2. My final media product uses a number of different conventions that an
actual magazine cover, contents and spreads do as well as some
challenging forms of conventions. Conventions are used to allow the
audience to quickly identify that this is a typical magazine as the
positions, styles and content are all what they expect to find.
A wide range of magazines conventionally tend to position the main
image on the front cover slightly on top of the masterhead to show this
is the main story line. However, the shot used is usually a medium
close up of a celebrity (or singer in the music magazines), which I have
tried to challenge as I have used a long shot to show more of the main
image.
Conventionally, you would expect to see the masterhead of a magazine
cover positioned at the top and usually filling the width of the
page, which is exactly what I have done for my piece.
3. The genre I chose to base my product on was POP, which isnt as popular
nowadays than it might have been 15 years ago, so proved a difficult choice
in creating the right colour scheme. However, I researched a few “Smash
Hits” and “Sugar” magazines, which used a wide range of colours to suit
both female and male genders, to come to my decision of a pale pastel
coloured background with bright, vibrant yellows, reds and oranges for the
text.
This multi-coloured cover will definitely grab potential readers eyes as it
will be the brightest cover on sale. By choosing spectrum colours I think I
successfully achieved a magazine cover to suit both genders.
On the contents page and double page spread I have used a simple Times
New Roman font to be conventional with a number of other magazines as
well as using Bauhaus 93 to round off the corners of the titles and to make
them look smooth; also I have used Papyrus for the interview text to create
the effect of someone actually writing it out in their own handwriting.
However, on the front cover I have used Cairo SF for the text in order to
attract my target audience as they might find “fancy” or slightly
unconventional writing more appealing.
4. Free gifts are quite a common thing to advertise on the front
cover of a magazine to persuade the readers to buy this specific
magazine over another one. I have advertised a free girls aloud
poster in a red, circular button to show this and have also
placed a yellow band across the bottom of the page to stand out
and grab attention.
I have used a filmstrip across the bottom of the front cover to
give an insight to the celebrities who are presented in the
magazine which is seen as quite unconventional as none of the
covers I have analysed or researched contain this style. It has
nothing to do with the content of the magazine, as it shows
musical and celebrity gossip and not anything about film. The
reason for using it is to be experimental within the media
society and mostly to be unconventional, as some readers may
like the unusual change.
5. The target audience for this magazine is teenagers aged
10 to 14 years old, although anyone with an interest in
celebrity chit chat may also wish to purchase it as this
magazine is half pop music news and half celebrity
gossip.
My media product represents teenagers as they are the
majority of people in society today who obsess over
celebrities and love to hear all the latest gossip. Young
girls tend to be more interested in pop music as they
tend to have crushes on those in boy bands or obsess
over an idol of theirs.
6. A wide range of media institution might distribute my music
magazine as it is filled with the latest music and celebrity gossip
which is targeted at the younger generation to inspire and entertain
them. It also contains a number of competitions to enter to win a
variety of different prizes from cash to concerts (with parental
consent of course).
This magazine contains some mind blowing fun puzzles suitable for
ages 10 to 14 years old. These do not have prizes for the winners but
help to stimulate their brains. Below are the types of places which
might distribute my music magazine: Magazine
Stalls, Newsagents, Supermarkets, Local Shops, Book/Stationary
Shops (example: WHSmiths). Also, digital publishing may help to
distribute my media product as about 17% of the media industry
uses this technology to distribute and advertise their own.
7. The target audience for my pop magazine would probably
be young teenager around 10 to 14 years old. They are more
likely to be interested in pop music or celebrity gossip than
that of the older generation. Although pop genres of music
are not as popular now as they used to be, some young girls
may still have that little crush on a famous boy band or
inspire to be one of their idols which they tend to see in
these genres of magazines.
Teenagers are more likely to choose a magazine for how
bright and colourful it first appears rather than that of an
older person.
8. Young teenagers tend to like bright colours and so I used a
number of complementary spectrum and pastel colours such as
reds, yellows, oranges, blues, greens, pinks, purples etc. A bright
and bold colour scheme is more likely to catch someone’s eye than
a plain white and black one, especially for a younger target
audience. Free posters have been advertised to grab attention and
persuade them to buy it as well as a chance to win tickets to a live
concert!
Also, I have not used too much mature or fully formal language
in which the younger generation would not understand nor
would want to read. The content is full of gossip about celebrities
and music that advertises itself in the magazine. A different font
of writing on the front cover may interest the chosen audience
more as it is informal and fancy looking.
9. I feel that I have learnt a lot from producing my media product and
about the technologies as I have developed my skills in using
Macromedia Fireworks. I can now make such simple images seem a
little more exciting by just adding a motion trail or emboss feature.
Also, by learning to alter the tolerance when using the magic wand tool
enabled me to cut out the relevant image on place onto a background of
my choice. This helped me to position the main image on my final front
cover to slightly overlap the masterhead to be conventional with other
leading magazines.
I have learnt to use the blogger website as it is where I must upload my
progression during the creation of my media product. It has helped me
to get feedback on the genre other peers think I should base my product
on. I have uploaded images and written work through posts and I did
create some mini polls to get some feedback from, which in the end
wasn't a success.
10. From constructing my media product I have been able to
take my own images via a digital camera which before I
wasn’t sure of all its settings and the different camera angle
shots you can use to improve the quality of image. I have
found it easier to transfer images from a digital camera
rather than scanning them from a traditional film camera.
11. My computer skills, I feel, have greatly improved as well as my
knowledge of the media industry since creating the preliminary
task. I now am able to use Macromedia Fireworks effectively even
though there is room for improvement, and know what it takes to
get involved in making a successful magazine (a lot of hard
work)! I have also improved on my language skills as for my final
product I decided to write more textual content especially on the
font cover, as for my preliminary looked rather boring and not
very eye catching.
I have found that there is always room for improvement when
producing for the media industry as things are always changing
so what may look good now perhaps won’t be appealing in the
future as with the technology, it is always being improved for the
better.
12. I have learnt that there is a lot of planning and research that
goes into creating a brand new magazine from scratch when
you have absolutely no idea of what to do. This includes
questionnaires, analysing other media products linked with
an idea you may have, audience’s feedback on what makes a
great magazine, interests of members of the public as
they’re the ones who will buy it.
Colour schemes, genres and textual content are all major
factors in attracting a target audience and desire a great
deal of thought .For the preliminary task we had been given
a school magazine to produce, which only enables a specific
amount of content and images to be used whereas creating a
music magazine has a much wider audience and therefore
content to include.
