Media Statement of Intent

To start creating my media front cover, I researched some magazine where I could get inspiration from and get an idea for my own front cover. I managed to gather a couple magazine front covers, and I choose one to use as an interpretation, which is this one shown here.

I have called it art of gaming as my magazine front cover is about the creation of gaming, which shows behind the scenes of how to create gaming characters. It is based around the theme horror, so, I would say my audience is mainly for people who like horror and scary gaming magazines.

Firstly, I gathered some of my drawings I used from my previous magazine cover, so I could add them into this current one. I made sure I had at least four images for my front cover.

To start with, I opened up Photoshop and started creating my title and masthead. I used the colours red and black as I feel that these colour create a dark, cold and eerie atmosphere, as the colour black is associated with power, fear and mystery. It can also be associated with authority, I have chosen this colour as I feel that my magazine front cover could have authority over other magazine covers that are seen as competitors. As the colour red is associated with fire, blood and strength, I feel that it’s a good colour theme to use for this specific gaming magazine cover, as it is based around the theme horror.

Next, I added my background photo, which is the girl holding the mask. I have chosen to do this as I feel like it brings attention to my cover, is it looks quite sinister and spooky.to make it more sinister looking, I photoshoped the face, by simply adding contour to darken areas of the face. I also photoshopped the eyes black, as it thought it finished the look. From my research, I saw I magazine cover which really intrigued me, so it inspired me to add a mask in with the photoshoot. (I made this mask using cling film and cello tape.( This item made my front cover stand out more as it looks creepy and gives more of sinister atmosphere.

At the bottom of my front cover, I added in plugs, to show what was inside the magazine. I set out three images, which I have hand drawn myself. I decided to hand draw these, as I feel it gives my creation and imagination to the whole aspect of the front cover. Furthermore, as my magazine is about the art of gaming, I feel like drawing my images was a good idea. I have drawn two menacing pictures, which will be showing how to create scaring characters from drawings, and the other image of a person, which will be showing how to create gaming characters from drawing people. Before putting these photos on to my magazine, I edited them in Photoshop to make them more eye catching and outstanding. For example, for the middle image in the plug section, I added more tints of black, and contoured around the drawing similar to how I edited my main image.

I have added some text, for example, “new and exclusive”. I have added this to intrigue customers into buying my magazine as it is one of my selling lines. Another selling line I have added is “limited edition”. This is a good idea to put into my cover as it shows that it’s a special magazine.

The reason I have chosen the price to be £3.99, is because that is the average selling price of a magazine. Also, I didn’t want it to be too expensive as I didn’t want people not to afford it. Furthermore, my audience isn’t specifically for young children, due to the sinister and menacing games theme, so there’s I didn’t want to lower the price, as my target audience is for older people who like horror, and they are more likely to afford it then a child.

REPRESENTATION: I would say that my front cover is radical and reactionary. Firstly, i think its radical as i believe that it is a unique gaming magazine, as it doesn’t advertise actual games, it focuses on the art of games, and how they are made. So, people are intrigues by the concept of not actually being games, but the actual art and creativity within it. On the other hand i think its reactionary because it supports the dominant ideology of the theme horror, due to the creepy features I have involved, such as the mask. In my opinion, I think that girls are always seen as the dominant figure in horror movies, however, in horror games, i feel that males are the dominant figures. So when people realize its a horror gamers front cover magazine, it turns from reactionary to radical.

AUDIENCE THEORY: George Gerbner theory of cultivation says that “Cultivation theory suggests that repeated exposure to television over time can subtly ‘cultivates’ viewers’ perceptions of reality.” In my magazine cover, i feel that my message to society/customers/people is that games have a very creative world of art, and that it need to be appreciated more.

following the concept of art of gaming, I believe that my intended message, which is that people need to perceive and value gaming more as art and creativity, not just playing a game for entertaining, i feel that my dominant audience would be mainly people who has an interest in art and people who have a very creative personality.