Muna Mohamed

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

The media product that I have produced is an RnB music magazine. One way that it uses the forms and conventions of a real media product is that it has a colour scheme of grey, black and peach. It uses it because most music magazine have an ongoing colour scheme throughout the whole magazine. The colours chosen usually relate to who stars in the magazine. For example, in the VIBE magazines usually feature fierce and powerful artists, so dark and edgy colours like navy blue, grey or black tend to be part of the colour scheme. My magazine stars a female artist called Vanrose who came out with a new album. A colour like peach represents her because its a soft, feminine colour. The fact that I named my magazine Sparkz is also a way that I used the forms and conventions of a real magazine because it sounds like its RnB and choosing a less representative name would destroy the whole genre of it. Because I put a Z at the end and not an S its reflective of the way the society we live in speak and write. Another way that my magazine uses the forms and conventions of real music magazines is that they both use the same type of language, which is slang. Because RnB is more of an informal genre and rejects the standard formality, its very common that modern words such as the repetition of like and the words gonna etc. are commonly used. I incorporated that into my magazine during the process of Vanroses interview to show that shes part of this society. Whats also similar between a real RnB magazine and mine is that they both have the same appearance when it comes to the artists featured. They tend to use rap artist such as Drake, Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne etc. they tend to be thug like and have tattoos, which my artist does, and also seem intimidating.I mimicked my magazine to look like the way it does by doing research on other magazines and what the layout is like or what the celebrities on the front cover look like. This gave me a guideline to what mine should look like. I used Google to do this and to also research publishers. Another way I developed my media product is that I asked for opinions on what changes to make from both my teachers and my classmates.Even though my magazine is very similar to real ones, there were a few ways which I challenged the forms and conventions of a real one. The main one is the fact that it doesnt look as harsh and intimidating as the real ones because I used softer colours and more gentle fonts. Another challenge is that the magazine is more realistic than the Hollywood ones because its about an actor from London, also making it more relatable to the readers who are from London. Because of this, another challenge is that it is targeted to mainly Londoners. I also left the top part of my front cover empty which can be strange to look at because most magazines have the title on the top. The most obvious difference is the pricing. My magazine costs 2.50 which is a low price compared other music magazines. This is because it allows students who are on a budget to be able to purchase it.How does your media product represent particular social groups?

My media product represents my particular social groups in many ways. The social group I chose was 15-21 year olds, who are also referred to as young adults. I used language as a way to represent this social group. The use of slang and informal everyday language is very well known to them which makes it easier for them to understand the magazine. I also used a variety of exclamation marks to represent how hyper and fun that age group are and used it in my magazine to portray this. Another technique I used to represent my social groups is through the use of mise en scene. Because people care about the image they give themselves in this society, I showed that by having the model wear an elegant tight fitting white dress and the camera lighting was nearly perfect and things such as her make-up was perfected, all which are possessions that my chosen social group really care about. The model for my magazine had tattoos which is also something that my chosen social group may have a common interest in. The representation can also be identified by the flexibility of the price because that specific social group would usually be in a budget so selling at a low price suits their needs and they can easily get access to it.What kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

Distribution is the process of moving a product from its manufacturing source to its customers. From my online research, I concluded that my product would best be distributed by institutions such as IPC (Interprocess communication) as they distributed well known magazines such as NME, LOOK, CLAIRE etc. This would be beneficial for my magazine because IPC have connections to other institutions such as WHSmith and HMV which are known for selling well known magazines. They also have a good reputation which would make the consumers open to buy the product as they are already familiar with the company. This gives Sparkz magazine more publicity due to size and success of the company. Due to the company being global, it means they have the money to spend on distributing products globally as well as in different forms (e.g. Apps). This would be essential for my magazine because we live in a society where we receive most things from social networks so it would be easier for my target group to gain access to it as they all most likely have a mobile phone.Who would be the audience for your media product?

The audience for my media product would specifically be females from the ages of 15-21 who have a passion for tattoos and mainly RnB/Hip Hop music. This reflects off the artist on the front cover because her tattoos are very exaggerated in the shot. I would say my magazine would be suitable for girls who agree with feminist views because Vanrose as a young lady raps and produces R&B music which is a genre that men are mostly associated with. Its also aimed at mostly working class readers because of the decent cost and the flexible language used. Ethnicity wise, I would aim it towards both Afro-Africans and white British, as well as Asians too. This is due to the braids my artist has on her head which is what Africans are associated with. She herself, is Asian so people from her community might like to see how influential she is. An example of someone who would read Sparkz magazine is a student whos in the working class, comes from an African background, studies subjects such as music or performing arts in school, enjoys rap music and going to parties but is also very close to her family. This student would be around the age of 19 and is aspiring to work for famous people such as Beyonc. To conclude, they would be creative and have a strong love for RnB/Rap/Hip-hop music. How did you attract/address your audience?

I attracted and addressed the audience by using things such as editing techniques, fonts, images and colour scheme. Because I chose to do R&B as the genre of my magazine, the images and the colours I chose had to represent it. To start off, the model I chose for my magazine was the main representation. I chose to choose her because she suited the criteria for what an R&B singer looks like. My model had big braids in her hair. This meant that she looked more intimidating than usual which helps the image Im trying to give off. My model also had tattoos which was also a main attraction to those young adults who like tattoos. This also helped give my magazine a more edgy look to it. The tattoos were of roses which compliments the name I chose for her which is Vanrose. I also attracted my audience by the use of my models make up and costume. Her make-up was dark and smoky. This gave off an intimidating image from her and gave her a more mysterious and a powerful appearance.In the front page she was wearing a white dress. I chose this colour because the whole magazine is about how the artist is trying to redeem herself so using the colour white shows that shes pure, positive and a better person now. In the double page spread, I used a full length picture where the model wore an Adidas sports bra and grey tracksuits. This meant that the readers were able to see her full body. I chose an Adidas sports bra because its a brand thats familiar to my target audience. I made sure the model wore a sports bra so that all her tattoos were clearly on show and so that a bit of skin was intentionally showing. This would appeal to the male audiences. This picture was hard to choose because in many of the ones I took, you couldnt see the tattoos or her face properly.I also attracted my audience through the fonts I used and the structure of my magazine. To represent my genre, I went on Da Font and chose rough and distorted looking fonts to make it look like real music magazines. The font I used for the title of my magazine was unique because it didnt look as coarse and big as normal magazine fonts. It was more elegant yet still had some edginess to it. The font that I used to write the artists name was a more eye catching font called Palm Beach which had leaves carved into it. These leaves could connote cannabis which is also something that most R&B artists are related with. The colours I used also helped attract the audience because my magazine had a colour scheme of grey, peach and black. This is effective because it would be more attractive to the girls who are the main target audience. I also used colours such as red for the HOT NEW section because it would attract the audiences attention. The colour red is well known for representing danger which catches peoples attention so if the buyer sees that on the page, they are more likely to be interested and want to look inside the magazine.I also attracted and addressed the audience by the structure of my magazine. The front page has the artist on the bottom of the page with the writing surrounding her in a U shape. This could represent how trapped the artist feels, as it is something that I talk about in the double page spread. This might then be relatable for teenagers who feel the same way as her. My double page spread has a full length picture of my artist on the side and includes an interview section which is something that teenagers love to watch and read. To separate this section from the rest of the page, I used a line of roses. This is symbolic because the roses I used are similar to the roses on the models arms. For my contents page, I have a male model in order to attract more females. It has the same colour schemes but I changed the fonts to make it seem less repetitive. This is useful because if the buyer feels like everything in the magazine looks the same, they wouldnt buy it. The model is wearing a denim shirt which is in the latest trend which could then appeal to the target audience.What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

Before we used Photoshop we had to use the cameras to take pictures of out models. The only challenging thing about this was the angles that I chose to take my pictures on and who I had to choose to model for me. I had to make sure they didnt wear green, or that the green screen wouldnt show through the gaps in the hair because it then made it harder to cut out.Learning how to use Photoshop was a challenging experience for me as I like to do most of my work hand written. After a while I got used to the new tricks and techniques but I was still struggling with some parts of it. For example, I always had issue with changing the size or colour or font of the text. I also had the issue of not being able to save my work properly which resulted in me starting the contents page from the beginning. Because the technology we use now has massively been increasing since the last decade, it made it easier for me to know which magazines were produced now and what was produced in the past. This helped me with mine because I used a different variety of features.Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

My learning and understanding of media products has massively improved since we made our preliminary task, which was a school magazine. I learnt that the audience play a vital role in the process of making it and that all the small choices you make have to have a reason for it which contributes to their needs. I also understand that in order to make s product thats targeted to a specific audience, you have to know that group very well. This helps you improve your work because you are meeting their needs which will result in them buying more magazines.The preliminary task was made on Word which has basic edits and techniques so it wasnt as puzzling as making the music magazine. To conclude, as challenging as it was to make this product, I picked up different techniques from the teachers and people around me which I could use to improve mine or even make new magazines.