Saturday 14 April 2012

Looking Back At Your Preliminary Task, What Do You Feel You Have Learnt In The Progression From It To The Final Product?


The image on the left is the front cover from my preliminary task, and the image on the right is the finished cover from my main task of creating a conventional acoustic magazine.

It is rather difficult to compare my front cover and contents page from my prelim to my final drafts, as they were based on completely different topics. However, by learning to use different technologies and software, I feel like I have learnt a lot since and am much more pleased with my main task cover compared to my prelim one now. 

Looking back at my preliminary front cover, it is actually rather plain and boring in comparison to my music magazine cover. I didn’t realise at the time, how little colour I had used and how much space was left unused. If I had to go back and edit this particular task, I think I would make numerous changes, mainly as I feel more confident on using different software and that I have much more knowledge of the conventions of magazines etc.


Regarding the contents page of my preliminary task, again, I feel it appears rather boring due to the lack of any colour, which on reflection wouldn’t appeal to my target audience. Although, I’ve always said less is more, I don’t think I pulled this off with my preliminary contents page! At the time I was really pleased with the end result, however, in comparison to my main task contents page I think it looks more professional. I remember thinking at the time what the point of a preliminary task was and now, on reflection, I understand why as I fell I have learnt so much since and hopefully this shows.
Although at the time, I thought I had spent a lot of time perfecting this task, I wouldn’t say on reflection I had taken as much care and attention as I have done with my main task and I believe this is rather evident with the results of each page. Now I realise if you put all your time and effort into your work, then the stress will definitely pay off with the results. Also, the fact we only had 2 weeks (roughly) to make a front cover and contents page, we didn’t have much time to plan things to the last detail to perfect the magazine, like we were able to in this task.
I think one of the main things I realised from doing the preliminary task is research and timing is vital! If I didn’t plan out my timings or researched about the conventions of the magazines, I wouldn’t have had a clue how to have gone about making my music magazine. For my prelim, I didn’t spend half the time researching than I did for my main task. Therefore, I realised the more research you do the more chances of producing a conventional and profession product. When it comes down to time management, I would say I am a rather organised person, so I tried not to leave things to last minute. Due to the fact I went on holiday for a week, I had to make sure I was up to date with work (if not ahead) to ensure that I didn’t fall behind and have loads to catch up on when I came home. I feel that overall, I have learnt a lot about carrying out detailed research in order for my final product to be the best that it can possible be by putting in the effort and planning out my time efficiently. 
Since my prelim task I have learnt a lot about reliability, for example, I was planning to use my friend to be my model for my magazine pictures. However, due to the fact that she lives a while a way, it was hard to find a day we were both free, so I decided to use myself, as I would be more reliable. Although I didn’t like this idea at first, due to the fact I’m not that confident in front of the camera, I knew that I had to complete this task, so I had to put my insecurities to one side and get on with the photo shoot. Additionally, I made sure that I took the mise-en-scene into consideration for my main task, as I didn’t really think about this in my prelim task. I knew I wanted a white background, but I suppose the toilets weren’t the best place to takes pictures for my task reflecting back on it. Therefore, I made sure that I planned out where to take the pictures for my main task and look at the weather forecast beforehand, to ensure that I took my pictures on a sunny day. The best time of day is usually around about mid-day, so I kept this in mind, ensuring I stuck to my shooting schedule and following the to do list I made, so I got everything I wanted. Another mistake I made in the prelim task was that I didn’t take hardly any photos, so I was restricted on which ones to use. This caused me several problems, as I couldn’t ask my models the following day to take some more, as they wouldn’t have been wearing the same clothes the day after. As I wanted to keep continuity throughout my prelim, this wasn’t an option and just had to make do with the ones I had already taken. Therefore, I took this mistake into consideration for my main task and took over 100 photos to make sure I didn’t do the same things again.
In comparison to the preliminarily task, we only had to make the front cover and contents page of a school magazine, so I had no experience of making a double page spread until we started researching what the typical conventions where for the main task. I think due to the lack of experience of making double page spread, I found this one the most difficult at first. However, once I had created it I felt that this was my best page and I guess this could be down to the fact that I had never made one before and it was more of an achievement doing that with no previous experience like in the task before we had with the front cover and contents page.
Overall, I would say that constructing the preliminary task was really helpful, as I learnt a lot about time management, how important research is, as well as making sure I put the most effort into my work as I possibly could. It has also made me aware of how much of a perfectionist I truly am too, which is not always necessarily a bad thing! Not only this, I have learnt about new technologies that I had never even heard of before, as well as taking into consideration that your target audience must be your mine priority at all times, because without them you’d have no magazine sales.

Monday 9 April 2012

How Did You Attract/Address Your Audience?

Due to Jamie being rather nervous when we were filming this clip, she had to makes notes, so she remembered. So you can probably tell that she is reading her notes, she made in order for her not to forget what she wanted to say.





Reflection: I thought it would be a good idea to do a brief character profile on my friend Jamie who is include in this clip above, as she mentions in her post that she is an aspiring musician. Jamie is a 17 year old female student, who is currently an aspiring singer songwriter. She has just started to learn the guitar, so she would most likely find this magazine helpful, as it gives her top tips on how to play the guitar, as well as aspiring advice to help her achieve her dreams. Jamie is forever on the Ipod and loves listening to the latest acoustic music, so I believe that the magazine would help keep up updated, as there are sections in my magazine that are specifically for this purpose. She spends quite a lot of her time practising on her guitar now (in the garden or in the field near where she lives), learning acoustic songs as well as looking in HMV for new songs. Instead of her having to look in HMV hoping to find some new acoustic artists and songs, she could just read this magazine and find out everything she would like to know.

Friday 6 April 2012

What Kind Of Media Insititution Might Distribute Your Media Product?

Going back to my media institutions post, where I researched what distributors and publishers were out there currently, I decided that Oyster House Media LTD was the best choice. This was due to the fact that they publish and distribute magazines such as:
  • Acoustic Magazine
  • Guitar Buyer Magazine
  • Base Guitar Magazine
  • Drummer Magazine
  • RIB Magazine 

I thought it would be the best option as these magazines have been successful under this distributor due to having specific experiences with selling these type of publications. However, after further analysis, I thought that Bauer Media Group or even IPC Media would be good companies to choose from to help make my magazine a more mainstream, thriving publication like other existing ones they produce currently. 


After comparing IPC and Bauer Media Institutions against one another, I decided that Bauer Media Group would be best, as is a comglomerate company, that does not distribute the same genre of music my magazine is aimed at cureently. Therefore, I believe that my product would be more successful under this management because it is different from there other publications they produce such as Kerrang, Q, Empire, Mojo etc, meaning they could concentrate on focusing on my target market a lot more successfully. Although they may be have much experience in this music genre, this company distributes some of the most successful magazines in the world i.e. Empire with 745,000 copies purchased every month. Considering my magazine is bi-monthly, this is another reason why I would choose this distributor due to the fact is has such high success with its bi-monthly magazines.
Additionally, acoustic magazines are usually a rather niche market, therefore I believe this company could help fill the gap in the market for a new fresh acoustic magazine, making it more or a mainstream genre. This would appeal to the younger audiences, in comparison to the older generation ones that exist already such as "acoustic" magazine (which is primarily for males). Another reason why I think this institution would be best suited for my magazine, is that the other publications it does distribute, are roughly around the same age range as my target audience, compared to my original option of Oyster House Media, who produce magazines for more the older male generation. 
The kind of place that may wish to distribute my magazine are retail services such as WHSmith. In WHSmith there are a variety of magazines that are available, and it would be a perfect place to attract the attention of my intended audience When researching, I went into different stores and noted down the magazines that they sold. Out of all the shops that I went in, WHSmith was the only store that sold a wider range; others stuck to fashion, celebrity, male interests, puzzle, and a very slim choice of each genre were available. Newsagents may be less likely to distribute my magazine as the demand for Acoustic magazines is not as high as other magazines. For example, TV Guides, Celebrity Gossip, Fashion and Rock magazines; newsagents will only distribute the most popular magazines. Therefore, I believe WHSmith would be my best bet.


Sunday 1 April 2012

Evaluation

Now I have completed my final drafts, I am now going to move on to the evaluation stage of my magazine!

The Four F's On My Magaizne

Looking back at my previous posts, I realised I had done many media terminology and theories posts, but not really explained how I took these on board when producing my own music magazine.

Therefore, I thought it would be a good idea to look back at previous media terminology posts, such as The Four F's.

Function: This is what the magazine objectives are and for my magazine I believe the main purpose for my magazine is not only to entertain the reader and up to date them with the latest acoustic music, but to provide them with performing tips and helpful advice to help the aspiring acoustic artists, on their way to achieving their dreams. My magazine, also include, interviews for existing acoustic artists and a new star to show them that they too can do it, if they put their mind to it and if they don;t know where to begin, this magazine could give them a help start on the right direction.

Formula: This is what is included in the magazine and in my publication there are 36 pages. Throughout the magazine ages, I kept continuity with the same old paper style within each page, as well as using the same fonts "Bell MT" for the serif  font gives an "acoustic edge" that I used many for the context of contents page, my banners on my front cover and the "exclusive" on the double page spread. I ensured that my sell lines where similar to typical acoustic magazines, as the majority of people read them magazine so far, due to the fact there are not many existing products out there. Therefore, including performance tips sections, advice, interviews and reviews, all link to the stereotypical sell lines of an acoustic magazine, but appealing to more of a younger generation. I ensured that the mise en scene included in my photos were all natural looking, as this is what you would stereotypically find in acoustic music videos and acoustic artists photoshoots.

Frame: This is the guttering and margins for printing. Due to the fact that I used Desktop Publisher for creating my magazine, it has a template of an A4 piece of paper, so when it comes to printing it will fit an A4 piece of paper, which is about 210mm by 297mm.

Format: As I have mentioned throughout my posts and in the "formula section" I believe that continuity is key, especially in new issues of a magazine, so the audience know what to expect to look out for in the next issues. The main feature I kept the same was the old style paper, as I felt that the less is more effect is represent by this genre. As you expect acoustic songs to just had the artists voice and guitar, there aren't many instruments involved, so you could say this was rather simple music, however, it leaves a lastly impression on the listening to it is therefore effective.

Conclusion:
Overall, I would say that I took the Four F's into consideration, without probably even realising have the time, as I have kept to the typical conventions that would feature in music magazines in general, as well as existing acoustic ones too.