These top two pages are from my prelimaray task and quiet frankly, they look like they were done by a 10 year old and saying that I did it all last minute is no excuse. To be honest, i did have a clue of what im doing and felt like an amateur. So over a period of time since then i have spent alot of my time practising on photoshop to make sure i could produce work to the best of my ability.

The next two pages are from my main task and like i've said in my last post, my photoshop skills have improved significantly and i'm very proud of my work and think it looks alot more professional then my previous work. obviously there is room to improve and i will be looking to do that over the coming weeks. i believe my work does address my target audience using the dark colours i used as well as the fonts i used because it looks more urban. Also the picture would attract the audience because he is wearing urban clothes and has his hood up.  

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

For all four pages of my work I used Photoshop CS.5 and Photoshop elements 5. By looking at my preliminary task and comparing it to my main, I would say that my skills in these programs have improved significantly. I have learnt a lot about these programs. This is due to a lot of Youtube.com tutorials as well as just simply doing a trial and error on each of the available tools. I also used www.dafont.com a lot for all of my pages, this is a very useful website that has a huge range of fonts that no Microsoft program can provide.

For my pictures I used canon 1100D, I was going to use the Fugifilm Finpix s1500 that my teacher could provide but my sister offered to let me use her camera(canon 1100D) and this camera is by far much better and was 4 megapixel better that the Fugifilm, so therefore produced much better pictures.

How did you attract/address you audience?

To attract my audience I used the names of well known mainstream artists such as Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa. I did this because people always want to hear about these two artists because they are well known and very mainstream. I also decided to play the ‘sexy card’ and out in names such ‘Rihanna, Beyoncé, and Alexis Jordan’. I used these 3 women because they are seen as very sexy women, idolised by males worldwide and men would love to see their pictures and hear about them.  I also added some features to the contents page to attract more people. These gifts were a weekly free album download and a chance to be in a draw to win an IPAD 2. Also with the font sizes on the front cover, the main story had much bigger writing then anything other than the title because obviously the title is the first thing that I want the audience to notice when they pick up my magazine.

who would be the audience for your media product?

This is Derek Asare, he is 15 years old and listens to a lot of rap, and he is aspiring to become a rapper himself when he gets older. Derek lives in a deprived estate in hackney where a lot of gang members come from. He likes to read rap magazines a lot as him mum buys them to keep him indoors reading rather than being out on the streets getting into trouble. His Rapping inspirations are 50 cent, Jay-Z, Eminem, Wiz Khalifa and Mac Miller. He likes to think he has a mixed ‘flow’ of Eminem and Mac Miller and will one day become the biggest rapper in the world. His main reasons for hoping to be successful are to make his mum proud and also get his family out of the dangerous area of hackney estates. Derek would be my magazines target audience as he likes to keep updated on the latest rapper news and hear about the new up and coming rappers; this is exactly what my magazine hopes to provide to the readers and will be successful in doing so. Derek often buys his clothes from shops like JD sports and footlocker. He always wears a pair of Nike trainers and always wears his huge silver chain because he likes to be like the rappers he sees on TV and in the magazines. His favourite TV program is ‘Nick Cannon’s battle showdown’

 Because he likes to watch other rappers and see what he can learn from their style. From what I've told you, you can see he is very dedicated to becoming a professional rapper and spends a lot of his time studying other rappers and he also spends a lot of time writing lyrics.

3) what kind of media institution might distribute your media product and why?

 

EMAP(East Midland Allied Press) is a British media company that publish many mainstream magazines in different areas, not just music but also fashion and many others.

Development Hell Ltd is an independent media company based in Islington, London. They are the publishers of mainstream magazine ‘Mixmag’.

Harris Publications Inc. is an American consumer-magazine publisher in New York City, New York, that publishes over 75 titles, including Juicy, XXL and king

I believe these publishers will publisher my magazines because they all have published main stream magazines in the past and my one is also an international mainstream magazine.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

With my magazine, I particularly was aiming at males aged between 14-25 from areas such as Finsbury Park and Tottenham. When I was taking the pictures for my magazine I asked the person I was taking pictures of to pull more serious, not angry but serious faces because people from my target audience would be able to relate to him. This is because these men have this feeling that they must always been seen has a serious person. I also added names such as ‘Wiz Khalifa’ and ‘Snoop Dogg’ I also chose to use fairly dark colours throughout my magazine because this also relates to the seriousness of the magazine which the target audience will be able to relate to. Also the artist is wearing fashionable clothing that the target audience would be attracted to. I think that for my magazine I was trying to create a very serious attitude with the theme of the magazine because my target audience tends to be serious people and I think I have created this atmosphere.

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

My magazine does follow the convention of a real professional magazine. Looking at my front cover it has a similar vibe to the Jay-Z edition of clash magazine. I think this because I have tried to follow this style but also develop it slightly. Like the clash magazine I have used a close up shot of my artist like they did with Jay-Z. Image itself shows the seriousness of the artist, I did this to show he means business and isn’t messing about with his life .Although I did decide to do a title of my own original idea that I am aware of but it is in the same place as any other magazine out there (centre, top of page).

 

                         (My magazine)                                                           (Clash magazine)

As you can see I also kept the text at the very top of the page because I think it makes the cover look a lot more professional. Throughout my magazine I have used similar fonts but for all the text like in the strip at the top of my cover, I have used the same font for all the pages (copper plate gothic light) because it looks more conventional and professional like a real magazine, like clash magazine.