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

http://www.slideshare.net/lithium2742/magazine-cover-contents-44671580

2. How does your media product represent particular social groups?

I have chosen a particular social group to be represented, and my social group are people who generally enjoy the rock genre of music. I have chosen this particular social group because the music can generally be broad and vague, this means I can open up my magazine to a larger audience.This is also a very large section of the music industry and then making me able to and more information and features in my magazine. Features such as: tour dates; album releases; and new formed bands.

These particular social groups will be able to tell if a certain media product – like mine – is targeted at them or not. This is because of how the magazine may be represented to them. The colors and how the magazine is laid out can help represent itself to a social group. If it had bright colors like: white; pink; and light blue, then a person may think it is a pop magazine. Also how the artist on the cover is represent may tell us what social group it is. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GlZD58n_Qc&feature=youtu.be

5. How did you attract/address your audience?

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

I have learnt a lot of new and initiative ways on how to present my work in programs such as Microsoft PowerPoint or Word. Because I have done a lot of research for my magazine I have learnt a lot of ways to better present my work. In Microsoft Publisher I have learnt more ways to make a piece of a media product. In Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Fireworks has assisted me in making a better piece of media in Microsoft Publisher. Other technology such as a camera has been able to get good quality photos for my magazine, and with experimentation has expanded my knowledge on using this technology. Then in Adobe Photoshop/Fireworks I was able to enhance the photo for media uses in my magazine. Other programs have been able to aid me in research to be able to make my magazine in the first place. Google was good for first initial research on magazines, and software’s such as: Prezi; Blogger; PowerPoint; and Word, have been able to aid me in noting down my research.

In Prezi, I have learnt how to present my research and findings to an audience. As I was new to this particular technology this was a new way to present work to an audience, and learnt how to use it and its key features. In Blogger, I uploaded my work and organised accorded to completion and was new to this and its features and interesting to use; I had learnt another way on how to present my work to audiences. Google, I mainly used for light research so I could compare my magazine to professional magazines and take inspiration from some of them to use in my magazine, I could also research new websites to find text from, like DaFont to get new text font to make my magazine appear more professional. From the camera, I learnt how to take different shots for the magazine and there effect that they’ll have on the cover of the magazine. I also learnt on how to make the lighting better, and the quality of the image. In Adobe Photoshop or Fireworks, I expanded my knowledge of enhancing images and the quality of these. And even though I was not new to this software I still learnt a lot from using it, and made them better to use in my media product.  On Survey Monkey, I was able to learn how to make better survey for mass use and learn about the target audience that I was aiming for. Microsoft PowerPoint was where I presented most of my research and work, and even though I was not new from this particular technology I still learnt some things on how to present my work better. And in Microsoft Publisher, I learnt a lot on how you can design different media products in the software. In the preliminary task I was able to expand my knowledge and learn in these programs and learn for the final task, this also meant that I was able to learn from some of the mistakes that I made in the first task.Overall, I think I generally improved in most of these technologies that I used.

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

Looking back on my preliminary task, I feel I have learnt a lot from the differences in the preliminary task and the final media product; this is because I have learnt a lot from my initial mistakes that I may have made in the preliminary task. Also I have learnt about using different technologies in new initiative ways. I have learnt a lot of ways to better present my work in a lot of new programs. And I also have learnt more ways to make a better piece of a media product. I have learnt many things on how to construct and present images for media products, I have learnt on how a magazine should present itself to a particular social group and how to make it stand out and appear better. And from these particular factors this has made me produce a better magazine in general.

The first improvement I had made to the initial task was to improve the appeal to certain target audience which I did not use to full use in the initial task , and I explored this feature in my music magazine which work rather well, although the target audience was still large. I finally targeted my magazine to people who enjoyed the rock genre, and explored sub-genres such as: pop-rock; indie; and alternative. I did this by adding artists of this genre and making up my own artist that is depicted as those genres by basing them on other artists of those genres. I was able to do this by researching how different artists/genres are presented by magazines and followed this into my own magazine. Overall I think I improved in using this feature on a whole.

Secondly, I believe the quality of photos I took in general are better than those of the preliminary task. In the preliminary task the photos are generally not of good quality, such as the shot of the photos are generally not thought of as in the final task I experimented with which shots would look better with the overall basic layout of the magazine. Also the lighting was not of very good quality with the initial task and therefore did not present itself very well to the reader as in the final task I made sure that all the lighting was to the best quality I could make it. Finally, the overall quality of the photos are better in the final task rather than the initial task because in the final task I made sure that the camera was set to its best capability. Apart from the quality of the image I also depicted change in the body language of the models, after doing research on how to present certain genres in models/artists I followed this into my own work by present these artists in a way that would help represent their genre. Overall, I think I improved the quality of the photos that I took for the magazine.

Finally, another improvement I had made to my magazine was the text and masthead. In the initial task the masthead was not really thought of and was added in a few minutes, as to suppose the masthead in the final task was thoroughly thought off and experimented with and tested with the basic magazine layout and worked better than in the initial task. Also that overall text is better in the final task, because in the initial task some of the common text may have not been as easy to read as to suppose to the final task. Also the text on the cover is generally improved because in the initial task I tried to pack in as many fonts as possible, but with the final task I stuck to bold and easy font throughout the magazine which generally improved it for reading and appeal.

Overall I think I generally improved my quality of skills from the initial task, but some things like use of color house I think I generally used rather well throughout both magazines.

Music Magazine Interview

The Interview:

Appearing at the Royal Festival Hall in London for MTV Unplugged on the 23^rd of August 2006 Harbor was first performed without frontman Chris. The audience was expecting the heart-thumping performance of frontman Chris Hinton to appear in other glamorous performance. But instead, with Chris Hinton being “ill” that day at the last minute, Matt Hunt took the stage, with his first performance as a frontman, this had been chosen by fans as their best ever performance. Everyone stood still waiting for Chris to come on stage in an explosive manner, but instead the 13-foot high stage welcomed Matt Hunt. And the show was a success. Knowing that the show had been a success Hunt had always known that he could perform solo. With the band slowly tear apart to its roots, Hunt left and tried to perform something close to the MTV Unplugged performance of 2006. Now Hunt has been even more successful than being with Harbor.

 “Definitely Not! I’d Never Reunite the Band,” Hunt said, “I know it’s what the fans want, but it seems everyone does things in life to please other people, but what’s the point? You should do things in life because you want to do it, not because some random people want you to do another gig together.  I don’t play guitar because some guy called John said ‘play guitar’, if so I’d be a very busy guy playing the banjo and drinking every energy drink on the plant cause someone said so. You should do it because you want to. If one day I don’t want to play the guitar, I’ll do something else. So the moral is; do what you want; be a rock star!”

Harbor has been sued over copyright 19 different times, and one particular artist ‘Oasis’ has sued them 14 of those times for lifting riffs and entire lyrics of their songs, but Harbor denies stealing them because they said “Oasis did it! Why can’t we?” Matt continued, “I hate it when people say ‘you’re just another band’ or ‘another Oasis’. OK some of our songs sound like Oasis, but really I don’t think we were anything like Oasis.” Matt said. “Everyone I see or hear was or is comparing us as a modern Oasis. Who cares?”

Music Magazine Double Page Spread (Final)