Friday 19 April 2013

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

These are two magazines that I was inspired by, and I analysed it several times during my research and planning as it allowed me to visualize what kind of magazine I wanted to create and the features I wanted to use for my magazine. For example my masthead's font colour is similar to NME's as I wanted to use the colour red because it symbolized the rock theme, also it is a typical colour used in rock magazines, as well as the colour black. However black and red, are two colours I used throughout my whole media product, as it was a typical convention of a rock magazine. Furthermore, NME features old artists, however I decided to develop this convention, and feature new artists as my target audience wanted to see new artists featured more. Also the main cover lines I used were similar to Kerrang's as Kerrang once featured 'the 50 greatest music artists', also NME used a plug, my magazine also featured a plug to engage the audience. Many rock magazines use superlatives in plug's, main cover lines and skyline, I decided to use that convention as its featured in many popular magazines. I added two superlatives with my cover lines and my skyline as its an important feature.

Kerrang's main images usually features male bamds, and rarely uses female artists or female bands as their main image, I decided to challenge this convention, by using a female rock artist as my main image, so that my magazine could have its own USP as well as making it look different towards the audience I'm aiming it at.

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product

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

Evaluation by hudahaid14' on GoAnimate

Video Maker - Powered by GoAnimate.

Which technologies have you used for your research, planning, production and evaluation
stages of your product?
 Why did you use these?
 Why have these been useful?
 Which new skills have you developed? How have these been helpful?
o Include examples if possible.
 Which skills have you improved during the project?
o Include examples if possible.
 If you had to make another music magazine, what would help you further develop your use of
technology?
-powtoon
-go animate
-slideshare

Since the start of my preliminary task, I didn't have much experience in using editing software's like Photoshop, which is a beneficial software which would help me create a good magazine, double page spread and contents page. Photoshop allowed me to edit images that I would use for both research and planing and my production, also I could change the setting of many images. However because I made a student magazine for my preliminary task, my knowledge on using technologies increased, allowing my products to be suitable for my target audience. Another crucial technology I used for my production, was Dafont, which was a website that allowed me to download fonts and to use them for my masthead and my double page spread, it was an easier solution as if I didn't use Dafont my magazine, would probably not be as professional as it looks. It actually looks like a real and sophisticated magazine and double page spread.

In addition to, for me to be able to show my teacher my media coursework, and my main project, I had to create a blog in order for him and the examiner to view. I had never created a blog before and I didn't know how use one, but after creating it, I gained many IT skills, and it would be useful for me when I create my next project. I have also used digital camera's so that I would be able to take images for my research and planning, these images would be use for my magazine, double page spread and contents page. I needed a variety of images so that I would be able to choose a good enough image for all three, also my contents page needed a variety of images so that my audience would be attracted to it. However I have gained photography skills, as I used a digital camera many times, I have learnt many new skills such as I now know how to angle the camera, also I know how to direct the model I'm using. For example I could direct her to pose or make a direct mode of address to the camera. If I didn't have these type of equipment, I probably wouldn't be able to have a good magazine as if your image wasn't good enough, my whole magazine wouldn't look as real as it does now, and it wouldn't attract my audience. So I have gained many skills and there have been many advantages to using digital camera's.

Furthermore, I also used prezi, which is an online power-point, it allowed me to create presentations for my research and planning and my evaluation. It was more efficient then using software's like power-point  It was an easy solution to then using power-point.I have gained many new IT skills after using Prezi, and not only did I gain new skills but it was useful, as I could create professional presentation's for my evaluation. As its a creative way to produce my main project. I could also add audio and images which was useful as I wanted to annotate my final products.

For my evaluation, I used powtoon which is an animated software that allowed me to create a presentation  I wanted to use powtoon because it allowed me to present my evaluation in a creative way. Also I gained many IT skills, as my knowledge on animation also increased. I hope to use powtoon again, as my evaluation was presented creatively and before doing the main project, I didn't know many websites that would allow me to animate my work. I could add features, such as images of a stick man talking, a women thinking etc.

Another website I used which was quite similar to powtoon was go animate which allowed me to answer this question, I'm answering right now. It was useful as I could add a memo of myself talking and the stick women was talking for me. It allowed me to show my creative side,therefore I have gained skills such as editing my memo, and editing the text several times as there was some spelling and grammar errors. I used go animate for my evaluation question, if I was to use this software again, I would probably make my memo shorter as it cut off my speech halfway through.

As I have mentioned several times, I used most of these software's and websites to create presentations for my evaluation questions. For example I used slide share for this question "What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?". It was a useful website as I needed to create several slides to answer that question. However I had used slide-share before for my research and planning, therefore it was very easy to produce. Its a useful website and it allowed me to gain many skills such as IT skills. Before creating a slide share, I had to use Power-point to create a presentation and had to send it to slide share, therefore I had to use two types of technologies for it.

Another type of technology I used was a sound cloud, which was a website that allowed me to upload my memo from my smart-phone to sound-cloud  Sound-cloud was very useful as I could add my voice to a website and upload to Blogger, I wanted to use this website because I wanted to present my work in a very suitable way. From the start of my preliminary task, I didn't know much about the technologies I have used from my research and planning, production and evaluation. However I now have increased knowledge on many technologies, and it would be useful for me for the next project I do for media. If I had to make another music magazine, I would probably research more technologies and use different types of technologies I used for my main project as I want to progress my knowledge and understanding of technologies. 





PowToon : How did you attract/address your audience?