finished

INTRODUCTION:

I'm Robyn Williams and this is my evaluation portfolio for my AS foundation, where I have made a pop magazine cover, contents page and double page spread.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My primary target audience for this pop magazine would be white straight female british teenagers aged from 13-15 and would be in social grades of C1-E. The secondary target audience for my magazine could be homosexual men as they are stereotypically into pop music so could be into my magazine

I also made a survey monkey questionnaire to give to my target audience, this helped me as I knew what kind of things they wanted to see in the magazine. my results from this linked to blamer and katz uses and gratification theory (1974) of information, socialisation and entertainment. Also by creating a survey I found it easier to choose the pop genre, because from the results it said it was popular, so therefore it could sell more. 

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

How did you attract/address your audience?

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

When creating my pop magazine I followed the theorist bentley (1997) who said "the creative process is the rearranging of the old to create the new." which meant that I needed to research other common conventions  that are used for pop magazines and then add my own ideas to make it unique and stand out against the rest. the other types of magazine cover, contents and double page spread i looked are, billboard, suga, and top of the pops.

I firstly began by creating my magazine cover, I researched existing mastheads and picked three from the same genre and seen that the common conventions on each magazine was that the masthead took up 1/8th of the page, and was bold and caught your eye as seen as you looked at the page. My own masthead follows these conventions and also represents the target audience because the title is 'top of the pops' which the 'of the' is in a circle which grabs your attention by doing this it links to blumer and Katz theory (1974) "the media user seeks out a media source that best fulfils the needs of that user." its also in a pink coloured typography which would represent the target audience, and pink also connotes sweet, and playful which also links to the target audience.

I then began to think out a colour palette for my front cover which is going to be kept the same throughout my magazine to keep it looking professional and to keep it flowing together. I picked the colour white, pink and purple. These colours connote femininity and innocence to represent my target audience and link to hedbridges theory (1988) of 'youth is fun' as the colour ive picked are bright. When I was researching other magazine in this genre i noticed that these were commonly the main colours

After that I then researched what the common conventions for the typography and lexis for this genre was, and i discovered they were bold curly fonts, with the lexis based on semantic fields linking as i chose pink which fits in with the pop genre, however I would say i broke conventions as i used a more grown up typography than what is normally used as i didn't want to make the magazine seem unprofessional. i still used slang language which is what my primary target audience would normally see and by doing this I stuck to common conventions.

As I was researching magazines within my genre I noticed that they commonly used a medium close up for the main image which I stuck to and made sure it follows Laura Mulveys theory (1975) 'As erotic objects of desire for the spectator' as I made my star vehicle an attractive female of a similar age to my audience so they would be able to look up to her and wish they was her. It took me two times to get the editing of the image to get right as the first time i done it i over edited the image and my model looked like a plastic barbie which would have broken the conventions if i kept it on there.

I also included a barcode, price and issue number on my magazine cover, i made the price of my magazine of £2.99 which my target audience would be able to afford.

After that I then began researching the common conventions of a regular pop magazine contents page and i discovered normally theres a large bold font saying 'contents' and 5 or more images, clear page numbers, and a whole range of stories that would appeal to the target audience. This links with Blumer and Katz theory (1974) "individuals might chose and use text for the purpose of finding yourself reflected in texts" as there is a whole range of stories that would appeal to a different range of audiences. I stuck to these common conventions for my contents because thats what the audience would expect to see, I also used the same colour palette as the cover as it looks professional and thats what the audience would be expecting. I broke conventions by having contents written in black instead of the same colour the masthead is on the cover, I chose black as i thought it looked professional and it also matches the smaller writting on the page so it all links together. I also didnt use any pink on this page as I thought by just using the white, black and purple it would make it look more proffesional and sophisticated because by adding the pink it looked to tacky and unprofessional.

After I finished that i began researching existing double page spreads from pop magazines such as billboard, suga and top of the pops, i noticed all the common conventions they all had together was either a medium or long close up of the star vehicle, with an eyecatching title and quote teaser from the text to grab the readers in. I followed these conventions throughout my own double page spread, which was an interview double page spread, i used the same colour palette from my cover and contents on my double page spread to make it look professional. At first i had all the writing in black and you couldnt tell who was the interviewer and who was the interviewee so i changed the writing to pink and purple so it was clearer to see what was happening. 

What kind of media institutions might distribute your product and why?

the type of media institutions that might distribute my product would be bauber, IPC and bbc magazines as these institutions distribute successful magazines such as ones that i have created. IPC and bbc magazine already have a magazine on there markets simular to mine which are 'top of the pops' and 'teen now' however bauber doesnt have a magazine aimed for my target audience so i could bring something different to their market and with 38 million magazine per week sold worldwide it would be perfect for my magazine as it would bring a lot of customers.

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

When making this product i learnt about different tchniques and technologies used in the process, firstly I learnt about blogger to present my work online as a digital portfolio, from blogger i learnt how to add text posts, images, link videos, and prezi. blogger would sometimes be difficult because if you had just wrote out something on there and the internet would go off it wouldnt save your work which could sometimes be fustrating but it taught me to always save my work on a computer first, however blogger will always be there for me to show examiners and for universities to see. My blog has over 500 views which shows that there is a lot of people who view my work, this links to theoriest toby miller who said in 2006 "by looking at how culture is used and transformed by social groups, cultural studies see people not simply as consumers, but as potential producers of new social values and cultural language" I also used twitter and facebook for some of the tasks in my blog such as when i created my survey monkey i shared it on twitter and facebook so i could get a bigger variety of answers.

I also learnt about Prezi to create a presentation on feature articles, which was shared online so a mass audience would be able to view it. however i discovered that when using prezi you are limited to space for each slide which i saw as a dissadvantage.

i then later learnt about the digital equipment i would need such as a Canon 5D SLR camera and lense. i learnt about all the different setting to use and what was the best setting so i could get the best quality images and to not use an inferior memory card which would lose the high quality images.

After i had taken my images and was happy with them, I learnt to devolop my photoshop and illustrator skills by searching through tutorials online. I mainly used the brush and spot healing tool to give my model a flawless look, I also used tools such as ellipse, text, elliptical marquee tool and leaner to change the opacity on some of the ellipse and rectangle shape tools. for my fonts on my masthead i used illustrator where i learnt interestesting fonts appeal to my target audience and by combining with photoshop i could make all elements of my product appeal to my target audience. Hopefully next time i can improve my illustrator skills.

I then learnt about indesign where i put my product in so i can add text, change the spacing and create columns. when my practical work was finished I used the canon camera to film this evaluation with a green screen behind and i placed the camera on a tripod so it looked professional. I learnt to get the camera settings right and also the camera lighting, i also learnt how to get the camera framing so it was in focus. when i had finished filming i then imported all my clips into imovie to edit my evaluation and add the chosen images on th green screen of my product. Lastly the technology i then used was Youtube so i could share my evaluation which took up a large amount of time, overall i learnt and developed my skills using a huge range of different media technologies that i wouldnt normally use so i could create media products of a professional standard.

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

Looking back at my preliminary task i think i have learnt to use a wide type of typography styles in the progression from my full product. I think ive learnt this as my chosen genre uses a wide variety. Ive learnt about the common conventions needed to make a successful pop magazine which shows when comparing my prelim and my final product. I also used more images and brighter colours to make it professional looking magazine for my target audience has made it a successful magazine overall.

evaluation re-write.

RE WRITE EVALUATION

INTRODUCTION:

I'm Robyn Williams and this is my evaluation portfolio for my AS foundation, where I have made a pop magazine cover, contents page and double page spread.

Who would be the audience for your media product?

My primary target audience for this pop magazine would be white straight female british teenagers aged from 13-15 and would be in social grades of C1-E. The secondary target audience for my magazine could be homosexual men as they are stereotypically into pop music so could be into my magazine

I also made a survey monkey questionnaire to give to my target audience, this helped me as I knew what kind of things they wanted to see in the magazine. my results from this linked to blamer and katz uses and gratification theory (1974) of information, socialisation and entertainment. Also by creating a survey I found it easier to choose the pop genre, because from the results it said it was popular, so therefore it could sell more. 

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

How did you attract/address your audience?

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

When creating my pop magazine I followed the theorist bentley (1997) who said "the creative process is the rearranging of the old to create the new." which meant that I needed to research other common conventions  that are used for pop magazines and then add my own ideas to make it unique and stand out against the rest. the other types of magazine cover, contents and double page spread i looked are, billboard, suga, and top of the pops.

I firstly began by creating my magazine cover, I researched existing mastheads and picked three from the same genre and seen that the common conventions on each magazine was that the masthead tool up 1/8th of the page, and were bold and caught your eye as seen as you looked at the page. My own masthead follows these conventions and also represents the target audience because the title is 'top of the pops' which the 'of the' is in a circle which grabs your attention by doing this it links to blumer and Katz theory (1974) "the media user seeks out a media source that best fulfils the needs of that user." its also in a pink coloured typography which would represent the target audience, and pink also connotes sweet, and playful which also links to the target audience.

I then began to think out a colour palette for my front cover which is going to be kept the same throughout my magazine to keep it looking professionally and so it keeps flowing together. I picked the colour white, pink and purple. These colours connote femininity and innocence to represent my target audience and link to hedbridges theory (1988) of 'youth is fun' as the colour ive picked are bright. When I was researching other magazine in this genre i noticed that these were commonly the main colours

After that I then researched what the common conventions for the typography and lexis for this genre was, and i discovered they were bold curly fonts, with the lexis based on semantic fields linking as i chose pink which fits in with the pop genre, however I would say i broke conventions as i used a more grown up typography than what is normally used as i didn't want to make the magazine seem unprofessional. i still used slang language which is what my primary target audience is using and by doing this i stuck to common conventions.

As I was researching magazines within my genre I noticed that they commonly used a medium close up for the main image which I stuck to and made sure it follow Laura Mulveys theory (1975) 'As erotic objects of desire for the spectator' as I made my star vehicle an attractive female of a similar age to my audience so they would be able to look up to her and wish they was her. It took my two times to get the editing of the image to get right as the first time i done it i over editted it and my model looked like a plastic barbie which would have broken the conventions if i kept it on there.

I also included a barcode, price and issue number on my magazine cover, i made the price of my magazine of £2.99 which my target audience would be able to afford.

After that I then began researching the common conventions of a regular pop magazine contents page and i discovered normally theres a large bold font saying 'contents' and 5 or more images, clear page numbers, and a whole range of stories that would appeal to the target audience. This links with Blumer and Katz theory (1974) "individuals might chose and use text for the purpose of finding yourself reflected in texts" as there is a whole range of stories that would appeal to a different range of audience. I stuck to these common conventions for my contents because thats what the audience would expect to see, I also used the same colour palette as the cover as it looks professional and thats what the audience would be expecting. I broke conventions by having contents written in black instead of the same colour the masthead is on the cover, I chose black as i thought it looked professional and it also matches the smaller writting on the page so it all links together. I also didnt use any pink on this page as I thought by just using the white, black and purple it would make it look more proffesional and sophisticated because by adding the pink it looked to tacky and unprofessional.

After I finished that i began researching existing double page spreads from pop magazines such as billboard, suga and top of the pops, i noticed all the common conventions they all had together was either a medium or long close up of the star vehicle, with an eyecatching title and quote teaser from the text to grab the readers in. I followed these conventions throughout my own double page spread, which was an interview double page spread, i used the same colour palette from my cover and contents on my double page spread to make it look professional. At first i had all the writing in black and you couldnt tell who was the interviewer and who was the interviewee so i changed the writing to pink and purple so it was clearer to see what was happening. 

What kind of media institutions might describe your product and why?
the type of media institutions that might distribute my product would be bauber, IPC and bbc magazines as these institutions distribute successful magazines such as ones that i hae created. IPC and bbc magazine already have a magazine on there markets simular to mine which are 'top of the pops' and 'teen now' however bauber institutuion doesnt have a magazine aimed for my target audience so i could bring something different to their market and with 38 million magazine per week sold worldwide

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

When making this product i learnt about different tchniques and technologies used in the process, firstly I learnt about blogger to present my work online as a digital portfolio, from blogger i learnt how to add text posts, images, link videos, and prezi. blogger would sometimes be difficult because if you had just wrote out something on there and the internet would go off it wouldnt save your work which could sometimes be fustrating but it taught me to always save my work on a computer first, however blogger will always be there for me to show examiners and UCAS universities to see. My blog have over 500 views which shows that there is a lot of people who view my work, it links to theoriest toby miller who said in 2006 "by looking at how culture is used and transformed by social groups, cultural studies see people not simply as consumers, but as potential producers of new social values and cultural language" I also used twitter and facebook for some of the tasks in my blog such as when i created my survey monkey i shared it on twitter and facebook so i could get a bigger variety of answers

I also learnt about Prezi to create a presentation on feature articles, which was shared online so a mass audience would be able to view it. however i discovered that when using prezi you are limiting to space for each slide which i saw as a dissadvantage.

i then later learnt about the digital equipment i would need such as a Canon 5D SLR camera and lense. i learnt about all the different setting to use and what was the best setting so i could get the best quality images and to not use an inferior memory card which would lose he high quality images.

After i had taken my images and was happy with them, I learnt to devolop my photoshop and illustrator skills by searching through tutorials online. I mainly used the brush and spot healing tool to give my model a flawless look, I also used tools such as ellipse, text, ellipticl marquee tool and leaner to change the opacity on some of the ellipse and rectangle shape tools. for my fonts on my masthead i used illustrator where i learnt interestesting fonts appeal to my target audience and by combining with photoshop i could make all elements of my product appeal to my target audience. Hopefully next time i can improve my illustrator skills.

I then learnt about indesign where i put my product in so i can add text, change the spacing and create columns. when my practical work was finished so I used the canon camera to film this evaluation with a green screen behind and i placed the camera on a tripod so it looked professional. I learnt to get the camera settings right and also the camera lighting, i also learnt how to get the camera framing so it was in focus. when i had finished filming i then imported all my clips into imovie to edit my evaluation and add the chosen images on th green screen of my product. Lastly the technology i then used was Youtube so i could share my evaluation which took up a large amount of time, overall i learnt and developed my skills using a huge range of different media technologies that i wouldnt normally use so i could create media products of a professional standard.

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

Looking back at my preliminary task i think i have learnt to use a wide type of typography styles in the progression from my full product. I think ive learnt this as my chosen genre uses a wide variety. Ive learnt about the common conventions needed to make a successful pop magazine which shows when comparing my prelim and my final product. I also used more images and brighter colours to make it professional looking magazine for my target audience has made it a successful magazine overall.

practice exam question

Is it fair and level playing field in the area you have studied?

‘The British film industry has been through some amazing highs an lows over the last 100 years… but there has always been (despite some amazing creative talent like; Hitchcock, J.K Rowling and Dench) a struggle with finance.’

In terms of contemporary cinema, which I will investigate in more detail by comparing and contrasting my British and Hollywood case studies (The Woman in Black 2011 and Paranormal Activity 2007), this statement can be applied because of the balance is still tipped in favour of massive Hollywood conglomerates that dominate the market place. In this last decade, British films have seen huge financial growth due to; technological advances, government/ European funding/Lottery/grants, the Hollywood writers strike and amazing British talent like J.K Rowling refused to let Hollywood take the Harry Potter franchise.

Although, as McDougall (2008) stated Britain cannot compete on a completely level playfield as Hollywood as it doesn’t have the millions required for production, distribution and exhibition. This means that high budget British films have to get some funding from other place, meaning even though they can be classified as British films they have outside help and lose some profit, from production, distribution or exhibition from other countries.

According to the categories outlined by McDougall (2008), my British case study is a C category film. This means that this was filmed with mostly foreign money (but not USA) investment and a small British input either financially or creatively.

Interesting, although my Hollywood choice altimately attracted a Hollywood company to distribute and went onto become a massive Hollywood franchise, it started on a lower production budget to my British case study. In terms of production, my British case study had a production budget of $15 million, while my Hollywood case study had a budget of $10,000. I think this proves that British films could compete on a level playing field to Hollywood films because both of these films went onto be financially successful.

Through comparing the production information on the two films you can see the difference it made. My British filoms starred Daniel Radcliffe, Ciaran Hinds and Janet McTeer and my Hollywood film starred Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat and Mark Fredrichs. In terms of crew, the Hollywood film employed Oren Peli, Jason Blum and Steven Schneider and my British film had Richard Jackson, James Watkins, Tim-Maurice-Jones and Marco Beltrami. In terms of locations and settings, my British film was filmed in Essex, Northhampshire and Buckinghamshire while my Hollywood film was filmed in Oren Peli’s house.

Looking at the cast list and locations, it would seem logical that The Woman in Black should have been more successful that Paranormal Activity because Radcliffe is a massive global star and the production budget meant higher image quality, better special effects and better locations. However, ultimately, Paranomal Activity grossed a higher profit. There could be a number of reasons why this was the case. Firstly, in terms of the horror genre, Paranormal Activlty was a ground breaking phenomium in terms of cinematography and narrative while the Woman in Black followed more traditional horror conventions.

Paranormal Activity was a scarier film than The Woman in Black because The Woman in Black was made as a ghost story with special effects whilst Paranormal Activity was set in a normal setting of a house, which made it more realistic and believable for the audience. The actors who were filmed in the house stayed in the house for 24 hours and Oren Peli scared them so that he could actually capture their fear on camera. The way it was filmed on a home camera made it more realistic and believable for the audience too.

The other reason why Paranormal Activity was more successful relates to distribution viral marketing techniques, distribution budget and marketing strategies.

In terms of contents and target audience, the genre of my British film was Horror, the age rating was PG and my primary target audience was 12 to 30 year old horror fans of all ethnicity and in a demographic band of C1-E.My Hollywood film was a horror genre, rated a 15 with a primary target audience of 15 to 30 years old horror fans of all ethnicity in a demographic band of C1-E. The nationality of my British film is British and for the USA is American. 

The fact that both films were of the same genre meant that they were competing for a similar target audience. My Paranormal Activity Hollywood case attracted this target audience more successfully because it was scarier and was a better example of a film from that genre.

In terms of age rating (developed due to hyperdermic needle theory proving young people are more likely to be influenced by film content and therefore need protecting), research shows the most profitable target group is 15-24 years (because they have disposable income and have time to socialize), my British film wouldn’t appeal to this group because it’s a PG and this audience would think the film wouldn’t be scary if it’s suitable for younger ages. However, my USA film would appeal as it’s a 15 so will make the film appeal to this age group. 

Class

Marx and engels (1982) - the media is used by the ruling classes as means of control

"stereotyping becomes idealogical the moment it stops being simply a method of description and becomes a vehicle for values"

talking about lower class - "they are awful because they aren't like us"

-woman don't work in higher jobs as they can have babies so need time off.

Gandal 2007 -  class is not that dissimilar to the portrayal of race or gender because those that differ from the dominate social group producing the tv drama/film etc (middle class white males) portrayed class groups other than their own as the minority

in other words, upper class and lower cast people are portrayed as a 'cultural other'

working class males are buffoon like well intentioned but dumb. woman take upon the masculine role  (homer simpson)

middle class men are head of household, hard working and smart.

Popular nineteenth-century cross-class classploitation tales:
sentimental rags to riches: poor boy aided by rich person.
sentimental/sensational seduction: poor girl ruined by rich boy.
Cinderella seduction/redemption:poor girl ruined then rescued by rich boy

New popular cross-class classploitation tales:
slumming drama:rich girl or boy liberated by poor boy or poor girl or by downward mobility
class trauma: rich boy or girl degraded by lower-class boy.
slumming trauma: rich boy or girl degraded and liberated by poverty.

The bill

The editing was at a fast pace and they used lots of reverse shots between the guy with the gun and the police man, they used this type of editing as it creates tension and it shows the build in suspense. they have also used a dissolve shot from when they're in the buildings to in the police station, this shows that the police know that he is trapped in the block of flats and that its not a different situation, this is suppose to cause the audience to feel relieved as they know that the police will get there to save him before he gets shot

regional identity

stereotypes

London - landan posh rich people
Essex- fake tan chavy fake eyelashes
scotland - kilts & men with beards 


Benedict anderson (1983) - the unification of people in the modern world is achieved not by military but by cultural means, in particular the media system enables people (of a nation or region) to feel part of a coherent, meaningful and homogenous.

corrigan (1992) - Identity is fluid, unstable and continent on circumstances. 

Higson (1989) - “Representations of national/regional identity are constructed as the narrative of the text unfolds, as characters are pitted against one another, so a sense of identity emerges…but at the same time producers often resort to stereotyping as a means of establishing character and identity.”