Wasp

Wasp is directed by Andrea Arnold in 2003.It is a short film lasting only 24 minutes, set in a suburban area. The plot was about a young single mother with 3 young girls and 1 baby boy. Zoe the mother is invited by an old friend to meet him at the pub, Zoe is unable to find a babysitter so brings her children along.
There is a long shot of Zoe and her kids crossing a footbridge over a main motorway, the diagetic sound of the traffic represents the

Virus

The short film virus lasts six minutes, it was made in 2002. The film's genre is a psychological thriller/horror. The film was clearly on a low budget as only three actors starring in it.
The title of this film "virus" could have multiple meaning for example viruses can occur in computers and life itself. The directer keeps the causes of death relatively unknown.
The lighting in this film is dark and all the light you do see is artificial again emphasising the theme of machinery.
There is no dialog, this has the viewers on there toes throughout.
The diagetic sound of the vacuum hoover has a creepy affect as if can be such a normal noise however in the context of this film it becomes an other indicator of disaster about to happen.
We are constantly shown normal Innocent objects such as a picture frame and a cup of coffee, i think this is done to show us the views the normality of the situation the characters are in.
Over all Virus is affective and certainly achieves what it wanted to.

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

As I have considered this as an independent music magazine that features unknown talent there would be a limited amount of people interested in it and would there for not be that commercially attractive to a big media institution.  I thought that by using music venues and universities I would be able to attract the right crowd, and that the magazine could be sold by subscription if it became popular. I Think that a music publisher might be interested in distributing my magazine as they are always on the look out for new talent and this could be a good thing for them.

How does your media product represent a particular social group?

My media product is aimed at a young and aspirational group who are interested in independent music. It is likely to appeal to aspiring musicians and people who like to discover music outside what is offered by the commercial side of the music industry. Socially this group could come from wide ranging backgrounds as the music itself is the unifying thing. 

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

Since I started studying media studies at the beginning of this year my skills on photoshop have greatly improved and my confidence to use the program has grown. My ability to use the program at the beginning was very minimal. But I have learnt to do a wide variety of things for example use a bitmap or how to merge two photos together to make it look like one.

As a class we went to a photoshop workshop, there i learnt how to overlay photos and how to create different effects on photos to alter them. 

I have learnt a little bit about photography too, from taking all the photograph in my magazine myself i have discovered what is an ideal photograph for the font cover of a magazine is or what lighting is most flattering. 

I am happy with the skills I have learnt through doing this project. 

Who would be the audience for your media product? And how did you attract/ address my audience?

During my research and planning I carried out a questionnaire, by doing this I found that females were much less likely to read music magazines. I wanted to create a magazine that would appeal equally to a both male and female readership and so needed to discover what would make a magazine more attractive to female and there for balance out the readership, without putting off the core consumers. Established music magazines  are advertised and designed  in a way that is much more appealing to men, and tend to be very male oriented in their content. I considered this information and attempted to make mine a unisex magazine. The most important element to this would be my primary image on the front cover. My main feature is Milo Snow, who features largely on the front cover. I thought that he would be appealing to the young  female audience, as he is attractive and the in the age range of my target audience. The overall design as well is uncluttered and stylish so would appeal generally to both genders. I also carefully considered pricing when designing my magazine as I thought that it must be affordable for a young readership and offer real value. The point of the magazine is that it featured unsigned musicians and bands and so needed a credible and underground edge. The price of the magazine also became a design consideration as I decided to use cheap paper and basic printing in order to save on printing costs. This also gives the magazine an independent feel and differentiates it from the other glossy commercial magazines. The price was 50p, so around the same price as a daily newspaper. As my target audience is young they may not have the money to spend 3-4 pounds on a weekly magazine.

In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The media product I have produced follows the forms and conventions of real media products. I constructed my final magazine cover design to echo recognisable techniques used in magazine design that I had observed. I was interested by magazines such as NME which speaks to a fashionable readership who are interested in music, and OK which is a gossip weekly which trades in celebrity news. Both of the magazines and many others box the title treatment in a strong colour which makes it stand out, so I used this technique and put a box around my magazine title. This does make the 'Unsung' text jump out and it also creates more of a logo with the use of a secondary colour .  When following this conventional layout I only wanted to use one primary image without  secondary images and very minimal text. I made this choice  after looking at other music magazines, and I found that the magazines who used minimal design were the more arty ones. The magazines front cover is its biggest advertisement  for the publication so they are commonly very cluttered with sell lines about the contents.  The point of my magazine was that it was aimed at a more discerning and sophisticated readership who would be attracted by good design rather than clutter. I was therefore keen to keep my front cover minimal as the cover feature was the magazine's biggest selling point.

When constructing my final contents page I also looked at the forms and conventions of real media products. As the purpose of the contents page is largely practical, there are very good reasons to following conventional form in this instance. The challenge is to make each item seem interesting while keeping the layout clear and easy to read. I used a sort of 'scrapbook approach to make it more interesting and  I introduced a musical agony aunt in order to add extra value and personality to this page. On the whole, I was happy with the result and felt that the Front cover and the contents page both related well and served their purpose and I think over all I have used the exsisting  forms and conventions of real media well when creating my own magazine design.