Audience Feedback;

We had a lot of positive feedback from our audience.
Here are a few images of the feedback that was left. :)
























Finished ancillary product;

To make our ancillary product, Mikey has drawn a front cover that is highly replicable of something done by The Black Dahlia Murder.



We are going to colour in the product, and edit it to make it look like a metal product.

Below are my ancillary products:





This is Mikey's ancillary products:





Audio;

The song we have decided to use for the music video is the song Tread Softly, by Catharsis Collapse. This is of course Mikey's band, so we don't have to use any permisiion from any artist or recording labels.

The song is roughly around 3:30.

Below is the song:

Catharsis Collapse – Tread Softly

Tread soft tonight my dear,
or you walk on my dreams,
This is all I ever wished for,
All I’ve ever hoped and craved

My fate remains unsure
But I’ll fight until the death,
These walls will never fall
I’ll fight till the bitter end

Tread soft tonight my dear,
For you walk on my dreams,
This is all I ever wished for,
All I’ve ever hoped and craved

Give this your fucking all
Pour in your blood and sweat
Give this your fucking all
And die with no regrets

My fate remains unsure
But I’ll fight until the death,
These walls will never fall
I’ll fight till the bitter end

I need to be set free,
Your pushing down on me,
I need to be set free
I feel you pushing down on me

Your energy
Your hiding
I’m twisted
I’m ready
I’m waiting
Antis-apating
Your wasting away

Free me
Your energy is wasting away
Free me
Your energy I hold to me
Free me
Your energy
Is wasting away
Free me
Free me

Here are two images of the band, these were taken professionally and we are considering using them within our ancillary product.



Screenplay/Narrative notes;

We originally went in to film something that was very similar to the "What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse". We realised after completing the story-board and narrative notes that it may be too ambitious to carry out.

Our original narrative notes are seen below, as a word document. These were very rough ideas of what we wanted, as we wanted the video to have an element of spontaneity about it.





We have completed the narrative structure, but we have decided to record the video completely as a performance video.

Research and planning;

We wanted to make something that replicated a DVD and CD cover as much as possible.
Our research has shown us some really good examples, and from this we have produced a high standard ancillary product. Our front cover replicates that of a metal band such as Black Dahlia Murder.

It has similar artwork to our front cover, this is the front cover for Black Dahlia Murder.



We originally wanted to copy the conventions of the Black Dahlia Murder, we wanted to copy their video also but seen as this was a little too ambitious we decided against it. We have since shot the music video, and to make our ancillary products we have used replicas of the cover above.

For the back cover we have used an image of the band (see below). We have used this and distorted it a little because we feel that our back cover is well represented. According to Dyer (1985) this is presenting reality over again to us as an audience. Reality is mediated through forms of representation, and this has been represented successfully.



This is the final product of our back cover, we are going to tweak the product if necessary but so far we are both extremely pleased with the ancillary product.



For us to make a back cover which was this good, we took some inspiration off the Bloc Party album.



We have incorporated the same text with the same sans-serif font, but we have changed the picture to highlight that it's a metal band. I feel that the picture is a reflection of the band because the aesthaetics to the image are quite grainy and distorted.

In creating our media product, we had to meet the codes and conventions of being able to reach out to a specific audience. Our demographic audience for this band would be a 21 year old male who likes to socialise, go wild and likes heavy, fast music.

For us to be able to meet the verisimilitude expected from any metal video, we watched many music video's, in lesson and outside of lesson to enhance our knowledge of what should be expected.

There are shots in this video by the Dillinger Escape Plan of the band's performance, we really liked this so we asked the band if they could act naturally. We were going to create a music video of a complete performance, without any narrative structure to it because we can focus on the editing techniques on the video, and so far, the editing techniques are going to make the video what it is. A lot of metal video's have a subjective point of view in their video, with close-ups of the band playing their instrument or singing.



Again, as mentioned previously before, the excessive use of editing techniques are frequently used within the metal genre when producing videos, so we have used plenty of editing techniques within our video to enhance the verisimilitude of our product.

Equipment used;

Certain equipment used to record the video was a Canon MD101. We bought two tapes from the media department, as we shot the footage plenty of times and to make sure the footage was enough, we shot everything twice with the different cameras. We had one on the tripod, and the other handheld to capture different shots.

This is the camera we used:



We didn't think it was going to be of good quality, but once the video was uploaded the quality was fine.

We experienced problems with the equipment used, this was uploading the video from the camera onto Adobe Premiere. The video was really pixelated and we thought this was a really big problem, but we managed to salvage the footage by uploading the tape using the same camera.

The other programmes we used during our task for production was Photoshop to create our ancillary task, we used Elements 5.0 in order to achieve this.



We used a Jessops tripod, which is pictured below:



We used this to capture still shots of a band member, as we wanted to keep the 180° transition line between most of the shots.

Filming;

We have decided to shoot the video at the band practice room, which is Get Sorted in Rotherham.

We were originally going to follow the same story and narrative of the Black Dahlia Murder video, but we realised this was too ambitious so we decided to keep the video within the band practice room.

Problems we had with the filming was mainly the battery in the camera, it had to be constantly on charge but we shot enough footage to capture shots that were really good to use in our video.

We used two tripods, but we had a "hand-held" approach, as this looked better within the video. We cut these shots, and edited these frequently within our video so we represented a metal video as much as possible.

We also decided to turn the video to black and white after filming. We thought this looked better because it follows the same convention of the video "Set to Fail" by Lamb of God.



Above is a picture of Randy Blythe. This is an extract from the video of Set To Fail. We had the vocalist of the band (Jamie) looking into the camera with the mic, pretty much the same as the image. We showed Jamie the picture and video, and asked for him to try and copy Randy's moves as much as possible.

We also asked the other band member's to try and demonstrate "metal" personas as much as possible. They were all fine with this, and demonstrated this really well.

We showed them two videos, including War Ensemble by Slayer. Below is the video, we watched it carefully and grabbed some shots and showed the band what we would like them to do to make the video of ours look as real as the Slayer video.



These are the pictures we used to show the band how we'd like them to perform.





These are just two examples of screen shots that we showed the band, as we also showed them the video of Day 69 - Decapitated. Below is the video, and again there are many shots in the video that show certain shots we'd specifically like to use.



After watching other several videos, ranging from Meshuggah to Black Dahlia Murder, we realised that all of the metal videos we watched and researched showed that the genre of metal, specifically in their videos, use excessive editing techniques. There were many cut-aways and high-angle shots used. When the video was recorded, we made sure that when we were filming the band with the hand-held technique, that they were filmed at a low-angle so the member we were filming looked dominant. This is a common interpretation, and high-angle shots represent dominance, and as the audience we are the sub-ordinates as we are subjected to watching the video with the dominant figure.

We produced our call sheet, which is below:



Textual Analysis;

Me and Mikey have decided to shoot the video of the chosen sub-genre death metal. In order for us to achieve the codes and conventions that are within death metal we have put some research into this. We were going to use a narrative theme, but seen as this is a little too ambitious with deadlines to meet we have decided to focus our main attention on making a high replica of a metal music video.

For our ancillary task, we have decided to go for a death/heavy metal CD cover and DVD cover. Below is an image of the band Decpitated's Nihility album. We are going to use something along the lines of this as we feel that it's the most suitable to what sort of cover we would like to have.



In order for us to achieve in making a successful music video, we have decided to incorporate close up shots of the band performing, cut these and blend them in the video together. We feel this would make the video look professional, and mediated in the sense that it works well as meeting the conventions of a music video, especially that of a metal video.

Treatment;

For our media project, we are going to create a music video using my band. The video is basically the band playing a song with a ‘short video’ incorporated into it.

Below is Mikey's band:


The target audience of the production would be people into the metal scene between the ages of 16 – 24. To make sure that the video does actually reach out to our target audience, we will be using the same conventions and stereotypical ideas of other metal videos for example The Black Dahlia Murder’s video ‘What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse.’

To film the video, we will be using my my band and my bands practice room, which is located in Rotherham at Get Sorted. We have already asked for permission to film there and it has been granted. In the practice room we will be filming the band playing a song using an array of different camera shots. In this scene, we would need the band playing there instruments and a group of friends that will be coming over to join in on a mosh pit that will be surrounding the band as they play. There will no be specific costume, but a stereotypical dress of a fan of this genre would wear, e.g. band t-shirts. Another scene will be filmed in the toilets of college, which will be specifically of the band. This will be a toilet circuit (Using the toilet, washing hands) but we will be having the band head banging during the process, dress code will be casual. Another scene will be in the woods, we will be having a character stalking the band through the woods. In this we aim to make a sort of spoof movie to add humour to it. Once again, the dress code will be casual. Apart from the stalker who will be wearing a mask, a hood and other typical things that a mediated stalker would wear.

To create and adapt to a stereotypical representation of a metal video, we will be following the same ideas as producers who have created metal videos professionally. This means we will be using lots of panning and tracking shots that will basically last for a few seconds at a time to make the video fast up beat and in your face. We will have establishing shots in the video to show where the video is set. Crowd shots will be featured when the band are playing the song, this will be the most hectic scene as people will be head banging to the song. To do this successfully, we will need many different shots at different angles so we can edit them and make them into fit into the music successfully. The mise en scene will follow a stereotypical metal video; we will be having lots of metal fans in the scene that will be head banging to the music. We will have all of the band equipment (Drums, amps, guitars etc) in order to make it look realistic, in this scene we will be using lots of close ups for example close ups on the instruments and the band/audience. When we shoot the scene in the woods, we will be using the band for the protagonists and my friend will be the antagonist who follows the band round. To do this, the antagonist will be dressing up in a balaclava, with dark hooded top and dark clothes. In this scene, there will be lots of tracking shots and panning around to make it look more like a chase scene. Were going to follow the typical conventions of framing e.g. the rule of thirds to show the importance of the band, the crowd will be to the sides of the shots, but I want the band to mix with the crowd to make the audience believe that the band are willing to get down and dirty with the crowd. The sound featured in the video will be a song created by the band ‘Tread Softly’ the song is ideal for a video as it has lots of diversity and sets different types of mood.

To ensure we stick to the rules of health and safety, we will be strictly abiding by these rules by making sure that we prevent any hazards and make sure that we will not be causing danger to anyone. For example, one scene in the practice room is where a Mosh pit will be performed. In this, people will be running around and could possibly run into each other and cause danger; there are also cables that will be on the floor which people could stumble on. To prevent this, we will be briefing everyone who takes part and getting consent off them to prevent anything happening that could jeopardise the creation of the video, we will also ensure that all cables are out of the way so know one can trip and injure themselves. Another scene is in the woods, it would be easy to trip over and injure someone, so we will have to take precautions whilst doing this.

To plan our music video, in lesson, me and Louise went through different ideas of which we created a presentation on to show the rest of the class. We handed out questionnaires that allowed us to gain feedback on our ideas by our class mates. The feedback we gained changed some of our ideas slightly for example we wanted to do a scene in the corporation nightclub, which got removed as the lighting would not have worked. We also asked several friends outside the class what they thought of our idea, the feedback was really positive and we all agreed that the shots at Corp were a little too ambitious.

We are yet to complete the story board, but we are going to do this together and we will be using several shots including shot reverse shot, over the shoulder, subjective point of view shots and several different types which will be shown in the story board.

Typical photos/Things to do;



Pictures of bands playing at Corp, the shots and images we take will stereotypically follow conventions of this image.

Things to do:

KTA5: Treatment - Finalise your ideas for your main product. This must be done in an audio or video format. You must obtain feedback to your updated ideas from at least three people not in your group. State how their feedback has helped you. Deadline: 16th October 2009. Done.
KTA6: Screenplay and narrative notes. Deadline: 16th October 2009. Completed.
KTA7: Storyboard (NOTE: All storyboard and call sheets must carry a tutor signature before any equipment is taken out or any footage is shot!). Deadline: 16th October 2009. Also completed.

All tasks have been completed, and we are ready to start and record our video!

Our Presentation;

For our presentation, the only thing we did was use several images to explain what they were and why these are relevant.











As you can see below, this is our "pitch" sheet which we wrote our ideas on just to inform people of our ideas.



Our Presentation went really well, during our presentation we agreed that we would be filming in locations such as the Corporation, we have decided to use this because in the Black Dahlia video, they film at the Corporation where the fans are headbanging with the band going mental outside the club. We are going to ask the club owner permission if we can make a video of some metal fans going mental in club room number 2. If we have the consent to do this, we will be really pleased because that means we can incorporate these shots into the video, as we would like to have a fast-paced video, cutting to slow shots of the band playing in their band room. We cannot stress this idea enough! We really want to achieve this idea of two genres submerged together because we feel this will work out really well. We were given feedback on our presentation, and it was positive feedback. Below is a voice recording;







These are our feedbacks on our questionnaires. If you click on each of the images, you will see that the people thought that this would be a good idea to carry out. We explained our idea - me and Mikey didn't have any other idea because we really want to be able to carry out this one. Plus we have put a lot of commitment in to try and make this work, so our main focus at this time is to get this idea now to a production schedule. What we did during our presentation, we explained the band we were using, our target audience and the mise-en-scene. I am going to record my voice for each of these and put them onto the blog.

Progression of our Ideas;

This is a video of me explaining what our idea is about.



Our first idea was to copy the video of Black Dahlia Murder - What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse. Mikey came up with this idea for the video, and I originally said something along the lines of Machine Head - Davidian. Mikey thought this was ok, but persuaded me to watch a video and we both agreed that the Black Dahlia video would be the best. Below is a link for the video, and some screen shots to show what we are trying to achieve.





In this video, the band are in the woods with their instruments acting about. Me and Mikey really liked this idea, so we have decided to copy this (we were inspired with this) and we are really happy as we know if we were to do this, with the persona's of everyone in the band the outcome would be really good. We have decided to also use a different sort of approach to the video of Set To Fail by Lamb of God. They shoot with the band playing, and the aesthaetics of the film are shot in black and white which again we both really liked. We have decided to use this for the clips that are shot in black and white of the band practising in their band room. The scenes that are shot in colour will be the comical side of the video, which is the approach that Black Dahlia Murder took when they were filming for their video. This is the video for Lamb of God:



As you can see, the video is all shot in black and white and the production techniques used will be very similar as to what we will try and achieve. During the shots (in our production) we will make the comical shots highly aesthaetically coloured, with the hues of yellows and red maximised to make it look a bit comic strip-like. Our rough ideas of the video: we are going to submerge two videos together. One video already has this idea (Black Dahlia) but we are going to use the production techniques of Lamb of God also so we are merging the two genres of the videos together to create a blend of different genres. Me and Mikey are both confident that we will be able to achieve this, as we both share similar tastes and feel that we could reach the desired effect quite easily.

Below is a mind-map of what we would like to do. I'm going to explain each of the ideas we have chosen to do in full explanation.





As you can see, the first point we have highlighted is that we would like to make a metal music video. We have both decided to do this because we feel that we would benefit from this the most as we both enjoy metal music, and both have the production knowledge to carry a metal music video out. We would use every aspect considerable, such as the mise-en-scene, to carry out to the music video to enhance the verisimilutude of the video.

The comic strip effect is going to be used on our video on different shots. We have decided to use this in our video because we are combining a narrative and productive approach to our music video. We like this idea, as Black Dahlia have also incorporated this within their video's as video's are usually a tool of advertising; we prefer the idea of a narrative structure to the music video. Below is a picture of the video "Everything went Black" By the Black Dahlia Murder. Me and Mikey like this effect, so we are going to use something similar to this in our music video.

Me and Mikey have both agreed that this may be a little ambitious, but we are going to shoot some of the video and if this works out as well as planned, then we will be able to pull this off.

We will be using Todorov's structure of the Equilibrium, Disruption and New Equilibrium within our music video. We haven't actually decided what the full story of the music video is going to be, but when we complete the story board we will decide what approach would be best. The band being in the toilet would be the similar effect to the phone box effect in the Black Dahlia video. The video - instead we are going to use a toilet for the same comical effect. Rob on toilet, blurred out his bits. We think this would be really funny to use.

We haven't actually yet decided what narrative we are going to have in the video, we have a rough idea of the guys getting chased in the woods; we will structure this a lot better to make sure the narrative fits in with the music video. We are also going to ask for feedback from other students to ask them if we should give this idea a go, as this wasn't mentioned in our presentation.

We were also thinking about using a baby doll to throw about when the band are practicing in their band room but we have decided this may be a possibility. We want to keep the footage of the band practicing strictly as professional, and really good production techniques such as shallow depth of focus and establishing shots. We will be using a lot of rule of thirds (click the link) within our band practice room because it exposes the audience to one member of the band at one time. This will be really good because the audience can then focus on one member of the band at each time.

The other shots we were thinking of using was the band running about in the woods hiding and running away form a guy named Steve. Mikey came up with the name Steve, the persona of this character will be really weird. Maybe like Richard D James in the music video Windlowlicker/Come to Daddy (please click link) we want something really weird but comical at the same time. We are confident that the merging of these genres will be highly effective and achievable.

They're pretty much our ideas, again as I said previously we are going to complete a story board to highlight our ideas even further. We are confident with our ideas, this including the production techniques, the narrative structure and the music video as a whole.

Research into Similar Products - A2 Assignment

First video is of me explaining certain aspects of analysis that has been used within this clip. This first video wasn't that great, and my other videos are definitely more improved with knowledge and appliances. Below are separate video's of me, with a voice over to explain the features of the video. The mise-en-scene has been covered in each of the video's. The first video is:

Planet Earth:


In this video I have explained what production techniques have been used, why non-diegetic music has been lapsed over the shots and the mode of address that David Attenborough uses.

Sepultura - Territory:


This is a music video by Sepultura, I have explained the production techniques and other technical aspects of the music video. I have explained the mise-en-scene, including location, props and characters.

Short film - Pennies:


This is just a short film of me voiced-over explaining the features of this short film.

Evaluation

In order to fulfil assessment objective AO2, I have applied knowledge and understanding to show how meanings are created when analyzing media products and evaluating their own practical work.

Question 1
My media product uses specific generic conventions of a music magazine by the elements of the articles, the graphology, the mode of address, the 'perfect' self, the stereotypical view of music and the attitude towards it. It also develops forms of real media products because there are subscription options (to make it look as real as possible) and general graphology that replicates a metal magazine as much as possible.
The masthead is Nailstorm, which has connotations of a metal magazine and is gritty. I have already compared my draft product to a real product, but when the overall product is finished it will look like a new metal magazine to buy. The text layout will be the same as metal magazines, with anchorage, juxtaposition and the like. I have used specific texts, including San-Serif fonts such as Arial, Arial Black and Arial Narrow. I studied many different metal magazines, and although the pull quotes were in font faces such as “Mal de Ojo” (which I downloaded from www.dafont.com (there are similar fonts that I tried to copy as much as possible, and this style font was the best I could find)), it made the pull quotes look much more interesting and decorative as opposed to those of San-Serif font faces.
The house style is very similar to that of Metal Hammer, with the same colours of deep reds, blacks, whites and yellows. In my double page spread I used by-lines to enhance the verisimilitude of a magazine (specifically a music magazine). I used a Drop Cap at the Lead so the audience knew where the article started.
The front cover of my media product was measured with Metal Hammer. This magazine is sized at A4; therefore the dimension in millimetres is 210 x 289. I frequently had to make sure the pixel limit was right because the picture would have become distorted. The masthead was 28 Days Later font, the font has representations of something that’s gritty, and the text seems grainy too. This was a really good font face for me to use because the magazine “Terrorizer” uses a similar font face. Metal Hammer however, does not use a same style font but one that is possibly san-serifs. I have included a sell line, which is “Heavier than everything else” which is very similar to Metal Hammer’s sell-line “Everything Louder Than Everything Else”.
Anchorage has been used on the front cover where the banner is; it states “EXCLUSIVE” grabbing the audience’s attention. Beneath it is “Meshuggah” and an image beneath that – anchorage has been used so the audience know what the image relates to and it doesn’t just look carelessly put on the front cover. Therefore, it is following similar conventions of metal magazines. The kerning of the masthead has been replicated to Metal Hammer, in the sense of the spacing is the same.
Overall, I am pleased with the outcome of my media product and I thoroughly feel that I have achieved developing conventions of a music magazine.

Question 2
My media product represents particular social groups in the sense that the demographic audience would be very stereotypical, perhaps even an archetype. They would be into that particular genre of music, and they would have the attributed attitude and way of thinking towards it. As Stuart Hall suggests, all meanings are encoded within a text and they are decoded by the audience. The audience for my magazine will be able to decode things because the encoding within them will be subjected to one genre or one meaning so they will be able to understand my media product. The images will be very important for mediation and there will be a lot of anchorage on the images. I will also include juxtaposition. The images will be encoded to fit the article or the band. They have to be relevant to the article otherwise it'd be silly and there would be no point trying to put a picture of a pop star next to a metal article. They will be encoded to give the preferred meaning of a metal fan, their posture, their look; everything will be conveyed within my images. As my media product is constructed, I have followed the same rules of the “Representation Theory” where I have compiled and edited material to make it look as real as possible. According to Dyer (’85), representation can be seen in several different ways. These are:

1. As representation: presenting reality over again to us. Reality is mediated through forms of representation available in the culture.
2. As ‘being representative of’ in the sense of being ‘typical’. This, of course, raises the question of what is ‘typical’.
3. In the sense of speaking for and on behalf of somebody or a group.
4. In recognising the existence of audience responses, with different audiences responding to different kinds of representation.

I have taken these elements into consideration when producing my media product as the representation of the product was the key feature of meeting the “entity” (Ien Ang) and the preferred readers.

In any audience there will be individuals or groups of individuals who read a text in different ways. Representations can be reinterpreted and made to have different meanings by different people. This means that even though my “entity” is that of someone who likes metal, it specifically doesn’t have to be one genre of metal, but several. Anyone into the alternative scene or is interested, is welcome to read. Even though it’s particularly male specific, women are welcome to read the magazine also.

Dyer suggested there were five features of representations, and this format was in questions. These questions were

1. What sense of the world is this text making?
This is the kind of world that the text constructs and reflects

2. What does it claim is typical of the world? This means how are familiar ‘types’ used in the text as a form of shorthand to represent people.

3. Who is really speaking? This means who is in control of the representations in the text – whose values and ideas are expressed in the text?

4. For whom are they speaking? And how will different audiences make different readings of the text?
5. What does it represent for us and why? And does ‘representation’ have a political role in, for example, maintaining power relationships? This could be instrumental power or influential power.
The different types of audience members are fit into 3 categories. This is the Archetype, Generic Type and Stereotypes. Below is a list of the three different types.

Archetype

Archetype means literally the ‘original model’. Archetypes exist throughout the history of the narrative form. From folk tales and legends thousands of years old to modern stories we come across ‘heroes’ and ‘villains’, ‘earth mother’ and ‘prodigal son’, ‘princess’ and ‘Shining Knight’ etc. The reference is to a character so well established in traditional stories that the type appears to transcend history or a specific culture.

Generic Type

Genres tend to offer a means of discussing contemporary society by using a ‘stock’ set of characters. These characters are understood more by reference to other films in the same genre than by direct reference to the ‘real’ world. Each new genre film adds to the repertoire of characters that make up the genre.

Generic types are easy to identify in those genres, which have a distinct setting like the gangster film or the teen movie.

Genre knowledge plays an important part in the construction of characters.

Stereotypes

‘Stereotypes’ are composite images that represent people and ideas in society by emphasising certain common features. New stereotypes are created and recognised all the time. Stereotypes depend on a shared cultural knowledge and to this extent some part of the stereotypical image must ‘ring true’ for most people.

Compared to generic types, stereotypes are more accessible. As they rely on shared cultural knowledge, readers can readily make sense of them. Such instantly recognisable people and situations allow for the widest access to a story. But this accessibility is both a strength and a weakness.

Stereotypes emerge and develop through repetition in images of features like dress, speech, behaviour etc. Unfortunately, once a representation has been constructed in a stereotypical way, it can be difficult to fill in the details and make the image unique. The stereotype refers to assumptions that may already exist in the reader’s head; potentially blocking a more considered understanding of the character.

Stereotypes can be very powerful images that embody strong emotional responses. As stereotypes develop, we often respond to them with a sense of identity or alienation (such as an ‘us’ and ‘them’ situation). The stereotypes that are most discussed are those in which typing as ‘them’ is clearest. Such images are seen as ‘negative’ – i.e. they evoke a person or group seen as ‘anti-social’ or ‘not like us’. People typed in this way are justifiably angry and attempt to challenge the process. This struggle over representation is based on a power relationship where the weaker groups in society can be typed in negative ways.

I have particularly used stereotypes as an aid of my audience. I have a lot of friends who are particularly stereotypical in the sense of the way they dress, and how this is repeated within society today. Although the attitude to the magazine is anti-social and possibly anarchy, there is an apparent paradox evident in the sense that “we don’t like to be like everyone else” when in fact you are following that product of your environment/stereotype.


Question 3
The company that will make my magazine will more than likely be Future PLC, as they are popular and deal with magazines such as Metal Hammer. My magazine will be part of a conglomerate because it will have its own music channel, website and radio station. The circulation figure monthly will be around 20,000. Terrorizer magazine only manages to distribute around 14,000 and because this magazine is similar, I think 20,000 per month are perfect. The promotion to the public will take place in places such as the internet, other magazines, venues, TV and radio. It will take part in synergy to ensure that the magazine will get recognition. I think the distribution would be successful as the consumers of the market are seeking out media products of this kind. I think it would be best to distribute over social-networking profiles such as MySpace and Facebook. There are many people who are signed up to both of these sites who like metal, so it would be compulsory to advertise on these sites. Another synergy process would be a website itself, such as www.nailstorm.co.uk. There is a subscription option in the magazine and there will be a subscription option on the website too. There will be a music channel, such as the style “Scuzz”; but it will be called Nailstorm. The music will be the same playlist such as Scuzz, but a little bit heavier. So overall, the way this product will be distributed will be in several ways. These include:

The magazine
A website
A radio station
Adverts on social networking profiles
On sale in shops such as WHSmiths, and newsagents

It will also have a MySpace profile and a Facebook profile. I think this advertising will be the most effective because a lot of young adults use several different social networking sites and it will be effective because it will be easier for them to read about the magazine, the features in it and any important band news – especially new and upcoming bands that haven’t been recognised yet despite their talent. I think the reason for a new consumer product such as this is really useful, or would be very useful; because despite other same genre magazines content, their music is slightly getting more and more commercial and less heavy. This magazine is willing to advertise the bands at a commercial cost, however it’s only because real metal fans who are generally into the magazine want to be recognised as this seems to have died down amongst metal fans.

I think it would be an exceptional idea for someone to bring out a magazine such as mine because it would be successful and it would get the recognition some very talented musicians need. Although there are sites such as MySpace, when it’s printed in a magazine it seems to make it much more official. If I made a MySpace for the Nailstorm magazine, there is an option for several “Top Friends” – I could put new bands in this set who have similar sounds to bands such as Meshuggah, Textures and whoever because the people who have already read the magazine will know the bands content and will seek to look at them on their MySpace profile. Therefore, taking all of this into consideration, these aspects are very important and I think they would enhance the success of others bands and Nailstorm itself. Therefore, the reason why companies would distribute my product would be simply for the reason that it’s a new, fresh magazine and its target audience is fairly easy to target so it would be easy to make a profit for the distributing company.


Question 4
The overall consumers for my media product would ideally be:

16-34
Male
Basic knowledge of metal music.

It will also be a mainstream magazine.

The demographic audience for my magazine preferably would be a 21 year old British male, at University studying music or Journalism and very interested in making a metal band, or just particularly into that field of music. As most metal fans know, there are a lot of new and upcoming bands that are from Sheffield who have been successful and had the recognition to become famous or known. He would be very social, have lots of similar friends and share the same tastes. Including music and fashion-sense.

Here is a picture of a typical demographic:




This picture is of Dave, he is wearing camo trousers and a band t-shirt. This is what a fan would be typically wearing. He does replicate my specific “entity” very well. His hair is extremely long, he’s trying to grow stubble and/or beard (which is a connotation of a man primarily) and he has his arms crossed. This posture also denotes by definition a very manly posture and dominance.

Overall, including from the feedback of my magazine, it’s clear to see that the consumers for this product are all into one of the elements mentioned as I tested this and carried out research over MSN with friends who are like me. They like heavy music, socialising, drinking, anything that’s fun. They’re all young adults, e.g. 21 years old and we all share the same tastes. I asked them what they thought of my final product as an idea and they were all pleased with the concept and commented on the fact that they would read it.

I will include monthly reviews in my magazine, such as reviews on games. I imagine that in doing this, it would even be more successful in targeting my main audience—that of a male gender. Many males like to play games either alone or when socialising. They like to play first person shooters and/or roleplaying games. Because this is specifically a heavy metal magazine, role-playing seems to be quite different compared to first person shooters. FPS [first person shooters] are violent, fast and very fun. Much like a heavy metal band, and in contrast to a role-play game this will appeal to a specific audience. Many males are into consoles and PC Gaming, and I think reviewing games such as “Left 4 Dead” and “Team Fortress” will only persuade that certain reader to read my media product.

So the typical demographic will be into playing games either on the PC or console, as it’s a social thing to do and also fun when you’re alone. I will also have gig reviews in the magazine, which will appeal to many people because they will have information about upcoming gigs and what bands to see live. This would mean that my target audience would have to like gigs, live shows and festivals. Again, this is a very important aspect in regards to my audience because I can empathise with their tastes, and I know that people who would read this magazine would be interested in seeing live shows, whether they’re solo gigs or festivals.

The demographic also likes to drink Jagermeister and Sailor Jerry’s. These drinks are considered “alternative” drinks for some reason, maybe because of the reputation of the beverages. The font for Jagermeister is in a gothic style font as well, so the graphology of the bottle does look as though the purpose of it is to reach out and target an audience who likes heavy music, etc.

Question 5
The way my magazine attracted the audience was through the information it provided. The article of Jonny was important because it was about an underground band – asking general questions such as “What has led to your success...”. The mode of address between the reader and the magazine was at times teacher to pupil but mostly peer-to-peer. Sometimes, the aspect of teacher-to-pupil can be quite demeaning and I had to maintain a relationship between the reader and the magazine. The mode of address was very important on the front cover because it as was extremely crucial that the mode of address was peer-to-peer so the audience felt accepted and equal. The contents page was peer-to-peer in some senses, however the contents numbered list was quite parent-to-child in the sense that they were talking down to the audience, as the text “this is the closest you will get” is quite sarcastic and diverting away from the peer-to-peer aspect. I specifically used convergence of speech/text within my magazine, this was through the colloquial terms and I knew that this meant it would appeal to my target audience because it was a feature of equality between ages and a preference whether that is doom metal or thrash metal.

The magazine uses specific bands that have been juxtaposed to create an effect, e.g. the Textures vs Slayer vs Hand of Grief was juxtaposed to grab the audience’s attention. The masthead was done in a font that would replicate something weird, and overall would attract an audience who liked metal or anything alternative. The whole content of the magazine was done in a colloquial way so the audience felt equal. I knew that this would attract my target audience so this was taken into consideration greatly.

Question 6
I have learnt new skills in each of the categories; these were Web 2.0, Photoshop and Quark Xpress. I will now discuss them individually and explain their features and the strengths and weaknesses I had with each.
Web 2.0 is familiar to me already so I didn’t necessarily find it difficult. The reason why we used web 2.0 was due to keeping our practical work in order. Every bit of work we did, including research, was uploaded to the blog. I think the use of a blog was effective because we could upload our work in a neat manner. The strengths of the blog were it was easier to keep all our work together; it saved time and is more practical than writing everything down. The weakness of the blog was that work sometimes took too long to upload, and even in cases didn’t upload. I was familiar with html so I didn’t find this a problem, and in fact I have quite good knowledge of html so I did enjoy working on the blog. The tools I used on the blog included uploading images, uploading videos and changing text, including the size colour and boldness or italics. I did this through codes such as <"emphasis"> <"/emphasis">, this turned the font into bold. Thus, the programme was easy to use and very effective. I thought it was a very practical programme and useful.
Photoshop at first to me was unfamiliar. They only thing I knew prior to using it at college was changing the light settings and putting text onto images. The tool that I wasn’t too particularly fond of was the Lassou tool; I found it hard at times to select parts of the image to cut it out, so I mainly just used the magic selection tool. This was one of the best tools I thought because I could change the strength of the selection tool which I thought was great as at times I selected too much. I learnt that Photoshop was great for editing photos and I did a lot of this during working on this programme. I extended my knowledge and use of Photoshop as the first project we worked on was a college preliminary task; I only knew how to put text on, add drop shadows and change the opacity of images and text. As I progressed, I found that I was able to change the dimensions manually, adjust the image through different aspects such as hue, saturation, brightness and contrast. I even downloaded my own brushes to make a splatter effect and installed it onto Photoshop and used them on my layers. I was pleased with the outcome of my double page spread as I worked these up in several layers, selecting pieces to cut out so it made a transparent effect when added onto my original layer. I was very pleased with this effect, and it made my work look really good. The weaknesses of Photoshop were really the fact it crashed quite a lot. As I used two programmes of Photoshop, including Elements and 5.0 I found that it wasn’t just Elements or 5.0 but rather the Adobe programme. It took two long to save and it would stall the process of getting anything done. It was very weak on text too, especially very small texts such as the one for my double page spread and contents page. When it was put onto Quark Xpress, the font was very pixelated and very hard to read. So I cut off all of the texts and used Quark Xpress as the main programme for my text.

Quark Express was a very basic programme. I took to it quite well and knew the important tools which had to be used. Text was much more effective in Quark Xpress and easier to place texts. I knew how to use Drop caps in my text, this was done through selecting the first letter of the paragraph and going to edit>formats>drop caps. I applied drop shadows on Quark also, but I preferred Photoshop for this. The weakness of Quark Xpress was the images; they sometimes became distorted so I decided to use Photoshop for this. I learnt how to import an image and I selected it to fit inside the image box. Despite not being familiar with Quark Xpress, I took very well to it and managed to produce a really cool double page spread and contents page. Although, for the graphological element, I certainly preferred Photoshop as the quality was a lot better in Photoshop, especially the images.

Question 7:

Interview with Jonny.

In order to fulfil assessment objective AO3, I have to demonstrate the ability to plan and construct media products using appropriate technical and creative skills. I also have to meet objective AO4 and demonstrate the ability to undertake and apply appropriate research.

First off, I searched the internet for examples of an interview.
Below is an example of an interview that Metal Hammer had produced.

MH: Maybe it would be the best if you introduced the band to our readers at the beginning, to say something about roots, history, ideas from which all this came from.

WHIPLASHER: All band members come from extreme metal underground, from the core of death and black metal. We brought devil into the ballroom. We developed a bit our extreme roots, we wanted to make them more luxurious. We've kept the frustration and agression from the past, we only wrapped it up into a more acceptable package.

MH: I've read that personal issues influenced the total outcome and sound of Termination Bliss. What happened exactly?

WHIPLASHER: You're right. We've all been pretty depressive during past years and it took a long time to start writing songs. We weren't in a good condition at all, we barely got out of bed, Nightmare especially. It can be felt significantly in his songs. The material he wrote is pretty dark, and the lyrics aren't lighter either. We've had many death cases in our families, in one moment there was a complete chaos. There's also themes about complex relationships between people, breaking relationships...

MH: How was it to combine many hard sounds into one industrial whole?

WHIPLASHER: I really don't know. We've never discussed about how we need to sound and what sounds we need to sample. We've never set to ourselves guidelines by which we'd have to work and how our music should sound. The first album was some sort of an experiment for which we didn't know how it would turn out to be. I think we've gone much deeper into that kind of expression on Termination Bliss. We don't think about music, we just make a combination which results from us.

MH: You've mentioned that all of you have roots from underground music, does that mean Deathstars is an underground band?

WHIPLASHER: NO, I think underground doesn't exist anymore. By underground I meant exchanging letters, listening to cassettes with demo recordings, and those are things which we used to do during the 80's and beginning of 90's. Now we have Internet and all that is gone. No, I definitely do not consider Deathstars to be an underground band. I just hope people who appreciated underground music will see we still have that kind of mentality.

MH: Talking about Internet, did it bring more good or bad to music?

WHIPLASHER: Probably...well, I don't know myself, because I don't use it at all, I don't have it. I'm not so familiar with those things, I hardly looked at our own website. I think that before the Internet, people believed they are a part of a certain subcultural group, because then it was much harder to come by certain albums. Exchanging tapes was a unique thing, it only required finding a way to variety of people. Today all you need to do is press a few buttons on a keyboard and it's already in the computer. Before you really needed to be into it. There was much more passion in music. I suppose Internet is just the thing for young bands who want people to hear about them.

MH: Why did you decide to use "stage" names instead of real ones?

WHIPLASHER: It comes from a fact that we all are big KISS fans. It's just one of the details in our image. Those names we used while we were playing with old bands, so it was natural for us to take them to Deathstars as well. I don't care if someone refers to me as Andreas, but we try to make a certaing image which consists of the visual, but our stage names too. It's part of our expression.

MH: By now you're pretty famous in Sweden...Where do you think you will also get support?

WHIPLASHER: For now I really can't say, I suppose we'll find out in the next few months. We'll probably do good in Germany, France... We'll have tours in America and south Africa, we'll see what reaction will someone have to our music. We hope we'll make a good impact with this album released by Nuclear Blast, and I believe we'll have good promotion all over Europe. That wasn't the case with our first album, we have it'll be interesting to the people and that the world will explode and fly into space. That would be perfect! Ha, ha, ha!

MH: Which are your other interests besides music?

WHIPLASHER: Women, champaigne, drugs and sometimes cigarrettes. And yeah, did you know we shot a video in Belgrade?

MH: Yeah, and...?

WHIPLASHER: There's so many incredibly goodlooking women in Serbia. I was astounded, and I fell in love with Belgrade.

MH: Then at the end, tell something to your future fans, among who there's probably those women there as well.

WHIPLASHER: OK, what should I say? I sincerely hope I'll visit Serbia again. I hope we'll get drunk together.

These are questions that I am more than likely to use.

Louise: Maybe you should introduce the band to our readers to start with. You know, to establish something about roots, history and any ideas from which all this came from?

Jonny: Well the band is called Hand of Grief. We've been around for about 2 years pestering anyone foolish enough to let us play. It started off as a project called Words Fail with Sean and Gaz. They had a different singer, a different second guitarist and a different drummer. They were going down a Killswitch Engage kind of vein and originally the old drummer left and was replaced by Ager. Who then pushed the band to give it some more bastard. Then Si (guitar) left leaving the band as a four piece. A bit after that Rich (vocals) left and I was asked to give it a go. I was given a rough demo of seven songs and set about writing some stuff for them. We were basically starting again as I have more Hardcore and less melody in my voice than Rich. Because of this we were looking for a new name and one day I was listening to some Black Label Society and in one of the songs it mentions a Hand of Grief. I suggested this to the rest of the guys as a name and it sort of stuck from there. Not long after I joined I introduced the guys to Rhodesy who played guitar for us for around 8 months until he had to leave due to personal differences. Not long after that we settled Rob in and thats how we've been rolling ever since.

Louise: I’ve heard that personal issues influenced the total outcome and sound of King of Misery. What happened exactly?

Jonny: To answer that I think I need to explain about my writing process. I try and write my lyrics as ambiguous as I can. I want to write things I know about and have experienced in such a way as to allow the listener to go "oh yeah I totally relate to that" how successful I am is down to the individual listener. If they get where I'm coming from then that's cool, if not but they like the song that's also cool. For me that song is about isolation. It doesn't matter if it's isolation from a loved one, family, friends, whatever, that's the theme of that song. That's how I was feeling at that time. It didn't matter that I had people around me, I still felt cut off and alone, which no one wants to be, hence King of Misery.

Louise: How was it to combine many hard sounds into one chuggy whole? And what genre would you describe yourself as?

Jonny: It's pretty easy to be honest. We're all good friends and hang out together outside of the band so we're on a more personal basis. However we know that when it comes to the band it's all business. If I've got a problem with a riff or a beat I'm not afraid to say, and I'd expect everyone to do the same with me. As far as our writing process goes I usually stay out the way and get an idea about what I want the song to be about and build it up from there. The guys will get the riffs and beat sorted then we record it burn it onto CD and I start to flesh out my structure and write the song to the demo version.

I'd say we were metal. I don't like to pigeonhole us as it won't be a true representation of the music. We have hardcore vocals over groovy NOLA-esque riffs like in 2 Bagger and we'll go from that into the full on thrash onslaught of Eyegruntwork so to say we're one genre is selling us short, haha. I'm much happier letting people judge for themselves what style we are.

Louise: To say you’re underground, you’re actually pretty well known. You toured with Ted Maul who are really well known in the metal scene. What was it like to tour with them?

Jonny: It was good. Or so I'm told. Haha. Those guys are sound as fuck, we had a blast every show. Without sounding big-headed I think we can quite easily blast most bands off the stage but with Ted Maul they were on a whole different level to us. It made us play harder, play more aggressively, play tighter and I think we held our own. We didn't out perform them we just did a good job supporting them and warming up the crowd. I'd do it again tomorrow if i could. Haha.

Louise: Have you got any stage names? (Answer this with Kojak please Jonny, or I will have to penetrate your face with my fist)

Jonny: No like fully official stage names but some people often refer to me as Kojak so we just made some up for Bio and Myspace purposes, haha. Ager is Beast, Gaz is The Noise, Sean is Chuggy and Rob is Count Drugula.

Louise: And how did the name Kojak come about?

Jonny: As a joke. When I used to work the Practice Rooms in Rotherham I was talked into having my head shaved with a Mach 3 as I had nothing better to do at work. I basically had my head shaved and then shaved again with a regular razor. Then the next day Bing out of Hiram started calling me Kojak. It's not a very interesting story but there ya go. Haha.

Louise: Which are you interests besides music?

Jonny: Apart from music I enjoy my Xbox 360, generally wasting time on the internet reading things on varied topics from religion to string theory. Hanging out with my mates, I love a good horror film. I like going to the cinema and going to corp and trying to drink my own body weight. Haha.


These are the questions I am going to use for my mag.

Audience targeting.

In order to fulfil assessment objective AO3, I have demonstrated the ability to plan and construct media products using appropriate technical and creative skills.

In order to complete what demographic audience my magazine would target, I need knowledge about audiences. As Ien Ang suggests, when a magazine is produced there is usually an imaginary entity that the magazine will reach out to. I need to make a target audience/imaginary entity for my magazine to be successful.

Magazines serve as a tool to bring advertisers to audiences. In a music magazine, everything is an advert – it tries to sell you a brand persona of a band/artist, albums, singles, gig tickets, downloads, dvds, books, films. Music magazines also advertise anything else that would appeal to its target readership (clothes, technology, cosmetics etc).

My magazine Nailstorm will be about heavy metal bands and artists, with lots of information on gigs, reviews, any books or DVD's and free or small fee downloads. There will be adverts for clothing ranges, I will ask tutor in advance if I could create one such as "Heavy Clothing" or "Toxico".

Audiences are targeted by media institutions based on demographic variables such as gender, age, class, sexuality, occupation, hobbies, where they live, wealth etc. In terms of magazines, the bigger the readership the more the magazine can charge for advertising.

I have already discussed this briefly on the post where I made three choices of different music magazines. My gender will be male targeting, but female readers are welcome. Sexuality will be straight because there will be generic elements of attractive women in short clothing - appeals to men. Their age will be 16-34 and interests will lie mainly in music. The magazine will be around £3-4 and monthly issued out. It will be a conglomerate, with music channel, radio station and website.

That's pretty much my demographic audience. They will be stereotypical in the sense of loving tattoos, piercing, loud music, eccentric attitude and etc.

dafont.com

In order to fulfil assessment objective AO3, I have demonstrated the ability to plan and construct media products using appropriate technical and creative skills.

For my music magazine, I have chosen to adopt similar house styles of the masthead because I want my music magazine to look as real as possible. I have chosen to do a 'Distorted' style for the masthead.



This is a generic masthead, a little bit boring though.



This is the website, dafont.com.

And this is the particular style I am going to use for my magazine...