This is a drawing of an island which summarizes my AS course experience and how I felt about different things within the course. 

The good experiences of the course are placed on the left hand side of the drawing, where the sun is shinning and there is a palm tree. I drew the sun and palm trees as it symbolizes god things and happy thoughts. This side consists of:

• Creating my own magazine called Love RNB and looking at existing music magazine, such as NME. 
• learning how to use photoshop properly.
• Learning how to use apple Mac computers.
• Doing the photoshoot for my magazine.
• Doing the coursework and blogging up m work on Blogger.

The bad experiences of the course are on the right hand side of the drawing, where its raining, lightening and rough sea. I drew them because it symbolizes the harder and more boring things of the course. This side consists of:

• Doing Exams.
• Meeting all the deadlines.
• Completing homework.

As you can see there are more good experiences than bad, meaning that overall I enjoyed the course and just had to get on with the things I didn't enjoy so much.

Year 13 Media Studies

On our first lesson back we put ourselves into groups of max 5 people and and were given the task to create a short movie between 5-10 mins long. The movie had to be a meeting of any kind whether it be a business meeting, or meeting with a friend etc.

As preparation our homework was to write up a script and draw up a storyboard for the movie. We also had to think about what specific shots were going to be used.

On the second lesson back we were to go off and find a suitable place around the school without disturbing people to film our movie.

We went with what was drawn in the storyboard, using kodak flip film cameras and a tripod to keep the camera steady for clearer shots.

For the first movie my role was to act where I didn't have to worry much about the technical side.

In the second short film I was filming, so therefore I had to think carefully about:

• The type of shot.
• How long the shot will go on for. 
• Carefully position the people within the shots.

Final Double Page Spread.  

Love RnB Final

Final front cover Page and Contents Page.  

Looking back at your Preliminary Task, of designing the front page of a school magazine, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

I feel that my skills have developed a lot after doing my prelim task. The reason being, I only had the basic skills of how to use Photoshop and I had never used the programme “Pages”. Those basic skills then grew into bigger ones and I gained more knowledge which therefore helped me create my final product. From my prelim task it taught me a lot of new things I never paid attention to in a magazine, and how much work and research goes into producing one, i also learnt what codes and convections means and what they were. I have learnt that through the process of producing the magazine many things will change and there are plenty of ideas to work with, especially with the editing programmes which allow you to be very creative. You also have to always keep in mind who your target audience is, so the final product is successful, all of which I kept in mind when doing my magazine. Codes and convections of a magazine such as; Masthead, Strapline, Lures, Coverlines, price, issue date, barcode etc. These helped me in my final product as I knew what it was I had to include for my magazine to follow the normal convections and also make the magazine look genuine and professional.

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

What kind of media institution might distribute your

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Who would be the audience for your media product?

My magazine will be based on the genre of RnB/Urban. In it you will find many types of articles such as interviews, articles promoting new artists/bands, new albums and club reviews, gossip on the latest music and on artists lives. These types of articles will satisfy the readers of my magazine because they will gather knowledge on their favourite artists and their music. My main target audience is a wide range of boys and girls between the ages of 15-19, these young teenagers are likely to be receiving at least a weekly allowance of £10 if not more, as some of them may have part time jobs or may be receiving benefits of £10-£30 such as ema if they are attending college. However my magazine will be affordable for teenagers who don’t receive any type of income as I have priced my magazine at £2.50, which is not expensive at all. My audience are frequent music downloaders, which is then transferred straight to their iPods, Blackberrys and iPhones, these are the most popular way they listen to music. However they may also go on the internet and listen/watch music videos, on sites such as ‘Youtube.com’, they may also listen to music on the radio whilst they’re in their own car or with their parents.  Some of them may even spend time watching music channels on TV when there is nothing else to watch. My musical audience decide to spend their own extra money when going out to places with friend, such as cinema, shopping, eating or buying musical equipment (e.g. iPods, headphones etc). In their spare time they would normally like to ‘chill’ at home, go out with friends, some may do activities, such as dance or football.

How did you attract/address your audience?

My mode of address will be mainly aiming towards boys and girls who like and listen to RnB/Urban music, between the ages of 15-19. My front cover design and layout are very eye catching so it can stand out to the readers and make them take an interest into my magazine. I used bold colours but still managed to keep it simple so the magazine wouldn’t look too overdone.  I will not be using “girly” colours such as Pink and Purple and I will try not to make it too masculine, I will use the right colours to attract both genders. For the masthead I decided to use ‘RNB’ with a small music note overlapping it. This clearly helps to highlight the genre of RnB and the use of a bold blue as the colour will help it stand out to the reader and catch their attention.

However the use of slang terminology targets my target audience because they are most likely to be very familiar with it as it is a youthful/trend nowadays. My magazine readership would be advertised in music channels such as “Smash Hits” or MTV, or on pop ups that appear on facebook, as after doing some research my target audience tend to watch music channels and the majority of them use facebook/twitter/internet almost every day. Throughout the magazine the consistency of the writing and eye catching colours has also helped the magazine reflect what kind of audience it is aiming at. I think my choice of colours is good as they ‘Blue, Yellow, White and Black’ suit both genders equally, therefore not making my magazine too girly or too masculine.

How does you media product represent particular social groups?

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

During the process of constructing my product there were many challenges with the programmes I used which were, Photoshop and Pages, in particular. However it was very enjoyable learning more in depth of how to use them and make the most out of them. I decided to use Photoshop for my front cover and contents page, I learnt a lot about it as, when starting my media course I knew very little of how to use it. Once you have the hang of it, it is a very useful and interesting programme as you can experiment with many different tools and use lots of layers to create something you like. It is also very good to use if you want to edit photographs, which is why I used it for my front cover in particular.  Pages the programme used to create my double page spread it is a lot simpler to use than Photoshop, but however doesn’t include all the advantages which Photoshop has. However I learnt how to use it quite quickly as it was something new to me, but I enjoyed experimenting with it and being as creative as I could.

All the production work was done on Macs, which I wasn’t used to as I only use a normal PC, but I eventually learnt how to move around and do things on the Macs such as; screen grabs, which is the same as a print screen on a normal PC. I could then use those screen grabs and include them onto my blog as evidence of my work in progress and research.  I have learnt that Macs even though they may be more complex than a regular PC, they are very useful as they include more editing programmes allowing me to be able to expand my skills on those different programmes.

For my final product I had to include photographs I had taken myself (original). This I enjoyed quite a lot and I found it the easiest task to do and also that I could be as creative as possible when taking the pictures. I learnt what angles looked best for specific poses and all the planning help me come up with even more ideas o what and where to take the photos.

In what ways does your music magazine use, develop or challenge form of convections of existing music magazines?

Having chosen the genre of R&B for my music magazine, I have decided to do some research on a magazine called “VIBE” which is also based on the same genre. I already knew the codes and convections from previous work I’ve done during lesson. With that knowledge I could then analyse the VIBE magazine and find out if it follows most of the codes and convections like the rest of the music magazines. During class work I have also looked at Top of the pops magazine which genre is Pop. Both magazines were very different in the way they looked, top of the pops had a mix of bright and in your face colours whereas ‘Vibe’ had more simple and more sophisticated colours. However through the colours used, the design and the language used, they both successfully portray their target audience. They both also used the normal convections of a music magazine, such as Masthead, Lures, Strapline, date, issue number, Coverline, Barcode, Price, image, Mode of address. These are convection that my magazine must also include to show that it is a genuine magazine and professionally done. The contents page must therefore follow the convections too which are, page numbers that indicate what story is on what page, message from editor to make it seem like the editor is wanting to connect with the readers, images can be useful to give an insight of what else is in the magazine. There will have to be a consistency of style, colours and fonts from page to page of the magazine, otherwise too much is happening and it might portray the wrong target audience. Convections for the double page include, title, Strapline, the actual article/interview and photographs (so the readers know who the article is about).

I would say my magazine follows the normal convection of a magazine and therefore looks genuine and professional, and I have successfully portrayed the target audience in the appearance and language of the magazine.

Magazines Online

Kerrang Webesite

Top of the Pops

Vibe Online Magazine

I have researched some websites of magazines I have analysed over time. There are a few similarities between the paper magazine and the one online. However I think it is a good way to target the audience if they are between the ages of 16-24 as they are frequent users of the internet and are up to date with internet news.

Possible Mastheads