OCR Media Studies – AS Level

Unit G321: Foundation Portfolio in Media

Evaluation

Name:Candidate Number:Center Name: St. Paul’s Catholic CollegeCenter Number:

Set Brief - Print

Music Magazine – Production

Preliminary Task, Log Book and Evaluation

YOU MUST address the following criteria in order to achieve an A – B grade in the Evaluation.

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

The magazine, across the 4-pages, ‘repeats’ (Steve Neale) codes and conventions from magazines such as RockSound. I got my inspiration from issue 192 for the double page spread as I put the image of my guy on the right hand side facing the text, just like Gerard Way did when he was being interviewed.

There are examples of some ‘difference’, however, in terms of the forms and conventions in my own media product for example I didn't use the same colour scheme as they did such as on my front page I used letters from a ransom note whereas RockSound uses normal text. In my contents page I decided to use my the same text as my music front cover, this was to keep the magazine original and so that the audience will know what is the contents page and what is the magazine.

How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Example sentence starters:

The denotation of representation isThe magazine, across the 4-pages, helps to represent rock as the colours that I use are very bright colours which attract the audience such as I used blue which isn’t a colour which is associated with rock but it was the thing that stood out the most, inside of that blue box I held all of the information that the reader could go to. I used bright colours to represent the social groups that would read this as calm and polite as they are stereotypically represented by heartless and emotionless.For example, on the contents page I used a variety of colours such as yellow, blue and white but I also kept the colours which may rock stars wear which is black to keep the sense of rock but make the magazine unique.

What kind of media institution (Publisher) might distribute your media product and

why?

Example sentence starters:From the research that was completed pre-production, I would envisage that the magazine would have similarities and differences from different magazines making it unique and Kerrang may publish ‘Rock Tribute’ because my magazine is unique and it will cover the rock of the past making this magazine special, it will be targeted for teenagers and people who are in early adulthood.The similarities of my magazine to ‘Kerrang’ also ‘signifies’ (De Saussure) an element which links to Kerrang as my magazine will use the same colours as Kerrang.

Who would be the audience for your media product and why?

Hartley’s seven subjectivitiesThe age group that I am targeting is teenagers as well as adults, the gender is both male and

female, however the magazine may appeal to women as on the front cover there is a main sex appeal.

Katz’ Uses & Gratifications theoryPersonal identification:Everyone who enjoys rock can relate to this magazine as this is giving young rock fans a taste of the

past as well as giving them the present rock bands such as Paramore and Fall Out Boy.Personal relationships:Considering that many rock fans will have an idol they can get to know a bit more about them , this

can build a closer relationship with the readers and the people starring in the magazine.Inform and educate:Because of the subheadings the audience of my magazine will be informed about what the contents

of the magazine are, but they don’t reveal that much this means that they will have to read the magazine to get more information

Maslow’s Hierarchy of needsCare givers:

How did you attract/address your audience?

In order to attract the intended target audience of people who listen to rock. I decided to stick by some of the stereotypes such as tattoo’s and long hair as seen in the front cover and the double page spread. But I decided to make it unique as I used bright colours at the beginning such as red so that the audience can know where the title and the rest of the contents page starts

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

The denotation of the software used to construct the media product entitled ‘Rock Tribute’ was Photoshop CS4. I chose this software as I had a small previous experience with it so I decided to carry on using Photoshop, this helped me as I could do the basics such as use blur, and saturate with desaturate to create

In order for this product to look fit for purpose and appeal to the target audience, I decided to create a contrasting colours using the sponge tool because it helped me to desaturate the brick wall and create a focus .

Analysing my Front Cover

This was my first idea of my Music magazine I had no inspiration so I decided to use the colours which are associated with rock. I didn’t have any inspiration

I decided to blur out the brick wall and then desaturation the background to make the person in the background stand out, this was to show the rocky look and to portray what the magazine will have inside.

Then I decided to change it up a bit as I was inspired by KERRANG so I took their masthead colours and incorporated it in my masthead, instead of a yellow text, I picked

Analysing my Contents Page

There was no inspiration towards my contents page.

I decided to add more detail into my magazine in order to make it appealing.

I took the inspiration from rawr magazine and adapted it in order to suit my fans

Analysing my Double Page spread Interview

It is yellow so that it has the same colours as my Front page and double page spread

The image is positioned on the right just like kerrang has done(Steve Neale)

I used red to show who is the interviewer and black for the interviewee