Creative Critical Reflection
Welcome to my creative critical reflection on my AS CIE Media Component 1, I created a magazine cover, contents page and double page spread. To complete my work I have made an online blog to create my portfolio which can be found on laurenwithersbsmweebly.com, throughout this journey of constructing a magazine I have learnt various skills and developed previous knowledge on the subject. To display my creative critical reflection I have decided to use this opportunity to further my abilities in moving image.
1. How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
My magazine follows the typical codes and conventions of men’s lifestyle magazines. These codes and conventions would be a masculine figure as the main image to connote the ideal man that the target audience strives towards; as you can see my main image presents a menacing and smart model that connotes a wealthy lifestyle. Just above the main image, the masthead is typically eye catching and dominates the page such as ‘GQ’s, FHM and Esquires masthead, which is positioned behind the celebrity, to show their significance and importance in today’s society, therefore my model is positioned behind my masthead; ‘Swerve’. Conventionally the style in men’s lifestyle magazines varies from formal to semi-formal as you can see by theses front covers, also they are normally shot from the crotch upwards, in order to follow these conventions, my main model is dressed semi-formally with a button undone on his shirt to connote a causal relationship with the reader; which goes hand in hand with the direct mode of address commonly used in men’s lifestyle magazines, which also creates a bond between the reader and the magazine. Sell-lines are used to promote alpha male ideologies about sex and fitness etc. for example I used “Be the man you always aimed to be” which is ambiguous towards fitness aims or lifestyle goals. Yellow and the font ‘Bebas’ features throughout the magazine creating continuity, yellow produces a warming effect, arouses cheerfulness, stimulates mental activity, and generates muscle energy which fits hand in hand with the ideologies of my magazine. Bright, pure yellow is an attention getter which makes it stand out against other magazines. The font used throughout my products is bold and creates a clean and intuitive reading process as well as an informal vibe for the reader which makes it perfect for headlines. The content of my article is informal and creates a casual conversation between the celebrity and the reader, it allows the reader to full submerge themselves into Avary Clark’s lifestyle and career. I have created a series of contact sheets which enabled me to pick the best images for my cover, contents page and double page spread; I didn’t use the images on the left and in the middle on my front page as they did not fit the conventions of my magazine, the photo furthest to the left is too cheerful which is uncommon to find on the front cover of these types of magazines. For my article I used the middle image as it is much more appealing for an article image and the body language is harsh and strong which appeals to the target audience, the photo to the right was too hard to edit with the flying tie as I wanted to duplicate the image. Men’s magazines are typically titled toward the social class; therefore my product is aimed at a higher more sophisticated man, they also tend to address the heterosexual readership, which is obvious in my magazine as it includes sell lines such as “Blondes, brandy and bow ties” which is sexualizing blonde women. The text in this genre of magazines speak to the reader as a friend by offering hints, pointing out downfalls, and giving helpful advice this is why my magazine acts as an advisor for the audience with articles on how to be a better man. My contents page is simple and straightforward, which enables the reader to easily navigate throughout the magazine articles much like other magazines of the same genre. I used street fashion on the contents page to show the diversity of the magazines styles which is conventional of men’s lifestyle magazines which give various styles. The stripes and graphics covering the title and name of the magazine challenge the simplicity of most men’s lifestyle magazines. My double page spread is conventional of the genre; it includes one side with an image of the featured celebrity and one page of interview style text. The title of the article ‘Man made’ depicts a strong item of masculinity and hardship, that ‘Avary Clark’ has constructed his career (made by a man).
2. How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?
I completed both qualitative and quantitative research by a focus group interview with someone from my target audience and an online questionnaire on my weebly blog; from these forms of research I was able to attain information on what would strike the target audience most effectively, such as the colour yellow and a similar magazine style to GQ. My magazine interacts with my target audience on many levels. The target audience of my magazine is men from the ages of 18-30, either single or in a relationship, as the magazine includes sexual and romantic advice. Typically the target audience would be straight as most of the sexual and romantic advice is addressed towards a man and woman which are conventional of a men's lifestyle magazine. They would not have a specific ethnicity. They would fit into the socio-economic demographic of BC1C2 as it is aimed towards the higher middle class as the fashion items is directed at this income group. They would have a history of purchasing similar magazines such as 'GQ', 'Esquire', 'FHM' and 'Men's Health'. The target audience would go against the 'Hypodermic Needle' theory as they would actively go and buy the magazine in order to read the contents instead of passively consuming it. According to the Blumer and Katz theory of Uses and Gratifications the target audience would use my magazine for Surveillance in order to gain knowledge on how to improve their lifestyle and personal identity to therefore find familiarity in the articles written such as advice columns. The target audience’s psychographic profile would be hobbies such as going to the gym, working and going to enjoy the night life. They would primarily care about their physical appearance, sexual and/or romantic relationships and their social life and class. They would be easily influenced by celebrities as they see them as high class and successful as well as being happy and stylish which is what the target audience aspires to be. They would also be influenced by social media as this would be their main source of information. According to Stuart Hall’s reception theory the target audience would have a negotiated reading of ‘Swerve’ and find it useful and entertaining. My magazine would feature in bookstores, newsstands, and magazine stands. Copies of ‘Swerve’ would also be sampled where ‘Swerve’ men are; exclusive, high-end establishments across the country such as hotels, country clubs, banks, financial institutions, gyms, barber shops, cafés, and restaurants. There would also be a subscription service where individuals who are part of ‘Swerve’s’ exclusive distribution list also receive the latest issue monthly. Digital media would also aid the distribution of my magazine, through social networks like ‘Facebook’, ‘ Twitter’, ‘Tumblr’, ‘Instagram’ and ‘Snapchat’ I would be able to promote the magazine and increase profit and popularity. Social media is where the main domain for my target audience and so therefore I have made a Twitter page which can be easily accessed as well as and Instagram. Using digital media would also mean that the house styles become prominent in the men’s lifestyle magazine realm. I have created obvious house styles throughout my work which will make the magazine much more recognizable for the target audience and enable a trigger response, for example the font I chose “Bebas”; whenever they see the font they will think of my magazine. This is similar to fonts used for films such as the Hunger Games, whenever the audience sees that font they think of the film franchise, this means there is a strong sense of branding.
3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
Throughout my journey of component 1 I have been keeping an online blog of my progression throughout the course, including a diary with skills I have learnt and my experience, all of my drafts and how they have been developed, my research into the media of magazines, research on target audience, gender, codes and conventions and much more. By using an online blog for my work I have been able to develop skills on how to log in all of my work, how to present my information clearly and appealing and how to create a website. My improvements of m Photoshop and publisher skills are evident throughout my weebly blog. I also have created a Twitter and Instagram page for the promotion of my magazine which has used my previously extensive knowledge on social media to create a successful site which contains the house styles of my magazine. Throughout Component 1 I have created my magazine by using Photoshop CS6, in order to fully develop my skills and unlock my full potential I refreshed my memory of the tools with various YouTube videos explaining skills such as refine edge, the filter gallery and how to add effects on text. My masthead has a bevel effect and a shadow which makes it stand out and not look as two dimensional. I also frequently used the refine edge tool to ensure my main model did not have a white border around him from where I removed the background; this makes it look much more professional. Books were also helpful for me to gain more knowledge on Photoshop and how to make my magazine contents page much more proficient, I read ‘The Photoshop CS6 Book’ which meant I was able to create the yellow graphic present behind the text which I feel gives the magazine an edgy vibe. I used Microsoft Publisher to create the layout of my magazine article; I do not frequently use Publisher, which meant I learnt how to create the skeleton of a double page spread, including columns and quote boxes. I then pasted the Photoshop piece of work which included a graphic title, a duplicated main image and a filmography column which was comprised of small images with a yellow border to synchronize with the house styles, refining the edges and adding effects to the small images in the feature box was very tedious and took me a couple of hours however it developed my production and time management skills. My time management skills were also heavily put to the test when I took the images for my magazine as I was only allocated half an hour in a professional photography studio; this meant I was working under pressure. However it meant that I had planned well before hand and knew exactly what I needed to do when I got in the studio. For the critical reflection I have used film equipment such as a Canon HD CMOS Pro video camera, a box light and a tripod. I have also enormously improved my skills on SONY STUDIO PLATINUM 12.0 video editing software. I have learnt to separate sound and moving image files, add music, add JPEGS, trim videos and add animations which make a smooth transition between the cuts. It only took me 15 minutes to take over 60 images and I was left with more than enough content for my work.
4. How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?
Throughout Component 1 I have integrated new media such as social networks, an online blog and using YouTube to upload any filming such as focus group interviews. Creating a website to distribute my portfolio of work has built on my computing technical skills and how to format an online blog. The domain in which I created the website is called Weebly which has been very useful for me as a beginner in website formatting. I mainly used Microsoft Word to type up all of my work, ideas and diary entries so I can keep a hard copy of all of my completed work on my hard drive, another Microsoft program I used heavily was Microsoft Publisher to write up my article content with column guidelines and I also used it to crop images. In regards to my images and editing the photos I used Photoshop CS6 to duplicate layers to create the graphic in my article, I frequently used the refine edge tool to take the white border off images after they have been cut out with the quick selection tool, After refining the edge I would sometimes make a custom border around the images such as the small images in the filmography which was done by using the Layer Style panel and selecting Outer Glow in the blending options. Saturation and contrast was also edited in Photoshop as well as the spot healing tool to remove any blemishes on the model. Moreover, as well as computer technology I also used expert equipment such as EOD Cannon, 5D, EF 24 – 105 mm image stabilizer, Nikon Speedlight SB-900 flash unit during my half an hour session in the professional photography studio, this meant that my images were of extremely high quality. Google search was a common use to find images and examples of previous men’s lifestyle magazines as well as the small images in the filmography section, which have all been manipulated with my Photoshop skills. To create this documentary I have used Sony Movie Studio Platinum 12.0 which is a very advanced moving image editor, it has extensive amount of effects and animations which makes it extremely difficult to find specific features. Also to film my focus group interviews and short clips I have used a Cannon HD CMOS Pro camera with a box light and a microphone.
Thank you for your interest in my critical reflection, I am very proud of my work in this Component and I feel as if my journey has enabled me to develop my Photoshop, video editing, publisher and online website making skills effectively.
Welcome to my creative critical reflection on my AS CIE Media Component 1, I created a magazine cover, contents page and double page spread. To complete my work I have made an online blog to create my portfolio which can be found on laurenwithersbsmweebly.com, throughout this journey of constructing a magazine I have learnt various skills and developed previous knowledge on the subject. To display my creative critical reflection I have decided to use this opportunity to further my abilities in moving image.
1. How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
My magazine follows the typical codes and conventions of men’s lifestyle magazines. These codes and conventions would be a masculine figure as the main image to connote the ideal man that the target audience strives towards; as you can see my main image presents a menacing and smart model that connotes a wealthy lifestyle. Just above the main image, the masthead is typically eye catching and dominates the page such as ‘GQ’s, FHM and Esquires masthead, which is positioned behind the celebrity, to show their significance and importance in today’s society, therefore my model is positioned behind my masthead; ‘Swerve’. Conventionally the style in men’s lifestyle magazines varies from formal to semi-formal as you can see by theses front covers, also they are normally shot from the crotch upwards, in order to follow these conventions, my main model is dressed semi-formally with a button undone on his shirt to connote a causal relationship with the reader; which goes hand in hand with the direct mode of address commonly used in men’s lifestyle magazines, which also creates a bond between the reader and the magazine. Sell-lines are used to promote alpha male ideologies about sex and fitness etc. for example I used “Be the man you always aimed to be” which is ambiguous towards fitness aims or lifestyle goals. Yellow and the font ‘Bebas’ features throughout the magazine creating continuity, yellow produces a warming effect, arouses cheerfulness, stimulates mental activity, and generates muscle energy which fits hand in hand with the ideologies of my magazine. Bright, pure yellow is an attention getter which makes it stand out against other magazines. The font used throughout my products is bold and creates a clean and intuitive reading process as well as an informal vibe for the reader which makes it perfect for headlines. The content of my article is informal and creates a casual conversation between the celebrity and the reader, it allows the reader to full submerge themselves into Avary Clark’s lifestyle and career. I have created a series of contact sheets which enabled me to pick the best images for my cover, contents page and double page spread; I didn’t use the images on the left and in the middle on my front page as they did not fit the conventions of my magazine, the photo furthest to the left is too cheerful which is uncommon to find on the front cover of these types of magazines. For my article I used the middle image as it is much more appealing for an article image and the body language is harsh and strong which appeals to the target audience, the photo to the right was too hard to edit with the flying tie as I wanted to duplicate the image. Men’s magazines are typically titled toward the social class; therefore my product is aimed at a higher more sophisticated man, they also tend to address the heterosexual readership, which is obvious in my magazine as it includes sell lines such as “Blondes, brandy and bow ties” which is sexualizing blonde women. The text in this genre of magazines speak to the reader as a friend by offering hints, pointing out downfalls, and giving helpful advice this is why my magazine acts as an advisor for the audience with articles on how to be a better man. My contents page is simple and straightforward, which enables the reader to easily navigate throughout the magazine articles much like other magazines of the same genre. I used street fashion on the contents page to show the diversity of the magazines styles which is conventional of men’s lifestyle magazines which give various styles. The stripes and graphics covering the title and name of the magazine challenge the simplicity of most men’s lifestyle magazines. My double page spread is conventional of the genre; it includes one side with an image of the featured celebrity and one page of interview style text. The title of the article ‘Man made’ depicts a strong item of masculinity and hardship, that ‘Avary Clark’ has constructed his career (made by a man).
2. How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?
I completed both qualitative and quantitative research by a focus group interview with someone from my target audience and an online questionnaire on my weebly blog; from these forms of research I was able to attain information on what would strike the target audience most effectively, such as the colour yellow and a similar magazine style to GQ. My magazine interacts with my target audience on many levels. The target audience of my magazine is men from the ages of 18-30, either single or in a relationship, as the magazine includes sexual and romantic advice. Typically the target audience would be straight as most of the sexual and romantic advice is addressed towards a man and woman which are conventional of a men's lifestyle magazine. They would not have a specific ethnicity. They would fit into the socio-economic demographic of BC1C2 as it is aimed towards the higher middle class as the fashion items is directed at this income group. They would have a history of purchasing similar magazines such as 'GQ', 'Esquire', 'FHM' and 'Men's Health'. The target audience would go against the 'Hypodermic Needle' theory as they would actively go and buy the magazine in order to read the contents instead of passively consuming it. According to the Blumer and Katz theory of Uses and Gratifications the target audience would use my magazine for Surveillance in order to gain knowledge on how to improve their lifestyle and personal identity to therefore find familiarity in the articles written such as advice columns. The target audience’s psychographic profile would be hobbies such as going to the gym, working and going to enjoy the night life. They would primarily care about their physical appearance, sexual and/or romantic relationships and their social life and class. They would be easily influenced by celebrities as they see them as high class and successful as well as being happy and stylish which is what the target audience aspires to be. They would also be influenced by social media as this would be their main source of information. According to Stuart Hall’s reception theory the target audience would have a negotiated reading of ‘Swerve’ and find it useful and entertaining. My magazine would feature in bookstores, newsstands, and magazine stands. Copies of ‘Swerve’ would also be sampled where ‘Swerve’ men are; exclusive, high-end establishments across the country such as hotels, country clubs, banks, financial institutions, gyms, barber shops, cafés, and restaurants. There would also be a subscription service where individuals who are part of ‘Swerve’s’ exclusive distribution list also receive the latest issue monthly. Digital media would also aid the distribution of my magazine, through social networks like ‘Facebook’, ‘ Twitter’, ‘Tumblr’, ‘Instagram’ and ‘Snapchat’ I would be able to promote the magazine and increase profit and popularity. Social media is where the main domain for my target audience and so therefore I have made a Twitter page which can be easily accessed as well as and Instagram. Using digital media would also mean that the house styles become prominent in the men’s lifestyle magazine realm. I have created obvious house styles throughout my work which will make the magazine much more recognizable for the target audience and enable a trigger response, for example the font I chose “Bebas”; whenever they see the font they will think of my magazine. This is similar to fonts used for films such as the Hunger Games, whenever the audience sees that font they think of the film franchise, this means there is a strong sense of branding.
3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
Throughout my journey of component 1 I have been keeping an online blog of my progression throughout the course, including a diary with skills I have learnt and my experience, all of my drafts and how they have been developed, my research into the media of magazines, research on target audience, gender, codes and conventions and much more. By using an online blog for my work I have been able to develop skills on how to log in all of my work, how to present my information clearly and appealing and how to create a website. My improvements of m Photoshop and publisher skills are evident throughout my weebly blog. I also have created a Twitter and Instagram page for the promotion of my magazine which has used my previously extensive knowledge on social media to create a successful site which contains the house styles of my magazine. Throughout Component 1 I have created my magazine by using Photoshop CS6, in order to fully develop my skills and unlock my full potential I refreshed my memory of the tools with various YouTube videos explaining skills such as refine edge, the filter gallery and how to add effects on text. My masthead has a bevel effect and a shadow which makes it stand out and not look as two dimensional. I also frequently used the refine edge tool to ensure my main model did not have a white border around him from where I removed the background; this makes it look much more professional. Books were also helpful for me to gain more knowledge on Photoshop and how to make my magazine contents page much more proficient, I read ‘The Photoshop CS6 Book’ which meant I was able to create the yellow graphic present behind the text which I feel gives the magazine an edgy vibe. I used Microsoft Publisher to create the layout of my magazine article; I do not frequently use Publisher, which meant I learnt how to create the skeleton of a double page spread, including columns and quote boxes. I then pasted the Photoshop piece of work which included a graphic title, a duplicated main image and a filmography column which was comprised of small images with a yellow border to synchronize with the house styles, refining the edges and adding effects to the small images in the feature box was very tedious and took me a couple of hours however it developed my production and time management skills. My time management skills were also heavily put to the test when I took the images for my magazine as I was only allocated half an hour in a professional photography studio; this meant I was working under pressure. However it meant that I had planned well before hand and knew exactly what I needed to do when I got in the studio. For the critical reflection I have used film equipment such as a Canon HD CMOS Pro video camera, a box light and a tripod. I have also enormously improved my skills on SONY STUDIO PLATINUM 12.0 video editing software. I have learnt to separate sound and moving image files, add music, add JPEGS, trim videos and add animations which make a smooth transition between the cuts. It only took me 15 minutes to take over 60 images and I was left with more than enough content for my work.
4. How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?
Throughout Component 1 I have integrated new media such as social networks, an online blog and using YouTube to upload any filming such as focus group interviews. Creating a website to distribute my portfolio of work has built on my computing technical skills and how to format an online blog. The domain in which I created the website is called Weebly which has been very useful for me as a beginner in website formatting. I mainly used Microsoft Word to type up all of my work, ideas and diary entries so I can keep a hard copy of all of my completed work on my hard drive, another Microsoft program I used heavily was Microsoft Publisher to write up my article content with column guidelines and I also used it to crop images. In regards to my images and editing the photos I used Photoshop CS6 to duplicate layers to create the graphic in my article, I frequently used the refine edge tool to take the white border off images after they have been cut out with the quick selection tool, After refining the edge I would sometimes make a custom border around the images such as the small images in the filmography which was done by using the Layer Style panel and selecting Outer Glow in the blending options. Saturation and contrast was also edited in Photoshop as well as the spot healing tool to remove any blemishes on the model. Moreover, as well as computer technology I also used expert equipment such as EOD Cannon, 5D, EF 24 – 105 mm image stabilizer, Nikon Speedlight SB-900 flash unit during my half an hour session in the professional photography studio, this meant that my images were of extremely high quality. Google search was a common use to find images and examples of previous men’s lifestyle magazines as well as the small images in the filmography section, which have all been manipulated with my Photoshop skills. To create this documentary I have used Sony Movie Studio Platinum 12.0 which is a very advanced moving image editor, it has extensive amount of effects and animations which makes it extremely difficult to find specific features. Also to film my focus group interviews and short clips I have used a Cannon HD CMOS Pro camera with a box light and a microphone.
Thank you for your interest in my critical reflection, I am very proud of my work in this Component and I feel as if my journey has enabled me to develop my Photoshop, video editing, publisher and online website making skills effectively.