3. IN WHAT WAYS DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT USE,
DEVELOP OR CHALLENGE FORMS AND
CONVENTIONS OF REAL MEDIA PRODUCTS?
My masthead follows the common convention used of having it on the left making it
easier to read and it is also in bold outlined text, I used a black stroke around it to
make it stand out more throughout the rest of my cover. My magazine follows the
same house colours all the way through, making the magazine easy to remember, I
also believe that the colours are quite gender neutral making it look like it’s not just
for a specific gender it’s for everyone; I also believe the colours make the magazine
look quite classy. I chose these colours because they don’t associate with any specific
genre of music it’s a mix of everything as it is chart music that is included in the
magazine. I kept the same font all the way through, with the main titles having a
black stroke around the outside.
My magazine development was
based of magazines such as ‘Q’
magazine and ‘NME’ mainly
because I liked the colour scheme
that they followed. I like the way
that some of the ‘Q’ covers were
quite simplistic and that’s what I
wanted my magazine to be about,
to not look to cluttered on the
front cover. My age range is from
late teens to early twenties
hopefully attracting people who
listen to radio stations such as
Radio 1 and Capital. I used a lot
of conventions that come with
music magazines not as such
I used the convention of puffs and pull quotes to attract my readers to
buy the magazine like most magazines do, I used more puffs than pull
quotes as I used puff quotes on my contents page on most of my articles
to act as advertisement for each individual article. I used the
combination of red and black on my contents page as in a nice way they
contradict each other and they go well together. I wrote my article in
red and white to balance out the colours and to make it easy to read
over the image on the left side of the double page spread, these link to
the house colours throughout my magazine; red and black are the main
colours and white is the a primary colour to the scheme.
4. Most music magazines use a series of photographs and
different locations for there magazines. I used a studio for my
images because I feel like it gives it a really classy look, the
clothing that they are wearing contrasts each other as I wanted
one singer to be in like pale colours to represent the good things
in the article and the other singer in dark colours to represent
the bad that has happened in their career. I made the images
fun and some serious, the serious images go on the front cover
and then as they read the article the fun images appear, it’s
like the magazine is revealing a new side of the artists. The
solo images were made to be fun and reveal the personality of
the individual artists. I took a wide variety of images, changing
what I do with the band on the cover, I changed it up with
going from a band of three to just a duo as I though a duo are
more unique and there is not that many of them giving my
magazine an extra attraction. I then included the image of the
boy to give my magazine a more gender neutral look inviting
boys to read the magazine. I then used the solo images of the
girls to give the magazine a more personal feel to it as if the
reader was really getting to know the band.
5. I used my logo of my magazine throughout the magazine, to
create a feel of continuity and to keep the house colours
through the magazine. I want my readers to remember the
name of my magazine so I will print it throughout the
magazine, it will also become associated with the colours
red and black.
I used columns for my
main article, I also used
them with the images on
the right hand side making
it look neat and clean. I
also changed the colour of
who was talking trying to
keep within my house
colours and to make it
easier for the reader to see.
I also made the article fun
and not to formal so the
reader felt as though they
were having an personal
connections with the band.
A puff was used basically summing up what
the article is about drawing in the readers
attention. It’s in smaller font size to the rest
as I wanted the logo and name of the band to
be the main attention. It gives the reader an
insight into what they will be reading about
kind of like a synopsis.
The same house colours are used throughout the double page spread.
I used the same thickness (4pt) and colour stroke for the name of the
band and for the logo in the corner. I also wrote the article in the
same house colours as used all the way through the magazine
making it more memorable.
I also used none-serious
images for this article as I
wanted it to fit the theme
and make a personal
connections with the reader
by being fun. I also wanted it
to contrast with the front
cover image which is a much
more serious image, making
it seem as though they are
revealing all there secrets
within the article, which
could also add as a plug.
6. HOW DOES YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT REPRESENT
PARTICULAR SOCIAL GROUPS?
My magazine is aimed at all genders, but I think with the main image
being a girl group it may attract more female attention, because of the
image being girls it shows to young girls that they can be successful and
that girl bands are still around. That’s why on my contents page I
include the image of a male to try and make it more for the male sides
of things. The article also includes things about their success and there
relationships which are mainly things that girls enjoy reading it, which
is why I tried to make my colour scheme gender neutral so all genders
will want to pick it up. The image is them making a sign to shush which
symbolises gossip which is mainly associated with girls and secrets.
There is no imparticular social class aimed for this magazine, but I think with
the price being £2.20 you could say it was more for the working class as it is more
affordable than magazines such as NME. With it being so cheap it might attract
other social groups as it is not as expensive as some other magazines and it is
therefore cheaper to subscribe to the app. My main image and the rest of them I
took only include white people, this could make all my audience white but
hopefully will attract some white people.
The magazine is aimed at late teenagers to people in their early twenties, mainly
because they are the people who listed to the chart music featured within my
magazine. I have chosen trendy colours to match the vibe of the magazine and to
give a sleek, crisp look. The social group is for people who have lively personalities
and don’t have any particular taste in music they listen to a mix of different
genres.
7. WHAT KIND OF MEDIA INSTITUTION MIGHT
DISTRIBUTE YOUR MEDIA PRODUCT AND WHY?
Many magazine publishers would want to produce my magazine as
it has a wide audience range to attract to, there are many age
groups to attract so they wouldn’t worry about not accumulating
an audience. My magazine follows the same conventions as most
music magazines. My magazine also is a great promoting point as
it could be used to introduce new artists to the charts. I feel as
though out off all the publishers out there, the BBC will be best for
my magazine as they have many different ways of advertising it
and they are in direct link to one of the biggest UK radio stations,
they could even introduce a new audience as with all their radio
stations they could get new people interested. With ages varying
to whichever radio station, it could also give us the opportunity to
promote new artists within our magazine setting there career off
and introducing them to a big audience of people. I feel as though
they will be the best publishers for my magazine as they are a well
known brand and have a lot of different ways of promoting the
magazine to people of all ages. My magazine price is also very low
attracting people from different social groups giving us a different
type of audience than other magazines. Out off all the magazine
publishers I feel the BBC has a closer connection with the type of
music involved with my magazine.
8. WHO WOULD BE THE AUDIENCE FOR YOUR
MEDIA PRODUCT?
My target audience is any gender in the late teens
to early twenties. I have chosen this age range of
people because I think it gives me a wide variety of
people to target, and these people are the ages I
associate with chart music, as they are the target
audience of radio stations such as Radio 1 and
Capital.
Also included in my contents page is some people
who were in the charts at the time of me creating
my contents, these are the people who were in
popular charts such as Radio 1 official charts and
Billboard.
My style of writing is quite informal trying not to
make it seem to regulated and to create personal
connections with my audience. It also fits what age
I am aiming my magazine out as they are the ages
that mainly use slang and informal language. My
writing is always in a bold font making it easy to
read and fitting with the targeted audience of my
magazine.
9. While I was researching for my magazines the majority of people
who took part in my survey were male, but I feel that more females
are more likely to pick up a music magazine than boys, especially
with this issue with the main image including two girls this might
put boys of from picking up the magazine because of it having a girl
group on the cover.
I want to change that with my magazine I want more males to want
and pick up the magazine instead of been put of by the gendered
content.
The colour scheme I used of red,
black and white was chosen
because I feel that they are gender
neutral colours and may persuade
every gender that the magazine is
for everyone there is not
specifically targeted gender. I also
believe that the colour scheme that
I chose gives my magazine a sleek
and sophisticated look, hopefully
attracting more than one gender.
The majority of the people who
took apart in my survey were
ranging from the ages 16-20 which
is the main audience I am hoping
to target, it also makes everything
I found out in my survey even
more important to the production
of my magazine. I did use some of
the answers they gave for example
I used the majority of the artists
that were in the charts at the time
which people had said they
enjoyed listening too; it’s also what
I based my price of my magazine
on.
10. HOW DID YOU ATTRACT/ADDRESS YOUR
AUDIENCE?
When I took my pictures I wanted the cover image to be serious and
too look like they were revealing a massive secret; that is why they
have there fingers over there lips making the ‘shhh’ symbol. I think
this would attract my audience because they will feel as though they
are getting gossip. I also dressed the girls in different clothing not
following the typical girl band thing of wearing the same outfit; I
wanted one of the girls to be wearing dark colours to represent the
darker side of the gossip they will be receiving and I then got the
other girl to dress in lighter colours to represent the lighter gossip.
Also by including ‘our fans are the reason we are here!’ is making it
personal for the fans making them want to know what they have done
to help them.
The images included within the article I wanted to fun and have a
lively feel to them, the girls are being playful and messing around
with each other and the camera, I think this gives the magazine a
personal feel for the reader as they can feel as though they are apart
of the band; especially for young girls with them seeing two young
girls on the cover it might inspire them or make them want to find out
more.
11. I include puffs and plugs throughout my magazine,
especially in my contents page to make people want to
go to that page. I also think competitions are big ways
of getting peoples attention and making them want to
buy your magazine. I include competitions such as
winning tour tickets to see MATRIX the band on my
front cover; with it being on the front cover it is
grabbing peoples attention straight away and instantly
makes them want to know how they can be the winner.
Also by using mainstream artists it makes people more
interested in what is going on in their lives.
I also include them within my contents page, by using
words like ‘exclusive’ it makes the reader feel special as
if the magazine is addressing them directly, by making
them feel special they then want to buy the magazine in
favour of feeling special.
I also feel as though the price is an important selling
price for my magazine because the price of my
magazine is a lot cheaper than a lot of other music
magazines I feel as though this adds as a selling point
as it is much more affordable than bigger branded
magazines.
12. WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNT ABOUT
TECHNOLOGIES FROM THE PROCESS OF
CONSTRUCTING THIS PRODUCT?
At the start of the coursework we did a preliminary task using Photoshop so we could
have a go at developing something before actually doing the real thing. Before this piece
of coursework I had already had experience of using word and PowerPoint but I had
never used InDesign and Photoshop, I found Photoshop easier to use as InDesign and I
liked the finished product more on Photoshop than I did on InDesign. I found InDesign
a lot more complex but I finally got the hang of towards the end of my double page
spread, I think this was down to me using Photoshop for my front cover and my
contents making it harder to move onto a new programme, I did like the finished
product that I created on InDesign. I also liked how easy it was to layer up everything
on Photoshop and InDesign making it easy to use and easy to link in-between each
programme to make it easy to transfer images across, for example my images on my
double page spread were edited with Photoshop I was able to easily import them by
using the ‘link’ button on InDesign.
In the planning towards our magazine we used micro technology such as the
programme survey monkey which I personally had never used before, but I really like
how the programme gave you extra details about your surveys making them easier and
more efficient to evaluate. I also like how you could produce a graph so you can really
see the difference between the percentages of each answer. We also had the opportunity
to use cameras to get our photos giving them a much more professional final image and
were in great quality especially with having access to the studio.
All of these programmes made the process of making my magazine easier, they made it
easier to edit and layer on top making my magazine look sleek and professional.
13. I used PowerPoint to put together my ideas for the majority of my
planning, I used it for my: pitch, magazine research and survey
analysis. I have had a lot of experience with using PowerPoint
before so I didn’t find it too hard to create my planning material.
With PowerPoint I feel like it is easy to use for things such as the
pitch because you get see all my ideas in an easy simple way and
there is not too much content on the screen at once.
I used Word documents to create my dummy: front cover,
contents and double page spread, I then copied these into my
pitch. The same as with PowerPoint I have had a lot of
experience before this coursework with this specific
programme. I also like the easiness of the format of this
programme as I feel it is very easy to use and I like how my
dummies came out.
I used Excel to create my flat plan for my magazine, I have
had experience with using it before but not as much as I
have had with Word and PowerPoint. It was quite easy to
use once I got the hang of it and I think it gave me a efficient
flat plan making it easy to use for my reader. I colour co-
ordinated it categorising the different sectors of my
magazine.
14. LOOKING BACK AT YOUR PRELIMINARY TASK,
WHAT DO YOU FEEL YOU HAVE LEARNT IN THE
PROGRESSION FROM IT TO THE FULL
PRODUCT?
My preliminary material was aimed at college students and gave us a chance to have a go at the
programmes that we will have to use in our final pieces. By doing this task it has helped me gain
confidence with using programmes such as Photoshop and helped make my final piece a lot more
structured than my preliminary magazine was. I believe from the start I have gained more
understanding about the layout of magazines and how much different certain conventions make
on targeting your audience.
15. When planning for my magazine I found out that the layout of the
magazine was important, when researching other magazines I
understood that there are certain conventions of magazines such as the
name being on the left hand side and I started to understand the
importance of these conventions and the effect that they have on the
buyer. From the start I knew that on my front cover id didn’t want my
magazine to have a crammed front cover I wanted it to be simple to
drag the readers in.
Another important factor I came across was the colour scheme, I
discovered that the colour scheme had the be repeated throughout the
whole magazine to keep a feel of continuity to the magazine and to give
the magazine it’s own connotation. The colour scheme also represents
the music and gender that you are advertising for, from the start I was
inspired from magazines such as ‘Q’ and ‘NME’ I like the colour scheme
of ‘NME’ and I like the simplicity of some of the covers created by ‘Q’. I
based my colour scheme on these two magazines and the fact that they
are very gender neutral colours making it not just for one gender.
The final thing that I found out was important was the name of the
magazine, I wanted something that was just on word and was simple
but will be remembered by the buyers, that’s why I chose the name
‘REPLAY’ as I thought it was well suited for my chosen genre of music
and it relates to music in the sense that the music included in this
magazine you will want to play over and over again. The font of the
magazine is in franklin gothic in italics also making it more
memorable.
16. I also found out that planning for who your audience will be
targeting was very important when getting to my final piece, it
helped me to figure out what genre, age and genders I was going
to aim my magazine at. It also helped me know if people were
wanting to pay an expensive amount for a magazine or if they
were still willing to pay for subscriptions. Using survey monkey
helped me to find out what I was going to base my whole
magazine on and everything to go with it for example the artists
I could include within my magazine. It helped me create an
image of the people who would be interested in my magazine
and helped me put together the ideas I would be needing to
attract the audience, for example by including a chance to win V
fest tickets would attract my audience because they are the age
associated with festivals.
17. From my preliminary material to my final piece you can see the improvement I have
had with understanding conventions, layout, name and colour scheme has improved
since then. Through my planning I learnt about the different types of images that you
can have the lighting you can use. I also feel with my final piece you can tell my
knowledge of Photoshop has developed as my final piece looks more efficient compared
to my preliminary material and my photos look better in a studio setting they give the
magazine a sleek, more professional look and I prefer them to the images in natural
setting. I also feel that planning has a big impact on your final product, on my
preliminary material I did no planning towards my piece whereas on my actual piece I
did a lot of planning towards making it a better final piece.
18. Since the start my knowledge of Photoshop has developed massively, by being able to
practice with my preliminary helped my understanding of the different tools there are
and how you blend different layers to give it a better look, it also helped my music
magazine be finished to a high standard. It helped me give my images a crisp finish and
to look very professional. I used a lot of the tools like the crop, lasso, stroke and the
photo filter, by using a collection of these tools my magazine was able to look the way I
wanted it to look.
Looking back at my preliminary task you can see my development and you can see my
understanding for tools and how they work has grown, as well as my confidence, with
using each tool. My understand of how conventions are used to attract audiences has
grown also.
