Name: Jack KayCandidate number: Centre: 33435 Aquinas college

AS Media Studies OCR G321: Foundation Portfolio

Brief from OCR syllabus

Q1. Who would be the audience for your media product?

Mood board representative of my target and ideal audience

Demographic The primary audience for my magazine would be mainly male, but is open to females since the genre of music that features in my hybrid is susceptible to both the male and female sex. But the influence of the skate genre (since the magazine is a hybrid) sways it more towards the male target audience. So I would describe females as my secondary audience and males as my primary. The age range is very important and I think that when looking at the different features and themes of my magazine, the age range most suited is the teenage market towards the mid twenties age range. This is since anyone can listen to indie music and at the moment it is an extremely popular genre. But because my magazine is a hybrid genre with skateboarding, that limits the audience broadness a lot, usually people who are interested in skating or skate themselves fit into this age bracket. Also the ideal reader is from Manchester, since the magazine is themed and set around Manchester including many music related events either situated in Manchester or near to the area.

A magazine similar (reference)

Already existing pieces of mediaAll of these magazines are references to my product that I have made, they are all references since not only are they examples of my ideal design but they all also link to the mood board and therefore should be the sort of existing media that my ideal reader would read. So therefore it would be a suitable thing to do to base many of my products features on these examples of magazines.

Also these magazines somewhat dictate the target audience for my magazine since my magazine uses similar styles in its presentation. All the colours are most commonly seen as male colours e.g. red black and yellow. So this was another way I was able to define the sort of audience I was trying to reach.

Q2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Ideal reader: My ideal reader was represented through the images used on all of my products but specifically my front cover since I used multiple images which all represent my ideal reader. I used mise en scene to pinpoint a specific social group which is indie/skateboarding. My pictures also connote youth and style in terms of the hybrid genre.

Another example of how I have represented the specific social group is through the use of my image of Castlefield bowl. This works effectively since this location and image is known for gigs that are related to the music genre of indie, and my magazine is called ‘Manchester Scene Mag’, this is relevant because Castlefield is a well known venue for gigs in Manchester. Also the artists and bands that play there are usually indie bands.

On all three of my media products I used images that I think are representative of the social group that I am trying to reach.

This is an example of how I used Mise en Scene effectively and also props. The shirt in the picture has ‘Manchester’ written on it. This is relevant since it targets people from Manchester and the music from Manchester is known for being mostly ‘Indie’

This image was used to portray Leeds festival and festival life and I feel it is important when representing my social group since the social group I'm trying to reach would go to festivals and specifically Leeds festival. Also the iconography of this image is once again representative of my social group since the clothes he is wearing fit the group.

Cover stars

When taking pictures of my cover stars I tried to make each of them similar the social group I was trying to reach. For example my cover stars featured on my double page spread are both young and fit into the age group of 15-19, this is the demographic for my magazine and since the cover stars seem to be the same age as the audience it allows my readers to look up to the cover stars and allows them to relate to the cover stars also. They are also the same gender as my ideal reader and the mise en scene of the cover stars is casual, rebellious and young which you would assume is the style that my target audience would want to use and would want to look like.

EXAMPLE. This is an example of a band that fits into my social group and also shares the same style of my ideal social group (Casual)

This picture shows the cover stars of my contents page. This is the first real example of how my magazine fits into the hybrid genre and represents the other side of my social group. The mise en scene is used effectively in this picture since the cover stars both have skateboards and this links to the other half of the social group since the other genre that my magazine fits into is skateboarding. But I refrained from using too many pictures with skateboarding iconography since it is the second and less important genre since my magazine is primarily a music magazine.

Example of skateboarding iconography

Q3. What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

The magazine that if feel is the most similar to mine in style and genre is the NME magazine. Therefore I have chosen to use the same distributor that NME magazine use, this is IPC Media. My magazine would rival NME and would use this rivalry to its advantage.

IPC are a leading media distributer that are involved with and produce over 85 recognizable different media brands, most importantly and significantly NME magazine. They also produce Uncut magazine which is the sister publication for NME magazine. The fact that IPC produce these kinds of media products would highly benefit my magazine as it would help give the media product a conventional identity and the potential target market for these kinds of magazines is huge since they feature a lot of chart music, this would once again benefit my media product because it would give a brand identity related to general chart music.

Distribution My magazine would be distributed differently to similar magazines e.g. NME. For example the NME magazine is released weekly and a subscription for NME magazine is £18.99. For my brand and magazine I have decided that I would have the subscription price much lower than £18.74, this is since my magazine would only come out once every month rather than once a week. If the subscription price was as high as the price for NME it would put off potential readers since it would be extremely steep for one issue a month. I think that one issue a month over a weekly product is better for my magazine since the longer time between each issue allows for developments of the subject matters that would be featured inside the magazine, e.g. Gigs and festival announcements .

The quality and the depth of the magazine and its features would be lowered if it was a weekly issue. The price that a single issue of my magazine would be sold for is £2.50, this is a very affordable and attractive price especially when offers and freebees are in the magazine.

£7.50

£35.00

£68.50

Website: Promotion etc.

The URL link is simple and short, also it gives the website the identity of my media product and is easy to remember and to search. Also preferably I would have my magazines logo next to the URL so the website is recognisable straight away.

A picture of the most recent issue next to the subscribe button, this is extra promotion and lets potential readers see the product before either buying it or subscribing to the magazine.

Another example of how my magazine’s logo would be used for promotion and to ensure the website is recognisable as soon as a viewer enters it.

A news section, including the latest news that could feature in the magazine or that is related to the content of the magazine and what the ideal reader of the product would be interested in

Merchandise

Q4. In what way does your media product use, develop or challenge

forms and conventions of real media products?

For my front cover I decided to base it on an already existing music magazine which is of the same genre and style as my music magazine, I chose NME. The NME covers seem to follow and use the conventions of a normal magazine probably because they are such a large magazine. For my magazine I used a similar style of masthead with a similar colour scheme which is red and black. This colour scheme is somewhat common in the media industry and can be seen on many different front covers, I chose this colour scheme because I think it is popular for a reason and it does not over complicate the page and the two colours contrast each other very well. But with my masthead I developed the conventional NME masthead by adding an extra colour which is white instead of just red and black. Also on my front cover I masked out a picture that is relevant to the features. This is unusual since most front covers include pictures that are squared, this was one of the most original ideas on my front cover. Another convention that I stuck to was the use of pugs in the corners of the page. On my front cover you can see a pug in the bottom left hand corner, along with the black advertisement bar, these conventions are very common with NME magazine. My headline could be said to have challenged normal conventions since it is not a regular font and is original and not just standard text, quite often magazines will use squared large text for the headlines but I boxed of each letter to create an indie effect and feel. For my front cover I did not feature a pull quote, this would seem to be challenging the conventions of front covers, but actually my reference front covers for the most part don’t use pull quotes either, so I have once again followed a front cover convention. My main image uses direct address which all of my similar front covers use to create the same effect and I chose to follow this convention because it grabs the readers attention faster since the most prolific part of the front cover is looking at the reader. My sub heading shows nearly no similarity to any of my referenced media products as it has been crafted, it isn't just simple text. Finally I have a barcode in the bottom right of the page which is very normal and is a standard for most magazines so I chose to keep it the same because it looks the best in that position, but I did not include a price which is a convention of front covers, I did this because I felt it was not necessary to be on my page and would have made my page just a bit too cluttered and would have ruined the clean and simple layout that I attempted to achieve.

I feel that my contents page was much more conventional than my front cover in not only its visual style but also its layout. First I will start with the colour scheme. From looking at my reference media products it is clear that once again red and black is an extremely popular and conventional colour scheme but even more so when it comes to contents pages. I decided to stick to the convention because I had to keep coherence between my front cover and my contents page since the contents page comes directly after the front cover, this sense of coherence is a convention with all media products and is a convention that must be used and met to create a professional looking media product. The next convention and most obvious one that I followed apart from the colour scheme is the layout. All three of my references use one main image and at least one secondary image. I followed this convention to the point, as you can see my contents page has three images that are all anchored (which is another convention), and my main image is the largest and is situated on the right side of the page. All three of the media products have their main image on the rights side of the page. I placed my features on the left side of the page and used a page number system that is similar to the DRUMMER contents page. One thing I did that maybe challenged normal conventions is I made my issue number and date a large and very visible part of my contents page. As you can see on the picture, they are placed directly next to the masthead, when usually they are put to the far right of the masthead. I did this because I preferred the look of it this way since it stuck to the layout style I have tried to achieve on each of my pages. My use of ink splatters is an unconventional technique which I used because it added depth to the presentation of the page and made it look a lot less bland, this had to be done because the colour scheme is so simple and not majorly bright and colourful. I would say though that my typeface is fairly conventional because it is very normal and blocky, which is definitely the most common type or style of font used on any media product, and this font style is used on all three of my references. I used it because it is easy to read and stands out. A difference is that my magazine does not use or have an editors letter. The editors letter is a contents page convention, but I feel it was unnecessary and would have overcrowded my page, I feel that the only form of text on a contents page other than the masthead, date and issue number should be the features, since they are the most important aspects of the contents page other than the pictures. They should create attention since they are advertising the innards of the rest of the magazine.

I think that out of all three of my media products my double page spread is the most conventional in terms of general conventions but also the iconography of the genre of indie. In my main image one of my characters has a tie dye t-shirt on. This fits into the iconography of the music genre indie but also the band that the two people are trying to imitate. This makes my double page spread feel more realistic and professional as the picture actually has relevance and anchors to the headline and the article itself. Also the picture connotes happiness which is discussed in the article and is supposed to be one of the main themes of the double page spread. This is all the same with the secondary image, the person is posing as one of the members of the band and the picture is anchored well by the secondary pull quote which is another convention I used. The secondary image connotes once again happiness and it looks like it was taken at a festival which is relevant to the pull quote. My text fully conforms to the conventions of a double page spread. The article uses columns which I feel are extremely important when creating a double page spread since it gives the article a look of order and tidiness, it also allows for more room for text. However my text is not fully conventional since it is blocked of in a black square, on the other three double page spreads you can see that all of the text is free standing and put on top of the background. I decided to do this because it let me push the colour scheme of my page and if I hadn't have done it, the page would not have stood out at all because there would have been a lack of colour. I used a pull quote that conforms to the conventions of a double page spread very much so since it is situated in the top corner of one of the pages like the already existing media products. I placed it there really just because I felt that is where it looked the best. My page numbers are placed on both of the bottom corners of the page which is fairly conventional. I did not use a dropped cap for my double page spread which challenges convention. I did this because I already had a black background behind my text so it was clear where the article started so there was no need for a dropped cap to be used.

Q5. How did you attract / address your audience

Free offers (posters, multiple bands related to the genre of the magazine and the interests of the target audience

Direct gaze, this directly addresses the audience

Large and bold headline

Anchored text, anchored to the cover star “CLIFFE”

Cover star

Large and bold masthead, easily noticeable to attract the audience

Skateboarding is the sub genre of my magazine, so featuring a skateboarder as a feature addresses the demographic of the product who skateboard and or are interested in skateboarding

GenderThe magazine I have created is primarily aimed at the males, since the cover star is a male and the primary colours of the magazine are stereotypically male colours. Also skateboarding is conventionally a male sport. But my magazine is still able to address females since the music genre of the magazine is indie music, this is significant because indie music is unisex.

AgeThe target audience for my magazine would fit into nearly any age bracket but mostly 15-25. This is since indie music as a genre can attract nearly any age bracket since it isn't too modern and it does not feature prolifically in the charts. Also the indie scene in Manchester is very traditional and many older bands have come from and still are popular in Manchester. But the cover star and the skateboarder featured on my front cover are both younger and therefore teenagers around the age of 17 can relate to the two stars.

GenreThe genre of my magazine is a hybrid of indie music and skateboarding. These genres are both portrayed through the cover stars clothes, and the same style of clothing can be seen on all the other cover stars that are featured in my magazine, for example on my contents page and my double page spread.

Here I used the word “WIN” to attract the audience and to directly address them through the use of competitions, also the band featured are the “Arctic Monkeys”, a band huge in the indie scene at the moment, this will attract fans of indie music (target audience)

“Castlefield bowl” was used on my front cover since it is a location in Manchester, and is also a location used for gigs. Since my magazine is of the indie genre this would address my target audience because bands that have featured there are mainly indie, (The Courteeners)

“Indie Scene” directly addresses my target audience. My masthead includes the name of the city where

indie music is most linked to, therefore attracting my target audience. Also the free posters at the top are all bands that fit into the indie genre which is once again attracting my target audience.

ClothingI used clothing on each page of my magazine to address and attract my audience. In the main picture of my contents page my cover star is wearing a parker and genes, which is linked to the iconography of the indie genre, the cigarette is also part of the indie iconography and the use of both with the cover star makes the target audience want to be him or look up to him.

This is also apparent on my double page spread where clothing and colour is used again to attract the audience since both the clothing and the colours are bold.

Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product

Photoshop: how I achieved this

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To create this physical feature from my front cover I used the rectangle tool to create a white shape which I placed over the already made black background then I used the transform tool to change its positioning.

Next I used the type tool, which let me create the ‘WIN’. Overlaying the black text on the white rectangle made the offer easier to see and more attractive

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The splatter behind the ‘WIN’ is an image I downloaded, it came with a white background so I used the magic eraser to tool to delete the background which meant it could be overlaid. Once this process was finished I used CTRL-A to select it and then copied it over, then I moved the splatter to behind both the rectangle and the text.

IMPROVEMENTSI feel that I good have made this process a lot easier and quicker, and would do for my next media product. I would use the shape or brush tools to create the splatter this would mean I wouldn’t have to save an image and add an extra layer to the project on Photoshop.

Q7. looking back at your preliminary task (Aquinas college magazine), what do you feel you have learnt in the progression of

the full product?

My front cover first draft

Technologies used• Publisher• Adobe Photoshop• Digital camera • Altering and manipulating pictures and

photos

Front cover

• Large and bold masthead, red first letter to make it stand out of the white background

• Bold features, sticking to the colour scheme of black white and red. Black is the contrasting colour to white, making the features stand out more and seem more attractive and readable

• Large headline, almost as a big as the masthead. Noticeable font once again sticking to the colour scheme of black and white

• Free posters situated at the bottom of the page• “Breaking Bad” coloured green to add another bright colour

to the colour scheme

Progression

I feel that it is clear from both my first draft front cover and my final product that my skills with Photoshop have improved significantly. Also my knowledge of magazine and media conventions has increased, since my original front cover draft contains many fewer conventions than my final product, this is evident when looking at my first and final products in comparison.

My front cover draft was quite bland and plain since it only used blacks and whites, the colour of red was used but minimally. Also the cover star does not take up enough space on the page meaning that much of the cover is empty white space, which limits the attractiveness of the overall cover. I only used two real features also, and the headline in no way anchors to the cover star but it does link to the masthead quite well. Finally the pug that I used is very plain and does not work effectively as a pug since it is black and white, two very bland but contrasting colours.

FRONT COVER DRAFT

My real front cover I feel has many improvements over my first draft. Firstly my masthead is more concise and is more stylised. I did this by changing and using different and arguably better fonts while still keeping the bold style of the original. Also my headline is a lot more bold than the original and is very much suited to the genre of the magazine which is indie, it also anchors to the cover star much better, since the cover star is supposedly the artist. “Best of friends” and also “cliffe” both anchor to the cover star and the headline.

FRONT COVER FINISHED

Choosing a cover photo

This was the picture I chose for my front cover (cover star)I took multiple photos for my cover star, with a DSLR camera in front of the green screen to remove the background without having to use the Photoshop mask tool. The reason this picture as chosen was because it was the only picture that used and was..• Direct gaze, to address the audience directly• Clothing suited to the genre of the magazine, attracting the audience• Cover star centred in the frame (rule of thirds)

Technologies used• Publisher• Adobe Photoshop• Digital camera • Altering and manipulating pictures and

photos

My contents page first draft

I feel that my contents page draft has the same issues that my front cover draft had, using plain colours like black and white made it bland and there was too much white space. Also the main image and the cover star is no way near large enough, and the page itself only uses one image actually taken on a camera the rest are just stock images, with no relevance to the theming and genres of the magazine itself. Therefore there is little to no anchorage.

CONTENTS PAGE DRAFT

My final contents page is much improved over my first draft. Firstly I changed the masthead to a more colourful and coherent style since it matches the masthead of my front cover. Also it is evident my Photoshop skills have improved since all of my pictures have black splatters and styling's integrated into them. Next I feel that I have minimized the amount of white space that is apparent on the page, I did this by increasing the size of pictures and features.

Final products