choice of coursework

I have decided to do print production for my coursework. I have a few initial ideas taken from other magazines that I could elaborate into my magazine, such as the use of wraping text around an image on a double-page spread, using visual effects such as fading the edges of a image

Evaluation

In what ways does media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?
Our media product uses conventions such as 180 degree rule during the dialog and Match on action as the talent walks through the door. Continuity editing is used with a cut away shot to comply with conventional media products. Our media product doesn't use the rule of thirds very well, because there is lots of dead space above the talents as we used a shot reverse shot.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?
Our media product represents students as both weak and dominant towards their peers. The dominant ideology of bullying is presented in our product. It also represents students as 'truth benders' and liers.

What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?
BBC3 would distribute our media product because our media product is targeted towards the younger generation and as I am aware, so is BBC3. Our media product is also drama/comedy based, I think BBC3 would be happy to broadcast a drama/comedy about college students.

Who would be the audience for your media product?
The audience for our media product would be the younger generation, possibly college age or maybe a bit younger.

How did you attract/address your audience?
We made our media production address our audience by making the product something they can relate to and they understand. But by putting a funny twist on it would attract the audience.

What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?
While using Adobe Premiere Pro 2 I have learnt that editing technology has the power to take a simple recording, enhance it in some many different ways and chop up clips to produce an amazing piece of video. However this takes time and knowledge, the knowledge of what works and what attracts the viewer, and what make a true viewing experience. I have found that using the editing program is straight forward and simple, It is knowing how cover up small mistakes and making transitions match that is the truly hard part. I believe that the only way you can learn to edit effectively is from experience, and from my experience of this media product I have learnt a great deal of how to make transitions smooth, cover up mistakes and how to avoid mistakes by thinking about every aspect while recording.

Contents Page

Preliminary video

storyboard

180 degree rule and match on action

180 Degree rule
The 180 degree rule is astablished by a Master shot. From this shot you must astablish who is on which side of the shot.The line of interaction is simply the line in which they are making conversation. The camera must stay on the same side of the line of interaction as the master shot was taken, the camera can only cross the line of interaction if the shot shows the movement across the line.

Match on action
Mach on action is fluent editing from one angle/distance to another and possiably back.

Evaluation

Working with existing forms and conventions...(reworking the familiar)
How is your text similar to other magazines? How have you attempted to be original? Was this successful?

I have complied with the conventional magazine layout although I have attempted to be original by looking at other magazines and use similar idea's but to improve on them, such as rather than placing the barcode landscape on the bottom of the page, I have placed it on its side but I have not move it as it is the best place for it, as I think it is least noticed in this place. Without downloading different fonts, font types are limited because there are only so many font types preset onto the software, as I couldn't download any fonts I had to make to with the fonts already on the software. I though I successfully made my magazine cover look original.


Using technology...(creative tools)
How did the technology constrain/liberate you?
What difficulties did you face with the technology and how did you solve them?

Using a new piece of software was daunting, I found the software easy to use and I got a jist of how professionals edit pictures and magazines. I soon found that there were so many different things that I could do using the software but my skills were limited, where as the software was advanced on every level. As I did not know the In's and outs of the software I was constricted by my own abilities and knowledge of the software.

There were various difficulties we faced during our project. Our first draw back was encountered during the use of photoshop. We were attempting to use the stamp tool to remover the trees from behind the model, we had accidentally gone over the bottom of the cloud and it had made the cloud look a bit square and rough. We had to find away to make the cloud look more natural again, so we use the brush tool to make it look more fluffier, we had to lower the opacity as we dabbed the brush away from the middle of the cloud. We also encountered other difficulties such as when we were using quark EXpress we decided to place a circle in the top left hand corner but we wanted to keep a white boarder all the way round the magazine cover, to get rid of the unwanted half of the circle we used 2 text box's to layer over the top of the coloured circle.

Thinking about audience...(making meaning)Were you able to communicate to your audience effectively?

I though that I communicated to my audience effectively by connoting youth and freedom to the reader. I also used student preferences and general interests to incorporate it into my magazine cover, this is to try and communicate to the potential buyer of the magazine. The low price is to attract customers that are on a budget, as rival magazines such as music magazines are a slightly higher price. I think I have communicated to my audience effectively.

production schedule

2nd October - Take photo's of the model and start to use photoshop to edit our chosen picture.
3rd October - Finish any editing we started.
9th October - Start to input our picture and text into Quark EXpress, and finish.
10th October - Make our contents page.

We think we may find it difficult to think of some coverline that will grab the students attention, so we are going to observe other student magazines.

Our ideas for the magazine

The main picture of the magazine is going to be of a student in a MCU shot and a low angle shot of the student looking down. All that will be in the background is sky. this will connote to the reader youth and freedom as the sky is in the image.

How we will communicate theses connotations to our target audience

We are going to communicate these connotations mention in the previous post in different ways. We will use pictures as a way to communicate these connotations, for example we can use a picture of a young model in a area that will connote youth and freedom. We will also use text font as another way to communicate connotations, for example if we use 'soft' rounded letter for the masthead etc, we can connote a friendly image.

Connotations we will communitcate to the reader

As our readers will be students we will try and connote youth/teenagers and freedom. We have chosen to make our student magazine on Rock/pop music so it is crucial that it connotes Rock/pop music. We are also going to connote being friendly for males and females.

Target Audience

Our magazine is going to be targeted at Radicalists / Individualists. As it is a student magazine the age range is 16-19. Our magazine is going to be a music based magazine. From our research we have found that readers like to read about reviews and interview with bands, we have also seen that student readers like posters of bands and artists, therefore we are targeting our magazine at people who like to cover their bedroom walls in band posters. We have also seen that there has not been a specific gender target so we are going to aim our magazine at both genders, although it will not contain any girly horoscopes, etc.

Pop/rock and Indy/Alternative music will be the general theme. As this is the most popular types of music to students. We will also attract students from our low RRP as students may be finding it hard with money. We are going to include reviews of the latest films and DVD’s.

Research of student magazines

We have searched for student magazines using an search engine, we have found that the most popular student magazine is music magazines. So we are going to make our magazine in the music theme as well.