouTube.

I used Scribd to upload the results from my questionnaire from Word onto my blog.

I used Blogger to present all process from the initial research to the final evaluation.

I used Flickr to collect images during my research into street artists.

I used Slideshare to present my research into magazine institutions and my evaluation.

I used Facebook for the questionnaire and to organise the photoshoot.

I used Animoto to present my magazine pitch.

LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK

– WHAT DO

YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE PR

OGRESSION FROM

IT TO YOUR FULL PRODUCT?

From my preliminary task I have learnt what is and isn’t successful techniques to include in a magazine. For example on my preliminary cover I used different fonts for the cover lines however they didn’t stand out from each other so it wouldn’t really attract the audience. So for my final piece I knew to use different fonts, sizes and colours for the cover lines and puffs to make them stand out more. Also the effect for the background on my preliminary cover was the same as the contents page which didn’t make it look very professional therefore I didn’t use the same background for the cover and contents page on my final magazine. I also learnt to use a background that linked better to the genre of the magazine. Since the preliminary task I have learnt more about photography and my camera skills have improved. I now know that the location and lighting of the photoshoot is important. The images for my prelim magazine were taken indoors with little light so the images are quite dark and the models looked quite orange whereas for my final photoshoot I tested the lighting until I got the lighting right with a small amount of shadow. I also learnt more about thirds and how I had to layout the cover and DPS for it to look right and not have lots of empty spaces.

For the contents page, I learnt from my preliminary task that I needed to break up the text so it was less like a list and more interesting to read, and the bullet points made the magazine seem short and too formal. I also needed to shorten names of the features to make them stand out more. However my draft contents page was to simplistic which made it ineffective and the features didn’t have anything to encourage the audience to read them. So I had to research more into other magazines’ contents pages to use typical conventions of sections and subheadings with text to entice the reader to go to the pages. My contents page improved greatly from the preliminary task to the final product because I learnt what did not work (bullet point list and page names too long or too short) so I did not use this in the final version.