2. In what ways does you media product use, develop
or challenge forms and conventions of real media
products?
Photographs: I used a medium close up of my model for my font cover. Most magazines use medium
close ups for front covers. I had her head tilted and smiling whilst looking directly at the camera. This
makes her look happy, innocent and nothing to hide which is a good role model for young teens. It
worked well and achieved that look. It is also used in a real magazine ‘top of the pops’ which is a similar
magazine and aimed at the same audience as my magazine.
Both have similar facial expressions,
looking directly at the camera and tilt
-ted to the side.
3. Mise en scene:
Hair/Make-up: The make up on my model was simple and girly. Not too much make up however I used
girly colours like pink lipstick. This was so my model looked girly as its aimed at girls. Also to make her
look innocent – a good role model for younger teens. Her hair was down and long and looked as if it was
flowing – not a controlled look.
Costume: In my magazine my model wears 2 outfits. A coat with a large fur collar and a white top with
Marilyn Monroe on. Most ‘Top of the Pops’ front cover outfits have simple clothes. The fur jacket is
simple as its all blue apart from the fur collar - I tried to break away from the simple outfits and wanted
to make it more eye catching and different. Also the Marilyn Monroe top represents people who you
look up to and role models which is what I want my model to be. It shows everyone looks up to
someone.
This real girly pop
music magazine ‘ Top of
the Pops’ uses minimal
make-up however she
has colourful eye make
up on just like my
model has colourful
lipstick on.
Plain simple
colours
4. Fonts
Title:
I chose my font for my title from DaFont. I chose this because it includes a star as the dot on the ‘I’
which is girly – the real magazine uses swirls to make it looks girly. Also because it has bubbles in the
word ‘Pop’ This links in with the fact the word ‘Pop’ can be associated with bubbles in the drink and
also bubbles popping. My model is on top of the title. I did this to show she is an important celebrity.
Magazines such as Q also do this.
Important Less Important
Banner: I used a swirly font for the banner on my contents page. I put it against a pink background so the text
stands out. The swirly less serious font shows my magazine is for a younger audience and also for girls. Unlike
Q magazine which uses a serious/simple font to show the magazine is for adults and is classy.
Header: For my headers I used a swirly font however not as curly as my banner. This makes the headers
look as if they had been hand written in a girly way as if they were writing in their diaries etc.
5. Quotation: the font for the quotation on the double page spread looks like ‘bubble writing’ . It has a
mixture of capital and lower case letters – which shows its not a serious matter and teen-like. The letters
also look like they have been drawn which relates to young teen drawing in their diaries etc.
This quotation from top of the
pops magazine has large quotation
marks in a different colour which
makes it look less serious which is
also what I tried to achieve with
my font being odd.
Header: on my double page spread I used swirly and curly writing to fit in
with being girly. I also added a yellow heart. This reinforces the
‘girly/young teen’ feel and also fits in with the colour scheme. The pink
and yellow go well together.
Text: for the main article text I used a plain font. This is so its easy to read. I did not
make the text too small as young teens may not want to read a lot of text . Unlike Q
magazine which has a lot of small text. This shows its for older teens/adults. Top of
the pops which is similar to my magazine has less text – young teens won’t want to
read a lot. I took this imformation and made my magazine have less text.
Q magazine has a
lot more text than
Top of the Pops
magazine and my
magazine
6. Colour Scheme
My 3 main colours are yellow pink and turquoise.
Examples:
Red pink and yellow are used for top of the pops
magazine. This is for young girly teens. Whereas
dark colours such as black and dark and also yellow
are used for Kerrang magazine. This shows the
music featured in Kerrang is dark/heavy metal. I
used turquoise, pink and yellow because I think it
shows happy colours and girly colours showing that
my magazine is about popular/happy /chart music.
Which young girly teens will be attracted to.
7. Language
The language I used is informal. This is so the reader (young teens) feel a connection with the magazine as
they may feel the magazine is speaking in ‘’their’’ language. For example instead of calling the band ‘’1
Direction’’ I used the term ‘’1D’’ which is what many teens call them. I’ve got this information from websites
such as twitter. Also instead of saying ‘’Justin Bieber’’ I just use the word ‘’Bieber’’. This is because most teens
will know what is meant by simply the surname as he is very popular. It also makes the reader feel they have
a personal connection with him and the magazine.
Instead of using the word ‘’Love’’ I used a heart shape instead. The reader will feel like my magazine is
‘speaking their language’ – its also girly.
I also used slang. ‘’fab’’ instead of ‘’fabulous’’ in the interview. It makes the reader feel more connected and
that the interviewee is friendly instead of thinking it was a formal interview. Unlike Q magazine which is
formal and classy.
8. Detail
I added small detail to my magazine to make it look as real as possible. I added a page number, barcode, price,
and issue number. If I was to do this again I would add a date.
Here are NME magazines barcode and page number.
9. How does your media represent
particular social group?
Who is in my magazine?
Age: The age of my model is 16 however I’ve made her look older and she looks around 17 -19 years old. This
is a good age as its close to my target audiences age of young teens. This means young teens will want to be
her as their dress sense and music taste won’t be too far apart. Young teens will look up to her. I represented
her as being young by making her smile to look innocent and young and also by her clothes e.g. the top with
Marilyn Monroe on.
Gender: My model is female so I represented her as pretty/girly with pink lipstick and had her hair down and
flowing and girly clothes.
Ethnicity: My model is white. However pop music varies in different ethnicities.
Class: as my magazine is for young teens there will be a range of different class people reading it. However I
think mostly working/lower class as middle class teens may read things like teen vogue or educational
magazines. My magazine uses informal language which not only suits the age group but may also suit the
class.
Cultural sub group music genre:
10. What kind of media institution might
distribute your media product and
why?
From my research I found out what company publishes certain magazines. For example Bauer media
group publishes different genres of magazine such as Q, Mojo and kerrang! And the BBC publish Top of
the Pops which I the same genre of my magazine.
Who would publish my magazine?
Bauer media group would be a suitable publisher to publish my magazine as I believe there is a gap in
the market. They publish magazines to do with cars, celebs and music etc. They have music magazines
to do with heavy metal/African-American culture/ and pop/rock however do not publish any pop
magazine to associate with young teens and no magazine that is just to do with pop magazine. They do
however publish magazines just for females such as Closer and Mother and baby however no music
magazine specifically for girls.
However the BBC would also be suitable to publish my magazine as there would be no competition
between my magazine and top of the pops magazine which is very similar.
11. Looking at the graph I think
Bauer media group is suitable
as there is no music magazine
which the majority of females
read. Also most magazines
appear to the younger market
which means there wont be
competition as the money will
be going to the same company.
Bauer media group NRS figures
12. Who would be the audience for your
media product?
My target audience is girls aged 12 – 17. Although this is a small age gap there is not many music
magazines for this audience and teens will have a very different taste to adults. I used lots of bright/
girly colours which instantly show its for young teen girls rather than black red and white which is what
q magazine use to show its for adults of any gender. This is a successful way of instantly showing who
the magazine is aimed at.
14. How did you attract/address your
audience?
• Why people want to buy it:
‘buzz’ words on the front cover – free givaways.
this makes them feel they are getting more for their money.
Address directly with the audience
My model is looking directly at the camera – making a connection between the
magazine and the reader.
Language – I used informal language and slang as it feels as if the magazine is
talking in ‘your’ language if you are a teen. Also on the front cover I inclused ‘
follow your dreams’ which you would associate with teens growing up and
trying to ‘ follow their dream’
15. What have you learnt about
technologies from the process of
constructing the product?
I used a canon 600 D digital SLR to take my photographs. This was different to cameras I am used to
using and I learnt how to focus and zoom in and out and what light works best for different shots
and whether a flash was needed. I used an SD card to store the photographs on.
I used a computer and sometimes a mac to produce my magazine. I used photoshop to edit my photos.
I learnt how to use it and how to add layers, filters, styles, shapes, colours, text and how to resize
and crop etc. this was all important to get my magazine looking as professional as possible.
I also used the internet to download my fonts from DaFont. I thought were suitable for my magazine –
using a different font for headers/main text/sub headers etc. this was successful as it was easy to
identify what was the main text and what was a header – this is important and it will be easier for
teens to read the magazine whereas adults may not find it that difficult.
Digital technology allowed me to work quicker and effectively. It is easy to store my work and
photographs and easy to transfer them. Also all the devices and software ‘talk to each other’ this
helped a lot in production.
16. Looking back at your preliminary task,
what do you feel you have learnt in the
progression from it to the full
production?
Preliminary
task
Full
production
17. • Research
I did a lot more research for my music magazine than my college magazine.
Audience research:
I created a survey on surveymmonkey.com. I asked relevant questions to find out what type of music
different genders/ages/ethnicities like as I was doing a pop music magazine for young girl teens.
Market Research:
I found out what magazine companies published what magazines. For example Baur magazine company
produce a wide range of magazines. I also looked at how magazines use their model in a way which is
suitable for their magazine e.g. Cher lloyd looks happy and innocent in the top of the pops magazine. I
used this to make sure my model was happy/innocent looking as my pop magazine will have the same
audience as to top of the pops.
I also looked at things such as what people
want in a magazine and how much they
spend on one monthly/weekly etc.
I also did an interview which goes into deph
about pop music magazines – this was
helpful so I knew exactly what people
wanted/expected.
18. • Planning
I planned my magazine in detail unlike my college magazine where I just places items where I thought it looked
good or neat etc.
Photographs
Text
I also planned the text for my magazine as I wanted to use language that would be suitable and ‘fit in’ with girly
teens e.g. ‘fab’ (slang etc.) ‘follow your dreams’.
Drafts
I hand drew a draft of front cover, contents page and double page spread. This was to get
an idea of shapes, sizes and colours. This was helpful as It helped me in my full production.
I planned the location of my photographs (as I needed a white
background), my model and mise-en-scene and the positioning of
my photos on my magazine. I knew I wanted a medium close up
for my front cover and a mid-to full length photo for my double
page spread. I was going to use my own photos from a festival
but I decided against it as I believe young teens wouldn’t go to
festivals however may go to concerts.
19. • Production
I used Photoshop to produce my music magazine. I also used it to produce my college magazine however I
didn’t know how to fully use it and how to add different shapes, I have now learnt how to use
Photoshop which has improved the look of my magazine. I also learnt how to use the camera and how
to make it the best photo using the flash/zoom/focus/settings/natural light etc.
I used limited
shapes, colours
and fonts for
my college
magazine. And
my photograph
was not a
medium close
up and didn’t
take up the
whole front
cover which
resulted in my
front cover
looking bare,
plain and
boring.
For my music magazine
I experimented with a
lot more
shapes/colours/fonts.
This made it look a lot
brighter and less dull.
My photograph is also
a medium close up and
takes up the whole
page making it look a
lot more professional.
I’ve learnt that if you
start off with bad
quality images you cant
make them look as
good as if you started
off with good quality
images.
20. • If I was doing this project again what would I do
differently?
