Research into artist - Lana Del Rey

Lana Del Rey from vita_vercetti

Production diary - week 2

This week I had completed 3 tasks in lesson including: influences of music style, research into the music genre and music video theory. For the influences of music style, I had to research the different music genres including pop, rock, alternative and RnB. This research will help me with discovering the different music styles and will help me to decide what genre of music I will be using for my own music video and how they were influenced. I also looked into the music video theory which helped me look further into the purpose of the music video. This will help me with my own music video as it will help me to see what people are expecting from a typical music video.

research into a music director

Q7. Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

At the beginning of the year, we had to create a preliminary version of a school magazine. From then and now where I have created my own music magazine, there have been significant changes between the two products as I have developed new skills over time.

Looking back now, I can identify some prominent differences such as the use of images. For my preliminary task, the images were quite blurry and were of bad quality. The images were further of low standard as some of the images were dull and would not of attracted any readers. This differs from the product I have created as with the use of advanced equipment such as lighting and better organization with what the model should be wearing and their body and facial expressions, I have had the outcome of very high standard and appropriate images. Especially because I had used the software of photoshop to make them look more professional whereas before, I had not edited them at all and left it with the use of only the original photos.

With my contents page, for my preliminary I had only used one page for it. Whereas for my actual product, I decided to use two pages as it proved to be more effective because I was able to include more in it including more images and content. With creating such pages, I had used a three grid to help me design the pages. This helped the layout of each page to look more clean and organized. However, in comparison to my preliminary task, the headings and subheadings were not alined and the overall page looked unorganized and unstructured due to the distorted placed aspects such as the features and their headings. Before I had also forgotten to include page numbers beside each feature; this proves that overtime, I have learned to include the appropriate conventions of typical media products onto my own.

The use of fonts was another significant factor, as looking back, the fonts I have used were not eye-catching as they were plain and too simple. After learning to use the website dafont and the program nexusfont, those factors have helped me to discover a wide range of options which had definitely helped boost the interesting look to the layout of my magazine.

Q6. What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing the product?

For creating all of my pages for my overall magazine (includes: front cover, contents page and two double page spreads) I have learned to use professional equipment and software. Firstly, I had to create a layout for my pages. To do this, I used the software InDesign which I was recommended to use instead of photoshop for creating my pages as it is easier to use. I first set up 7 pages with 3 columns on each page. I learnt that the three columns would help me to make my page look more organized. Being able to have creative freedom with using InDesign has helped me to learn new techniques with using new software by myself. When I created my pages using indesign, the colour swatches helped me to choose my colour scheme and editing the thickness of the mastheads and other aspects of writing was proceeded using ongoing changing processes which helped time to improve the layout of the pages each time. Before I used indesign, I used the website DaFont.com to help me choose fonts for the writing of my magazine. To then be able to use the fonts onto InDesign, I had to firstly import them onto a software called NexusFont. This allowed me to use the font onto my magazine although everytime I use InDesign to edit my magazine, I would of had to have nexusfont open first so that it will enable me to use the fonts onto my magazine and to edit them.

For the images of my magazine, I had to set up a photoshoot which consisted of multiple equipment such as lighting. The lighting was important as I did not want my images to be too dark. I had used special photoshoot lighting which had umbrella like structures which reflected even more light around the model. I had also used a Nikon camera which was quite simple to manage as I had already owned one myself. I took most of my pictures in the portrait position as I was recommended to do so, so that I could easily include them in for my front cover. Although I did take some landscape photos too for my double page spreads. My images were then edited on the software, photoshop. I decided to use photoshop as the software where I edit my images because it is the easiest one to use. I used diverse ways to edit my photos on photoshop. One way was that I had to cut out the images from the white background. I did this using a video tutorial to help me on the school media multi-skills bank website. I used a colour range to separate the actual image of the model first from the background then I had added a new layer via copy to separate the actual image from the white background. I then smoothed the edges so that it gave the image a more natural look. I did not bother to edit the actual image itself as I was already happy with the results. With some images that I had used for the double page spreads, I added a coloured drop shadow to match the colour scheme of the magazine and to make it look more interesting and so that it matched the genre of a party, club-like vibe.

Using these specific software and equipment has helped me to develop my magazine in a more advanced level. It has also helped to make my magazine look more sophisticated and make it look more like an actual magazine. It has given me a variety of options which I could choose and decide what to use for my magazine. Without using the right software, I would not have been able to make the edits such as the drop shadow.

Q5. How did you attract/address your audience?

My magazine contains certain aspects which will ensure that it will sell. Aspects such as the use of buzz words on the front cover will want people to buy the magazine. For example, on my front cover, I have used the buzz word of 'WIN' in big bold writing as part of my cover lines to ensure people that my magazine gives them the opportunity to be able to win something. This is a selling point as people would want to win something and because my magazine is based on the electronic and house genre, the competition should be similarly related to that specific genre of music. Therefore I decided that the competition is to win tickets to one of London's most popular electronic festivals which is EDC (Electro Daisies Carnival). This is another aspect that will get the magazine selling; that is that the magazine is mainly based on the main purpose of the magazine which is electronic and house music and because the fanbase for this genre is increasing, lots of fans of the magazine would want to buy the magazine to ensure that they get the latest news and information about the genre of music first. Receiving the latest news and information first is evident as the magazine involves a daily news section in its contents page. This leads to the uses and gratifications theory in which my magazine provides all factors which again, will want people to buy the magazine. As already mentioned, information and news is involved in my magazine as it consists of exclusive interviews from artists, daily news and information, articles and reviews which will keep the audience up to date with the latest electronic and house music information. My magazine also helps readers find reinforcement for personal value as they will be able to discover new music and artists as my magazine provides the audience with not only established but also upcoming artists which the audience may able to help identify themselves with as they will be able to discover new types of music from new different artists. Also the articles that are included in my magazine, are based on artists talking about themselves and that enables readers to find out that they are also very real people. The magazine also helps readers to escape from reality as they indulge in reading articles from artists which express a deeper look into their life than what is met by the public eye. My magazine also provides them with entertainment as it involves games and links such as using QR codes which will enable them to connect with the magazine to a next level. This consists of being able to use internet versions of the magazine which includes even more extras and bonuses such as videos and games. Other unique selling points involve readers being able to be featured in the magazine as a little tweet of the month box is located on the contents page where a reader is able to tweet in using the hashtag PPHONIC and could star in the next issue of the magazine.

Q4. Who would be the audience for your media product?

I have completed Q4 for my evaluation. The question was about who the target audience for my magazine was going to be. I have decided to start on this question instead of going in chronological order because I have not yet completed my magazine and some questions can only be completed after I complete it. I thought that this question was one of the only questions I was able to complete and it was also one of the most simplier ones to get over and done with. I have included factors such as demographics and psychographics to help describe a typical reader from my target audience. I went into further detail with their social class, social groups, occupations, genders and age range. Also I talked about what type of persona they have as an individual and how that would be appropriate for the readership of my magazine.