Critical Approaches AS2

Magazine Case Study

Official Xbox Magazine

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Xbox magazine is a gaming magazine that is owned by owned by Xbox who is owned by Microsoft worldwide, the main aspect to this magazine is to inform, entertain and persuade the audience or viewer of the magazine through different offers, deals etc. that Xbox has. It will often give new information to the audience on upcoming games, DLC, and much more. Since Microsoft is already a worldwide company they do not use the Immediate Media company which is basically a promoter of different brands, products etc. that will be delivered worldwide, however Microsoft is its own distributor and has selected stores, as well as various stores they pay to promote their products.

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The audience can be varied within each of these magazine's because it varies on games, and information. For example in the magazine above it is firstly showing that its going to present most information to do with the game "Evolve" However this may not be likely, occasionally Xbox likes to release a magazine with keeping updated games on the front cover so that the magazine stays "hip" Keeping to the audience as well can relate on the fonts and colours of a page, as you can see the Xbox One font consistently stays the same, you can tell from both pictures of the magazine  but with the lower part of the magazine the font has changed a slight bit. I would also like to point out the theme of the magazine the colours change depending on the subject of the cover, with Evolve its key colour is orange so Xbox has stuck with that colour as well making sure it does not vary off onto a different road.

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Different stories are selected during this magazine there is no main topic to discuss, its about discussing the upcoming games, the currently released games, the HOT games the popular ones on Xbox at the moment, and a bit of insight to the games. It does not just include stories though it can consist with competitions, offers, etc. Certain features would be facts about Xbox as well as giving varied tips to help anyone in a game for example in the magazine below it is about Halo so it will give information to the reader about the game, some secrets, some ratings of the game from other people such as on page 8 of the Halo Xbox One magazine "It's clear that 343 has learned a great deal from redeveloping the early Halo games for the Master Chief Collection"  The source is unknown but I believe xbox provided that quote, on the next page it presents you with a Trending section showing where everything is at between the Blue and Red team. You can download this magazine for your own personal view on it from here DOWNLOAD LINK 

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Codes and conventions
The header of any Xbox Magazine has always been clear and precise and out there. As mentioned previously the magazine uses one of the subjects they are going to include, on the magazine as well. To appeal more to the other audience(meaning people who are not interested in Halo Guardians) will be interested in The Elder Scrolls Online, The Witcher 3, Batman Arkham Knight, and GTA: Online so it is not leaving anyone out or pushing them away from buying the magazine they will still know what is going on in the magazine, what they should expect so they get their money's worth.

To what I was talking about in the above paragraph is believed as the term as featuring previews, you can see the previews in the bottom of the Halo magazine but can also see them in the background of the red spartan, essentially it is not giving away all the details making the audience want to read more on what is going on and how the magazine might help them.

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Technically Xbox does have a type of "Proof" cover to their Magazine, when I say this I mean it comes with a cover, the magazine comes in a protector that will prevent the magazine from being opened and will make it so you cannot get it wet. This is also a great method for other magazines where they give a special type of bonus to buying the magazine, for example when I bought a Skyrim Xbox magazine which gave me hints, tips and other information on the latest Skyrim DLC "Dawnguard" it gave me a concept book and a diary to the game, it came in handy when I played the game because I then knew what was going on which is another reason why the target audience might be intrigued to buy the magazine to receive this bonus loot. The good thing about Xbox magazine is when they do these types of offers they are exclusive to just the magazine, you cannot buy them from any other place(besides second hand).

Xbox do often receive complaints and reviews online but I cannot say Xbox magazine really receives them much. Microsoft have created a forum for the magazine section to their Xbox products where polls, questionnaires and surveys can be taken and then the producers will look at them and modify the magazine in various ways to suit audience and be less offensive if it has been deemed they are offensive.

Top Gear Magazine

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Moving on from Xbox One Magazine, we are now going to look at a completely different magazine, Top Gear. Top gear is a car and moto magazine that gives ultimate information from experts of their pick of cars, each of the magazines can vary weekly in different events, such as super cars, to sports classics. In the magazine above it is actually an "Ultimate garage" magazine which is a special one off. Unlike Xbox Top gear do not consist with some of the same events, obviously they are not going to feature the same car twice they take it to the next level go a car up or a car somewhere so extreme, but back to talking about the ultimate garage. The ultimate garage is a collection of top cars from the experts of Top Gear.

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Moving away from the experts a bit I would like to talk about the presentation of the magazine if you look in the magazine above you can tell a big difference from it if we compare it to the one below, as I have mentioned recently in the Xbox magazine that the title did not change at all or it only changed depending on the topic of the front cover, as you can see once again comparing the two magazines the title has only changed colour, also has had a rearrange of the BBC logo in the top left. The customization of the page does vary from time to time but you will see over time it stays the same for location:
Picture = Middle
Title/Header = Top
Description = Bottom
Top Gear keeps this consistency throughout each of their magazines but I would like to point out the picture has so much room for itself because of what is provided in it in the above magazine it is a few cars covered in snow and ice so for a start this will catch the audience thinking it has something to do with winter or ice, and then if you read the big bold title "SUPERCARS ON ICE!!" you then see what it is going to be about. Another thing to point out on is the big bold font, it is out there and has a stroke effect to make the readers know to look here first, where all the colour is at.

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To conclude to this section of Top Gear I'd like to mention the footer or header of each of the magazines. I'm not talking about the title, I mean the car in the top right of the two magazines above and below. This is where the Top Gear Show comes into it, Top Gear of course is a car and moto show that visits 3 presenters talking about cars and testing them. The reason for the header and the text in them is from the show, basically inside of the magazine will be a certain bonus item, like a link or code to a video for the purchaser of the magazine to view the video. For example below "TGTV is back! surrender your sundays exclusive series 22 preview inside!" This is giving a special preview to the next magazine of the series which is why I'd like to move further down the page to where it say's World Exclusive. Top Gear is a BBC based show which if you didn't already know is a UK based company, but how does the Magazine become exclusive? Through Immediate Media Company. Immediate has been mentioned recently where the company promotes other content worldwide making it possible for everyone to purchase the magazine in their local stores. A download link has been provided if you would like to view this world exclusive magazine DOWNLOAD LINK

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Codes and Conventions
Finishing off with the codes and conventions of the Top Gear magazine instantly looking at the header shows how different it can be to other magazines such as Xbox, it presents content to the audience in a specific and intriguing way that will persuade them to buy the magazine, for example the one I recently used has a great use of imagery, presenting the 3 Top Gear Producers kind of the heart and soul of the Top Gear Franchise. A feature of each magazine that has been made by Top Gear has various and interesting facts about cars, prices etc. It includes a vast amount of imagery and colours which we can also pick up on going along with the leading car the LaFerrari but I did not know that car was a Ferrari till I saw the clear logo and text above it.

With various other magazines there are usually pages at the back that contains different types of merchandise and references for the audience or reader to refer to later on or possibly join the Top Gear crew. This is a source of promotion and advertising within the entire company because it is using adverts in the magazine for itself.

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Top Gear magazine was not just formed over night, it had many retries to make it better, however the producers of the magazine did not receive personal opinions of the magazine online, they received ratings and figures. When I say this I simply mean when a Top Gear magazine is dispatched to various stores the stores will take down note of the sales, and then those figures will be returned to the producers so they can see how much of a sale they are making with them, then ratings can be made through YouTube videos or surveys on the web which is where producers will also go to receive feedback, I recently used a website called surveymonkey basically it gives me an option to create a questionnaire or survey for people to answer, I made an age group option, a gender, and a rating question for the users who took it. I came back with varied responses and you would find the more young 16-30 males prefer racing magazines and other magazines related.

Working to a Brief ♕

Working to a brief

Structure of briefs: 

contractual

This is a legal document which when created it goes between the client and producer because its
type a of contract that states everything in clear detail so that the producer of the product has a

clear view on the product they are meant to create. It will present objectives such as the deadline,

the product intended to be made, and other essentials such as the time constraints.

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However there will oftenly be a type of discussion between the client and producer where they
negotiate the brief, this will be before either of the two sign the document saying they agree to
it(which will be used against the producer later on if they do not follow the brief.) Signing the
document is important to both the client and producer, this does mean the client cannot change
the brief at all which will provide a type of protection to the producer, and the same visa versa if
there was any problems with the producer. This is essentially a ticket of protection if the client
mistreats you in a bad way but if you have signed it and you are not happy with anything in the
brief you must negotiate it before it is signed.

negotiated

Negotiated was mentioned previously in contractual but neither of these are the same, essentially
you can already guess what is wanted from a negotiated type, this means that the client will be
expecting some means of negotiating which can lead to it changing in various ways to fit the
clients standards and with the creation involvement of the producer. 

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In a means of the brief coming to the signing stage can be extensive. Since a brief needs to be
signed eventually to certify any accusations against the client or producer it can take some time to
sign it when negotiating because signing it means its done, no changing it that is how its meant to
be and how it will be. As I said it can take some time because obviously negotiating can always
change over and over with an open brief. You both still do have to stay within the legal
guidelines/requirements, there is no going against that because then both client and producer are
going to be in serious trouble.

formal

Contractual and Formal are very much alike in certain ways because it is straight to the point, gets
all the detail out there straight away making everything that the client would like very obvious as
thought its bold in detail and stands out. The difference between the two is that formal will use
standard English(or whatever correct grammatical language) basically it will not use slang and
small abbreviations. 

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This type of brief structure does not use the same legal standard which decreases certain
restrictions but will also still keep you in your place of not being sued since you will have signed
the brief. In the long run, for the production company and producer this means that the time
period and requirements will be easier and more focused, but with a downfall of not having their
own input on the creative process. 

informal

Informal is easy enough to say the opposite of formal, they're a bit more relaxing and chill, this
would simply be done with a client just writing it giving a task saying here when what where
why, using their own language, slang, dialect etc. Negotiating will most likely be incorporated
into the brief but still thats not a certain thing.

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When we compare informal to formal it is pretty obvious of the factors, formal is more
professional and laid out well and literally but informal won't be. Yes informal will still include
all the points to be precise but it will be to the client's standard, so if they are illiterate that will be
based on the client. As well as it being to the tone of the client production companies might find it
easier and more understanding to be on an informal, normal level with the client so that both are
"down to earth" with the production.

commission

Commission can be complicated to break down and describe but basically this involves the client
approaching a company or team and gives them the details of what they want out of a product, the
team will have already hopefully had proposals prepared and other facts, but mainly the client just
has to say I want this done, here go do it find a production team to do it for me.

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Commissioners is where commission comes into the brief, a commissioner will oversee the
process of the product that the client wants and makes certain that it actually happens as often
production companies can go off and do their own work in the process incorporating it, but
commissioners are basically officers of the client making sure everyone is in line with the
production and not going off the rails.

tender

Tender briefs have a great involvement of the legal tender statement. In a tender brief you usually
will want to get money from the client and benefit yourself or your production company in the
long run, clients of course either advertise for a product to be made and you seek them out or they
come to you and you respond, but tender will always be about the benefits of the money from
doing this production.

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You will not find that clients will come to people though if it includes tender, because the client is
basically offering money out for someone to come to them, read the brief and pitch an idea to the
client, several companies will of pitched ideas and the client will then decide which one is  the
best and deserves the money to create their product. MoFilm would be a great example because
they are a type of commissioner company that distributes briefs out for people to look at and pitch
and then make, and in return for the best product they get a cash prize.

cooperative

Cooperative of course is the involvement is working alongside someone to produce a product, this
can vary with possibly a distribution company or a fellow more experienced production company
in certain areas, for example you did the filming and another company did the visual fx. 

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Since you may be working with another company this is a great option to negotiate around
pitching different ideas and solutions that both may come up with because opinions could be
different, when working however it might be problem because one company might not like the
product outcome but the other does. This will rely down to the brief and negotiation with the
client because it is their product. This will mean that both companies can combine to have a
bigger more varied creation process to suit the client.

competition

Competetion can always relate back to tender briefs because various companies will compete
with each other to produce the perfect and ideal pitch to  a client. But the difference here is that is
not always about the money, there can be more beneficial standards such as reputation. Oftenly
competitions will be left to smaller companies.

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MoFilm is actually another great example for this, they do use money but that is not what I am
aiming to focus on, MoFilm receives briefs from plenty of companies such as Netflix, Polo, etc.
and they put together a type of competition handing out the brief they receive and then have
different companies enrol to do the brief, to pitch, and produce and after that all the products will
be viewed by the client and decided, then that winning production team will earn a cash prize. But
in other cases people will do it for reputation or places somewhere higher up such as Hollywood.

Reading a brief

Whenever you read a brief you have to consider up to 7 key points throughout the brief that you WILL NEED. These points are:

•     Background
•     Target Audience
•     What the client wants
•     Tone
•     Length
•     Creative Mandatories

The reason we have these you will see in the picture below. The background gives you a feel of
where the client is coming from, where they have been over the months/years, what they have
accomplished, a little background story to satisfy you for knowing where to come from to make it
look as though this product was meant for this company. The target audience of the brief of
course is who are we intending this product for? What will we aim for them to see, to we want old
people who like cups of tea? No we want the younger generation in the teens up to 30 who like
energy drinks.

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You can see the insight section but that is sometimes irrelevant, its just clarifying in more detail

what they want. Now moving onto what the client wants that section gives all the detail, on well

of course what they want. Do they want it to be all about the Mountain Dew? No they want a

documentary style film that "highlights people who found and acted on an opportunity others

didnt recognise" When reading a brief you need to recognise what the client wants, because in the

long run if you don't pay attention and don't negotiate your in trouble with the client and can be

sued. Which will be very bad on your reputation.

The tone, will it be chirpy? happy? young? or will it be dark gloomy and sad. Basically you need

to know what the theme of the brief is. The length and usage is self explanatory, what is the

length of the product 30 seconds or 30 minutes. Now creative mandatories are not always in

briefs but when they are they are extremely important to follow because the act as a type of

restrictions statement, if you get this wrong the client will not at all be pleased with you. 

Negotiating the brief

Consultation with client

Negotiation has recently been discussed at the beginning, its a means of talking to the client and
working out different possibilities with the brief. When you consult with a client you need to see
their views as whole and try to tweak them to a higher standard at which it will benefit the client,
not benefit you. This product is not being made for you it is being made for the client, but if you
do not agree with the brief there is always possibilities of negotiation to change it.

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When negotiating it is almost impossible for you to negotiate a difference in the fee and budget
because the client believe that this is the exact amount worth of their own money to create this
product, if you don't agree with them they may go find another company to create a product with
them, but when you do negotiate a fee you must consist of valid points that will point out this is
what it would be worth and how much work is going into the product.

Degree of discretion in interpreting brief

Now this is a very key subject on a brief. There are thousands example up in Hollywood between
a movie company and actors, yes that is right its the secrecy of the product. Netflix on MoFilm
asked for their to be full discretion for the process of creating a product for them because they did
not want any spoilers or false accusations to go out against them.

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It is important to follow rules of this when interpreting a brief because if you step out of line in

the slightest way you are going to face a serious lawsuit from the client and possible setbacks for

the client itself. No one wants to hire someone who is not discreet about their product, after all it

is their product not yours you are making it they came up with it and need it for their business. 

Constraints

Legal

Creative Commons

Creative commons is an organisation that does not gain any profits that's why its put up as a non-profit

organisation. It specializes in providing ways to share peoples work with others so they can improve on it by

getting help from others but also keeping it theirs so it cant be stolen or used by anyone else without

permission. Creative commons' license does benefit quite well because you can decide on terms to share

your work for others to work on and maybe improve it but you will still be credited for it so you can see it go

in the way you would like. For example if you created a clip of something that everyone wants, under a

creative commons license they can use the work but you will still benefit from it and they wont get sued.

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Libel Law

Libel law is a type of law that keeps the reputation of a person healthy and true. This law can be broken by

broadcasting or publishing that isn't true and can ruin the reputation of a person, doing so can cause a lot of

public disgrace and hatred to the person(s) affected by this broadcast or publishment. This can be quite a

serious matter as some public might target the person and could potentially kill or harm the person. If the

publishment is false, not 100% true, and can be proven that its not right by the accused person then the

publisher can face some serious penalties.

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The editor of a publisher has to be very careful with how the statement is represented because if it is taken

in the wrong way it can be taken out of context and rumours could be spread on social networking sites

such as facebook and twitter. If Libel law is not taken into consideration and its broken then you could face

penalties such as jail time, loss of your job and anyone who was involved with the publishment, and most of

the time a fine of a certain amount of money.

Privacy Law

The role of this law is to keep the confidentiality of  a person to a full extent. This means that a person has

a legal right to not get spied on and has the ability to keep things privately, the privacy law can vary from

spying on someone to sharing details about them, if this person does not give conformation of being able to

share things and wants it to be kept secret then that person has a right to.

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This act kind of relates to the secrets act because they have a right to privacy and stuff being kept secret. If

a producer leaked footage of say a celebrity with cheating on someone or with another person like a

girlfriend etc. then that person has a right of privacy as you can not invade their personal life and leak it, you

will be shut down as you do not want the same to happen to you.

Obscene Publications Act 1959

This law is an act that prevents people from publishing rude content that could corrupt viewers, these can

vary from sexual abuse to torture. This act makes sure that none of this is released, the punishment for

releasing content like this is similar to the other acts and laws. Jail time and fines. This act is the reason

that we do not face concerned parents saying how their kids are learning and seeing rude things, objects,

content that would or might offend or corrupt the children's minds.

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This act does have one kind of exception, in this case science. As science teaches us about the areas of

the body and how everything, functions and other sorts of content. This act has made a main impact to the

film industry and other media industries. Also most publishing industries as they release a variety of content

on a daily basis which has a high risk of offending viewers, if rules and laws are not taken into mind

properly.

Copyright And Intellectual Property Law

Copyright is a legal right, it helps protect your work from being stolen or used without the permission of you

or the owner of the original piece. If somebody does use your work anywhere without your permission it is

against the law and classes as stealing, you get a choice, whether you want to take action and make them

pay for what they have believably stole or ignore it and let them carry on using it. You will know if a product

is copyright protected by a simple trademark. As told by Link: "A trademark can be a name , word, slogan,

design, symbol or other unique device that identifies a product or organisation." If you register a trademark in

a country like Japan, UK or US. The mark will only be protected in that country

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Official Secrets Act 1989

The Official Secrets Act is an act that makes it so everyone is legally allowed to keep secrets, including

higher ranking secrets such as government secrets. It also states that you can not publish these secrets,

for example if someone published that the government had reasons for killing thousands in a certain areas, if

this was published it would create a lot of feud throughout the world and could kill people in the process. If

you break this law you will face consequences, consequences such as jail time for 5 years or more,

depending how crucial the secret was.

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If you were a producer your content would have to not be under the official secrets act or you will be shut

down, information such as leaks of agencies, governments etc. This act originally replaced the Official

Secrets act of 1911, this act is similar to the 1989 act but more confidential with what can be published or

leaked to others without breaking the law.

Health And Safety Act

The health and safety act applies to all media industries based in the UK, the reason for this act is so it

saves lives and kind of help the profit of a film. The reason I say film is because without health and safety a

movie will have a 90% chance of crashing down from killing someone on set. Which is why productions

need to take a risk assessment before doing any work, so they ensure the risks and how likely they are to 

happen and if they need to be contained.

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This act makes sure that everything has been carried out carefully, and will not take lives or give injuries to

people and equipment. Yes, the health and safety act ensures that equipment is to be kept in good

condition. To make sure its handled and transported safely and has no risk of getting broken during a

production.

Ethical

Regulatory

BBFCBritish Board of Film ClassificationThe BBFC is a film classification that was formed in 1912 but was not called this at the time. At the time it was founded it was called British Board of Film Censors. This non-governmental organisation is responsible for the classification and censorship of film inside of the UK. Censorship is a type of mute filter within TV shows and movies. that mutes swearing, for example in a movie some people swear with words such as "shit" and "fuck" but with this filter over the swear is just a bleep, so people know the person is swearing but it makes it more friendly and less offensive. The classification is also known as an age certificate. An age certificate is something that certifies which age this is suitable for and intended for.

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The BBFC brings a huge impact to the media industry, giving censorship and classification which gives a

variety of audience ranges.

OFCOM

Office of Communications

Ofcom is the "government-approved" authority of broadcasting. This means that they control what is and

isn't published in the media industry, radio, shows etc. Ofcom have quite the big role in the media industry

because they have to be really careful at what does and doesn't get. The reason for Ofcom being in such a

role is because it has to represent the citizens and their views on the industry, it protects them from content

that may offend or harm the audience.

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PCC

The press complaints commission

The PCC is actually a voluntary regulatory body for newspapers, however this regulatory body was closed

due to the criticism for its lack of action in the News of the World phone hacking affair. I can not say much

about this regulatory body as it is closed and has been replaced by the IPSO.

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ASA

Advertising standards authority

The ASA are an organisation that regulates the advertising part of the media industry. They investigate and

take action from complaints made about the adverts. The ASA have a specific code that makes publishing

of an advert not contain bad content or false advertising, this code is what makes adverts available and

suitable to the media industry.

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IPSO

Independent Press Standards Organisation

The IPSO has the same role as the PCC and that is to handle complaints that are given about shows, radio

etc. and then take action. The IPSO basically handles all the complaints that are given and then take

actions. They regulate newspapers, radio broadcasts, tv shows, and many more publications. They are the

main reason nothing rude has been published in newspapers and magazines, they make sure that the public

and community stays sane and not have rude things like sex and other inappropriate things.

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Fees

I have previously mentioned the negotiation of fees towards a brief, you almost can't
negotiate fees there will always be a set fee in place but companies will often try to work
around that with the professional, oftenly in business if you have a more professional bound
to have a great outcome type of company then you will want to go for them and pay the
extra money because they will most likely come up with something more creative.

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But if your wanting something such as an advertisement of 5 seconds you might want to go
small and not be bothered about what is in it and who has created it because you are just
looking for a type of publicity. But negotiating a fee if possible is always essential and a
must need to pay attention to because clients will often try to sneak them out of the brief so
they don't have to spend much. Then you are left there with no money and a brief you have
to pay for.

Opportunities:

Opportunities can be varied from time to time but they will frequently pop up if your reputation
exceeds you, opportunities will require different formalities and production methods they will
also come with different types of briefs which is why you have to look out at which they are and
remember to negotiate the brief if there are any issues.

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You need to have clear and full knowledge of what you are doing because if it is racist or sexist
you will not only get the client in trouble but you will also find yourself in trouble. The client will
be worse off if it was their idea but you will be known as the company that helped the possible
next KKK