The website was designed specifically for a teenage audience; therefore I had to use the appropriate register in order to engage the audience, to ensure I used the appropriate I viewed teen drama websites, such as ‘The Cut’ and ‘Skins’ to see which sociolect would appeal most to a wide range of teenagers. The purpose of the website is keeping existing and new audiences up to date with the television series; therefore, I designed the homepage so that it would have each week’s episode in the forefront of the site, along with episode information. This would allow easy access to the episodes and will be the main focal point of the site as it would be what will interest the audience most. Episodes will also be available for one week, on BBC iPlayer, after broadcast. Pages such as the ‘About’ page and also the ‘Character’ page, will be updated regularly according to storylines within the show. If storylines change and develop, so will the website. Pages such as ‘Pictures’ and ‘Blog’ will be updated weekly, adding new pictures of the weeks episodes and also updated features, regarding episodes and news, on the blog. Therefore all information on the site will be as up to date as possible and relevant to the show, the design of the website allows these changes to occur as it is a simple layout that can be easily changed, as the information and images will change, the layout and structure will not. I had produced mock-ups of the website design; this helped greatly while creating the website as it allowed the site to have a strong structure and layout, though my design of the website differed slightly to the mock-ups. I have created a working example of the site with the main links functioning to give examples of how my fully functional site may work, although I had little experience working with Dreamweaver I was able to create a partially functioning website demonstrating how the website will work.
The Print brief required that I produced two magazine features on my product, each for two magazines that varied in style, because of this I chose to produce features for More! Magazine, a women’s lifestyle magazine, and Kerrang! Magazine, a rock music magazine, as both their genre and style is significantly different. To ensure I replicate the styles of these magazines, I analysed issues of both magazines looking at the house styles, colours and typical conventions of the genre. This enabled me to create mock-ups of the two magazines that would be successful within the genre of their corresponding magazine.
For the More! Magazine I created a feature article which interviewed three main actors from ‘closer to the edge’ within their own home; this is a common feature within More! Magazine. I created a three page feature, the first two pages were focused mainly on the article where as the third page is focused on a strong anchoring image from ‘closer to the edge’. I have done this because it is a common feature within women’s lifestyle magazines and also would appeal to the audience as the anchoring image will encourage them to read the feature. I took photo’s that allowed the actors to be seen within a natural environment, representing them as regular teenagers, much like the target audience, this would appeal to the audience as they feel they would be able to relate to the actors and character because their normal. Whereas the anchoring image is a strong image from the website of ‘closer to the edge’ in which the characters, the male and female lead, are in a dramatic stance, suggestive of a possible storyline within the show, once again appealing to the audience as they would want to know more about the storyline. Within the feature I used similar sociolect to the website with my article as the target audience for the magazine is the similar, although predominately female, to ensure audiences would not become alienated. I used a quotation for the headline I felt will attract readers as it could be read in many contexts and be interpreted differently by each reader, therefore attracting the widest audience as they would want to read further to find out the correct meaning. Similarly, I placed another quote, which was enlarged and a different font, within the article that would achieve the same purpose.
For the second magazine, Kerrang! I created a feature article that followed a band filming a cameo appearance on the set of ‘closer to the edge’, my feature slightly varied from regular features as it is common within Kerrang! to follow bands or artist in on their tours and gigs. I did this so it would appeal more to the target audience of the show, as they may not usually read Kerrang! the feature relating to ‘closer to the edge’ would encourage them to do so. I created a double page spread for the magazine, with both copy and image content, as the magazine focuses mainly on the visual the feature contained numerous images of band members. I took photos that showed the band with both professional and entertaining stances, representing them in two ways. Firstly, as professional musicians and secondly, as high-spirited and mischievous, this would appeal to the reader as they would be able to see different representations of the band making them more relatable. Whereas, the copy in the magazine represents the band as rebellious through the use of foul language, common within Kerrang!. Within the feature I had to use a different socialect, from that of the website and more! Magazine feature, to ensure the regular readers of Kerrang! were not alienated and the feature would still appeal my target audience and also readers of Kerrang!. Similarly to the More! Magazine feature, I placed a interesting quote, which was enlarged within the center of the article, to engage the reader and encourage them to read the article.
If chosen, the third brief required me to produce a trailer to promote ‘closer to the edge’, for this I would have created a trailer of approximately one minute in length, which would establish character through the representation of the six actors, mimicking stereotypes to create these representations and establishing the genre of teen drama. Also I would have used settings such as schools, homes and recreational locations to reinforce the teen drama genre. Furthermore, the trailer would establish storylines, such as alcohol, drugs and relationships typical to teen drama, that would be used in ‘closer to the edge’, attracting the audience as they would want to know the conclusions of the storylines.
