Week Two- Section B: Institutions and Audiences – The Music Industry

{ May 7, 2010 @ 1:50 pm } · { Theory }
{ Leave a Comment }

Discuss the ways in which media products are produced and distributed to audiences, within the Music Industry

What are examples of media products within the Music Industry? (Do music Products differ according to genre or Format?)
There are a wide variety of media products to the music industry from Mobile phones with  music players, Ipods, MP3 players, laptops, games consoles that allow you to play and download music such as XBOX and Playstation 3, and merchandise like posters and clothing and toys.  They would differ in design to suit the targeted genre of music as they would look at the person as an individual and create the persons needs for example a person into the rock genre would have merchandise made that is durable and vibrant colours that are associated to this genre of music.

Find out about music labels. Which are the major studios/labels around the world? How do they differ from each other?
Cash Money Records are a music label which currently have signed an well known British artist ‘Jay Sean’ and making a considerable profit and one of the leading ecord labels in the music industry at the moment. Also they focus on RnB Rap music with most of their artists belonging  to the label creating this genre of music.

http://community.cashmoney-records.com/

Young Money Entertainment was founded by lil Wayne in 2003 and since then has leap frogged to the top of the music industry with its recent addtion of Drake and Nikki Minaj. This record label has increased in size recently and mainly also focuses in the RnB genre of the music industry.

http://www.weareyoungmoney.com/

Fueled by Ramen are a newer music label that are slowly becoming more recognised as they have signed Paramore as very successful band in the roch genre of the music industry.

http://www.fueledbyramen.com/main/

They music labels to differ according to the genre of music they focus on and would mainly bring out one sort. This it the main way in which they differ.

What techniques are used to target specific audiences?
the way that they market they products and the places that are chosen to advertise are the way they target a specific audience. This would be done by advertising in certain genre of music based magazines and he type of media products that are brought out.

Are these successful/unsuccessful?
They are all successful with reports of having a profit even though the music industry is suffering dramatically from piracy.

Does the internet have any impact on the music industry? How? Is this seen as positive or negative?
The internet has had both a positive and negative effect in the internet as it has caused a loss in the profit of many record labels and artists as it has made music piracy even more advanced as songs can be more easily illegally downloaded as well as albums being leaked before there release. Although on the other hand it has helped in advertising and helping it easier to get the music from the company to the consumer quicker with songs being able to be downloaded in a matter for seconds from itunes legally.

Week One- Section B: Institutiond and Audiences- The Film Industry

{ May 7, 2010 @ 10:43 am } · { Theory }
{ Leave a Comment }

Discuss the ways in which media products are produced and distributed to audience, within the film Industry

Film: Avatar and Ice Age The Meltdown

What are examples of media products within the film industry? (Do film products differ according to Genre or format?)

To find a definition of a media product I used this website : http://ondemandmedia.typepad.com/odm/2005/08/what_is_a_produ.html
From this website I found that a media product is essentially a practice or something that you can use in other words. this would include Websites, Television programmes, Books, Games, and Toys.

For Avatar the media products that are available are the internet as it has an official website. This has also branched off to having facebook applications, a twitter and Myspace page this would a secondary purpose aiding the advertising process of the film  so that a larger profit can be made off of its cinema sales. These products are targeted to its an older audience as they are on social networking sites that mainly are used my 13+ . Another Media product that this film has are games that are made for games consoles that are by the older audience such as playstation 3, XBOX, and PSP, this is all relevent as the film has a rating of 12 so the media products will have to be targeted to this audience. In addition their is film merchandise such as Pack lunch box, clothing, and figurines.

For Ice Age The Meltdown There are the same media products but they differ as they are targeted at a younger audience as this was a more child friendly and orientated movie, so the media products needed to be suitable for a wider audience of all ages but more focused on children. An example of this would be that the merchandise of figurines would be made suitable for younger children by using bigger parts and not a choking hazard as the Avartar ones would be as they would be made for adults and be more of an collectors item for display not for play as the Ice Age merchandise would be.

Find out about film producers. Which are the major studios/film industries around the world?

James Cameron was the producer of Avartar  as well as The Terminator(1984), Aliens(1986), The Abyss(1989), Terminator 2: Judgment Day(1991), True Lies(1994), and Titanic(1997).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Cameron

David Heyman who produced the Harry Potter Series which caused a major increase in cinema viewing numbers.
George Lucas who produced the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films.
Ted Field who produced the Late Samurai, Runaway Bride, What dreams May Come, Jumanji, Revenge of the Nerds, and The Amitityville Horror.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_film_producers

Major Film Studios include:
20th Century Fox
Columbia Pictures
Dreamworks
MGM Motion Pictures
New Line Cinema
Paramount Motion Pictures
Sony Pictures Entertainment
United Artists
Universal Studios
Walt Disney Studios
Warner Brothers Movies

http://www.mainstwebdesign.com/link_library/film-studios.htm

Who are the primary audience for these industries?

Walt Disney would have its primary audience of being young children as they would only produce movies to this audience as they focus on children however 20th Century Fox would produce movies with an age range  of PG and above.

Are these Successful/Unsuccessful?

Disney even though cinema viewing numbers are appearing to experince an increase with the release of new 3D movies the disney film industry are not also benefiting from the increase with them still experiencing a loss in revenue.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/06/business/media/06disney.html

20th Century Fox is owned by News Corp and they are expecting a decrease in profit in the future for the film industry.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a2TURulJ9TAo&pos=6

Evaluation

{ March 26, 2010 @ 1:56 pm } · { AS Main task COURSEWORK }
{ Leave a Comment }

Evaluation of Media Project
For my main task in my media coursework I choose to take the print pathway as this is what I done for my preliminary task so I continued in this way. This was because I felt that my skills and creativity would be best used doing this option instead of the video pathway. To be able to complete the work that was needed for my chosen pathway it required me to create front page, contents page, and a double page spread from a music magazine only using original images that I myself had taken. To be able to this I would also have to advance through stages of development to finally have fully completed magazine pages to a good enough quality and be publishable, as well as recording all my progress on my blog on my production log and the various other posts at www.wordpress.com/miimii91.
The magazine that I constructed had to be a music magazine as this was the specification but I chose to make the genre of music that the magazine would focus on be urban music, such as Grime, RnB, House, and Bashment. This then meant that my target audience would then coincidently be of young people who listen to urban music who fall into the age group of 15-20 they will be diverse in ethnicity, mainly be living in the london area and would typically be students who have more of a disposable income. I realised that the young people aged at 15-20 are the main consumers of this genre and therefore noted  hat these were my target audience. The realisation of who my target audience would be happened in my research and planning stage. The choice of who I wanted to make my magazine of this genre was because this type of music is relatively new and would be a challenge as there would not be many examples to use for direction but as I listen to this type of music and would essentially be my target audience I would use my own personal opinion to help create my media work.
Before beginning the construction of the pages I had to develop through pre-production stages. This included setting myself SMART targets to ensure that I would meet all my deadlines, and to make sure that I was not rushing any of the stages but paced with enough time to give each full attention making the work to be of a good standard. From setting and following the smart targets it taught me time management and helped me to organise all the needed stages to complete a publishable magazine.
After completing my SMART targets I then followed them rigorously. Also I then had to combine all my ideas that I had for what I thought an Ideal Urban Music magazine would look like. This I then had to combine my ideas into a presentation for my media class, as well as post up on my blog for evidence. This helped me to consolidate any ideas that I had of what I wanted my final piece to look like or resemble. In addition having to complete the presentation caused me to think of what I believe the ideal Urban Music magazines would look like. It also caused me to want to begin the production of my magazine as the thoughts where fresh in my mind.
Although before being able to start construction I had to research what is out there on the shop shelves and selling so that my magazine can be of a similar appearance so that it would be relevant to my target audience and to the music genre, as well as represent the artists in an appropriate fashion.  My research and planning revealed a lot more to me of how the urban music artists are being represented in today’s media in a very edgy way. For example ‘Gracious K’ who poses in a striking way, which symbolises his dance. I also recognised the conventions that music magazines follow, such as having an artist as the main background image on the front page, as well as having articles centring on established artists. In addition to still following the universal conventions of any magazine like having a masthead, features, and Tags to entice the reader to read the magazine. the research and planning stage also brought to my attention that the clothing that they wear are current with the latest fashion trends, so this lead me to come to the realisation that I would have to ensure that the models that I was using would be dressed appropriately.
The research and planning stage of my development of the three music magazine pages caused me to realise certain features that where specific to each page of a magazine. Within the research and planning stage I ensured that I used pages that where from well established music magazines so that they could also be used as templates as this would be the ideal magazine to replicate to achieve the goal of creating a music magazine of a sufficient standard to be published, represent urban music artists, and be applicable to my target audience.I noticed that the Front page of music magazines commonly had a the model for the main background image would be over the masthead but would not cause confusion about the name, this can be seen in on ‘BUST,’ EBONY,’ and ‘Flavour’ magazine on my research and planning on my blog. As well as the face that they used striking colours that catch the eye and would cause them to stand out from others on the shop shelves. In addition another feature of music magazines that I noticed to music magazine front pages was that they didn’t appear cluttered, but quite simple although they managed to catch the readers attention, and essentially give enough information about what the inside of the magazine would contain. The contents pages that I analysed had the universal rule of listing what would be on each page of the magazine in numerical order and was accompanied by images related to the features within the magazine and on the contents page. The only negative thing that I noticed from the pages was that they where rather cluttered which could lead to confusion, this was one convention that I would not want to replicate on the contents page that I would soon be creating. From the analysis of double page spreads I noticed that they have the main conventions of having one main image that would be, closely linked to the article or whatever the text subject would be and that they where very formal in layout yet still managed to express creativity. All of the double page spreads followed the same conventions yet where completely different in appearance, this lead me to realise that my creation would have to follow al of the conventions of double page spread but still be different in appearance and be unique. All of these conventions that I noticed to be universal to music magazine, I recognised needed to be replicated on the pages I was soon to construct for them to be a valid music magazine.
After doing this I was then ready to begin the construction of the magazine by creating the draft pages with images from Google of Urban Music artists so that it would lead the way for my final pages. Then I made my final pages however I encountered many issues with the original images that I had taken to use on my pages. Most of the problems I had was with the relevance of the images and the quality of them which made it difficult to manipulate them which is one thing that I would need to pay more attention to, as this would become a persistent problem if I were to repeat a similar task. Also I had difficulties with what images where actually allowed to be used as I had used a graphic in my draft with the belief that I would be able to use it in my final double page spread, however it came to my knowledge quite late that it wasn’t and had to make the drastic change of using a brush from the internet that was permitted. On the other hand having this issue enhanced my Photoshop, and problem solving skills as I didn’t know how to use brushes till this issue and manages to think of a solution without being too distressed.
I decided to have a colour scheme that the front page and contents page would have as black, green and white as I felt that these colours are unisex so would be appropriate for the audience that I was trying to target. Also I chose to create a masthead that was different from the basic appearance of others, I received the inspiration for this from ‘The Source’ that I used in my presentation of creative ideas as I thought it was eye catching and unique. For my front page the font that I used was because I realised that it needed to be different and be    relevant to a young audience, as well as being a representation of the type or genre of music that the magazine would be focused on. Also the choice of the simple layout for my contents page was largely because of the research I done into music magazine and found them to be too cluttered and confusing, this was one convention that I wanted my magazine to break and be different. The features within the magazine and mentioned on the contents page  are relevant to genre of music and to any music magazine, and this is why I felt that they where acceptable to have on this page and the main things that I considered whilst think of what I would want to have on this page. The layout and and appearance of my double page spread was because I wanted to have a division between the text and the main image as this is one convention that also seemed to be universal in my research and needed to have on the double page spread I was creating. Also having the different colours of the font was to show the difference between the two speakers in the interview moreover cause the page to stand out if a reader was to flick through the magazine as a whole and make them wan to read on, as this is essential in any type of text.
The finished product or final pages that I created differed from previous drafts mainly in the images that where used as they where my original ones. This change of images gave a total different look the appearance of the magazine and caused it to look more applicable to the target audience as the models were all of their age, which would cause them to be able to relate to them, and build a relationship with the reader, this is one thing that could cause a consumer to buy and read a magazine. The image also gave the magazine greater meaning as this was the main focus and inline with any meaning behind the text added, as the magazine was based on urban music which would be created by these people that are shown in the images.
My media product manages to follow the major conventions of any music magazine yet still is able to be unique and relevant to the target audience of 15-20 year olds. It also challenges some conventions by using a different type of font for the masthead, as well as not being as cluttered in layout on the contents page. It manages to attract its desired audience by having models of the same age range, wearing the appropriate clothing of fashions trends to this social group of urban people who listen to urban music. I also think this is relevant to its target audience by having models of both sexes, which reinforces the unisex nature of the music and that it is not just appropriate to one dominating sex the colour scheme also helps to achieve this. Having both sexes as models also represents this social group the models would fall into this social group and my magazine had represented them in a positive way not as how they are in other media product out there today where the youth of today can be shown in a negative way as been delinquents and the main responsibility of street crime. However my magazine shows this social group as doing positive things and being focused as shown in the double page spread where my artist used did not speak of being involved in crime but being focused toward a goal of making music, also this was seen in the images as he was shown being happy and in bright colours and not in the grim dark gloomy colours that would have a negative connotation of crime and delinquency.
From creating this media product I learnt about the technologies that are required to make a music magazine. These would include Photoshop, Digital Cameras, Internet (to research), and Powerpoint. By using these technologies I was also able to develop my skills to a higher level on these technologies, which can be used in the future on other task which I might have.
The media institution that my media product would be distributed at would be by record labels such as ‘BigDada Recordings,’ is will be distributed there so that artists could keep up to date with what is happening today in the music scene. This would be one of the uses of this magazine along with being something that young people would enjoy reading and being the subject of conversations between friends. Another place where I could see my product being sold or distributed would be in local newsagents, and cloths stores that sold the local fashion trends of young people as seen on the models in the images shown on the pages as it would be the places that my target audience would be and most likely to purchase this type of product.
To aid the evaluation process I also gave out a questionnaire on people who would be my target audience, so this would be the most suitable people to ask and the opinions that are needed to properly evaluate whether it targeted the audience effectively. The results that I received from this was all positive and this has reinforced the fact that my media product effectively targeted the appropriate target audience. Also all of the people answered that they would buy this magazine and said that it was eye-catching, so I was able to achieve all the things that I wanted to. Another positive thing mentioned was that the magazine resembled pages taken from a music magazine and not like a poster which as an on going issue that I had with my preliminary task so I feel that my work has improved and have been able to overcome my biggest obstacle. Also the feedback that I received was that the things that would be changes all where on the front page so if I was to redo the construction of the page I would change this. All the results that where gained from the questionnaire are on a post on my blog which is mentioned above.
From doing this media product I have learnt many things about the conventions of music magazines, and felt that I have applied them to the pages that I have created. Over all I am pleased with my finished product and feel that it has targeted the desired audience. In addition the magazine was able to represent the youth in a positive way instead of the negative way that is usually seen in today’s media. I have been able to make a big growth from the preliminary task that I done, and it is of a publishable standard. It manages to follow the conventions of music magazines that are selling on the shop shelves, and still has a different look of youth. In conclusion this media product which I have completed I am content with and pleased with the final outcome.

Questionnaire And Results

{ March 25, 2010 @ 5:54 pm } · { AS Main task COURSEWORK }
{ Leave a Comment }

Questionnaire

1. What would you rate the pages that have been created out of 10?
1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest

75% rated 7

15% rated 8

10% rated 9

2. What age would you say is the age that this magazine would be most relevant for?

25% said 16

35% said 15

45% said 17

5% said 18

3. Do you think this magazine is of a good enough standard to be published?

100% said yes

4. What you buy this magazine if you saw it on a shop shelf?

100% said yes

5. What genre would you say this magazine would be?

100% said music

6. If you were to change anything on the magazine what would it be?

15% said nothing

Then it varied from the image on the front page to the green text but all the things mentioned where on the front page

7. What are you over all thoughts about the appearance of the magazine?

all the results where positive things . No negative points where mentioned

Some of the positive things where the different but nice, Unique, and Eye catching

8. Do you think the pages look like they would be from a magazine or a poster?

100% said it looked like a magazine

9. When looking at the magazine did it grab you attention in any way?

100% said yes

10. If you were to just look at the front and contents page do you think you would continue to read the rest of the magazine or put it down?

100% said yes they would continue reading the magazine

Production Log- 19.03.2010

{ March 21, 2010 @ 11:58 am } · { Production Log- Main Task }
{ Leave a Comment }

Today in my media lesson I was able to complete all the pages required for my main task. This included my Contents page, Double Page Spread, and Front page. Over all I am very pleased with the appearance of them all and feel that they are of a publishing standard. They have Continuity throughout the pages and all follow the conventions of a magazine. I managed to incorporate the conventions yet be different by having a Masthead, Headlines,having a main background image, an having an article and made it different my giving it a different look and funky yet simple.

I choose to have two different colour fonts which I saw in many articles of interviews on various magazines. This led me to realizing that my magazine would not be complete without it and needed this feature to be of a publishing standard.

Also I today whilst doing my pages I realised that one of the images that I used was a graphic which would not be allowed to be in my work as it was not an original image. This then caused me an major problem as I made all my mock ups in great detail so that all I would have to do is change the images and then make any changes that I felt necessary to cause it to still look presentable. So having to change the graphic could change the whole entire look of the page but it had to be done. I managed to resolve this problem be using some more of my original images of the model that I used and then using a brush to add the music affect that I felt the graphic added. Using the brush which I had to download off of the internet to get my music note that I needed to still keep the Urban Music theme I asked and researched to ensure that it would be allowed and not be breaking to rules like as if I used the graphic.

As well as today I went over my contents page to ensure that I had the continuity of my article having the same page number as shown on the contents page as this is also essential as all the pages are meant to be from the same issue of the magazine.

On reflecting over all of my work that I have done today I think that all of it is of a good enough standard to be published, seen on the shop stands, in addition to something which I could see myself buying which is essentially the most basic enough standard. Although the only criticism which I could give my work would be that the order that I completed the pages is shown in the look or standard of the page. As the first one I was unsure of what exactly I wanted it to look like and this could be reflected in the page however the others that proceeded look 100% better, but as I went back over the pages I managed to improve it without changing it too much.

Print Screens

{ March 19, 2010 @ 12:12 pm } · { AS Main task COURSEWORK }
{ Leave a Comment }

Pages Main Task

{ March 10, 2010 @ 12:04 pm } · { AS Main task COURSEWORK }
{ Leave a Comment }

Mock Magazine Pages

mock magazine main task

moch up contents page main task

mock up double page spread main task

Final Magazine Pages

Final contents page main task hjilh

Final double page spread main task nfkd

magazine main task bhubil

Original Images

{ March 5, 2010 @ 2:16 pm } · { AS Main task COURSEWORK }
{ Leave a Comment }

Production Log- 05.03.2010

{ March 5, 2010 @ 11:59 am } · { Production Log- Main Task }
{ Leave a Comment }

Today in my Media lesson I began my final pages, which as I had already put so much thought into my mock up pages was quite simple and was mainly just changing the images from the ones that I had taken from Google to my original images which I have been taking as I go along. Also The Headlines or articles which are going to be inside of the magazine needed to be changed on the front page.  Whilst doing this today I had the problem on my Front page or the main images that I used as the image I had used the model was wearing an as my magazine is also black was I felt that this caused the person to blend in and this is not what a published magazine on the shop shelves would look like. To try to overcome this problem I tried to change the background of the magazine to white although this affected the entire theme of the magazine as well as the look that I am trying to go for. So this lead to me creating a glow with some noise to cause the image to stand out. This I felt helped the entire look of the page and made it look more appealing towards my target audience  as it gave it a more funky urban look. I also began changing the images over on my contents page to my original images to begin work on my final page. This needed to be done because for my work to be accepted the images needed to be my original images taken by myself. However I used images from Google from my draft/mock page as this made it easier to create and to manipulate to  achieve the theme I wanted for my magazine, they also helped me by providing a reference of what type of models I needed and the poses which I would needed them to have to look like music artists, this concept is also to all the images that I used from Google for my mock pages.

Production Log – 26.02.2010

{ February 26, 2010 @ 11:34 am } · { Production Log- Main Task }
{ Leave a Comment }

Today I aimed to complete all my mock ups, I managed to this by finishing my mock up double page spread as this was the last one that needed to be done before I am able to start my final drafts using my original images that I have been taking in my spare time. I had some issues with the placement of the images as they where not striking  enough to grab the readers attention, this is one of the features that I have noticed from looking at other double page spreads. I looked at my research and planning again before beginning my double page spread to refresh myself on what I would want it to look like and the review the conventions that a magazine double page spread follows. I made sure that the article text was in columns and that the font in the columns was the same size to keep the continuity. However I changed the front from the one that I used on the front and contents page as I noticed that the text in double page spreads despite the genre or audience of a magazine all appear to be formal and I felt that the previous font was not formal but rather informal. I placed the images in the bottom corners as they were not the main images but purely there to compliment the article this is also reflected in the smaller size and simplicity of the images that I choose. This also effected my choice of the main image that I chose as I needed it to be more busier than the smaller images so that it would stand out more and attract reader to want to read the article. Then after this I analyzed the page as it was coming close to completion and realised that it had empty spaces at the side of the main image that needed to be filled as the images could not be expanded along the entire top as then it would loose it realism because “Gracious K” would look to wide. So to keep the consistency of the music theme I had the idea of having music notes beside the main image. Using the musical notes graphic gave the page a more musical look as well, as it kept the theme of music continuing throughout the pages I create, and my magazine is a music magazine. This is also a reason why I chose to use the musical notes graphic on my double page spread and it tied in with the edgy poses that the artist ‘Gracious K’ I chose to use. After this I looked at the double page spread again with a critical view and believed that their was no more that could be done and was happy with the finished product.

« Older entries
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.